LARA: THE god OF HEKO

EPISODE NINE

EPISODE NINE

The day was bright and lit. The sun shone brightly. The white cave look majestic. When the sun shone on it, it sparkled and glittered. The soil around the cave was different from what Lara was familiar with. The soil here was white and devoid of mud. When Lara stepped out of the cave to observe the soil, it appeared that the entire landscape was once submerged under water. It felt good as she could sit and play here without being stained. 

Lara stood outside the cave holding in her hand a bow and arrow set ready. The bag slung across her shoulder had other arrows in it alongside the the handgun and a knife. It was time to go hunting. This was a new environment and she would need to know every inch of it. Ahead of her, the way she had come before, where some rocky hills. She decided to climb and observe.

Climbing the hills, she saw two Leopards hunting for games separately. They were male and female. The male Leopard hunted down a kangaroo and settled to a meal of raw flesh. He had just eaten a small portion of the prey when a pack of hyenas came along. There were seven of them. The Leopard growled and barked. The hyenas ignored him as they targeted his unfinished meal. The Leopard took a step further and opened his mouth wide revealing some hefty canines as a sign of aggression. It was useless. The hyenas would have nothing except the prey. They snarled, barked and growled. Soon, they started biting the Leopard in turn. They bit and ran backward. No other animal in this jungle was as skilled in guerrilla warfare as the hyenas. They struck, ran away and came back to strike again. The Leopard was unfairly outnumbered. He had endured multiple bites from hungry hyenas. The prey in front of him was not worth the suffering or his life. Lara watched with interest as the Leopard deserted the prey and the hyenas in search of another game. The hyenas pounced on the kangaroo they had stolen from the real owner. Their powerful teeth crushing raw flesh and bones, and their intestines, just as sinister as the animals themselves, digested them all. Other carnivores in the jungle ate flesh and intestines leaving bones behind. The hyenas, having powerful teeth, crushed both flesh and bones, leaving nothing to rot. Of all the scavengers in the jungle, the hyena stood a foot above them all in her destructive ability.

The female Leopard killed an antelope. Almost immediately after sniffing life out of the antelope, she seized it by the neck and climbed a tree with it. The tree was huge and had large branches. She carefully balanced her prey in between a forked tree branch. There the Leopard settled to a good meal. Done with their stollen kangaroo, the hyenas, with their powerful olfactory lobe that enabled them to smell tens of miles away, traced out the Leopard and her antelope. Seven hyenas gathered under the huge tree, determined to share from a prey they did not kill. The Leopard, taking refuge in the woods, enjoyed her meal alone. The hyenas growled, yawned and snarled. The Leopard pretended not to hear. In the end, one after the other, these hyenas disappeared into the wild, looking for other preys to steal. Lara thought to herself: It is a great insult to call a human being a hyena. 

In all of these, one thing interested Lara the most. It was the irresistible colour of the Leopard. Her golden fur doted with black dots melted her into a smile. That fur would make a beautiful skirt and a blouse. Lara imagined herself in that dress and it was pleasant. The Leopards must be hunted down, she resolved.

The female Leopard was a clear shot away from where Lara stood. She raised her bow and measured with her arrow. The arrow was pointing straight at the belly of the cat. But the Leopard was on the lookout, possibly aiming at the hyenas that may want to steal her prey. The big cat could easily spot Lara out if further movements were not curtailed. She lowered her bow and waited. The Leopard returned to her prey and ate fervently. Lara raised her bow and aimed at the big cat. She pulled the string and in split seconds, she let go of the arrow. The arrow sunk deep into the belly of the Leopard. The cat and her unfinished meal dropped to the bush beneath. The cat slept off as soon as she hit the ground. It was at the point of pulling out the arrow from the belly of the cat that Lara realized that the arrows were coated with a poison that demobilized animals and made them sleep for hours at the slightest contact with blood. She reached for her knife, slaughtered the sleeping cat and carefully got rid of her beautiful fur. 

Having realized the potency of her arrows, Lara hunted down the male Leopard in similar fashion. She took possession of the fur and now had abundance of Leopard skin for her outfits. Lara was heading back to the cave when she saw a pack of hyenas tearing apart the abandoned flesh of the female Leopard voraciously. Hyenas had a special taste for animals they did not kill.

Returning to have her new home, Lara spread the skins in the sun to dry. She beat the skins soft as they dried. Having processed them to what she could wear, she cut them into beautiful skirt and a blouse. Wearing the Leopard fur and standing with her bow and arrow in hand, Lara was as beautiful and as scary as the Leopard in the wild. With this uniform on, Lara could conveniently blend into a pack of Leopard without causing a stare.