We stored the body of green monkey-mok as well as that of the boar in the cave. We plan to go on to our next target, a wood lizard-mok. It lives in the border between the white star wood and the starry desert. It’s not far from where we are. We would reach there before night if we move out now.

We make sure to take some chunks of boar. It will serve as our ration and I don’t want to make the insects move from the bush yet. They can serve as a fake protection. When other moks try to enter the cave and when the insects make alarm, they would think a green monkey might be there. So, it is pretty good to keep the insects at the entrance than driving them. I use a chunk of boar to make sure the insects don’t bother us when we leave the cave.

Then, we move to our next destination, the wood lizard-mok.

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When we reach the border between the white star wood and the starry desert, the sun is already set. Although we look for a lizard at the border, we don’t see a single one. So, we decided to find a place to rest at night.

Before we find a nice place, we saw a giant bird the size of an elephant, dives down and swoop up a human-sized log just at the edge of the white star wood. The log make noises and struggle but to no avail. And when looked attentively, we find that it was not a log but a lizard, the kind of lizard-mok we are searching. “So, the lizards are camouflaging in our surrounding” I thinks. May be they are waiting for their prey to attack it in surprise. We are lucky that we don’t meet a lizard-mok that has disguised itself as a fallen tree trunk. So, we need to take extra caution.

“Let’s find a place in the wood. I don’t think we can camp out in the desert where those giant bird-moks can easily see and swoop us up. A big tree or a cave would be ideal.” I commanded.

We walked and searched for a while before finding a tree big enough for three man to hug. And it has many branches as well. We climbed from the vines and make the branches our bed. And like before, we will watch out in turn. I’ll be the last as usual.

When Rey wakes me up, it’s long past midnight. He said he would inform me what he have seen in the morning and went to sleep. Although noises are heard from time to time, nothing unusual happens to us. And the night passes.

When morning comes, we started a meeting to plan to kill a wood lizard. Before the planning, Rey said that after some time Brick fell asleep, he saw a dog-like mok with a child on it. But he was not sure whether the mok really is a dog nor it carries a child on its back.

“May be that is the same with what I saw,” I added, “anything more unusual? Or anything more suspicious?”

“No, apart from that dog-like mok, I saw nothing out of ordinary.” Rey said.

“In my shift, I saw two giant bird-moks in the sky from the direction of the border. May be they are hunting.” Brick talked about what he saw. “I don’t think we can hunt wood lizard-mok at night with these giant birds hunting them as well. We may become their prey if they find us.”

“Then, how do we hunt the lizard? Any suggestion?” I asked.

But no one answered my question. I think they also have no idea how to hunt the lizard. So, I suggested to watch the lizards in action so that we know more about them and can make a plan to hunt one. We watch the border area the entire morning. And we found that all the lizards are pretending to be fallen trunks. Their skin look a lot like that of a tree trunk.

The lizard doesn’t move a single inch before a prey reach near its mouth. When the prey reach near its mouth, it quickly sticks out its tongue to the prey. The tongue has the liquid that serves as glue. When a prey is caught, it immediately pulls its tongue back. And like that the prey is eaten. And the lizard-moks’ preys are all small moks such as a mosquito-mok, a rabbit-mok, and so on. The common thing in those preys is that they are all about the size of a 5 year old child and.

If a mok that reach near its mouth is bigger than that size, the lizard won’t do a thing and continue pretending to be a fallen tree trunk. It can be said that these lizard-moks are real cowards. Yesterday, one of them was hunted by a giant bird and none of the other even moves an inch.

“We will use soul fusion first in a place where no mok can see us. I’m afraid any mok which sees us perform soul fusion will attack us. Then, we would pretend to think the selected lizard mok as a tree trunk and sit on it. Two near the head, one near the tail. When I give command the two near the head will stab the eyes of the lizard. The one at the back has to pin its tail down. Usually, the tail and jaw are two strongest body parts of a reptile on earth. So, I think we should care about its tail too. If all three of us in fusion state try to hunt just a single coward lone lizard, I don’t think we would have much trouble. Just prepare to escapes if anything unexpected happens. We can come back anytime if we know what to do.” I explained my plan, “do you guys understand”

“Okay“, ”That sounds great to me” Rey and Brick said.

“If you guys have no problem, Rey, you will be the one to pin down the tail. Brick and I will use our pointed arm bones.” I commanded.

We make sure to check if there are any giant birds in the sky or any other moks near the wood lizard-mok. Since we saw nothing, we immediately started our plan. We would get only one more day and we have to get back to the village in time.

We did the fusion with our only mok-soul in a place where no mok can see us. Then, we walked to the selected fallen tree trunk in a normal pace while speaking about the food we had on earth. When we reach the fallen trunk, the trunk does not show any sign of movement. We pretend to sit on the trunk. And then, “Do it”. Just as I give command, Brick and I take our pointed bones out and stab the wood lizard-mok in the place where its eyes are supposed to be. Since we are not sure how to make the lizard faint without danger, we had to use our pointed bones immediately. The lizard-mok trys to roll on the ground. It tries to jump and spin so that we would be shaken off. But we didn’t give it a chance. Rey grabs the tail with his hands and feet. He even use his body to make sure that the lizard can’t move its tail freely. Brick and I also use our bodies to press the lizard-mok. We continuously stab its eyes times and times again. It becomes weaker and weaker with every stab. Finally, it die.

“Brick, Rey carry the lizard-mok and run fast into the wood.” I immediately commanded them.

I saw a shadow in the air on the horizon. I am afraid it might be the giant bird. We quickly moved into the wood and when I looked back at the shadow, yes, it really is a giant bird. We were lucky that I saw it first. We went back to the cave, use a chunk of boar meat to avoid alarm insects and rest our night in that cave. We will go back to the HighJump village tomorrow.