guys who participated in the hunt with me. As we later met, one of them, who armed himself with an axe, was Sergey, and the second, that is, the one who armed himself with a stone for hunting, was Kostya. Therefore, further describing in detail the event of our first hunt that took place in extreme conditions of the cave, I will not name the names of these guys who participated in the hunt for the animal in the future. And the rest of our group, at the time when we were preparing to hunt the animal, so as not to disturb us with their presence, retreated into the cave in advance. Evening has come, it is pitch dark, there is no visibility at all. In such conditions, we waited for about an hour. However, as we intuitively determined by the sounds, not a single amphibious animal ever came ashore. But then, when we felt from the sounds made by the animals that they were coming out to an island that was located not far from us, and I suddenly appreciated the idea that maybe they could smell us and determine our location in advance. Perhaps that is why the animals, having determined our exact location and having smelled the danger threatening them with their animal instincts, do not come to our shore. What to do in such situations and how to make sure that they do not smell our smell, because we so need food, without which we will not last long here? After consulting among themselves, we decided to wet our clothes in the lake water and thus, at least for a short time, prevent or weaken the spread of our smell through the air. We did exactly that, and it gave us results. After a while, sitting in ambush, we not only felt, but also began to hear, characteristic noises, that is, barely audible meowing, the rustle of water and rustles. All this meant that these animals, crawling out of the water to the shore, shaken off, crawling along the shore, looking for a place to sleep. They talked in whispers and decided to attack one of them at the same time. Making sure that the animals were already on the shore, instantly turning on the flashlights, we rushed forward at a run to cut off their path to the lake. Many of them, while we blocked their way to the lake, hurriedly jumped back into the lake, but the rest, suddenly baring their teeth, showing us sharp fangs, took a defensive pose. By the light of the lanterns, it was clear how viciously and full of determination to repel our attack and defend themselves together, their eyes were burning. We didn't know what to do in this situation, because we were all hunting for the first time. At the slightest approach to them, they aggressively rushed to meet us with the whole group. At the same time, we noticed that where the lantern moves, they turn their whole body towards the light source, without losing sight of the switched-on lantern, quickly and as a whole group move in the same direction. Leaving only one lamp on, we decided to take advantage of this. This gave us a positive effect. I quickly moved to the left with the flashlight turned on, and all the animals, turning their whole body in my direction, growling angrily, again took a defensive pose. In such a situation, in order to completely confuse their naive defensive animal instincts and at least for a short period of time distract their attention from other guys, I started making circular movements with a flashlight in my hands. The animals stopped for a moment, but baring their sharp fangs, they froze in a defensive pose. Taking advantage of this and catching the moment, one of us, that is, the one with the axe, quickly approaching them from behind, hit one of them on the head with the butt of the axe. The animal fell to the ground with a plaintive squeal, but continued to move forward slowly, with chaotic movements, towards the water. Then, with a repeated blow to the head, our three-kilogram stone overtook him, and the animal expired. Seeing this, the other animals immediately fled in all directions. Then we began to examine the prey by the light of lanterns. In front of us lay an amphibious animal, not previously seen by us, more than one meter long, with a strip on its head that looks like a skunk, the rest of its body looks like a seal. But only the dorsal part of the body of this animal was covered with very hard scales. The front paws of the animal, between the claws were connected by webbing, like ducks, and instead of the hind legs there were fins. A disgusting unpleasant smell was coming from the animal. So for the first time, we involuntarily became hunters, and perhaps the first hunters of a rare animal of this underground lake. But we were forced to do this by need – the author justified himself.
