Catching Attention

Zion woke up early. Beside him, Fana was still asleep.

A trace of comfort washed over him when he saw her. Just the idea of not being alone anymore made his struggle feel bearable.

Over the past few days, a lot has happened.

The village he lived in was destroyed, the villagers he wanted to prove wrong were no longer alive, and his goal of becoming the best hunter no longer felt significant.

Only focused on being alive, he had been pushing himself in the last two days, but without a clear goal in mind, that too had a limit.

Fana's presence gave him what he needed. A meaning, a sense of purpose, a future where, after his struggle was over, things might end up better.

Zion soon pushed himself up, and after freshening up, he sat in the lotus position he had long grown accustomed to.

An hour passed.

Hearing some movement, Zion soon opened his eyes. Fana was awake and was looking at him curiously.

"What were you doing?" She asked with her drowsy eyes.

"Oh this…" Before Zion could go on, he noticed that Fana had started looking around uncomfortably.

"Something's wrong?" Noticing that, Zion asked her.

"Uhm…how far is the river from here? I want to freshen up," Fana said as she looked at her muddied body in frustration.

"It should be an hour's walk from her. Since we need to collect water, it's a given that we need to go there today. Freshen up first, then we'll immediately start moving." Zion said while pointing at the jug he had made yesterday.

"Alright," Fana pushed herself up and went for her morning routine. The two of them soon started moving.

Zion kept his guards up the whole time while moving, which made Fana, who was in a hurry, a bit frustrated.

"Can't we just move fast?" She asked.

"No, we can't," Zion answered, but noticing that Fana needed some explanation, he continued, "The closer we are to the river, the more likely we are to encounter a wild animal. Therefore, it's wise to always be on guard,"

"I see," Fana replied as the image of the wolves flashed in her mind. She no longer said anything so as not to distract Zion and kept following after him.

Luckily, they didn't encounter anything.

Reaching the riverbank, Zion busied himself with filling up the jug.

"I'll go and freshen up over there," Fana said, pointing towards a particular direction which had good foliage from a tree leaning towards the bank.

"Alright," Zion nodded in understanding.

When Fana left Zion, too used the opportunity to take a bath and wash clean the small wounds and scratches the forest gave him.

After he was done with it, Zion just sat there on the river's bank and stared at the flowing river in thought.

"Ahh! HELP!"

Hearing Fana's sudden scream, Zion immediately grabbed his spear and rushed towards her location.

When he arrived at the scene, he saw a black snake hanging from a branch, hissing towards Fana.

"Zion, save me!" She cried in fear.

Seeing this, Zion slowly increased his distance from the snake, whose head was facing him.

The next moment, he slowly extended his spear's shaft towards the snake. The snake, enraged, coiled up on it and moved towards Zion.

Zion used that opportunity to swing the shaft towards the side, and the snake flew and fell into the river.

Fana sighed in relief seeing that.

"That was a really big one. Almost scared me to death," Fana added while fear still lingered on her face.

"I didn't know that you were still scared of snakes," Zion snickered as he was reminded of the time he had similarly scared away a snake a few years ago when they were playing.

"So, you still remember that?" Fana understood what Zion meant. She had created a huge scene in the village at that time just because of a tiny rat snake.

"How could one ever forget that?" Zion chuckled, seeing her embarrassed expression, which he had not seen in a long while.

"Gosh…I just can't stand snakes. They always make my skin crawl…" Fana tried to reason it out.

"I understand," Zion gazed at her wet hair and cleaned clothes and asked, "I believe you're done with freshening up, right?"

"Uhm…yes. Are we entering the forest now?" She asked with disappointment.

It was clear that she wanted to stay beside the river, which was much open compared to the dense forest.

Even knowing that Zion said, "Yes, we'd better. We'll be much safer inside."

Fana sighed, "Alright, let's go then."

Zion passed the water jug to Fana before tightly gripping onto his spear's shaft and entering the forest.

A piercing gaze was directed at the two of them from a nearby bush. The creature carefully scrutinised Fana and Zion as if it were calculating something.

When Zion and Fana had gained some distance, it moved its paws and started trailing them stealthily.

Zion and Fana were soon back in the forest's depths and were walking eastwards. The river flowed in an eastward direction, so it acted as their guide.

Two hours passed, and they decided to rest under a tree.

"I'm so exhausted," Fana said as she drank water from the jug.

"Same, it's a nuisance to keep cutting off the vegetation to pave our path." Zion added. He grabbed the jug next and quenched his thirst.

Zion's clothes were drenched in sweat, and his state looked much worse.

The two just sat in silence for the next few minutes to recover their breath.

"Zion…I've been meaning to ask this for a while now," Fana said with hesitation.

"Hm? What is it?" Zion asked.

"Where exactly are we going…will we ever be out of this forest?" Fana asked.

They have always lived in the village. For them, their life began there and should have ended there as well.

Never had she thought that her village would get destroyed, but now that it did, dear and uncertainty started clouding her mind.

"I don't know…" Zion answered after a brief silence, "…but I do know one thing. That if we don't keep on moving, then only death awaits us,"

Zion's words only seemed to add to her uncertainty. She pushed herself off the ground the next moment.

"I'll go and collect some fruits to eat," She wanted to keep herself busy to escape those thoughts.

"Alright," Zion nodded gratefully.

It had only been a minute since Fana had gone when Zion when a frown appeared on Zion's face. He had noticed something irregular.

"Why have the birds gone silent?" He muttered and looked around. It was only now he had noticed that the birds were no longer chirping.

It was at that moment that he heard a low, menacing growl from nearby.

Grrrrrrr

Alerted, he immediately stood up and pointed his spear towards a particular direction.

Apart from the thick vegetation, Zion saw nothing. This only increased his heartbeats as he slowly paced towards it.

He felt it was better to confront the danger now rather than being taken by surprise later.

Steadily, his footsteps closed in.

With his spear's end, he searched the thick bushes and found nothing.

The surroundings had turned incredibly silent all of a sudden, and Zion could only hear his breathing. He went deeper and kept his guard up.

Pulling away a thick branch, he made his way by a tree's side when he noticed a black shadow in his peripheral vision.

A chill ran down Zion's spine as he slowly turned his head towards his right

A black figure with hungry green eyes was staring straight at him from the tree's branch.

'Shi-' Before Zion could complete his thought, the panther pounced on him.