[1st POV]
Poachers.
I suppose if human researchers and wildlife lovers exist, the opposite of the spectrum would too.
And they were in my kingdom. My kingdom, mine. And they just killed one of the rarest and most magnificent beasts in my kingdom. White rhinos were something I would respect and hesitate to fight, and something I'd probably avoid killing due to the minuscule amount of their population.
These humans, I did not welcome them here.
I want them out of my kingdom. If not, I would erase them.
"Grim, we are not going home for a while," I said loud enough for him to hear. I followed up my words with a shattering roar that I hoped was heard by whoever killed the rhino.
I hoped they were scared, because they should be afraid.
There were straps and some cloth under the rhino. It was probably done by these researchers. Maybe they wanted to take care of his corpse without letting it rot away or be eaten by odd scavengers.
I turned to the remaining groups of humans that were watching me closely. I saw fear and wonder in equal weight in their eyes.
"We didn't do it," one of them said when I looked at him.
I tilted my head. I knew they didn't do it. I didn't even smell guns or gunpowder on them. I never did. I knew these humans were on my side, the poachers were bad guys and a completely different set of humans.
"My name is Dr Emmanuel. I swear on my life, I will take care of whoever is responsible for this," he said, talking to me like I could understand him.
I suppose, although they couldn't understand me, they understood that I was angry at the sight before me. I huffed at him, walking past him as he remained completely frozen.
They didn't need to do anything.
I would.
I left the scene with Grim flying high in the sky along with another group of vultures. They knew exactly what to do, and that was to hunt down the poachers.
"They are humans. If you see any humans who are different from these people, tell me. Different clothes, different vehicles, anything," I gave the order.
First of all, I was not stupid enough to fight these poachers without a plan. If their guns could kill a rhino with half a dozen shots, I was sure their firepower could kill me easier. So I had to approach this cautiously.
Luckily, I was a human in my previous life. I knew how they think, I knew how their weapons work and I could strategise and plan just like them.
They'd never know what came for them.
In the sky, the number of vultures in the Northern Serengeti increased steadily. With thousands of them scouring every area, I was sure it wouldn't be long until they find them.
They can't hide from me.
...
...
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[3rd POV]
(The edge of Northern Serengeti)
It was nighttime in the Serengeti, the dry season had always been extremely cold in this land, a direct contrast to how hot it was during the day.
It was not early in the night anymore, but it hadn't been midnight either. But by this point, the poachers in the Serengeti were already asleep.
It was audacious enough that evil slept peacefully at all, but apparently, evil slept early too.
Nearly a hundred had come into the Serengeti just six months ago, and now 18 of them remained. But they too would leave the Serengeti soon as they ran out of supplies and had already had a great harvest over their stay.
They had to be careful and they couldn't even afford to make campfires. Therefore, it was a strategy of theirs to sleep early and warm themselves by sundown. They set up small camps near their three vehicles, some even sleeping under their vehicles for shelter.
The place where they rested was near a treeline where they could hide their vehicles with bushes and some trees. Three members were always stationed as a lookout while the rest slept.
They were the ones responsible for killing that rhino. They have had their eyes on that rhino for weeks now, but it was only today that they decided to make their move. They knew many were going to come after them for it, so they killed the rhino only when they were about to leave the Serengeti altogether.
As they slept, a peaceful sleep, they probably thought they were already off the hook. They had an ally inside the ranger team responsible for hunting them down. He would inform them immediately if they were about to be found.
Now all they had to do was rest well and cross the Mara river before the wet season arrived and made the river impossible to cross with vehicles. Then from then on, they would go home and sell whatever they had to the black market and get rich.
But unfortunately for them, someone or something out there was not going to let them escape that easily.
"My balls are fucking freezing, this is crazy," one of the poachers said as they huddled together for warmth and shared a blanket.
"Why do we have to keep watch anyway. We never had anything to be aware of anyway. Every night so far has been safe," another complained in a hushing tone.
"Well, you never know. It's not even the rangers that we need to be wary of, but the wild animals here," the third one said.
The three shared a conversation under the silence of the night. They complained together most of the time, but sometimes they would talk about what they were planning to do with their money or share funny stories of the past.
An hour passed and the night reached its peak. It was midnight, and so far, they had heard or seen nothing at all. By this point, most animals that they should be wary of like big predators were already deep asleep.
They let their guard down just a bit.
"Fuck," one of them cursed.
"What?"
"I gotta piss. But I don't want to move away from the blanket," he said.
"Bitch, go out and pee."
"Nah, I'm fine. I'll just do it here," he said.
"I swear I'll blow your brains out if you do that," the other warned.
In the end, after much protest, the man was kicked out from the huddle. He shivered slightly at the cold temperature. It was not freezing temperature, but definitely less than 12 degrees Celsius.
It was the dry season, so most of their clothes were for summer wear, making the night chilly to them.
The man picked himself up and went to a corner to do his business. But he was stopped by his friends.
"Don't even think about it. I don't want to smell your piss. Go someplace far," they said.
The man complained but still decided to move. Indeed, smelling piss whenever the wind blows was not pleasant. So he headed towards the treeline. He stepped into the dry forest and walked past a few trees before he decided that was far enough.
He took out his dick, cringing at how small it was when he felt cold. He breathed out a deep breath and slapped his dick a few times to get it awake.
"Come on baby," he said and he was ready to pee.
He finally moved his eyes from his dick to the ground. He searched for something to aim and he looked around briefly.
And that was when he saw it.
A dark bush to his side. No, it was not a bush because even through the darkness, he could see that the bush had no leaves or small branches. He squinted his eyes and actually saw features on the giant round bush.
He froze when the eyes opened.
Deep red and orange eyes stared at him and immediately caught his soul. The man did not move a muscle, did not make a single sound. His face paled like he was seeing a ghost and the first response of his body was to freeze and act like a statue.
The instincts knew running was useless, fighting even more so. So fight or flight response was completely broken.
The man could not distinguish any of the shape or features due to the absolute darkness. But the eyes were glowing, as if they could see perfectly through the darkness with their light.
The thing that scared him and unnerved him so much was the distance between those eyes. They must've been a foot apart and yet they faced forward and locked on him. It was the eyes of a predator.
At that point, the man didn't even breathe. He was busy trying to make those eyes be illusion or disappear.
They couldn't be real.
But before he could come to a realisation and move, the thing moved first.
The man didn't scream because his face was bitten off whole. The jaw of the beast was large and wide enough to bite off his face with one clamp. The human skull was nothing compared to animals like buffalo.
His head till the ear was completely bitten off.
He collapsed with a loud thud.
..
On the other side, the two other guards became alerted by the sound. They turned towards where their friend had gone immediately.
Until one of them laughed, "Hahaha, he tripped."
The thought that they were under attack never crossed their mind. Wild animal attacks were loud and their friend would've screamed for help so they'd know. And if this was an attack from the rangers, the mole they had inside would warn them before they took any action.
It never crossed their mind it was an attack.
The two waited for a while before the other nudged his friend, "You should go check."
"No way, he's probably pranking us and making us leave our warm spot," he said.
They waited for a bit but still, their friend didn't return.
"Go," the other nudged again.
"No, you go."
"I asked you first."
"And I asked you more, go, go, go, go, go," he said.
In the end, the two decided to go together. No one was willing to be the person to fall for the prank alone.
So they headed towards where their friend went. One of them carried a hunter's rifle, the other had a pistol on his waist.
"Jerad, it's not funny man," they said as they entered the treeline.
Big mistake.
Something large fell on them and crushed them immediately. The sound of bones breaking and flesh exploding from sheer force could be heard echoing in the silent night where crickets were the only sound.
One of them managed to release a painful scream too. But both of them died almost instantly. Even one action of the beast was enough to kill a human.
But luckily for the poachers, the scream woke everyone up.
..
..
[IMAGE]
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