The Sickness

The auroch appeared quite suddenly from the trees on the other side of the stream. One moment, Taka was gazing at sun-dappled willows - the next, there she was. She stood taller than the tallest man, and her great carving horns could have skewered a bear. If she charged, he was in trouble. By bad luck, he was upwind of her. He held his breath as he watched her twitch her blunt black muzzle to taste his scent. She snorted and pawed the earth with one massive hoof. Then he saw the calf peering from the bracken, and his stomach turned over. Aurochs are gentle creatures - except when they have calves. Without a sound, Taka drew back into the shade. If he didn't startle her, maybe she wouldn't charge. Again, the auroch snorted and raked the ferns with her horns. At least she seemed to decide that he wasn't hunting her after all and slumped down in the mud to have a wallow. Taka blew out a long breath. The calf wobbled towards its mother, slipped, bleated, and fell over. The cow auroch raised her head and nosed it to its feet, then laid back to enjoy herself. Crouching behind a juniper bush, Taka wondered what to do. Felix, the Clan Leader, had sent him to retrieve a bundle of willow bark that had been soaking in the stream; he didn't want to return to camp without it. Neither did he want to get trampled by an auroch. He decided to wait for her to leave. It was a hot day at the beginning of the Moon of No Dark, and the forest was drowsy with the sun. The trees echoed with birdsongs; a warm south easterly breeze carried the sweetness of lime blossom. After a while, Taka's heartbeats slowed. He heard a clutch of young greenfinches squealing for food in a hazel thicket. He watched a viper basking on a rock. He tried to fix his thoughts on that, but as so often happened, they drifted to Wolf. Wolf would be nearly full-grown by now, but he'd been a cub when Taka had known him: falling over his paws and pestering Taka for lingonbarries... 'Don't think about Wolf', Taka told himself fiercely. 'He's gone. He's never coming back, never. Think about the auroch or the viper or-' That was when he saw the hunter. He was on this side of the water, twenty paces downstream, but downwind of the auroch. The shade was too deep to make out his face, but Taka saw that, like him, he wore a sleeveless buckskin jerkin and knee-length leggings, with light rawhide boots. Unlike Taka, he wore a boar tusk on a thong around his neck. Boar Clan. Finished on — A Friday. 31/01/2025, at 11:57 PM. Words — 468.