Over the next week Grud’s routine was to wake up, get food shoved in his face by the tribe women and spend the morning helping the gatherers harvest food from the surrounding forest. 

When the sun is high in the sky, some of the hunters that would come back if they managed to hunt something early, Grud would help the hunters and gatherers break down and process the harvest and meats, then do some chores until mid to late afternoon when the rest of the hunters would return. 

From then until dinner one of the older hunters would take turns teaching Grud on the finer points of bushcraft, survival and tracking, most of this stuff would usually be taught after the coming of age hunt.

Over the one week of this routine, Grud’s body did not show much change and still looked as skinny as the week before but that was not what worried Grud, what worried Grud was that in the whole week he was eating, he did not poop, nor did he feel the need to. He could still pee normally but it still bothered him. When he brought this up to the Dhuk, he was given some crushed herbs in water and all he got out of it was a stomach ache and just passing water but no stool.

What everyone and even Grud did not know was that in those three days of unconsciousness, Grud’s body was being affected by the mutating agent injected into him and was building the foundations of his new body. 

The mashed up food that was being force fed to him while he was unconscious was just not enough and his body started to cannibalize itself. He was both lucky and unlucky he was unconscious at the time. Lucky because the internal transformation he had undergone was so terrible that he bled from every hole on his body. 

His body that was already knocked out by running head first into a tree, was subconsciously being kept unconscious out of pure self preservation, lest he goes mad from the pain. He was unlucky because due to his body cannibalizing itself, he was left in a state that made him slightly weaker than before.

Usually El-Vrac-Tal’s test subjects would be hooked up to tubes feeding nutrients directly in the subject's blood streem to let the subject grow in strength by bulking up the subject’s bone and muscle mass. But El-Vrac-Tal never tried this on a human…. Or at least a type of human. 

Grud was what we would know of as a neanderthal and the planet he was on would be classified in El-Vrac-Tal’s galaxy as a Class Twelve Deathworld where no life form was supposed to be able to evolve to sapience. 

But because Gurd did not have nutrients being fed to him fast or constantly enough in those three days. His deathworld biology adapted and decided if it could not go for mass, it would use what it had to go for bone and muscle density and even after a full week of eating more than anyone in the tribe his body was not done building up the body density and was growing heavier as he stayed the same size.

In that whole week of preparing himself for his second attempt of his coming of age hunt, the only time he was not hungry was about an hour after a full meal and at nights he would try to go to sleep early so he would not have to be awake and hungry.

—

The week of preparation was over and it was the day of Grud’s second attempt of his coming of age hunt. He picked up his spear and proceeded to the cave entrance to meet Dhuk the shaman for a blessing of good hunting. When he arrived he was surprised to also see Froll the Chieftain also waiting for him and was puzzled when he saw what Dhuk was holding.

The thought to himself ‘Why is Dhuk holding a spear with a weird spear head? Is he also going out on a hunt? Isn’t he too old to hunt?’ When he reached Dhuk, Dhuk started chanting and applying tribal markings on his face and body with different colors of paint and said “O Great Spirits watch over this young one as he takes on this dangerous trial.” 

Grud was going through the motions as he remembered the first time he went on his coming of age hunt but paused for a few seconds after his brain registered Dhuk mentioned “dangerous trial” and thought to himself ‘Was ‘dangerous trial’ mentioned at my first coming of age hunt? I am quite sure it was not’. 

“Emm…. Dhuk…. What was that about a dangerous trial?” Grud asked. Dhuk and Froll made some uncomfortable throat noises while looking at each other and Dhuk said “Grud…. It is no coincidence that you were there when the sky rock fell. I saw it in a vision from the Spirits that the path before you is filled with great danger but also great power. Why do you think the hunters were teaching you the more advanced skills for hunting and survival and tracking this past week?”

Dhuk and Froll were met with stunned silence for a few seconds before Grud asked "So…. Why is there suddenly a trial and what is the trial?" 

Dhuk: "For the why, because the spirits have chosen you."

Froll: "As for what, you will be hunting a Big Tooth Cat, most like the one you saw on the day the sky rock fell near you" Froll turned to Dhuk for confirmation on what he said and Dhuk nodded. 

After hearing that, Grud’s brain froze from not believing what he just heard and Dhuk continued “You will not be needing this anymore.” as he plucked the stone spear out of Grud’s hand “You will be facing danger but you will not face it unprepared” and put a spear with a weird spear head in Grud’s hand and he grabbed it on reflex.

It was then that his brain caught up to the situation. “But… But… Chieftain, Shaman, isn’t this too much for me? The only things I have ever hunted on my own are a few rabbits I manage to hit with throwing rocks. How am i to hunt a Big Tooth Cat at least twice my size.”

Froll frowned and said while trying to be convincing, even to himself “By using your head boy, we are asking you to hunt it, not run at it screaming while waving your spear. That would be stupid. Remember what you have learnt from the hunters this past week on how predators and prey act and react, use traps and the environment. Remember we are all weaker than most of the predators and prey we hunt but we can hunt them because we are smarter than them.”

As Grud pondered on what Froll said and trying to think of a way to get out of this whole spirit trial nonsense that would most likely get him killed, Froll grinned as in idea popped into his head and said softly that only Grud and Dhuk could hear “You know, my youngest daughter has just recently come of age, sure would be nice if a strong young hunter would be worthy taking her as his wife.” Hearing this, Dhuk caught on and grinned widely and said “Indeed, your youngest daughter is truly a beauty, what was her name again?”

Playing along, Froll replied “Her name is Nita, and I would like a young powerful hunter to be her husband .... I wonder where I could find such a husband for my little girl?” and indeed Nita was petite, had a pretty face and a beautiful body with large breasts and wide child bearing hips for her height.

At hearing this Grud perked up and started thinking with a different head that was lower down on the body. He was at the age to start noticing girls and when the other adults were having sex, some were not very discreet even if they were trying to be so Grud knew about the “birds and the bees” and where babies came from.

With blood draining out of his head to a different head, so did his fear. ‘It’s ok, I can do this. Just like the chief said, use my head and I will be ok. It’s just dumb cat after all.’

“I hunt that cat, just wait for me Chieftain!” Grud said with all the bravado his momentarily fear deprived brain could provide. Froll smiled and said “Of that I am sure.”

Before Grud could go running off into the forest, Dhuk caught his shoulder “Before you go, in the last part of my vision, after you kill the Big Tooth Cat, you will have to eat its heart to gain that great power that I mentioned earlier. Now go, and may the Spirits guide you”.

And with Dhuk’s blessings he made his way into the forest and retraced his path back to the area that the sky rock landed.

—

It took a few hours to make his way back to the area of the sky rock’s impact site, by then he was so hungry he could barely think of anything else. Before reaching the impact site, he already consumed what berries, fruits and mushrooms he could find and was sure was not poisonous, along with the smoked meat ration he brought with him and cursed himself for not thinking to bring more. He knew he could not carry on like this, so instead of hunting the Big Tooth Cat. He decided to hunt for less dangerous game to fill his stomach.

Deciding this, he knew that he would be away from the tribe for an extended period of time and needed to make a temporary camp. After searching around for a while, he found a defendable position between the roots of a huge tree that was almost as tall as he was, he applied what the hunters taught him over the past week. He gathered some sticks, fallen branches and snapped off some branches that had big leaves and assembled a simple shelter using the tall roots of the tree as support.

By the time he was done setting up the shelter, he was starting to grow fuzzy in the head, ever since he woke up from his three day coma he had not gone for more than half a day without a full meal and the smoked meat ration he finished was not cutting it. With the hike to his current location, building the shelter and his body still mutating to increase his density, he was burning a lot more calories than his body was getting. He had to start hunting now!

Shortly after, Grud could be seen stalking through the forest. Unconsciously, his mutated senses sharpened and everything looked clearer, he could clearly hear the rustling of leaves, the chirping of birds, the buzzing of insect wings and the scampering of small animals through the grass. And that was when he spotted a small rodent busy sniffing around.

Even feeling light headed due to hunger, Grud recognized the rodent as the male of its species and with spring season just beginning was likely out and about looking for a mate. Grud also recognized this was a species of rodent that had extremely low self preservation, to the point of being laughable. 

It would attack anyone and anything it perceives as a threat, and that was just out of the mating season, during the mating season they became suicidal assholes that will fight over mates, food, your favorate sitting spot that it decided belonged to it now and just about anything. The only reason they have not gone extinct is due to their fast growth and having many babies every litter.

This was good news for Grud as he will not need to do any chasing, he just needs to walk up to the little toe biter to spear it. The only reason people don’t eat this rodent despite their large population was due to the stringy and bad tasting meat, not that there was a lot of meat to begin with. But meat was meat and who was he to argue with his stomach at a time like this.

And within a few seconds there was a dead rodent on his spear. Without a second thought, he took out a stone knife and started skinning and gutting the dead animal. He thought of starting a fire but his hunger won over that line of thinking and started eating the rodent raw. It was the worst tasting meat he had ever tasted but it was better than the hunger pangs he was experiencing.

When he was done eating, he was still hungry but at least the rodent was something to keep his stomach busy. He needed something bigger. The search carries on.

About an hour later after searching upstream from the sky rock impact site, he spotted an animal digging around at the base of a tree with its snout and forelegs. Taking a closer look, he identified it as a Tusk Pig which would be the modern equivalent of a wild boar except the fact that it is twice as big, three times as mean and very territorial

Now with something in his belly, Grud was not so light headed and was actually able to think properly. ‘From what the hunters told me, Tusk Pigs are bad at turning while charging and have bad eyesight but they have good hearing and even better sense of smell.’ and as he looked around to the trees, a plan began to form in his head.

After a good five minutes of sneaking around and making sure he was not upwind of the tusk pig, he found a thick sturdy tree with branches low enough for him to reach if he jumped and took note of its location. 

After which, he stalked up to the tusk pig close enough for him to accurately throw a pebble he picked up along the way. He took aim at the tusk pig, threw the pebble at its body and began hooting and hollering at the tusk pig while posturing aggressively with his spear.

This aggravated the Tusk Pig and with a war-like squeal, it charged at Grud. Knowing he could not outrun the tusk pig in a straight sprint, he made use of the surrounding trees and made loops around them while the Tusk Pig had to slow down to make the turns to chase Grud down.

Soon after Grud thought he made enough space between himself and the tusk pig, he made a sprint towards the tree he took note of earlier and made his stand at the base of the tree and pointed his spear at the tusk pig. As the tusk pig charged closer to Grud, it tilted its head down to get ready to jerk up again when it hit Grud to gore him with its tusks. That was when Grud jumped up to grab the low hanging branch at the last moment, not giving the tusk pig time to notice he was gone and rammed skull and tusk first into the thick sturdy tree.

When Grud looked down, he saw and felt the Tusk Pig impact the tree he was in. The Tusk Pig limply tried to stagger back but was unable to with its tusk embedded into the tree. Taking the chance he saw, Grud reversed the grip on the spear to point down, let go of the branch and using both hands and his body weight, drove his spear into the neck of the Tusk Pig, his spear coming out the other side. 

Despite this the tusk pig was still struggling. “Looks like I missed the spine.” He pulled out the spear and that's when the blood really started pouring out.

After a minute or so of struggling, the tusk pig finally became limp. “Well this is going to be a pain to bring back to camp. But it must be done I guess”. With that said, he gave the tusk pig’s head a few good kicks to dislodge its tusk from the tree and began to gut the tusk pig, burying the intestinal tract and stomach. The rest was good eating.

When he finally dragged the carcass back to camp he was hungry, Grud did not even bother building a fire and gorged himself on the internal organs first as that was what the other hunter said would go bad first. 

It was still quite early in the afternoon so he decided to take his time and hopefully sate his hunger, eating this whole tusk pig was the equivalent to more than a week’s food for one person. But for him, he could eat a full meal almost every hour.

Grud did not waste any time and started stuffing his face constantly and on the second hour of constant eating, his body started trying to digest faster and he found it easier to eat faster, by the time the sky was starting to get dark, he was left with a quarter of the carcass. Reluctantly, he had to stop eating to collect firewood and start a fire. When the fire was lit, he got back to eating and actually finished the whole tusk pig before it was totally dark.

After washing off the blood from his body and spear at the nearby stream, he used some sticks and leaves to make a rudimentary cover for the entrance of his shelter in case wild animals came around, stoked the fire and went to sleep.

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