Chapter 2: Attack

One more step, a few more heartbeats. The hunter silently moved into the range of his dart. A soft puff of air from the short blowgun, and the rabbit dropped instantly, paralyzed by the poison on the thorn-tipped missile.

Seth grunted his satisfaction at the kill. Rabbits were one of the surviving species, but they had changed in the process They were still shy, but now grew much larger than those of pre-cataclysmic times. This was not a large one as rabbits go, perhaps a bit over a ten kils, but there would be meat over the fire this night. More important, his apprentice was showing his skills as a hunter. True, this was no lion or wolf. Only a rabbit lay before them. But the boy had become a young man, and had learned well. Seth bent to watch as Dann eviscerated the animal, wrapped the carcass in leaves, and dropped it into his carry bag. “Do not forget to offer thanks for the sharing of this meat,” he whispered.

“Yes, Seth,” the youth responded. He removed a piece of red clay from his nem, and rubbed it across his forehead, leaving a signifying mark. Nodding an acknowledgement toward the entrails of the rabbit, he mumbled the ritual words of thanks, then scooped up the mess and left it on a nearby flat rock. “The birds will share in this and be grateful,” he continued, “and the feathers they leave will make my arrows and darts fly straight and true, even as they themselves do.” Seth nodded assent, and they readied themselves and turned toward the home place, neither of them aware of the follower.

As they warily made their way back to the group, the two took care not to leave signs of their passing. They did so not because of any immediate danger, but as a way of practice and instruction. The deepwood was unforgiving of foolish or selfish actions on the part of those who made their homes there.

Even as his own father had taught him, Seth instructed Dann in every aspect of life. His natural son had not survived infancy, and Seth and Leana had adopted Dann after the death of his father, Seth’s closest friend. They had raised the boy as their own, and had come to love him as a son. Now Dann was ready to enter manhood. His final test would be the Journey. Should he return unscathed, he would be seen and respected as a hunter, and expected to establish a family of his own.

Some did not return. Memories of them dimmed, faded, and were blended with a history largely forgotten, to be remembered only briefly, at a council time, or a family gathering.

Not infrequently someone of them would unearth a relic. For a time, these would generate an interest in a dimly remembered past, but few showed any lasting awareness of what had passed before them. Life in the Deepwood was too full of the struggle to survive. There was little time for remembering.

As a hunter, Seth had found several of these relics. Most of them were metal, such as the iron axe head he had discovered in a dry cave, hidden deep in the dark hills to the north. The haft had been cracked, and showed marks where it had been gnawed, perhaps by a porcupine seeking the salty taste from the sweat of a previous owner. It had split and fallen away even as he first grasped it. He had fashioned and fitted a new handle, and it now hung from his belt. It marked him as an elder and a leader, and none dared touch it. With it, he had killed several of the marauding savages, as well as a bear, a pig, and a mad wild dog. It was a superb weapon, and several were envious that he owned it. But typical of Seth, he found its best use was simply in the cutting of poles for their tents, and firewood to warm them. He used a stone to keep it sharp for that purpose.

He had also found a piece of blue glass, which had been fashioned by ancient hands into a pendant, still attached to a fine golden chain. The whole group had admired this for a time, and then he had given it to Tia. She was an energetic girl, and was willing to learn what her mother and the other women had to teach her, but Tia had ever looked to her father for instruction, and had even claimed the right to learn the same things that Dann had learned. She was an excellent hunter and tracker in her own right, and had no equal with the bow. As such, she helped provide for the rest. Some in the Group, especially the other hunters, disapproved of this, and Seth and his small family had been scorned by some of them on several occasions. But his resolve was only strengthened by their rejection, and he determined to teach her as well.

A third thing which Seth had found was still held in awe by some of them. It was also some sort of metal, and attached to a fine chain, but it was yellow in color, almost the color of the sun, and it was untouched by the invisible hunger that ate away most other metals. It consisted of a short vertical bar, with a shorter horizontal bar attached to it, nearer the top than the bottom. The vertical bar was the length of Seth’s little finger, and the horizontal bar was nearly half that long. The symbolism of this talisman still inspired mixed feelings; some among them treated it with suspicion, even reacting in fear at its shape. Finally, Seth decided that it was simply an adornment, or a talisman, and as it comforted him, he wore it himself.

They had been walking for several spans and were nearing the Group home, when Dann stopped. “Seth! Someone follows!” he spoke, in barely a whisper. “There, in the medicine tree.”

“It’s probably only a bird, Dann. I see nothing”

A quiet voice startled them both. “Not a bird, Seth, I have been following you, and only Dann heard me, and only just now!” Tia stepped out of her concealment. “We are close enough to the Group that we can speak together. Did I do well?”

“Following?” smiled Seth, “you could not have been following, or I would have heard you. You were hiding here, waiting for us, were you not?”

“If I was waiting here, then how do I know about the rabbit that Dann carries in his bag? Or that he killed it with his puffer instead of his bow?” The girl smiled at their surprised expressions. “No, I followed, and you did not know I was there. So you must agree that I am worthy to Journey as well.”

Seth was nonplussed. He loved his daughter dearly, and would do nearly everything she could ever ask of him, but the custom of the Group decreed that females could not take part in the same rituals as males. They had their own responsibilities and duties, and only extreme emergencies allowed them to deviate from their normal routines. “No,” he replied, “I must do no such thing. We have already spoken of this too many times.” His smile, though, softened his words.

The young woman merely smiled, as if to say “I’ll wear you down yet, Father, wait and see.”

“Come now, we should have been back in the Group by now,” said Seth, “and we will discuss this no further. Does Leana know you are not in the camp?”

Tia replied, “Yes, I finished my work for the morning, and she said I might as well follow you and...” She stopped instantly, as Seth had halted dead in his tracks, holding his hand up to signal danger/silence.

“Something is wrong,” he whispered, “where is D’ar? He should be at the entrance. And there is no smoke from the cooking fires.” He turned to the two younkers and signaled silently, “Be wary. There is danger.”

They crept forward until they reached the entrance to the Group home place, and Seth motioned them to stay while he scanned the area for danger. Finally satisfied that no immediate peril lingered, he made his way to the watching place, and found D’ar. He was dead, pierced by many spear points, and from the signs, he had been unaware of his attackers, and had been unable to fight back, or even to give alarm. Seth gestured for the two to come silently to him, and showed them what he had discovered. They recoiled in shock at the sight, and instinctively looked outward for any still-lurking danger. Seeing nothing, they turned back to the body of their kinsman, for kinsman he was, as were all the members of the Group. Seth asked “Tia, you must have come this way; did you not see or hear anything?”