Chapter 20: Encounters in the Mountain
Something brown with yellow spots slithered down the tree toward her, its movements slow but deliberate. Lara’s hand instinctively tightened around the hilt of her sword, slung at her back alongside her cloth backpack.
Her breath hitched as the cold, scaled body—thicker than her thigh—drew closer, its gaze fixed on her. Just as it began to coil around her waist, she unsheathed her sword in a single swift motion and slashed downward. The blade cut cleanly through the snake’s body, severing it in half.
The two halves hit the ground with a sickening thud, crimson blood pooling at her feet. Lara stepped back, her chest rising and falling as she assessed her surroundings.
Spotting a sturdy broken branch about a meter long, she picked it up and, using another stick, carefully lifted the snake’s severed halves. She hung the pieces on the branch, her movements efficient and unbothered, as though it were just another chore. Without glancing back, she headed to the stream.
At the water’s edge, she dropped the snake into the current to rinse away the blood. Turning her attention to the two baskets she’d left earlier, her face brightened. The traps had worked perfectly—more than ten fish filled one basket, and another fifteen crowded the second. The carps were larger than her palm, while the catfish stretched nearly the length of a ruler.
Her excitement faded as she realized the challenge ahead. She couldn’t carry everything by hand. Using some nearby vines, she tied the two baskets together and fashioned a makeshift sling for the python. With her cloth backpack of fruits strapped to her back, the baskets of fish weighing around four kilos in her right hand, and the snake—easily over fifty kilos—in her left, she tried to stand.
The weight overwhelmed her. Her legs trembled under the burden, and she paused, panting. ’I overestimated myself,’ she thought bitterly. She shifted the load, transferring half the snake to her right hand and the one basket to her left, balancing the weight as best as she could.
Just as she was about to rise, a low growl froze her in place.
Turning her head slowly, she locked eyes with a gray wolf crouched a few meters away. Its green eyes glinted with hunger, and its fangs gleamed as saliva dripped onto the ground. Lara watched the wolf closely, and the wolf watched her like a predator, it was.