Chapter 1

It has been a long hunt, and I grow weary. The prey this time is aurochs, it is large and will feed us for long, but it is also restless and will not stay still as we approach. Each time as we draw near enough to strike it moves and we must re-position again and again.

Beside me Unkgat complains once more. “Why will the dreadful creature not stay in one place, Ougo?” he whines. “Is this the usual, that always they move and we must pursue on and on?”

It is Unkgat’s first hunt with the men, I must be patient. He has but fourteen years and has only newly attained his growth. At least he speaks softly and does not frighten the beast with his noise; I have hunted before with other new ones who were not so careful and sent the prey into full flight with their voices.

Often the new ones are given to me for their first hunt; I am old, twenty-six, and I am the best save for Siefert, our leader. Soon I will be leader of the hunt, for Siefert is beyond thirty years and begins to slow. More and more does he trust to me.

But in this hunt Siefert still leads and I must deal with this cub, whose continued whining is eating at my nerves. I know that patience is needed, but mine is worn thin by this moving and moving again.

“It happens,” I tell Unkgat shortly. “Come, we must move once more, you and I must stay to this side of the prey so that when we strike we strike from all sides and it has no place to escape.”

“Can we not find easier prey that will not always move?” Unkgat asks. Perhaps it is his voice, which he makes through his nose, or perhaps it is merely my weariness, but I suddenly find I am not willing to continue this hunt with him.

“Go there,” I say, pointing. “Or go where else you like, I do not care. But go away from me, you complain too much and you tire me. I will guard this flank alone, as I do when I have no mewling babe at my side to whine into my ear.” He hesitates, and I know I am too quick to speak, but still I continue. “Go!” I tell him.

He turns where I have pointed and melts away, so softly I am not even sure I hear his going. This one will be a good hunter when he has learned to stifle his impatience. Almost do I call him back, but I have said my say and it is not good to show uncertainty before the young; I do not speak again. I make excuse to myself that it will be a lesson in his learning of the hunt.

I recognize that I have acted too harshly. Unkgat is young, it is natural in the young to lack patience, and the hunt has been truly long and slow. His complaints were not unreasonable, and I am wrong to react as I did.

And watching the prey carefully through the reeds as I move to stay on its flank, I am uneasy. It is true that I have done many hunts without help, but never for a beast the size of aurochs. It is not usual to find one that strays so far from the herd as does this one, so we may not often have a kill so big as this.

I know, too, that when one does leave the herd it is because that one is a bull, and young and powerful. This is not a beast old and weak and ready for taking, nor yet a babe strayed from its mother. It is one in its prime and will fight for its life. Without luck it can take many spear-strikes to bring down aurochs.