Part 21

For the next two days; Saturday and Sunday, they returned to a semblance of their normal routine for most of each day. Raz spent his time supervising the constructions, Jena and Jela hunted, Pina was busy with her teams of scientists, Davdan practiced the staff between business and political calls, while Tika, Tira, Menak, and Naz honed their fighting skills.

The group's dynamic was subtly changed by the addition of Slin, who divided his day time between practicing his hunting and his fighting, and studying to be the world's greatest lover. This last endeavor brought smiles to the faces of the rest of the group every time they thought about it.

Their evenings were spent training their non-primary skills and visiting. Jena joined Tika in visiting John King Saturday night, and Jela joined her Sunday night, and Tika spent an hour each evening after that at the Lakeshore Zone, getting to know her people better and checking the progress of the construction.

Slin's father Smin visited at Tira's clearing as they gathered for lunch on Sunday. He made it abundantly clear that he was immensely proud of his son for having gained membership in the Green Band, and even more proud that Slin had won the love of Tika, the most famous person in the world, but he was obviously intimidated by the whole group and only stayed for ten minutes.

Part Three: Testing.

May 19th, 2155

At 4:07 Monday morning Jela was awakened by a priority call. She sat up and read her screen at a glance. "I am called to hunt!" she announced excitedly to Tira, Menak and Naz, who had also been roused by her screen's strident chiming, then she scrolled rapidly down the rest of the message. "I test for Grande Master, and hopefully to be ranked among the five hundred! I did not think I would get the call for days yet, but they want this hunt finished soon! You can see the details on the Hunting Judges' website, but I must go now, as this one will be easier in the dark, and it will take me almost an hour to get there."

She stuffed her screen into her pack, gave her three quad-mates a quick kiss each, and dashed from Tira's den to sprint hard for Davdan's house, and its tube platform.

"I will call Transit. There will be a car waiting for her when she gets to Davdan's." Menak announced as he activated his screen.

"We should wait forty minutes or so before we wake the others to tell them." Tira mused. "They will want to see it, but there is no use in their losing sleep before anything happens."

"Wake me when you call the others." Naz mumbled, and rolled back into the furs.

"I think he has the right idea. Go back to sleep." Menak chuckled to Tira. "I will set my screen to wake us in forty minutes."

They all gathered in Davdan's kitchen fifty minutes later and excitedly discussed the imminent hunt as they reviewed the details on screen.

An old male buffalo had waded to an island in a small river a few weeks before, and become trapped there as the height and speed of the river rose with the monsoon rains. If he was not removed he would soon denude the tiny island of all its vegetation. Though he was past his prime, he was still a huge and mighty animal of over sixteen hundred pounds, and his horns were long and sharply pointed. His years of experience had made him wily and alert to the ways of predators, his extensive scars testified to his many victories over them, and he had grown cranky and mean as his aches and pains accumulated with his advancing age.

The man whose territory included the narrow river island had hunted the dangerous bovine and been killed by it, and his corpse was not found for days as he was not immediately missed. When his friends realized he was missing and had called him repeatedly to no avail, a signal was sent to his screen that caused it to emit a continuous distress signal, and it was quickly triangulated. His repeatedly gored and trampled body had been discovered only twelve hours ago. A Master Hunter had been immediately dispatched to hunt the old buffalo, but she had only inflicted an insignificant neck wound on him with her first strike before being seriously gored in her abdomen. She had managed to climb a tree to escape death beneath his hooves, which made for a very precarious retrieval when a med flyer arrived for her, especially as they were operating at night in a downpour of rain with strong wind. The relatively rainless weather they were enjoying so far that season in north-western India was contrasted by a heavier than normal monsoon in the areas surrounding Hyderabad in south-central India, where the hunt was taking place.

Three Elder Judges of Hunting were already on the scene, and had stealthily approached Jela's prey close enough to get a view of it with telephoto and infrared cameras. They also aimed parabolic microphones, and the big animal's breathing could be heard, though it was almost completely drowned out by the sound of the deluge. Occasionally it snorted to clear its nose of rain.

The Green Band used four of their screens to watch the action. Tika used hers to follow Jela's headband camera, while Menak's, Naz's and Tira's showed the view of the judges in split screen, with half of each showing the infrared views.

There was little to watch at first, since it was too dark to see much in the visible light views, and the infrared views showed the old buffalo sleeping fitfully in a dense thicket of brush. They could tell that Jela moved quickly but cautiously through the jungle until she reached the riverbank, well upstream from the island, and the roar of the water's flow was carried by the waterproof earphone/microphone she wore. She made a shallow dive from a steep embankment into the raging torrent and swam powerfully across the current, letting it carry her down to the upstream end of the island.

She could not be told exactly where her prey was located, and she stalked stealthily down the island's length, silently searching. She almost passed the old bull before she detected it in its thicket forty feet to her left, and it was not apparent whether she had noticed its sound or its scent.

She moved around the copse until she was downwind of her prey, then eased herself through the thick brush by feel, moving more silently than most would have believed possible. She did not wake the bull even when she stood before it. It was pitch dark in the thicket, and even her own hand could not be seen in her headband camera's view. Only the infrared cameras showed her reach tentatively toward the sound of its breathing, so that she could judge the position and angle of its head exactly from the direction of its exhalations as they blew against her fingers.

Having done so, she grasped the handle of her razor sharp eight-inch hunting knife with both hands, raised it high over her head, and brought it down with all her strength across the animal's throat. She jumped back as it thrashed violently and tried to stand. It almost got its feet under its center of gravity and crashed sideways through the brush for two staggering steps before falling heavily to the ground again. It thrashed for a few moments more before loss of blood pressure took its consciousness, and finally it stilled and died.

Jela waited for six patient minutes, then set her screen to emit a dim light. She cautiously approached the fallen animal, and poked it with her knife a few times to be sure it was dead. She moved around to its head, and it could be seen that her stroke had been almost flawless. The gash across the front of its neck was only an inch closer to its jaw than would have been optimum, and at its center the cut was as deep as her blade was long. Blood was flowing copiously as it drained onto the soaked ground cover.

"Victory." Jela stated with satisfaction, speaking quietly, knowing her voice would still be loud in their speakers since her microphone's sensitivity was set to maximum.

The three judges rose from their concealment and moved to Jela's side to record the results of the hunt from close range.

Jela set her screen to emit bright white light, took several large game bags from her pack, and waited for the judges to finish their inspection of the animal and the ground around it. When they were finished they gave her a satisfied nod, and she began skinning and field-butchering her prey as the judges called for a flyer to take them home.

Meanwhile in Davdan's kitchen they had waited tensely until the quality of the death stroke on the animal's neck had been clearly seen, and at that they all jumped up and joyously cheered for her accomplishment.

"Quiet! The judges are speaking!" Jena called as she watched the lights on the Elders' flyer arriving above Jela.

"This was well done. You will have the judgment before noon today."

"Thank you." Jela nodded with a grin, and returned to her work.

Her group watched her finish sectioning the animal into twenty pieces and bag them as they ate breakfast, then Naz called her.

"Congratulations, Jela my love! That was a flawless hunt!"

"Yes, congratulations!" Tira added as she and Menak hugged while playfully crowding Naz to be seen by his camera, and the rest called their congratulations from out of camera view.

"Thank you." Jela smiled. "I am unsure how it will be judged, though. These conditions made it almost too easy to be a great hunt. With this wind and rain, and asleep, the bull had no chance to detect me."

"You are crazy with modesty, Jela-Mother love!" Jena laughed as she conferenced into the call. "They are the same conditions faced by a Master Hunter only a few hours ago, and she took an hour to find him after she got there, and then she was almost killed! Furthermore, the judges wanted it done soon, and you had it done less than an hour after you were called from over six hundred miles away! I am sure you were within two minutes of the fastest humanly possible time! And the strike was perfect, though it was done blind! I truly doubt you will be disappointed by the judgment!"

"Well, I hope you are right!" Jela laughed.

"How did you find him, love? Was it scent or sound?" Tira asked.

"Scent, I think. Or perhaps just a hunch." Jela mused. "I was just letting my instincts guide me, and that thicket looked like a likely place for him to hide. I knew he would be wary, since he had been hunted a few days ago, and then again a few hours ago."

"You have a lot of weight to carry, my love, and the trading post closest to you is almost two miles away." Naz pointed out. "Those bags look to weigh from about sixty to one hundred pounds. Would you like me to come there and carry a few for you?"

"No thank you, Naz. I wish to eliminate every possibility that this hunt could be criticized, and many traditionalists still believe that a hunter should carry their own game.

"I will take the lightest bag first, and swim the river with it. I will rent a rope at the trading post to get the rest over the river.

"I would love for you to meet me at the trading post in about half an hour, my loves. I have not eaten yet, except for two cereal bars, and I am starved, so I will stop for a big meal when I get there. And after that, though you cannot help me carry, there is no reason why you could not join me on the walk, and keep me company. It will take me all day and then some to get all twenty of these to the trading post, as I will be lucky to get one round trip done per hour."

The call came at 11:37 as the quartette walked along through the jungle, Jela straining beneath a hundred pounds of bagged beef. She unhooked it from the back of her belt and let it slide to the ground with a deep sigh, and took her screen out to answer the call.

"Greetings, Jela. I am Binjo, most senior judge of hunting." A very old Elder with only a thin fringe of gray hair remaining informed her. "Here is the Judgment: Based upon the quality of this hunt, as well as the body of work in the twenty-seven recorded hunts you submitted for consideration, you have gained the status of Grande Master Hunter, and you have been assigned the rank of sixth."

"Great Gods above! Sixth! Thank you Binjo!" Jela laughed, and sat heavily on her game bag in stunned surprise.

"Thank you, Jela. It was my honor to assist in judging such a beautiful hunt." the Elder smiled in return. "And Jela, no one who matters expects you to carry the entire carcass yourself if your prey is more than four hundred pounds, not in this day and age. The hunt is already judged, and if you carry that much, no one will criticize you if you let your mates carry the rest."

"Thank you again, Binjo! I am truly relieved to hear it!" Jela smiled, rolling her shoulders a bit to work some stiffness out.

"You are great, Jela. A few more like that, and you could make Grande Master Champion of Hunters, I think." Binjo told her with a nod and a smile, and ended the call.

"Sixth! Great Gods, Sixth!" Tira cried with a whoop as she drew Jela to her feet and hugged her, bouncing in happiness. "Our love Jela is the sixth greatest of all the hunters living!"

Naz and Menak joined the happy hug, laughing and dancing in a bunch for a few moments and adding their congratulations.

"I will call the others with the good news!" Jela said excitedly as she tapped her screen.

"We will go back to the island for some of your game." Naz chuckled as he gave Jela a kiss. "We are still only ten minutes away. Wait here, and we will be back with three bags in twenty minutes."

Jela began telling Davdan the results, as Tira, Naz, and Menak loped back along the path to the island.

It was 3:41 in the afternoon when they slung the last of the heavy game bags onto the counter at the trading post. Jela returned the rope they had used to trolley the game bags over the river, and they stopped to rest and eat another meal before taking the tube back home.

"So, should we plan a gathering to celebrate Jela's accomplishment?" Naz asked as he spooned a generous portion of spiced ground crocodile onto a chapatti.

"I think not." Jela chuckled. "We have been to a lot of gatherings lately, and we will go to more over the coming weeks. When we get home I only plan to bathe at the spring, have some nice relaxing sex for an hour or so, and then sleep until tomorrow morning! Tomorrow you can get me some new status bands, and present them to me at supper with just our group. When Jena is tested, we will celebrate for both of us."

June 5th, 2155

Sixteen days later.

The morning of the first round of the Grande Tournament began with a deluge of rain, so heavy that visibility was limited to forty feet. Tika was the first up when she emerged from the extra den at Tira's clearing, and Slin and Pina soon ducked out behind her. It was raining so hard that the trunks of trees could not be discerned at the other end of the clearing.

"It seems the monsoon is making up for its recent lack." Slin grumbled. "At least it is warm."

The trio sat on a log, huddled together under a fur, and waited in silence for the others to get up.

Tira and her quadmates were the next to join them, sitting silently together on the other log.

There was little to say. Reviews of all the other fighters at the tournament, and the appropriate strategies to fight each of them, had gone on around the fire till late at night. The time of training was over, leaving a mood of determined focus as Tira and Menak prepared themselves for their upcoming combat, and Tika and Davdan prepared for their roles as their tournament coaches. Tika would be listed as primary trainer to both fighters, Davdan as secondary trainer.

Raz, Jena and Davdan emerged from the cubs' den a few minutes later, and the rest stood.

None spoke as they walked to Davdan's house, where Pina and Jena prepared breakfast for the group. After they had eaten they waited in the living room, watching through the huge windows for one of Tika's flyers. Its arrival broke the serious mood.

"Tika, that is beautiful!" Raz exclaimed as the bright white flyer settled gently in the clearing. Pink lettering in flowing script along the waistline of the fuselage read White Elves Aerospace Service, and the capital letters W and E in the same graceful font were intertwined on the tail surfaces as a logo.

"Thank you." Tika responded absently. "It was my fastest general purpose flyer, but I have retrofitted it for luxury passenger transport. It is exactly the same color as my hair, and the lettering is the same color as my eyes."

"Lo Tika!" Assan called through the open cockpit door as they boarded. "Lo everyone!"

"Lo, Assan!" Tika returned. "Anything to report?"

"Six percent ahead of schedule, and all systems go!" Assan laughed.

"Where is Ali today?" Raz asked as the group settled into the luxurious seating of the sixteen-passenger cabin.

"He's busy with the space plane conversion process. We both are, most days, but I won the coin toss for this assignment, so today I get to chauffeur you to the tournament! And since the draw is random and no one knows who fights when or when you'll be leaving, Miss Tika has generously allowed me to stay with your party today as one of Tira's entourage, and watch the fights from ringside with you!"

"Well, welcome to the inner world of elite combat!" Raz chuckled.

"Are you making a bet, Naz?" Assan asked as he eased the craft into the air.

"Of course! I will bet all of my available credits on each of Tira and Menak's matches."

"So you're not betting that one of them's going to win the tournament?"

"No, since in order for one of them to win, one of two things must happen. The other must lose before the final, and I will not bet on that to happen. Or they will have to fight each other in one of the rounds, if not the final, and I will not bet on the outcome of that match."