Chapter 150

"I see. I guess I'll have to wait like everyone else."

"Yes, but when the time comes to reveal it you will be needed," I said, and I could tell he was even more puzzled afterwards.

The teams were all hitched by now and everyone who was going to ride was mounted. I let Racaato lead the way and I fell back to ride and tease among my mates. Of course I ended up getting most of their teasing directed my way. I didn't mind and in fact I enjoyed the attention.

With no scouting to be done this time Racaato took a direct route and we were in sight of the mammoths in about two hours. We halted probably a mile from them and after studying with the glasses Raalto, Racaato, and I retrieved our 50 caliber rifles from the lead wagon and remounted, heading to a cluster of large chunks of ice which had probably been left when the glacier retreated somewhat.

Danlo, Ameliea, Geera, and Dieta had accompanied us for the last approach. They held our horses as we took firing positions, hidden by the ice. The mammoths hadn't noticed our approach or if they did they'd not reacted. We were probably a thousand yards from where they were grazing. They were not far from the face of the glacier and easily seen.

Mammoths did not look exactly like elephants I was more familiar with. No surprise since they weren't elephants. They were large though and they had trunks and tusk. Some of them, the older ones I guessed, had very long tusk. The main difference to me was the long shaggy hair all over their bodies. They also had the pronounced slant of their backbone toward the rear.

They continued grazing. Having nearly no natural predators, experience had taught them attack was something they need not fear, unless men approached. We weren't approaching, we were hiding and it was doubtful they had even seen us.

We took a little time to just observe our prey. There was no mistaking the dominant male. His tusks were nearly twelve feet long and he was half again as large as the smallest female. The four younger males he was allowing to hang around were not even nearly large enough to give him any challenge yet. The lead female was also easy to determine since she was the largest female and since she gave the next largest one some type of scolding just after we'd settled into hiding.

My interest was taken by the smallest female. Though she was obviously mature, since she had a young one, she was remarkably smaller than any of the others. After thinking about it I decided we would leave her alive and try to round her up also.

Racaato, Raalto, and I discussed targets among ourselves. Racaato would take the lead male first and Raalto would take the lead female. I would start with the younger males and we would all work our way down by size. After the first shots, which we intended to take simultaneously, we would fire in turn until we were done. I also let them know I didn't want to kill the smallest female until we tried herding her and the young ones from horseback.

We took our positions and then on a signal we all fired. All three initial targets dropped, in fact the power from the 50 caliber bullets knocked over all but the lead bull and its impact shook him visibly before he fell a few seconds later.

I'm sure this type of mammoth hunting was a revelation for these people, but for me it was rather anticlimactic. It was much like harvesting. Of course Racaato and Raalto had scouted things yesterday, but I had known all along where the mammoth were and even how many there were. With the large rifles Argent had provided there was never any question in my mind the prey would be dispatched almost at once.

Still, I would much rather sit back in near complete safety and shoot the mammoths instead of chasing after them and trying to kill them with a bunch of fucking spears. This was much easier and a lot less dangerous and I was sure the meat would taste just as good.

We finished, leaving the one mature, but small female, and all six youngsters unharmed. They were nearly in a panic now, but couldn't decide which way to run. No doubt they had heard the reports from the weapons, but I was sure they had no idea what the noise was or that it was responsible for their comrades falling and dying. Instead of mounting and riding toward them we rode back to the wagons and sat around for a few minutes to give them a chance to settle down.

When I had everyone's attention I announced my plan to try herding the remaining prey with the horses. It was a surprise to everyone except Raalto and Racaato of course. It only took a few minutes to outline the plan and answer a few questions. We all mounted again and I asked the wagon drivers to give us a few minutes head start.

The remaining female and the youngsters were still nervous as we approached and this increased as we came ever closer. When we were within two hundred yards the female had reached the end of her twine and she turned away and headed off at a fast walk. All the youngsters except hers remained near their dead parents for a while longer, but followed her when we got closer.

We increased our pace and spread out behind the bunch. The female turned her head to check on us periodically, but she kept up her pace. After about a mile and a half I could tell she was tiring a little.

I signaled to Danlo and he and I kicked our mounts into a gallop, eventually riding around the mammoths and then away from them for a few hundred yards. When we stopped and turned back toward them the female saw she had been out maneuvered and she stopped her group, standing still and only breathing deeply.

I've heard elephants are smart and I guess it goes for mammoths too. It hadn't taken the female long to see outrunning us was out of the question. I could only hope she didn't have fighting to the death in mind now.

As the rest of my people approached they began circling around between the mammoths and the glacier, spreading themselves into a line as they did so and by the time everyone was stopped we had a semicircle of horsemen between the mammoths and the glacier with the open mouth of it pointed back toward the dead animals we'd all just left. We stayed still for about twenty minutes and in the distance I could see the wagons approaching the kills and stopping near them.

We stayed put for ten more minutes then I signaled and we all began moving toward the mammoths. The female had settled down a little and had spent some time looking around and no doubt considering her options. When we moved she did also. She took the route open to her and headed out of the semicircle at a slow walk. The young ones all followed her and we carefully moved about to keep them headed away from the gutting and skinning and toward our distant campsite.

After moving them about half a mile I asked Raalto, Racaato, Daaggo, and Danlo to quicken their pace and move around to close the front of our formation. The female noticed and I saw her watching as they maneuvered.

When they were in place we had a circle closed around the mammoths. I called for my people to stop and when they did the female stopped also, but she looked around the entire circle for a place to make an exit. Since there wasn't one she stayed put.

She could have charged any point in the circle and made her escape if she'd been determined, we all knew it. She was unsure though and we weren't hurting her or the youngsters so she held her place. I gave another signal and we started up again. She moved out also and I saw she was now careful to match our pace. This was going much better than I had any right to expect.

We stopped again after about a quarter mile and she and the youngsters stopped too. We stayed still for about five minutes and then started again and the female cooperated. She seemed to understand what we wanted from her by now and was content to go along so far. After a couple more iterations I asked Ameliea to switch places with Danlo at the next stop and she did.