Portals of Infinity: Book Four: The Sea of Grass (6 page)

Five

Glisan Village

When the hunting party from the neighboring tribe left to go home, I left with them with Henry in tow. Surprisingly Smoke came with us, teasing me about my not escaping her so easily.

Also surprising was Rees was coming with us; apparently he had become rather attached to the girl from the party. I suspected they were courting, and as Henry had said, the whole reason for the “hunting party” was to allow eligible men and women to scope out and possible hook up with a partner. He wasn't the only one from the Glisan tribe coming with us, there turned out to be quite a few, and I wouldn't have been surprised to learn that there were others staying behind.

"So why are we heading to the Cooch tribe?" Smoke asked, riding along side of me. I wasn't surprised that she had her own mount, I was surprised that she had packed even less than I had, and I hadn't packed that much.

I nodded towards Henry who was chatting amicably with several of the members of the Cooch tribe up ahead as we rode. "He needs to go visit some of the local tribes, I was told to go with him, and learn about them as well."

She looked at me curiously. "Told?" She flicked an ear toward Henry as she nodded in his direction.

I laughed, "No, by Feliogustus."

"You can talk to him?" She said looking surprised.

"In a roundabout way, yes."

"And he tells you what to do?"

I nodded, "Yes, he gives me tasks and jobs to do."

"And you do them?"

"Usually."

"Usually? But isn't he your god? Don't you have to obey him?"

I shrugged, "Probably, but I do what he asks because I like him, because I want to help him."

"And what happens if you don't do as he tells you?" She asked with a mischievous smile.

"Oh, he makes me pay for it, one way or another," I told her. "But he's a pretty good chief," I was going to say “boss” but there was no word for “boss” in their language. "He's done a lot for me, so I feel obligated to him, plus I just like him." I shrugged.

"Father and mother are rather taken with the words of his priests; they say he is a good and just god, and that we should follow him."

"Won't hear any arguments from me about that," I said and smiled. "So how long a trip is it to this other tribe?"

"Oh, just two days. It's rather close by."

"Been there often?"

She nodded, "I dance there a couple times each summer. They appreciate my skills."

I grinned and flicked my tail at her, "I'm sure they do."

"I can do more than dance you know," she said and gave a mock growl.

"Oh I would never argue with you about that," I teased back.

She tapped one of the spears that were slung along the side of her saddle. All of the Mowoks I'd noticed carried at least two. I had never trained with one, at least not mounted, but I had my bow and my swords. Few of the Mowoks carried swords, but they all had a knife that was as big as a dirk, and many of them had tomahawks as well.

"I've used this more than once, and not just on the unruly suzhen. I've killed narzhum and the wild hogs."

I looked suitably impressed. I knew she was strong, even if she didn't look it, all that dancing she did not only made her attractive, it made her rather strong as well.

"If you're so good at hunting, why do you dance?" I asked curious.

"Dancing is what I love," she said and smiled happily. "Hunting is a skill we all must know, to insure that the tribe never goes hungry.

"What do you love?" Smoke asked.

"My wives," I said without even thinking.

"Wives?" She looked surprised. "You have more than one?"

I nodded and flattened my ears in embarrassment. "Two."

She looked me over a minute. "That isn't common among the Hilanders, is it?"

I shook my head. "No."

She smirked at me, "Maybe I should try to be number three?"

I mock growled back at her, "Don't give yourself airs."

She laughed rather loudly at me then. "Now I know why you avoided my advances as long as you did."

"I care about my women, and I didn't want any of the females here to get the wrong idea."

"Oh, I wouldn't worry about that much," Smoke said with a small laugh under her breath, "most women in the tribes might wish to lie with an outsider to see what they are like, but none would marry any male who has not already become a member of the tribes."

"Oh?" I was the one surprised now.

"Yes, how would she know if he could provide for her and her children? That he would commit to live his life with her? If he isn't willing to join the tribe, and if he isn't able to pass the tests, then he obviously isn't worthy to be her husband."

I considered the life that the tribes lived out here. I suspected at times it could be pretty harsh, so her words made a lot of sense. They needed some sort of standards that everyone must live up to, or they would eventually die out.

I heard a whistle and looked up. The leader of the party had raised his spear and was motioning to the east.

"What's that?" I asked Smoke who was pulling her spear out.

"Food!" She said and laughed, kicking her wolat into a run as several others of the party broke free from the main body and took off at a run.

I kicked my wolat's flanks and he took off after them, quickly getting my bow ready as I followed.

We rode around a rise and I saw what we were hunting, narzhum! There was a small herd of them, at least a dozen, and they were a lot bigger than I remembered them being when Fel had shown me one!

As I watched the leaders of the party rode right into the midst of them, turning and jabbing at them with their spears as they rode through the middle of the herd and out the other side. The Narzhum were turning and trying to attack, bellowing and charging at the wolats that had ridden through the middle of the group. At that point the next group of riders rode through, but turned right and left riding immediately out of the group after they jabbed several of the beasts with their spears as our wolats snapped at their flanks.

I followed Smoke as she rode through with the last of the riders, and harassed a few more of them before riding out and turning to circle the group. As I watched the first group of riders rode through again, and I could see what they were doing, they were keeping the group from bunching up, they were spreading them out.

We did this several times until the hunt leader started to force one in particular farther and farther away from the rest of the group. At that point the tactics changed, the first group continued to harry that one narzhum, while the rest of us worked to herd the rest further away from the target.

There was a lot of bellowing from the lone one, as well as from the rest of the herd, and they tried several times to make a charge, to join up with the other one. Twice I saw Smoke turn one back by jabbing it on the nose with her spear, laughing as she got far closer to them than any of the others seemed to be willing to get.

When one of the other narzhum turned and tried to body slam her the second time she did that, she quickly reversed her spear and brought it down on the narzhum's head with such force that you could hear the strike and the beast actually stumbled for a moment. Shaking its head then, it gave another bellow and turning it started to run away.

The others concentrated on any narzhum that stopped to watch the one running, and those suddenly turned and followed. The big bull that I guessed was in charge of the herd, gave a last bellow of its own, and then turned to follow the rest of them as they abandoned the loan narzhum to its fate.

I turned to look at the remaining narzhum, it was still putting up a good fight, but at this point it had several spears lodged in its sides, and blood was running from numerous wounds.

The other riders all now started to ride in circles around it, stabbing at it and looking for an opening to lodge another spear. It reminded me of the pictures I'd seen of bull fights as a child. Only this animal was more the size of a small elephant!

"How hard is it to kill one of those things?" I asked Smoke as she rode up beside me.

"The heavy fur makes it hard to get a killing blow. So we try to tire it first. Once they have made it too tired to follow the riders circling it, one of us will hamstring it from behind. Then with it unable to move, we will use our spears to open up the juggler in the neck, and bleed it to death."

"That must take a long time."

She nodded, "Yes, about an hour. The biggest problem is if the herd tries to come back and rescue it. So we must keep a careful watch."

"So who is the poor soul who has to run in and hamstring it?" I asked watching as the narzhum turned quickly and almost kicked one of the wolats that was circling it.

"Whoever gets to it first!" She laughed.

I looked at her, and noticed the way she was watching it move. "You've done this before, haven't you?"

She nodded rather eagerly. "Dancers have faster reflexes and are better at dodging hooves. As the best dancer, I get the first chance!"

I thought about that, and then I looked at those hooves. I was sure she probably had done it before, maybe a dozen times, but I knew it was something that I definitely had no desire to watch. I drew my swords and kicked Tom into a canter.

"What are you going to do?" she asked looking at me suspiciously.

"Kill it." I said as I reversed my grip on both of the swords. As it started to turn away I kicked Tom into a gallop, and kneed him to run straight at the back of the Narzhum as it fully turned away from us.

I heard Smoke yell something, but as I hopped up on to the back of the saddle, everything slowed down as I entered the fight. Tom, my wolat, ran right up along side of the narzhum, I guess he figured out what I wanted to do once I stood up on the saddle, and as he drew near I jumped on to the back of the beast.

I used a cantrip to improve my balance, and digging in the claws of my feet I took the two steps that brought me right over its neck. I drove both of the swords down over where the spine should be as I spread my legs and dropped down onto the neck, using my weight to drive the swords home.

There was a moment's resistance, not unlike the time I had fought that armored soldier years back, and then both swords slid in to the hilt. The narzhum gave a mighty shiver, and then collapsed to the ground.

Unfortunately for me, it started to roll over when it hit, because it had been turning to the left. My right leg got pinned under it and pushing the sword hilts to the side I leaned over the head as it rolled all the way over, pinning me under the head. Swearing as it started bleeding all over me, I started using my strength to pull myself out from under. The head only weighed a couple hundred pounds I guessed, but it was still attached to the body that probably weighted a couple thousand, so getting out from under that was still rather difficult. If I'd been under the body, champion or no, I'd have been crushed to death.

I pulled myself out from underneath, covered in blood as they all milled about me in surprise and Smoke jumped off her wolat and ran up to me to check me for wounds.

"I'm okay, that's his blood," I said and nodded at the Narzhum, which gave another shudder and then died.

"Don't you
ever
do that again!" She swore and then slapped me rather hard right across the muzzle making my head turn.

I turned and looked back at her, "I thought we weren't married?" I asked rubbing the side of my face, she had quite the swing.

The others all laughed at that and Smoke blushed, then stomped off and jumped back up onto her wolat.

"She's just mad 'cause now she does not get to show off," Rees said to me walking over and checking out the carcass.

"You think?" I asked as the rest of the hunting party rode up and started in on the rather large task of butchering our kill.

"Not really," he said in a much lower voice and winked.

One of the others directed me to a stream nearby where I could clean off the blood. Between that and a cantrip that I didn't want to blatantly use in front of the others, I was able to quickly clean myself up.

By the time I got back, they had skinned the body, and butchered it into large sections to be carried back to the village. I noticed that they were feeding all of the wolats, as well as eating their fill of the fresh kill. With this much meat I guess it made sense, it would be less to carry back, and there was a lot to carry.

After everyone had eaten their fill, and the meat had been wrapped, we put the meat on the back of our mounts and walked next to them as we continued on our way. Only the scouts stayed on their unburdened mounts, so they could see any dangers we might come across.

"That was pretty impressive," Rees said to me as we walked along.

"Your sister didn't seem to thing so," I said flicking my ears towards Smoke who was still scowling at me from about ten yards away where she was leading her own mount.