After two weeks without rain, the stream dried up. The waterfall became a simple cliff, and the pool below was a mud pit. The essence trap no longer worked at all, and the disappearance of drinking water was becoming a problem.

  Tui needed to go back to the freshwater lake in the caldera. He needed to re-enter the dangerous jungle that surrounded that lake.

  He had been content to leave the dark jungle alone. The sow nearly gutted him the last time he had ventured into her territory, and Tui was not keen to see her again without the help of a well-functioning qi cultivation.

  The last few weeks had kept him busy. He harvested long, strong fibers from soaked hibiscus branches, which were dried and twisted into a string. Making string was tedious and slow, but the cordage it yielded was very useful.

  As he made string, Tui practiced with fiery qi. It required concentration to create and maintain the spiritual pipelines that carried the fire into his meridians.

  Before his advancement, he could activate three or four meridians simultaneously, giving himself strength, enhanced mobility, and keen senses. Now he had to engage his mental abilities to bring fire to his heart, and all the other meridians were still beyond the reach of his meager skills.

  On the upside, the fiery qi was far more powerful than the sparks had ever been.

  Tui needed fresh water and could no longer delay re-entering the jungle. He armed himself with the bamboo spear, his obsidian knife, and some necessities. Then he headed out along the beach toward the collapsed caldera wall.

  It was midmorning, and the temperature was beginning to rise. Tui admired the way the clear water looked against the bright blue sky. It was a sight that never got old.

  The caldera entrance was before him before he was really ready for it. A chill ran down his spine. He was deliberately placing himself in danger, and this was not a feeling he was familiar with. He did not like this feeling at all. Things could go so wrong at this point.

  If he died here, nobody would ever know what happened to him. He had been unable to send a spiritual pipeline through the passageway that connected him to his uncle. Tui hoped that the sudden silence from his end didn’t worry his uncle.

  He needed to focus on the task at hand.

  As he stepped into the jungle, he carefully activated his meridians. As always, he began with the fifth meridian. He felt his mind expand, and his ability to concentrate suddenly improved.

  He had been practicing this. He painstakingly drew the second pipeline into his heart.

  He suppressed a shiver of delight at the rush of power flooding into him. He loved the feeling he got from activating this meridian. The burst of strength as it surged through his muscles felt amazing!

  Focus on the present. He must pay attention to the situation at hand, or he might die here.

  Tui stalked through the jungle, his ears alert to any changes in the sound. The jungle was not quiet. The birds in the trees were shrieking at each other. The wind through the leaves above created a layer of swishing sound. The branches groaned and clacked against each other as they moved in the breeze.

  The jungle floor was fairly open. The trees above blocked most of the light, making it difficult for anything else to grow. There was the occasional tuft of brush and plenty of strangling vines climbing up the tall trees.

  He traveled further into the jungle, encountering a clearing. The brush was thicker in there, and the visibility was terrible. Tui circled around the clearing and stayed near the tree line.

  Before much longer, Tui encountered some signs of the pig. The ground had been torn up from where the animal had been digging. There was a scattering of hoofprints leading off in a few different directions. It seemed clear that the pig passed through this area frequently.

  One of the sets of tracks seemed to be fresher than the others, so he followed it.

  As the day wore on, the heat and humidity soared. Sweat stung his eyes as he continued to stalk the pig. After hiking for a while, he noticed his concentration beginning to waver. Tui would not have long before the qi started failing.

  He did not want to be caught in the open, so he climbed a nearby tree for a rest, dragging his spear up with him. He relaxed and let go of the pipelines. A sense of relief went through him even as he felt the fiery strength leaving his body.

  There was a bit of a breeze near the top of the tree. The air was refreshing and cool. He leaned against a thick branch and relaxed, resting his tired mind.

  The hunt was harder than he expected it to be. Stalking a dangerous animal with nothing but a sharp stick and a stone knife was stressful. It felt like the tables could turn at any moment. If the sow saw him first, he would be the hunted one.

  This tale has been unlawfully lifted from Royal Road. If you spot it on Amazon, please report it.

  Tui rested in the tree a few minutes longer, mustering the will to continue. He knew he couldn’t afford to dawdle in the tree all day, but he needed mental clarity to maintain his strength. Finally, he snatched up his spear and began to climb down.

  Just as he stepped to a lower branch, there was a rustle in the brush below.

  Tui froze.

  The rustle came again, and the sow came into view. She ambled slowly along, retracing her footprints.

  She was big, weighing over 300 pounds. Her black coat was coarse and wiry, with a ridge of hair running down her back. Three-inch tusks jutted from her jaws.

  She came to a halt under Tui’s tree. Under his astonished gaze, she turned around and squealed.

  Tui did not wait for a better chance to take her by surprise. He engaged his meridians faster than he had ever done before. As the surge of strength flooded his body, he dropped from the tree, aiming the spear at the center of the sow’s back.

  She capered to one side just as he came down, the spear lancing through her shoulder instead of spitting her middle. She screamed in pain and anger at the interloper who dared to hurt her and whirled to bite him, her tusked mouth gaping.

  It felt like time slowed for Tui as the sow lunged toward him, her eyes promising murder. He dove desperately to the side, abandoning his spear where it stuck into the pig. She stumbled awkwardly and screamed her fury again. He scrambled to put the tree between them as he pulled the knife from his belt. The little blade was completely inadequate against the muscular ball of tusks.

  Her screams were deafening, like a wall of sound battering his mind. The racket made it hard to think, hard to concentrate through all the noise.

  She chased him around the tree, lurching every time her weight landed on her front foreleg. She had lost some speed, but by no means was she slow. Tui could smell the spattering blood as she heaved herself toward him.

  He leaped back into the tree, grasping the branch and easily pulling himself up with enhanced strength. The sow sat on the ground and glared at him. They were at the same impasse as the last time they’d met. This time he doubted that the ending would be the same.

  Blood trickled from where the spear remained standing from the sow’s shoulder. It did not look like a mortal wound, and Tui needed to finish this. She squealed again, flashing a mouth full of yellowed teeth.

  He carefully climbed down to the lowest branch in the tree. The sow stumbled forward, eager to meet him on the ground. She surged up on her hind legs and snapped at him with her razor-sharp fangs. Her hot breath blasted at him as she squealed.

  When she landed back on all fours, the spear haft swung back towards him. He snatched the handle and pulled on it, hard.

  The spear’s movement spurred the sow to whirl and bite at the haft. She couldn’t quite reach it, but the sharp movement nearly pulled Tui out of the tree. He grimly hung on to the spear as every muscle strained to keep him in place. Suddenly it worked free, spraying a fan of bright red blood across the leaves.

  With the spear out of her shoulder, the sow regained much of her mobility. She reared up again to snap at him, and Tui stabbed downwards desperately with his spear in one hand. The point glanced off the pig’s forehead, gouging a bloody trough straight past her ear.

  This stoked her fury and renewed the piercing squeals. The gushing wound on her shoulder did not seem to slow her at all.

  Then there was movement in the bushes. A little piglet trotted out, heading straight for the sow. Her full attention switched to the piglet. She called out a desperate warning, a lowing moan.

  Tui used the distraction and dropped from the tree again with his spear. This time it went in behind the front shoulder, slightly to the left of the ridge of hair running down the sow’s back. With all his enhanced might, he thrust it through her body. The spearpoint pierced through to sink deeply into the earth beneath her as she collapsed from the devastating impact.

  Her head whipped toward him in a final attempt to destroy the one tormenting her. Tui was not quick enough to avoid a tusk that lanced into his thigh, zipping through his flesh, and leaving behind a gaping cut. His blood mingled with the pig’s on the leaves of the jungle floor.

  Pain exploded through Tui’s awareness as he flung himself away from the sow. He fell to the ground, desperately scrambling to escape the murderous tusks.

  There was no follow-up attack.

  The sow’s screaming gave way to great shuddering breaths as blood dribbled from her nose and mouth. Her legs flailed weakly on the leafy ground, unable to extract herself from the spear that pinned her.

  Minutes passed, feeling like hours. The sow’s eyes were closed, and her legs no longer moved. She was breathing slowly, painfully.

  Tui pressed the blood-streaming wound on his thigh. He did not feel the exhilarating thrill of victory he had expected. The whole thing was bloodier than he had imagined, and a pang of guilt went through him as he gazed upon the dying sow and her offspring.

  He limped up to the sow and placed his foot on her back. Taking a deep breath, he ripped the spear out from her. The sow groaned as her lifeblood gushed out. The sound of her labored breath continued for a minute longer, then was gone.

  The forest, which had seemed so noisy, was silent. Flies buzzed around the bloody pool seeping from under the dead pig.

  Tui removed his loincloth and used it to bind up the wound on his leg. The bleeding slowed but did not stop. He would need to put some stitches in that.

  He had no idea how to butcher the pig. His life had been far removed from this type of messy business. His servants purchased meat from the market and brought it to him as prepared food.

  He stood with his knife, looking at the huge animal lying dead on the ground before him.

  Somewhere in that animal were good cuts of meat, but they seemed inaccessible from where he stood. The meat would spoil quickly in the heat, so there was no point in being greedy and taking too much.

  With his stone knife, Tui cut a ham from the beast. He cut around the ball of muscle and severed the tendons holding it to the joint. The result wasn’t pretty, but it came free without much effort. He slung the cut of meat over his shoulder.

  He glanced at the piglet, who had remained carefully out of reach the whole time. It stared owlishly back at him.

  Tui did not have the energy to chase it down. He limped toward camp, eager to get home and properly care for his leg. As he walked away, he heard the mewling of the piglet as it waited for its mother to respond.

  Ugh.

  This wasn’t going to work. Those cries would haunt his dreams tonight if he didn’t do something. He set down the meat and turned back to get the little beast.