Men in Paradise - 24. Chapter 24 - The Hunt

Primitive hunting tactics are a series of techniques produced thousands of years ago by our ancestors. The original neanderthals figured out what worked for survival, and over the years their many descendants changed the tactics, which eventually made them better hunters. The early human hominid ancestors were possibly frugivores or omnivores, rather than hunting, with a partially carnivore diet from scavenging. There is evidence that hunting may have been one of the various environmental factors that contributed to the disappearance of megafauna in the Holocene and its replacement by smaller herbivores. At the Andean site of Wilamaya Patjxa, Puno District in Peru, however, 9000-year-old remains of a female hunter were found along with a toolkit of projectile points and animal processing implements. Hunting has traditionally been a major contributor to the availability of human food. Protein, bone for tools, sinew for cordage, fur, feathers, rawhide and leather used in clothing were the supplementary meat and materials from hunting. Extinction of species such as Neanderthals, Denisovans, Dragons, Mammoths etc could have been the reason due to hunting by primitive humans.

Justin's PoV

In the middle of the Summer, things had become bad. He cranked and argued with me a lot for no reason. He was so angry at me all the time. He was sweat and all that for a while, but then he hated me. Last night, he shouted at me for wearing a shirt at night and I thought that was absurd.

Yeah, I am talking about the pretty boy Afridi. I had no idea why he was getting mad with me for even the tiniest things. Did I do anything wrong to upset him? I understood that he wasn't comfortable about our anal intercourse discussion, that's why i postponed it and never bothered to discuss it. And then, harvest arrived and kept me busy all the time and I hardly had any time to talk to him about it. I came back to the loft every night after eight or nine hours of hard work on the farm field and I was always exhausted. I was having body pain that made me sleep the moment I went to bed. But, thanks to the harvest, it helped to distract my mind from desires towards him. And I thought of discussing with him again about the sex once the dust settles in. At least it would give him enough to think about my proposal. But things went differently than I thought. He was acting differently and angry with me since I proposed anal sex to him. But he said 'ok', right? Then what did I do wrong?.

I tried to remember all the conversations I had with him over the last few weeks. He always ended up shouting and screaming. He had become such a drama queen then. 'Should I just keep quiet and ignore that nothing had changed between us lately?' I wondered. I have decided not to think about it too much, but his silence and scowl face was too much to take.

I had been staring at the Oats & Millets seeds on the field for few minutes, which had refused to bring into life. I brought those seeds for my research in Boston, I re-engineered them to suit any temperature and worked on it over six months period. And I did everything i could. I chose light crops as second cultivation at Paradise. Oats and millets are generally easier to cultivate and less attention needed. But it didn't produce any life at all for weeks. I wondered what went wrong with it? I threw the ax on the field in fury and stood there.

I saw Afridi approaching me with a trowel on his hand. He was not wearing a shirt, only in his trouser. His bare chest was glowing under the sunlight. He had that scorn on his pretty face even then, which I was hostile to look at him. Where did his beautiful smile go? The way he used to gaze at me with that brownish ash twinkling eyes, its all gone.

"Hey, what are you doing here?" He asked me with his very own smoky voice.

"Staring at my crops" I answered him bluntly.

He looked at the lifeless crop field and brushed his hair falling on his face.

"Give it some time, it will grow" Afridi tried to convince me.

I let out a sigh of frustration.

"What are you doing with that trowel?" I asked him to change the subject.

"I am gonna melt those crystals in the furnace, you wanna join me?" He asked me in a frenzy.

"What are you planning to do with it?" I asked him.

"I don't know, I am just bored" He replied in a careless tone.

"Hmm OK. I am bored with these crops too. Let's go" I told him. I put my arms on his shoulders to return to our lawn and took my arm away immediately. I didn't want him to think I was making a sexual advance. He looked at me for a second and then started walking back to the lawn briskly.

Last few months, we had become expert melting metals. We built two furnaces to melt different types of metal that melt at varying temperatures. Stones and sediments on the island have rich minerals particularly iron and aluminum. We had a huge pile of collected rocks and sediments near the lawn and we burnt them in our furnace almost every week. We made vessels, tools, weapons, construction materials, instruments, and other items by melting those rocks. Whenever Afridi and I were bored, it had become our hobby.

Ever since I brought the crystals from the caves, Afridi and I wanted to melt it and make glass items and window glasses for the hut. But melting a crystal requires a lot of burning in the furnace and careful molding.

'It would take a minimum of 2 or 3 hours to burn the furnace and bring the required heat to melt the crystal. That would provide me sufficient time to talk to Afridi and probably ask him what is wrong with him', I thought to myself.

A week before the harvest, we built a clay concrete floor in front of the front porch and laid a roof over it using coconut leaves. We used the concrete floor during harvest to remove the grains by spanking the crop plants on the concrete. Our furnace was slightly adjacent to it. We arranged it that way so that we didn't have to sit for hours under the sun during our melting and foraging.

On the other side, I saw Jai and Sakthi were busy building a new barn for pigs right next to the goat's shed and birdcage. After prolonged discussion, the gang had decided to bring pigs in. We have seen a few of them in the forest, they looked healthy and could be domesticated easily. But bringing pigs into our life was not an easy decision to make, there was always Afridi with his objections.

"No" he abruptly said the moment discussion started on pigs.

"Why not? Pigs are a good food source, very healthy, and easy to maintain" Jai asked him, wondering why did Afridi object to it.

"No" Afridi shouted again.

It was really frustrating with him sometimes. There was no doubt that he was a sweetheart, funny, and made our lives more interesting on that island. But, he could be of a nuisance at times.

"When you say 'No', you have to give a reason for that. Don't you think?" I asked him as politely as I could, not wanting to create a tremor out of my comment.

"Yes, Why do you say 'No'?" Sakthi joined me, it was encouraging.

"Islam prohibits eating pigs" Afridi answered him strongly.

I never knew that pigs are banned in Islam. I wanted to ask him what is the reason behind it, but I thought of keeping quiet and let Sakthi handle the 'situation'.

"Does Islam prohibits having pigs?" Sakthi asked him.

"No, but we are not supposed to eat them" Afridi answered him promptly.

"Then, that settles it. Let's build the barn and bring pigs. Except for Afridi rest of us can eat it, our religion doesn't prohibit it. We will share our eggs to him as a replacement. Is that OK?" Sakthi asked Afridi.

I was not sure if he was OK with it. But he nodded his head in agreement. And finally, Pigs were allowed in our lives.

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We went back to the furnace and Afridi lit up the woods inside the furnace. He started pumping the bamboo pipes furiously which were connected in the furnace. As if he wanted to let out all his anger on the pipes. The more he pumped, the more air blown into the furnace, and flames from the woods rose higher. I took a clay spoon and poured the crystal pieces into it. Then heated the soon on the furnace.

"Are you regretting here, staying in the island?" I asked him to start the conversation, eager to know what was wrong with him lately. But I was also cautious not to bring a storm once again.

He shook his head violently and then again focused on his air pipes. His face was red and his mind was engulfed in fury.

The light from the flames, made his yellow skin glow in gold. He appeared like an angel out there, teasing me with his killer looks and scornful face.

"Did I do something wrong?" I continued asking him.

He stopped pumping the pipes and stared at me for few seconds. He opened his mouth to say something, but then he stopped uttering it and closed his mouth again. It was like he was struggling for words, I wondered why. The boy was always talkative, never short of words to say on every occasion he could get. And suddenly it looked like he didn't know what to say, It baffled me.

So I asked him again "What's wrong?, you can tell me, right? We are bros". I was literally pleading him to spit it out.

He looked at me again, that time he was bit hesitant, then he blurted it out.

"You said 'You wanna fuck me', even after I said 'Yes', you started ignoring me. What the fuck was that?" He asked me in a fury. And then he continued without letting me respond.

"It's not like I go and get fucked by another boy back home or another boy dared to even ask me that way. If they did I would have smashed their faces with my fist. I was born straight, it wasn't easy for me, you know" He stopped blurting it all out. And let out a huge sigh as a burden had been taken out of his heart.

And then he turned his face away from me as if he got suddenly shy and said "So I took time, you know. And prepared me for you. I am ready now. And I said 'Yes', right? But then you literally avoided me, you weren't even sleeping next to me for few days. What the fuck was that?" He was furious and gazed at me as if he might burn me with his eyes.

Was he serious? Was that made him angry all the time with me? Shouting and arguing with me all those days? How stupid that was, right? So, I had to tell him to justify why I kept my distance from him.

"Are you serious, bro? Is that why you were mad at me? I wanted to give you time to process, i knew if I slept next to you, I couldn't control myself. That's why i slept next to Jai and I was preoccupied with the harvest and kinds of stuff. I wasn't ignoring or avoiding you, you know" I told him in one full breath before he could accuse me any further or mad at me.

He stopped pumping the pipes again and looked at me skeptically.

"Really? You are not avoiding me or anything?" He asked me still not believing what I just told h. Looked at me with that large eyes in disbelief.

"Yes dude, how can I avoid you?. I thought doing 'stuff' is the next step forward in our relationship. But I could wait longer, as long as you want. I didn't care, you know?" I told him.

He let a sigh of relief once again and grinned at me. 'Oh man, his eyes when he smiled at me' I thought to myself.

"I am so naïve, so stupid, isn't it?" He asked me apologetically.

I went closer to him and put my arms over his shoulder.

"No, you aren't. You are just a pretty looking dumbass" i mocked at him.

He beamed at me again brushing his braided hair nervously. As if a heavyweight between us had been removed, we smiled at each other like two mad dogs.

The heat from the flames reached close to 1000 degrees, crystals started to melt.

"You said crystalization will take at least 2 hours, how come it is melting this sooner?" Afridi asked me.

"Might be because, these aren't fully crystallized yet, we got them from the rocks in the glassy state. It takes years for crystal formation, you know" i told him what I knew.

I asked him to pump faster so that it could melt completely. Within few minutes I poured the liquid crystals into the clay mold. We let it enough time to cool off.

And went to check the new barn.

"It's half done. Just needed the roof to be laid" Sakthi said.

"When are we going to kidnap the pigs and their babies from the forest," Afridi asked him innocently.

"Pigs babies are called Piglets" I corrected him.

"And we are not kidnapping them, because nobody owns them yet" Jai intervened with his comment.

"We will go after lunch" Sakthi replied him ignoring our comments.

"We will fuck after dinner" I leaned and whispered into Afridi's ear.

I saw him blushing for the first time.

Noon was eventful.

It had been a while we have visited the forest. It was as usual bushy and dense. Trees and plants in it had always enthralled me. Winter and long Spring provided enough water to the soil, hence plants and trees were grown more than we saw last time.

Jai and Afridi were busy collecting melons, pumpkins, and cassava. I was noticing a few new plants were grown in the forest and I was showing it to Sakthi.

Tracking pigs was easy, their foot tracks were everywhere, but they led us into a deep forest and we had to walk few miles to locate their hideaways. Sakthi was the first person to find one, it was a piglet left alone from its parents, we caught him and then we saw a few more of them resting under a bush, we got just three of them and put them in our bags.

When I was there in the forest for the first time, I actually entered from the opposite direction. An entrance to the forest close to the mountain. I have seen a huge jackfruit tree right below the mountain slope and I told the guys about it a long time back. Since the forest was dense closer to the mountain, we mostly avoided going there fearful of any wild animals.

Jai wanted to get some Jackfruits. We spent a few minutes discussing the if's and but's of going in and then decided to go forward. So we walked further and reached almost at the edge of the mountain slope. We have been wanting to climb the mountain and see what was in it. But that was for another day, we gathered the fruits, and they were so many of them. We decided to return back to the hut.

I heard a noise from a distance. It came something crashing the plants and leaves. That's when I saw him, he was gigantic, about 5 feet tall, with sharp horns and dark. It might have weighed at least 300 pounds and must be too old. It couldn't run faster than any other wild boar but it had an appearance that frightened the hell out of me. I turned at looked in the direction it was moving. And I noticed that the wild boar was running towards Afridi.

Afridi was busy chatting with Jai while eating a melon that he picked on the way. He failed to notice the wild boar as it was coming from his behind. I was standing near a medicinal plant from a few feet distant from him and I realized that the wild boar was inching closer to Afridi and targeting him.

Sakthi was far away from our place with Captain. He was standing under the jackfruit tree looking at a honeybee nest on it. Everything happened in a quick time, I had very little time to think. I had only a few seconds left to find a way to protect Afridi. And I didn't know what to do then.

"Grrrrrrrrrr...." the gigantic wild boar made a noise that terrorized the entire forest.

I just threw the bamboo stick I had in my hand at the boar to grab its attention. And it worked.

"Hey" I shouted at it as louder as I could to notice me.

The Bamboo stick hit its head and the boar had then turned its attention on me and started sprinting towards me. It must be at least 300 pounds and I knew I had no chance to protect myself from it. Afridi and Jai were stunned at what had been unfolded in front of them within few seconds.

Wild boar was on its feet and within striking distance. I had little time to react, I jumped and caught hold of a branch of a small tree behind me and climbed on it.

The Boar must have been incomplete rage by then, it came and rammed the stem of the tree with its head. The tree was so small. I wasn't sure if it could last for long from the heavy ram it's getting from the boar.

For a moment Afridi and Jai must have been shocked and they came back to their senses within seconds, I heard them screaming "Help".

I saw Sakthi heard the noise and running towards the tree.

"Stop, don't come" I shouted and asked him to stop coming any nearer.

Captain was standing in front of him and crazily barked at the boar. Sakthi held his spear on his right hand and aimed at the boar. The Animal was relentless, it kept ramming the tree. And the tree finally started breaking up. It was life or death for me and I closed my eyes.

That's when I heard a loud grumble from the boar, it moved a bit further from the tree and stopped hitting it. I had no idea what just happened then. My eyes were still partly closed and my hands were holding the branch of the tree. It took some time for the dust to clear and provided me a better picture of the situation.

Sakthi's sharp spear pierced into the boar's neck. Blood was oozing out of it. Wild boar was trying to adjust itself and the pain. It grumbled again.

From the other end, following Sakthi's brevity, Jai threw his spear at the boar too. It hit its abdomen region right in the middle. The boar couldn't bear the second attack. It grumbled wildly and started running away from the tree with its wounds. Within few seconds it disappeared into the forest.

The branch that saved for a brief period completely broke and I fell to the ground. Sakthi approached me in a hurry and lifted me from the ground. The branch scratched my arm while falling from it and I saw the blood out of those scratches.

"You are hurt," Sakthi said, looking at me with care and concern.

Captain was licking my legs.

Afridi and Jai reached us and Afridi hugged me.

"You could have got yourself killed," he said with a heavy breath. He was still in shock by witnessed a horrific incident.

"He saves your life from that wild boar" Jai reminded him.

Afridi heard what he said and it might have made him realize what I have done for him. He hugged me once again, the second time was even tighter. I thought he even kissed me slightly.

"We all could have been killed. Thanks to Sakthi and Jai's accurate spear throw" I told them.

"No, we just finished what you started. If you have not diverted that animal from Afridi, he would have been attacked by the boar and dead by now, you were brave bro" Sakthi complimented me.

Afridi looked at me again, his face was mixed emotions of love and gratefulness and his eyes were pouring out at me.

"I was scared when I saw it coming towards you," I told Afridi, I was pleased to see him safe.

"By that course, you were ready to give your life for him too" Jai added.

Yes, my life would have ended that day in the forest, but if I was ready to give up my life for Afridi. To an extent, it surprised me a bit.