Poke, poke, poke. The increasingly aggressive hunter will not leave Banana King alone.
"I take the meat. Your tiger is not here and you are fat and soft. It's mine now. What do you think about that, Banana Man? Maybe you should go back to the forest where you come from and leave this place to real men. Men like me! Ha!"
Iamatiger creeps up close. He can almost touch either of the two men. Just a pounce away...
Iamatiger creeps closer. His torn claw stings painfully, forcing a limp. The Crone whispers into his ear, "There he is. A claw for a claw. Strike him! Now!"
Just then, Banana King, with an exasperated sigh, stands up and begins the Banana Dance. He flings bits of banana peel into the air and they come down with the force of bananas!
The hunter is surprised as one smacks into his face. Iamatiger is also surprised as several smack into his head and back with stinging force!
He pounces, and slashes, and bites at his target!
When he regains his senses he sees the wounded hunter, terrified, scrabbling to his feet, his face and arm torn by tiger claws, and then running and screaming for help!
Then he realizes some of the screams are coming from his side, and he looks and sees Banana King clutching his hand as it bleeds profusely, the outside finger of one hand missing! Iamatiger ate it!
"A claw for a claw. You are healed."
Iamatiger's stinging claw wound is gone. There is an ugly, hairless, red scar where the wound was however.
"Now, your meat...take it!"
Iamatiger grabs the partially eaten carcass in his teeth and begins to drag it away, growling at the bleeding Banana King!
How will Banana King get meat with a wounded hand and a possessed tiger?!
The little man looks Banana King up and down. He reaches over and touches Banana King's hand. The wound where his finger was crusts over with a scab and stops bleeding. The little man then takes a seat on a pile of dirt.
"Times are changing, Forest Man. It used to be that the whole world was seashores and forests full of fruit and other easily gathered foods. Everyone was like your people.
But you came out here for a reason. It's because your forest ran out of food. You came for meat. For flesh.
But you don't know flesh magic. You used your Banana Magic as best you could, but it failed you, because bananas do not hunt.
Your tiger friend tried to show you. He is a tiger. He knows Flesh Magic of course. But you didn't learn from his example. Instead you broke a rule. A rule of Flesh Magic.
OK. So consider the following. This is your first lesson.
1) Banana King, you hold something in one hand. What is it, and what is it for? It is not made of fruit.
2) What did you learn from the hunting man who tried to take the tiger's meat?
3) You made traps which trapped beasts. Yet those traps were incomplete. The tiger contributed something to the hunt. What did the tiger do, and the hunting man do, that you did not do?
While you think about these things, I will teach you a simple Flesh spell.
First, break a rock until you get a piece with a sharp edge. Then, look for vultures. Do you see them? Over there, where I am pointing. Take your sharp rock over there and you will see they have meat! It is meat that has been abandoned by it's killer, who has eaten his fill, and is now unclaimed. Chase off the vultures and scrape meat from the carcass with your sharp rock.
Night has fallen.
The little man looks up at Banana King. "Well, there you go. Some things to think about.
One more thing. You're alone, at night, out in the plains. Your tiger is suddenly untrustworthy. How will you survive? You need food and protection. There are hunters out there, and they are not all human.
If you cannot overome this challenge, then this will be the end of Banana King, for the second time. Will you find another person who will give you their body? Who? Is this the end of the Banana Tribe? Well, if so, so be it. Others will inherit the land. That is the way of nature.