*** Chapter Five: Cousin Maira Day 2 ***

“If you already found what you were looking for,” I said, “then, why are we still going further?”

It's hard to tell time without a watch and I hadn’t turned on my phone since yesterday to save its battery life, but it felt like we had been walking for a couple of hours. We had gone a long way up the river, but Santos suddenly went into the forest.

“I think I saw bamboo,” he replied. “There’s a few of them here and there, but I think that means that there’s a forest of them here somewhere.”

“Bamboo?” I asked. “What’s so important about bamboo? Isn’t that like the chinese trees?”

“Something like that,” he replied. “Bamboo has a lot of uses, especially in construction. If it really is bamboo that I saw, that stuff is going to help us a lot.”

It was difficult going through the forest, since it was in the mountains everything was sloped one way or another, there were barely any flat paths. After what felt like half an hour we made it to a part where all we could see ahead were a bunch of bamboo trees. As far as the eye could see there was nothing but bamboo, it was like the forest was split between normal trees and bamboo.

“So this is what you were looking for?” I asked, touching one of the trees, it reminded me of sugar cane because of its segments.

“We just need to take a piece back,” he said, as his eyes searched around. They finally settled on something. “There.”

He went over to where a bamboo tree, a rather young one, but still thicker than my wrist, was knocked over. It looked like something had bent it over until it broke.

“Maira,” Santos called out in a whisper. At first I was about to run over to see what he had found, but he went tense and his eyes began to scan the forest. He stood up really slowly with a stone bigger than his fist clenched in hand. “Let’s go.”

“Why?” I asked, a little scared because of the way he was acting.

“This place has a really big…,” his voice trailed off. “Shit…”

“What?!” I whispered, my eyes searched and searched, but I couldn’t spot anything.

“Run!” he said. “When you start running don’t stop, get to the river and swim back, it won’t chase you in the water!”

“What?” I asked, my voice trembling. I could feel tears welling in my eyes as the fear threatened to overwhelm me.

“Run!” He roared. Something far ahead made cracking noises as it rushed through the bamboo. My legs took over, my mind forgot what it was doing and where it was, for a moment I could only feel my feet striking ground.

I could hear many somethings rushing towards us.

It was only when my body made contact with the cold water that my mind finally became clear again. Instinct took over and I righted myself in the water.

“Santos!” My eyes searched around for him, I had not heard him hit the water. I looked around desperately hoping to find him.

“Santos!” I cried out again. Even though I wanted to stay the river was too strong and it was already taking me farther away.

*** Santos Day 2 ***

These things were huge!

As soon as I saw the tracks I knew that they were fresh, the imprint on the mud near the base of the tree was still very wet, the edges of the footprint weren't dry at all. That wasn’t the only problem, the imprint had another distinctly larger print near it, and it too was still fresh.

After I spotted them among the bamboo and told Maira to run, I was surprised by their size. These birds looked like movie velociraptors. Their general shape was like a truly predatory ostrich. And boy could they run.

We were running before they started and they were closing in within moments, when the biggest got too close I launched the rock at its face. It didn’t react in time and took the rock straight to the face, this blinded the giant bird, and in this terrain that was a massive disadvantage. One of its legs got caught in a root tripping the bird, this left only the smaller one chasing after us.

This smaller bird had dull feathers whereas the larger bird had colorful green, red, and yellow feathers. The smaller one was more agile, the bigger one had been faster, but also an easier target in comparison.

On the run I spotted a decent looking branch, I bet on it not being rotted and ran for it. The bird followed after Maira, but it had to cross past me to get to her. In one swift motion I grabbed the branch and swung it at the bird. It dodged, but its pace was interrupted as it had to recover its footing.

The tree limb was thick and heavy and it had not broken after I had swung it. I could only hope that it would withstand a couple of blows against the bird.

Kaw!

It screamed opening its beak wide as it charged.

My advantage here was that it was probably unused to facing off against intelligent creatures. This was evident when it charged without caution leaving itself completely open to a counterattack that it rightly received to the face. My target was its eyes, I didn’t care to bludgeon it to death, I didn’t have the skill nor the experience to think to beat it that way, instead I would discourage it.

The smaller bird was probably no more than five feet tall as compared to its companion that stood at seven feet. It was softer and weaker.

When the branch that I treated as a staff connected with the bird, it changed direction with the blow and squacked in pain, but I did not stop there. I swung around the branch and took out its legs managing to clip one and throwing it off balance. It tumbled forward.

My reactions were fueled by adrenaline, stopping would only give it time to recover, I rushed forward and continued my assault. The knee joints became my target.

Squack!

The first blow landed successfully as it tried to scramble back up. It fell down again and its legs spasmed from the pain. It tried to turn its talons towards me, but I swept around knocking away its legs sprawling the bird on its back. While it panicked as it tried to defend itself and recover its footing, I got another opening and swung again.

Squak!

SQUACK!

I was so focused on this one bird that I had nearly forgotten the other had existed had it not made its presence known.

It came charging straight for me, I thought I would have to fight it, but after I backed far away and took up a guarded stance it hovered over the smaller injured bird instead. Taking the opportunity, I ran.

There simply was no way I would stand a chance against two of these predatory birds, even if one of them was injured. The larger one would easily tank the blows from the branch in my hands.