-1 A Forceful Rebirth Prologue (2/2)

As soon as Sebastian turned around to head for his tent, he heard a blood-curdling scream from the women.

He immediately turned around and ran towards the scream, almost by instinct. When he reached the fallen woman, he froze in his tracks. It seemed that she was trying to run away from something and tripped. There were no serious injuries aside from a twisted ankle, Sebastian quickly a.s.sessed. There were 3 hyenas in front of them. Hyenas in the Savannah are typically drawn towards leftover food or carca.s.ses. The fact that there was now a pack in front of him and the tribe indicated that they were hungry to the point of desperation and thus extremely dangerous.

Sebastian slowly made his way in between the hyenas and the woman to allow her to stand up and slowly go back. Out of the corner of his eye, Sebastian saw that the rest of the tribesmen were a few meters away arming themselves with sticks and stones slowly so as not to alarm the hyenas. As soon as he ascertained that the woman went into the crowd and was safe, Sebastian then slowly backed away, hoping to merge with the crowd, all while facing the pack of hyenas in front of him. What he didn't realize was that he was sticking out in front of the others, making him a viable target.

In what seemed like a breath, the hyenas suddenly pounced just before Sebastian was able to go into the crowd. Out of pure instinct, he raised both his arms in front of him to protect his vitals but the two hyenas bit his wrists and crushed it with their jaws. The adrenaline rush surged to counteract the pain and to activate his flee response but he was pinned by the two hyenas while the third one lunged for his throat and tore it out. As soon as he fell to the ground, the tribesmen were already all over the hyenas, beating them seneseless and killing two in the process, leaving the third to limp away howling.

Sebastian fell flat on his back, with his arms on his sides. His hands were dangling by fragments of muscles and tendons holding it in place but totally useless. He was also lethally bleeding out from his throat gash. The village elder immediately ran to his side, kneeling down.

”Basti, I'm so sorry. Please be okay.” The village elder seemed panicking, when he was supposed to be the most experienced in the whole tribe.

*cough* *splurt* *cough* Sebastian tried to talk but was drowned out by the blood pooling and splurging in his throat. He needed extensive medical help, but it would be hours away even after contacting them with the CB radio in his tent.

The village elder then solemnly gestured towards the other tribesmen. They nodded while seemingly going away to get something.

Sebastian felt that no matter what they would bring, nothing apart from a modern medical ambulance complete with a medical team would save him.

The villager then came back and handed a bundle of cloth to the village elder. Everyone looked gravely at that situation, knowing full well that they wouldn't be able to do anything. A wild animal attack in the Savannah was synonymous to death. Everyone knew about it, nevertheless they felt sorry that they couldn't save the other influential man in their tribe, their only contact to the outside world.

The village elder then opened the bundle of cloth to reveal a ceremonial knife intricately carved and with what looked like precious stones embedded in it. It looked like an ancient ornate dagger, but very sharp.

Sebastian was already losing consciousness and breathing jaggedly as the village elder pointed the knife towards his chest. Looking at the situation, Sebastian knew what was going to happen and couldn't help but let out a small smile.

'So this is how I die. A coup de grace in the middle of nowhere. d.a.m.n.'

At that point, there was a lot of thoughts that rushed into his mind - like how the staff at the orphanage he grew up in which he treated as his family would know, what would happen to his body, and would there be any repercussions or amendments made after he was gone. He couldn't focus on one train of thought as his consciousness was slipping away. He could only look on at the village elder and the knife before his chest.

”Live long Basti, be strong.”

'What kind of parting words is that, do you even understand what you're talking about.'

He felt that a lot of things were lost in translation. That feeling, however, was shortlived as the village elder plunged the knife into Sebastian's chest and his consciousness faded.

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