Da'r POV - The kull
1201 Words
I wake up, my heart pounding fast. I had the same nightmare every darkness ever since I lost D'like. She wasn't my mate, but she has been my lover. Losing her broke my heart. She had died of the illness that took away many of my people. It was the same illness that took away my mother and my two younger brothers. The healer was powerless against the illness. She became sick and died too. The healer we had now is her son. He is strong, and a good healer.
After my mother's death, my father lost all will to live. Even if he was the leader of the tribe, he would often go hunt in the most dangerous place, the swamp, the territory of the orroks. They came to our planet many generations ago, seeking shelter, and my people welcomed them. For a long time, it was harmony and peace but then something changed, and orroks started killing x'lems, my people. We had a big fight, driving them to the swamp. Many x'lems died that day. And many died from the illness and my people, once many, became few.
Orroks would always come into our territory and kill any x'lem that was caught off guard. This is what happened to my father. He left that day, telling me he will be quick but he didn't return. When I when to look for him I did not expect to find him dying. He was in the Little Forest. Orroks attacked him.
- Son, he told me, you have to be brave. I am dying but the tribe needs a leader. You are that one.
-But father, I am not ready.
-No one is ready. Remember, trust your instinct, it will guide you well, he told me with his dying breath.
I took the body of my father back to the tribe and we hold the ritual for the dead, hoping that his spirit will go to the Great Spirits and will reunite with the spirit of my mother, brothers, and all the x'lems that died.
After that, I prepared for becoming a leader. For two days I grieved, haven't eaten or drank water. No one spoke to me as it was the custom. After the two days has passed I put on a loincloth and left the tribe to hunt the kull.
As a future leader, I had to know how to make my weapons, live on my own, make shelter, and ultimately track and kill a kull. It was hard not having a weapon the first day but I quickly made a spear from wood and harden its tip in the fire. The next day I made a stone knife and went into the Great Forest. Many dangerous creatures lived in this forest, but it was not my first time here and I knew how to kill or avoid them.
Tracking a kull was not a very easy task. I knew that kull preferred quieter places. They were also solitary creatures.
For five days I have been tracking a kull and nothing. And when I thought that I might not get one and I would have to live with the shame of failing I caught a faint scent of a kull. This one preferred the solitary peaks from above the Great Forest. And I started climbing leaving the Great Forest behind me. Once I started seeing scattered bones I knew I was on the right track. The smell was also becoming heavier, foul because kulls reeked of death.
I followed the trail of bones that this kull left behind him until I found myself in front of a big cave. "The beast's lair," I hear my instinct telling me. It smelled even worse than I thought it will smell. I gripped my spear and entered the cave. Bones and half-eaten creatures were scattered across the cave and in the middle was the kull. But it was not a normal kull, this was a black kull, though to have extinct two generations ago. I have heard tales of them, strong, bloodthirsty creatures, and yet here I was face to face with one of them. If a normal kull was 2,5m tall, a black kull was 3m tall. Two horns stood proud on his head. His legs were shorter than his arms. Those strong, muscular arms were deadly. This one had to be an old kull because his black fur had lots of white spots.
"Kill this beast," my instinct told me. Me, to kill this monster? At least seven strong hunters were needed to take this one down. He will kill and chew on my bones in heartbeats. I was no match for a black kull. But I won't go down without a fight. And there was no time to run because he already saw me, and was staring at me with big red eyes, full of hatred.
The kull started roaring lifting his firsts and then smashing them on the cave's floor, sending pieces of stone through the air. If those fists hit me, I am dead, is my last thought before the fight begins.
The kull starts running and I dive to my left trying to stab him with the spear, but his thick fur doesn't let the sink deep. He tries to hit me but I am faster and I avoid it. I was now behind him and I tried to stab him in his lower back but no luck. He turned fast and I had to avoid him, running to my left. The kull was furious now, attacking me fast, becoming harder to avoid him. I was getting tired when he tried to hit me again, but this time I was a bit slow and he managed to hit send me flying me around the cave, hitting the wall. My whole body was aching with pain and the kull was ready to kill me. He roared loud lifting his deadly fists ready to smash me.
"Get on his back, grip his horns," my instinct told me.
And I just did that. When he brought his fists down I rolled and then jumped on his back gripping hard on his horns. The kull buckled in furry trying to throw me off his back but I would not let go.
When I felt that he got tired I grabbed the knife that I in one of my bots and stabbed him in his eye. He roared with fury and wanted to smash me against the wall but I avoided and I stabbed him in the other eye.
And then I put my hands around his neck and I choked him. He was wounded and tired and didn't have the strength to fight anymore. I was amazed when I realized I killed the black kull, I was... ready to pass out, my whole body aching with pain. So I welcomed the sleep when it overtook me.
When I was better, I took his pelt back to my tribe and I became the youngest leader of the tribe, at only sixteen planet-rotations.
I rose from the bed pushing back the memories. I had to prepare for a hunt this lightning too.
- Writer
