Jaguars

Greetings to everyone, the following story was inspired by the digital art of @xpilar, I invite you to visit his blog. The picture that motivated this story is the following.

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Source

Jaguars

-I don't think it's convenient to be here for a long time, some of the animals are dangerous, in this region jaguars and bears abound, -said Manuel, clearly worried.

-Yes, I'm clear about that, but we won't be more than an hour, it's just a matter of digging a little and taking it out, then we'll go the way we came, - answered Henry.

They stopped the slider a few meters from a crater about five meters in diameter, in the middle of the savannah, in the middle of the still smoking hole, in the ground a small mound indicated the place where was buried the object that caused such a hole.

-The prospector says that it is about two meters deep, we must program the robot to dig in a ring around it, so that it does not make contact with it by mistake -explained Manuel, observing the monitor of the prospector pistol.

-Well I'll take out and position the excavator, while you program the instructions, - replied Henry.

After fifteen minutes, the robot started digging by drawing a circle around the central mound of the crater, expelling dirt towards the outside of the crater, while injecting a polymer foam, to keep the cylinder walls stable. When it was a little more than four meters deep, it stopped and climbed back to the surface.

-That's it, -said Henry, as he began to remove the robot.

-Henry, I see something moving between the trees, -said Manuel, who was keeping an eye on the forest that extended into the distance, in front of them.

-It must be some animal, don't pay attention to it, we're going to take this out and remove the earth so we can take it, I'm going for the elevator, take care to finish removing the robot, -said Henry, in a reprimand tone.

Manuel began to dismantle the robot, without taking his eyes off the forest, then he could see an enormous feline moving between the trees, about two and a half meters long and one meter tall, who began to walk on the savannah while watching them from a distance.

-Henry there's a jaguar looking at us from that side, -said Manuel, with a cut voice.

-Take care of the work and we can get out of here faster," answered Henry clearly furious.

They removed the earth cylinder and recharged it on the floor, Henry took a sonic pulse emitter to remove the earth that was kept compact by the polymer foam. He started firing sound pulses that made the earth crumble, while Manuel kept looking at the trees.

-Damn it, Henry, there's a group of three of those stealthy animals approaching us, what are we going to do, why don't we better get out of here, -he said as he shook Henry over one shoulder.

-Cut the bullshit, Manuel, and if you want us to finish quickly, start getting everything on the slider and bring the platform up so we can load this and get out, - answered Henry.

The sound pulse emitter discovered a data capsule that had been fired across a bridge close to the planet and that by mistake had escaped the collection robot, in charge of catching them to take them to their destination.

While they were doing this, one of the jaguars started a race towards them, and after him, the other two accompanied him, Manuel who saw that, bent down covering his head with his arms, before Henry's indifferent look.

-Damn it, they're going to eat us! -shouted Manuel almost crying.

After a few seconds, of being hunched over covering himself and squeezing his eyes, nothing happened, he lifted his head and looked at Henry lying on one side of the slider, seeing him with a mocking smile on his face.

-If you're stupid, we're in a park, you idiot, the wild animals here have a device that restrains them when they try to attack a human, the stupid jaguars went back the way they came, stand up and help me finish this, I want to go back, I'm already hungry.

Text of @amart29 Barcelona, Venezuela, September 2019

Other stories from the Time and Space series

• Pandora's Walls
• Forced Migration
• The Curse of Chimera
• Amphitrite
• Ilmatar
• The Door of the Sea of Calm
• The Horde
• The Phidias Mechanism
• Heliopolis
• The Garden of Rocks
• Under a Sky of Branches and Leaves
• Jaguars

I can only thank @xpilar for allowing me to use his digital art in my publication and for motivating my creation. Thank you very much @xpilar

Thank you all for visiting my publication, I hope your comments and I appreciate your support, until next time

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