Less than ten minutes later, Ezekiel had arrived safely at his destination. He was out of the long thick grass and could see lots of water before him. He was elated and the elephants weren't hostile to him, but Ezekiel still took water as far away as possible from the elephants. He put his hand in the water and without a care in the world scooped as much as he could out and drank it. After the first taste, he was lusting for more, so he drank as much as he could. But while he was drinking, he saw some ripples in the water, which made him nervous, but he was too thirsty to do anything about it, so he continued drinking. It was only when it felt like the water was attacking his hands, which made Ezekiel stop drinking the water, but as he retracted his hand a crocodile jumped out of water trying to bite his entire arm off, but Ezekiel spread out his arms wide, while jumping backwards, to dodge death by an inch. But the crocodile saw Ezekiel as its prey and wasn't ready to give up so easily, so he began to dash at Ezekiel trying to bite it, Ezekiel wanted to run away, but he knew he that was his only water source and his path to survival, so he had to stay and fight, so he quickly jumped up in the air, as high as he could to try land on the crocodiles back, but it jumped up and tried to bite Ezekiel, while he was in the air, but Ezekiel jumped high enough so he was out of reach and laned on the crocodiles back. The crocodile tried to wriggle him off, since it couldn't attack Ezekiel, but Ezekiel grabbed a hold of the crocodile and wasn't willing to let go. While the crocodile was wasting its energy trying to shake Ezekiel off of its back, Ezekiel wrapped his legs around the crocodile as well and used his right hand to pound the back of the crocodile's head as hard as he could. Despite it scaly skin making it difficult, Ezekiel pushed through the pain and continued beating at the back of its head until it passed out. Ezekiel could tell his strategy was working, as the crocodiles attempts to shake him off became weaker. But his hopes were killed as he heard another splash coming from the water. He quickly turned around to see another crocodile, which was significantly larger than the one he had hold of, was trying to bite him, but he was too high up for the other crocodile to reach, but Ezekiel was very cautious, so he was about to jump off the crocodile's back.
"Boy, don't jump off yet and strike the crocodile's eyes. That's its weak point and with that you won't have to fight two of them."
Ezekiel lifted up his right hand as well as his left hand and used his thumbs to repeatedly poke the crocodiles eyes until he could feel his thumbs go through its eye socket, which caused the crocodile to shake uncontrollably, which knocked Ezekiel off of its back and its tail hit the other crocodile in its face.
Ezekiel quickly got up and saw the elephants looking at him, while he fought the crocodiles. The crocodile whose eyes he gouged out was still panicking, while the other crocodile was angry at the crocodile that lost its eyes for hitting it with its tail, so that crocodile began biting the crocodile with no eyes. Ezekiel used the opportunity to run on top of the crocodile, whose eyes he gouged out, so he could get onto the back of the other crocodile and with no hesitation, he gouged out the eyes of the other crocodile, but this time he was more confident, so he began reaching his hand further in, so he could grab and pull everything in its eye socket to causes as much internal damage as possible. This caused that crocodile to stop biting the other one and begin shaking uncontrollably as well, but Ezekiel knew that would happen, so he quickly jumped off the crocodile and stood in the shallow water, so he could grab that crocodile, whose eyes he just gouged, grabbed it, clenched his teeth and flipped it over with all his might. Ezekiel saw it wasn't moving anymore, but the adrenaline clouded his judgement and filled him with rage, so began striking the crocodile stomach. It was a lot easier strike as it was less scaly and tis time Ezekiel wasn't holding anything back. He punched the crocodile so hard it came back to life and started wriggling and squirming, but Ezekiel was committed to sending it back to the afterlife. He was punching it so hard its skin was bleeding and there were dents in it and after a power right hook to the throat it stopped moving completely. Ezekiel turned and saw the smaller crocodile trying to escape back to water, so he tried to stop it, but all of a sudden Ezekiel felt extremely tired. That same fire he felt inside of him quickly disappeared, as he fell to the ground.
(SPLASH) Ezekiel jumped up in shock, coughing and spluttering. He didn't understand what was going on and he found it almost impossible to see anything.
"My eyes! What happened to my sight?" "You fool, your eyes are just fine, its just that its night time and there aren't any lights other than the moonshine, so it will be impossible to see."
Ezekiel wiped his eyes to make sure he was alright and when he did, he felt something wet on his face. At first he thought it was blood, but he knew he hadn't been cut anywhere and there was too much of it to be blood. It was dripping down from his hair, to his lips and it drenched his clothes. He hesitantly tasted the wet substance, to identify what it was, but fortunately it was only water. Then Ezekiel began to wonder how he became drenched in water, but before he could come to an answer on his own, he felt something long and thick rubbing against his neck. Discomforted by the unknown thing touching his neck, he frantically turned around. What stood before him made him feel uneasy and overwhelmed. It was towering over, making him feel small and insignificant. It was an elephant, a 12,000 pound beast, the giant of the savannah, Ezekiel didn't stand a chance. But unlike the crocodiles, the elephant wasn't hostile towards Ezekiel, but instead it was using its trunk to caress him. Ezekiel quickly caught on to what was happening and calmed his nerves, despite being uncomfortable at the elephants advances. He gently began to stroke the elephants trunk and as he did, he looked to his side and could make out the crocodile still upside down.
He let out a sigh of disbelief. He couldn't believe he fought off two crocodiles by himself, but he was also sad that he had taken a life. When he was younger his mother told him that all life was scared, even the smallest ant and that no one has the right to take a life, no matter how strong you are, so him taking the crocodiles life, felt like he was disrespecting his mother.
Ezekiel began to zone out while staring at the water, but he was taken back to reality by the elephant that was brushing its trunk against him.
"Just ignore it and keep moving forward."
Ezekiel scavenged around for some dry sticks, so he could make a fire. Fortune was smiling on him, as he found the sticks quite quickly and used them to create a fire. Ezekiel looked reluctantly at the crocodile corpse and walked towards it. Each step he took, the guilt increased. He vaguely remembered killing the crocodile, but knowing he was the cause of its death made him sick.
As he stood over the crocodile, he was unable to move. What he did felt unnatural and strange. Instead of eating the dead crocodile, he sat next to it and began rubbing its lifeless body.
"Boy, why aren't you eating it?" "I've already done enough damage as it is and I don't want to bring unnecessary harm to nature." "Alright, I can tell whatever I say won't sway your opinion, so I won't argue with you, but if you don't eat you won't have any energy." "I feel fine. I can get by until my grandad comes back."
Ezekiel began to doze off for a short while, before he was interrupted by the sound of footsteps approaching him. They weren't thunderous like the elephants, so Ezekiel quickly jumped up and looked around and he saw the crocodile from before, but this time it wasn't aggressively approaching him. It was holding something in his mouth, but they were too far away from the fire, so Ezekiel couldn't see properly. Then the crocodile spat it out in front of Ezekiel and then returned back to the water.
Ezekiel was shocked at the strange encounter and in search of answers, he unknowingly picked up whatever the crocodile spat out in front of him and took it next to the fire.
Ezekiel looked closely and saw it was fish. The crocodile brought him fish. Ezekiel's mouth began to water, he hadn't eaten in days. He didn't even bother cooking them, he just ate them raw. He didn't care type of fish it was, he just scoffed it all down until he was full. Once he had his full, he lay down on the ground next to the warm fire and looked up at the black sky covered with glistening stars.