Chapter 9: HBA – Chapter 8 – Arc 1 – “Yeep.” A bee stung him on his face?

“We can't go on like this, my people. Our forefathers ignored the threat because they thought it was above them. Well… now, we the Descendents are paying the price for their pride and ignorance.”

 

“If we do not take out this threat here and now, it will be too late.”

 

“Therefore, my people, I am here to raise the Call for War in favor of our continued existence.”

 

“Those who believe that the Badg’er’s are just beasts can stay ignorant. Now, I am speaking to those who still want a future. A future in which we can live in peace, so raise your hands in favor of War.”

 

.

.

.

 

“Ho-Ney, I curse you to the most horrendous death imaginable.”

 

Annals of History, Famous last words of Prophet ______. Year - ____ Location - ____

 

*

 

Mane Savannah

 

Having won and staying on the winning side were two different things.

 

Alexander knew not that saying, and neither did he have the mental capacity to ponder on them.

 

What he did have was a hunting instinct ingrained into his species for a long, long time. Now that said instinct was developing at a rapid pace, it gave notice to Alexander that while he may have won this round, the fight was not over.

 

Alexander grunted once as his teeth bit into the flesh of the dead antelope stuck in a tree. 

 

Below him, the Leopard that fell from the tree looked up. There it saw how its hard-earned bounty was being eaten by a nasty little creature.

 

“Rawr.” It growled in frustration that it had been robbed. 

 

Then, its feline eyes began to wonder over the meat, the Honey Badger, and the tree. 

 

A decision was concluded, and it stepped closer to the stamp of the tree and began its climb.

 

Having used this tree for a long time, and being an expert climber, it took but seconds for it to reach the tree branch hiding the dead prize and the little creature stealing from it.

 

Alexander stared at the big cat that reached it in a jiffy. 

 

“ Khrya-ya-ya-ya.” He announced. 

 

Now that he had tasted the bounty, there was no way he would give it up, much less to the same creature that it had scared away once.

 

A new round ensued between Honey Badger vs Leopard.

 

Growling and hissing, the Leopard was much more cautious as it approached Alexander. 

 

Already it had lost one round, there was no way the same would happen this time, especially as it could do the same the Honey Badger had done to it. 

 

With cat grace, it stepped closer and closer while growling and hissing. Alexander did the same, but he remained much more reserved this time. 

 

This time he was the one with poor positioning, but that had never scared or bothered him before, and neither would it this time.

 

Both adversaries were in a prime position to attack, but none moved. 

 

Somehow both knew that it would take, but one action to win this fight. But if one looked at the statistics, then it was clear that the Leopard was in favor. Now it had a much better foothold, it was bigger, its reflexes were fast, and all it had to do was push the Honey Badger down the tree, just like the Honey Badger had done to it.

 

Alexander, on the other hand, wasn't as agile in the trees. He was also smaller, and the only attack he had was a bite in this situation.

 

More growling and hissing on both sides occurred, with their unique calling signs when Alexander made the move.

 

His fearless nature, normally a good thing as it kept him alive, became the deciding factor in the fight. 

 

He lunged forward, teeth first, but was interrupted by a curving cat punch from above.

 

It hit him right into the head, with a speed that interrupted his lunge. The cat punch drove his charge left. His little feet failed to land adequately, and the irony of fate happened.

 

The Honey Badger flew down the tree, only he did not have the same spine structure all cats possessed. 

 

Luckily for Alexander, a Honey Badger weighs much less than a Leopard, meaning any amount of damage he would receive was far lesser.

 

“Thud”

 

The height from which he fell was about three to four meters. When you combine that factor with the thick skin that a Honey Badger possessed, Alexander received remarkably little force to his back and whole body.

 

It's not like there was no damage, but it was not enough to immobilize him. However, the force did rattle his mind in multiple ways. His vision swam here and there, and his ears kept ringing.

 

Because of that ringing, he failed to recognize the sound of something hitting the ground beside it, but that did not mean there were no other senses that could warn him of impending danger. 

 

The majority of his back was in contact with the ground, so when the Leopard dropped to the ground from the tree it climbed down, Alexander's mind noticed it. 

 

Instantly the instinct to survive became his number one prerogative, and his feet began to wobble left and right in the hope of righting himself back on his feet, but most of all, his instinct wanted to protect its softer belly and throat from the Leopard.

 

With one last push from his back muscles, Alexander righted himself properly. Then a big paw stepped on his back and pushed him to the ground, belly first. 

 

Alongside it, a jaw full of big teeth bit his back neck. 

 

Only those teeth failed to penetrate as it thought it would. When Alexander began to wiggle, even more, the Leopard found out that a Honey Badger had very loose skin, when compared to other creatures.

 

A few waggles later, its teeth lost grip on Alexander's loose-skinned neck. 

 

Driven by the instinct to fight for one's life, Alexander’s struggle was never-ending. 

 

Then with luck and his loose skin, the paw holding him to the ground was pushed aside, and he was free to defend himself harder.

 

Immediately he began biting for the closest thing that his eyes noticed. He cared not what it was, but his teeth found their target.

 

“Rawr.” The Leopard growled in pain as its left front leg received a bite. 

 

Reflexively it pulled back its legs, but the Honey Badger was not letting go of it. 

He was stubborn if nothing else, even when the Leopard cat punched him in the head, but he did have a limit to his physical endurance. 

 

Once enough hits rattle his mind, he had to let go of the leg.

 

The leopard retreated while limping on the other three legs. Once it had distanced itself enough, it stayed still. Its front left leg kept extending and touching to test out its viability. 

 

The pain was natural enough, as was blood pouring out of the bite wound, but there wasn't enough blood leaving its leg to hinder it in the long run. The teeth of the Honey Badger were simply not big enough to injure it too deeply.

 

But in these lands of harshness where every single injury could spell one's end, the Leopard made the critical decision to not bother with the Honey Badger any longer. 

 

It licked its injury a few times and climbed back into the tree. There it laid itself beside the carcass of the antelope.

 

Alexander, on the other hand, had a few cuts on his back skin from the Leopards paws and a few bite marks near its neck. 

 

None were fatal, but the constant hits to his mind impaired his decision-making ability. 

 

Only after his mind settled somewhat did he stand up and look round. Once, his gaze even looked up into the tree, and there he saw the Leopard glare at him as it licked its injured left front leg.

 

Its glare told that it was done dealing with him. 

 

“Hnng” 

 

Alexander agreed and lumbered away from it.

 

However, unlike the big cat in the tree, there was a stubbornness born in his mind.

 

This obstinacy promised only one thing, and if anybody could prod this Honey Badger's mind, they would recognize that revenge had lodged itself in Alexander's mind.

 

*

 

Days passed, and Alexander continued his snake extermination, but he did learn his lesson.

 

Just because he has no fear of larger creatures than him did not mean that he could win, or at least scare them away, especially if they were determined to defend their hard-earned rewards.

 

Even more, time passed, as Alexander’s little mind began to change slightly.

 

The Intent implanted in him began to exhibit actual physical results. 

 

It was small, but if you knew where to look, and if one could compare it with how he was before it was implanted, they would notice that Alexander had gained a tiny bit in size. 

 

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But the greatest change was in his behavior. 

 

Honey Badgers were omnivores. Meaning, that they could eat almost anything, but one characteristic of omnivores was that they scavenged more than they hunted. 

 

It was easier. After all, why put your life on the line if you can scavenge? 

 

That mentality could be seen in all their actions, but because they are omnivores, they could also exhibit a behavioral change if it served their needs.

 

In this case, Alexander’s mentality began to shift to that of a real hunter mentality. 

 

A predator focused solely on killing and eating and a killer with an agenda to seek his satisfaction over everything else.

 

Every Honey Badger had it, but none exhibited the same feeling as Alexander did. 

 

His beady eyes examined everything that reached them. The size of the creature, its movements, its behavior, its weakness, and most importantly, he examined the chances of taking it down.

 

Most were impossible for the simple reason that he was smaller, much smaller than them. It did not stop him from thinking of doing it. 

 

Analyzing, comparing, and imagining the possibilities honed his hunting instinct. At the same time, his whole mind centered on finding the best possible method to hunt.

 

It was that working methodology that enabled him to decimate the larger snake population, but as Alexander soon found out, if you hunt too much of the same species, there will come a point, when there is less prey and longer time in between the hunts. 

 

The smaller snacks could fill his belly, but they never brought forth the satisfaction that larger prey did, especially when eaten.

 

It was time to seek big snacks somewhere else. His little mind concluded.

 

Decision made, Alexander began to move. 

 

Now he was standing at the edge of his territory. If he took one more step, he would enter another male's territory. If he did, even if he did not fight him immediately, there was no doubt they would enter the conflict.

 

He turned his head back once and made his declaration.

 

“Hnng” He voiced out and continued on his hunt.

 

It did not take long for him to stumble upon a familiar smell, and it took even less for him to find it and convince it to enter his stomach.

 

Like that, a few more days passed. 

 

During a hunt, a different kind of scent entered his nose. The smell was not of food but of a competitor.

 

Instantly his entire attention focused on the scented trail. 

 

Alexander ignored everything else in favor of this trail, and soon the origin revealed itself. 

 

It was black and white, just like he was. 

 

It had the same size as he did, making it male. 

 

All Alexander needed were those two facts, and his entire world shifted into pure aggression. 

 

He took the initiative to launch a surprise attack as best as possible, but when growling gave you away, the competitor was alerted.

 

Still, there is a difference between aggression full of anger and fearlessness and one that just realized that one needed those two things. Alexander, having the advantage of surprise, was the first to bite. 

 

A battle ensued, and the contest of bite and bite back began.

 

Honey Badger vs Honey Badger was the type of combat where it was more important to display one's fury than pure strength. 

 

The rage was expressed by clawing and biting as much as possible on one's back, where their loose skin was the thickest.

 

Clawing and biting, mingling and separating only to repeat the endeavor a few more times until a clear winner established himself.

 

When the fight ended, both males stood still as they stared at each other. Both had drawn blood, but it was clear that one had more injuries than the other.

 

Thanks to them, it was determined that Alexander, being the initiator and a much greater aggressor, was the winner. 

 

“Grrrr” Alexander declared, and the loser had no choice but to acknowledge his defeat and run away.

 

“Khrya-ya-ya-ya.” Once more, Alexander displayed his might.

 

The high-pitched voice traveled some distance to remind the losing male to not come back.

 

When everything was over, Alexander calmed down. Only then did he feel the pangs of pain from his skin. 

 

It wouldn't stop him from snacking on things, but it did stop him from going after larger prey. 

 

With that being the case, he relaxed and enjoyed his victory.

 

*

 

Days later, Alexander discovered something very intriguing in this new territory. 

 

A buzzing sound came to his ears. 

 

He knew what the buzzing represented and immediately found the origin.

 

A hive of bees had built a nest inside a mound of what had once been a termite nest. 

 

However, there was a problem Alexander noticed. 

 

There were a lot of bees floating around the mound. Far too much to his liking, as even he had a limit to how much he could endure.

 

Still, not wanting to give up on his desire to feel that long-missed sweetness, Alexander decided to have a try at it. 

 

Slowly he neared the mound, all while he used his improved hunting instinct to figure out the best way forward. After circling it once, he noticed a few openings by which he could begin his assault for the sweetness.

 

Deciding on the one closest to the ground, he closed in on the entrance. 

 

At first, there wasn't any significant response from the bees, as he began sniffing the entrance to see how close it was to the sweet treasure inside. 

 

A few times, he clawed away at the entrance to stick his head in deeper, when it happened.

 

“Yeep.” A bee stung him on his face. 

 

A Honey Badger's skin was the perfect defense against the sting of these bees, but there was a problem. 

 

If the bees decide to go all in, they will go for the head. As there, his skin was the thinnest, and there it hurt the most. After all, this is not the first time a Honey Badger had come to covet their precious nectar.

 

One sting came, then the second, then the third. Every time Alexander yelped and jerked his head to have them leave him alone. The deeper his claws dug and the closer his head came to the honey, the more the colony of bees reacted and stood in his way to reach the sweet nectar.

 

However, there were a few other openings out of which bees began to exit. 

 

Soon the buzzing began to drown out all of Alexander's grunts of pain as bee after bee began to reach him and sting him on his back skin.

 

More and more stings happened. The pain began to eclipse Alexander’s attention. 

 

Still, he did not give up. His claws dug and dug when the first taste of the honey reached his tongue. 

 

By that time, he had already been stung over a hundred times. 

 

Even more determined to have some honey after tasting it, Alexander pushed forth through the pain. 

 

A few more claws and his teeth finally reached the sweet nectar. With one chomp, he bit off as much of the honeycomb as he could. 

 

Once he pulled his head and the sweet honeycomb out of the hole he had dug, he finally realized the droning sound of the swarm that had risen for the defense of this nest. 

 

Instantly all the instincts in his body told him to run away. 

 

And that is what he did with his prize in his mouth. 

 

Alexander made a getaway from the bee swarm. Part of the swarm followed after him, but even they gave up after a certain distance was between them.

 

Prongs of pain echoed from his body, but it was worth it when he actually chewed and ate the honeycomb containing honey and bee larvae.

 

Yet, no matter how much he liked it, it was bound to vanish in seconds when he ate it with the frenzy he displayed. 

 

Only the afterglow of the pain across his body stopped his resolve to go for more, especially now that the nest was alert for any intruder. 

 

“Hngg” Alexander grunted. 

 

If somebody could speak the Honey Badger language, he would decode that the grunt that he or she heard was the grunt of determinism that he, Alexander, would return for more of the sweet nectar.

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