THE FOREST WILES ( Part-2 )

Soon later, all the dogs in the village were barking and howling from one place to another. Then the two brothers continued their journey to the forest without suspicious anything. On their way to the forest, they saw the old man at the middle of the village road holding his walking stick and stopped to them.
When they came closer, the old man said to them, “Sons, please try not to enter into the forest today as I heard lots of whispering while dogs howling”. And the two brothers replied that the dogs were barking and howling every day and there was nothing special to focus about. Although the old man tried his best to persuade them not to enter to the forest, but couldn’t win the two brothers stubbornness.

“Alright, I cannot stop you two” said the old man. And he continued, “But remembers for today, aim only one prey, either wild boar or deer or monkey. Do not kill two animals and when you get the prey cut the head and tail of the prey and hang at one of the biggest tree in the forest. Do not bring the whole quarry in to the village.” With his final warning the old man entered to the village. The two brothers showed derisive smiles to the old man and continued their journey to the forest.
In the deep jungle, the two brothers couldn’t find any prey for the day. The jungle was too quiet and there were neither birds chattering nor any other animals’ sound. The two brothers were searching for the prey all around in the deep jungle till noon time. With exhaustion they were resting for a while under the big tree near a stream. Suddenly, they saw a deer under the bamboo grove the other side of the stream. The two brothers strung their bows and shot the deer together. The deer jumped out from the bamboo grove however dead a few steps later with the powerful poison form the two arrows. The two brothers rushed over to the other side of the stream to pick the deer up. Then the two brothers carried the quarry and went back to the village. On their way back home, the younger brother reminded to his brother about old man’s warning to cut off the head and tail of the prey before enter to the village. But the elder brother refused to do so.

When they were resting for a while on their way back to the village, the elder brother saw a group of monkeys running though from one tree to another high above their heads. With lightning speed, an arrow flew off from the elder brother’s powerful bow. A movement later, the monkey drop off from the tree and die on the spot. When the elder brother picked up the dead monkey, amazingly, the monkey became alive and bit his neck. The elder brother shouted for help, but too late, his neck was seriously injured by the monkey’s fangs.

Then, the younger brother took off his cloth and wrapped around his brother neck and brought him back to the village without taking anything. The younger brother carried his wounded brother and rushed back to the village but he lost his way. He just looked around the surrounding for a while but the forest was totally changed. Although he has been hunting many time in the forest but he have never been to such place. And he looked at the direction of the sun, imagined the location of the village and continued his journey carrying his brother. Suddenly, he felt that his brother became motionless.

To be continue.

Henry Aung ( Kachin )
Photo Credit: Google Image