44 Injury (1/2)
The group of five children, Ling, Rin, Yabang, Lino and Tang'ga became fast friends for the past two years after their hunting test. They qualified to join the official hunting groups and they decided to still be together.
Most of the villagers were not surprised about this since strong hunters usually flock together so as not to have anyone in their group that could not keep up with them.
The five were still young so they could not be called a hunting group on their own. They were still working under the adults in the official group, however, if they got the chance, they would hunt separately from the main group.
There were also instances when they chose not to join the main group to hunt too far. They would be left behind a safer area in the forest while the rest went ahead to go further. The adults were fine with this since these children could take care of themselves. What the adults did not know was that the five were meeting with a dragon and the hunting team became a group of six.
Regrettably, the group became five again when Tang'ga got injured in one of their hunts. As usual, the idiot managed to anger another beast, this time it was when he disturbed a giant eagle's nest when he was looking for mushrooms for Rin's cooking. What Rin needed was those that could be found on the junction of the trunk and branches.
The tree where Tang'ga looked at was big so he had to climb high to check the branches above. What he saw when he brushed away the abundant leaves on one branch, however, was a nest full of dozens of fist-sized eggs in different colors. It had been a long time since he had eggs not from their farm so he, thinking that it would not be obvious with how many eggs there were, decided to steal some while the large bird was away.
Once he started climbing down, the flapping of large wings indicated that the eagle has returned. Tang'ga realized this so he climbed down faster, but not fast enough to be discovered by the bird.
It dived down when it saw the escaping boy and dropped the other larger stolen eggs in its claws so it could move faster. Panicked, Tang'ga climbed down in a hurry which led to him slipping on a foothold and falling down awkwardly on the forest floor. The items on his back somewhat cushioned the fall but his leg was twisted after which made him unable to get up.
Fortunately, when the bird pounced on the boy lying on the ground, the boy still had enough energy to gather his 'mist' and raise his spear in time with the beast's movement which made him hit it in a fatal spot and this led to its death.
Now, his problem was that the large bird's dead body fell partially on his. With how small the eggs in the nest were, he thought the eagle wouldn't be this big! It looked like this eagle also stole those eggs!
While moving as little as possible to avoid hurting his twisted leg, Tang'ga pushed the body of the eagle off of him. Following that, he managed to breath better.
After his fearsome encounter, Tang'ga took another breath then released a shout of help to his friends hunting nearby. He waited for a while lying down on the ground since it still hurt to move.
In a few minutes, he heard the running footsteps on the ground near his ear. He exhaled another breath of relief since he recognized the footsteps. It was not as he expected however, when Lino found him. He was kicked by the other a few times while he was still lying down before Lino helped him up.
”Do you think we were the only ones in the forest?! The other animals heard you too so the others had to fight them first! I'm tired of calling you an idiot!” Lino scolded.
Tang'ga did not give any response and just looked at his pack with the broken eggs inside.
During a following afternoon, Ling woke up early to visit his injured friend. It has already been three days since Tang'ga's injury, however he was still told to stay at home since he had not gotten his usual vitality yet. He would have healed faster with Maga's help but Lino stopped them to 'teach the idiot a lesson' according to him, and Tang'ga did not object.