Krag started giving her some hand signals while crouching near the edge of the loose patch, and Miri understood the plan almost immediately. She had been to countless hunting parties, and the tactics to take down large prey was always the same. The other hunters would serve to keep the beast within their perimeter, while Miri would use her mindsense to tame the creature well enough for the killing blow.
Miri placed a reassuring hand on Nyx’s slender shoulder. The protector stood almost a foot taller than her novice Striga, but she sensed that Nyx would grow to be a powerful Vis user, and would eventually replace her as protector someday. “Nyx, you know what to do. Wait until we are in position, then I shall give you the signal. Everything will be fine, just remember the mating thoughts,” she said to the teenage girl before turning to face Jinn. “As for you my young hunter, I want you to stay behind me at all times. Keep your spear pointed at the beast and do not move forward without my specific orders. If the dargon lunges at you, move back slightly but do not advance. Remember that your flint point is sharp, but it is also fragile, if you take a bad angle against the dargon, it will snap your spear in two.”
Both Nyx and Jinn nodded anxiously. Miri turned around and ran down towards the nearby patch of loose dirt, followed closely by Jinn. Krag had already placed the hunters into position and they could finally begin. All of them held their spears out while crouching down, so as not to be target the moment the beast came to the surface. Krag got on one knee as he stayed at Miri’s right flank, ten yards away. The chief hunter would use his spear to pierce through the dargon’s ribcage, just behind its first set of forelegs, for that was where its heart would be located.
Everyone held their breath as they waited for the monster to reveal itself. Miri’s concentration had now achieved a Zen-like calmness as she extended her mindsense along the pool of sand in front of her. Her thoughts seemed to flow out of her body, like an invisible coil of energy, as her feelings soon traveled deep into the granular soil until it touched the sleeping dargon that hibernated underneath. Yes, she thought. It is a huge beast indeed. I must be careful, and use my Vis to keep it docile the moment it awakens. She turned and nodded to Nyx, standing thirty yards away on top of the dune.
It was now Nyx’s turn. The young girl closed her eyes as she began to generate the mind of a female dargon in heat. Remembering the skills she was taught to by Miri, Nyx immediately placed thought barriers around the dargon brain patterns she was creating, lest it overwhelm her own human personality. There had been tales of renegade Strigas, horrible women who roamed the wastes after they had abandoned their humanity and became like the beasts of the dust, both in deed and in thought. Nyx valued her persona so she made sure the created thought essence of a female dargon remained firmly in the distant recesses of her mind, to be shattered into inaccessible shards of forgotten memory once the hunt was over.
Miri could see that Nyx was in her mind trance as the younger girl’s eyes had turned completely white. Now it was time to project the mating sense into the sand. The timing would be tricky for the faked thoughts would draw the beast up to the surface and then she needed to alter the dargon’s mental patterns into one of docility once that was done. Miri began to concentrate as her Vis traveled from her mind and bridged the air between Nyx and the sleeping dargon. Within seconds, she was able to harness Nyx’s mating call, and increased its intensity before flinging the unseen ball of senses into the sand beneath her.
Within seconds, they all sensed the ground stirring beneath them. The hunters began to clutch their spears tightly while they began to tense up. The mating call projection was meant to be very powerful, it was designed to overwhelm the dargon’s defensive instincts and drive it into a mating frenzy in order to force the beast up to the surface. The center of the loose sand pool began to shift as a cloud of dust flew up into the air, followed by a frenzied roar. The more experienced hunters covered their eyes so that they would not be blinded by the airborne dust. Jinn was caught totally unprepared, particles of dirt seeped into his eyes the moment the patch erupted. The youth grimaced as he used his arm to wipe away the irritating grains, while squinting his eyes so that he could see what had just come out. As he looked over the protector’s shoulder to finally see the beast, he gasped.
The nearly thirty-foot long creature that emerged from the sand patch was the stuff of nightmares. Its snout was as large as one of their two man tents, and filled with sharp teeth that resembled chiseled black obsidian. The sand dargon’s neck tendrils were located just behind its eyes, and their ropy, five foot long tentacles wriggled in the air, excitedly searching for an imaginary female with which to mate. The beast had six stubby legs that could be folded into its torso, in case it needed to slither in tight spaces underground. Legends abounded that these fearsome beasts could burrow through solid rock, and their god was a mighty wyrm whose overall length stretched across the wastelands and lived in a monstrous cave deep below the world above. The sand dargon’s eyes were like small slits, some people wondered whether the creature could even see with them.
Nyx momentarily faltered on her concentration as she stood like a statue, utterly astounded by the sight of the gigantic creature in front of her. Her mindsense lost its cohesion, and the telepathic bridge that connected her Vis to that of the creature quickly cut off.
For a brief moment, the sand dragon partially regained its senses. It realized it had burrowed out into the surface during the heat of the day and there were other, dangerous animals around it. Krag cursed and barked out orders to the other hunters as he started moving sideways, hoping to get to the creature’s right side before it got out of control. The dargon thrashed about, and it smashed its long, scaly tail against one of the hunters who had gotten too close to it. The man flew backwards for ten yards before landing in a heap along the base of a nearby dune, his ribcage shattered. The other hunters kept their distance, using their spears to keep the beast within the perimeter.
Miri held out her hand and gritted her teeth. She immediately recalibrated her mindsense, throwing mental blocks into the creature’s mind, dulling its defensive instincts. The dargon slowed and stopped thrashing, while its tendrils extended past its neck in an effort to discern what was going on. Krag was now in position as he stood just a few yards away from the creature’s right ribcage. The chief hunter ran forward and drove his spear into the area just behind the dargon’s foreleg, but the beast was still wary, and it was able to twist itself to face the incoming threat at the last second. Krag’s spear narrowly missed the monster’s heart as it dug in between the scaly rib plates before embedding itself along its side. The dargon roared in pain as it kicked back with its foreleg, snapping Krag’s spear shaft in two. The chief hunter rolled sideways, but the loose sand upended his footing and he fell onto the ground. The dargon sensed his helplessness as it turned and charged at him.
Jinn cried out in alarm as he ran past Miri and thrust his spear at the dargon’s left middle leg. The youth did not angle his weapon properly, and the flint spearhead shattered while barely piercing the monster’s scaly hide. The dargon reacted as it whipped its tail in Jinn’s direction, but Miri was able to pull the youth back to where she was. Nevertheless, the tip of the monster’s tail caught Jinn’s knee and sent him sprawling sideways into the dirt. With the dargon’s charge momentarily halted when it attacked the youth with its tail, Krag was able to get up and retreat, narrowly avoiding the beast’s snapping fangs by a mere foot. One of the other hunters threw his spear at the creature and the weapon embedded itself into the dargon’s thick back. The beast’s scaly hide was so thick, it barely noticed the spear in its body.
Nyx grimaced as she concentrated with all her might, throwing waves of mating thoughts at the dargon. The monster suddenly became confused, as if its survival instincts could not decide as to whether to search for the female on the surface, or to attack those men that wounded it. Miri sensed the beast’s disorientated thoughts as she projected her Vis past the dargon’s set of
instincts and overwhelmed it. The creature stopped as its sensory tendrils rose up in the air, initiating its courtship ritual for an imaginary female of its own kind.
With the creature now vulnerable, Miri knew it was now or never. She immediately dashed around until she faced the creature’s right side. Concentrating just a few inches from where Krag’s spear tip was embedded. Miri charged forward and used all her strength to thrust the weapon deep behind the dargon’s foreleg. The metal spearhead and the flexible wooden shaft drove itself deep past the dargon’s ribs, piercing its pulsating heart. The creature made a loud snort as it suddenly became lethargic, its lifeblood seeping away into other parts of its body.
Miri began to pull her spear out. Krag ran over to her and helped as they both took out the black shafted weapon from the creature’s side. As the spearhead exited the wound, there was a slight sucking noise while the blood began to pour out of the stricken dargon’s rib. Krag was able to retrieve the tip of his own weapon as the beast lay down onto the sand. Great gusts of air exited the monster’s snout as its breathing slowed and eventually stopped. The remaining hunters let out a yell of victory as the dargon’s sensory tendrils wriggled for a few seconds, then became limp.
Nyx ran down to where her brother was. Jinn was sitting on the sand, grimacing in pain as he clutched his knee. “Are you alright?” she asked.
“The pain is intense,” Jinn said softly. “But it shall pass.”
Krag and two other men ran over to where the fallen hunter lay to examine him. Miri could sense the dargon’s fading thoughts as it slipped into unconsciousness and then death. She turned around and started walking to where Krag was. “How badly is Voot hurt?”
Krag and the other hunter helped up the injured Voot by dragging him by his cloak on the ground. “His ribs are broken, but he will live.”
Miri nodded before looking over at Nyx and her brother. “This could have been an even greater calamity if it were not for the luck of the gods. What happened?”
Nyx looked down in shame. “I am sorry, protector. When the beast came out of the sand I-I suddenly lost my concentration.”
“This beast was quite powerful,” Miri said wistfully. “It was my fault. I should not have entrusted the mating thoughts to you alone, I should have helped before refocusing my Vis for the taming trance.”
Jinn stood up and tested his right knee gingerly. It seemed more like a bad sprain than a torn ligament. He could walk, but he would be limping for a few days. “Thank the gods you were able to defeat that creature, Protector Miri. I thought I would be dead for sure.”
Miri frowned. “You should not have run forward at it like that. You disobeyed me and you might have been killed.”
“When I saw Krag on the ground, I thought the beast would have had him for sure,” Jinn said. “I merely reacted with my instincts.”
“Only animals react with their instincts. We humans have the power of thought. There is a reason why I told you to stay by my side at all times during the hunt. Like your sister, you lost your concentration. It was by the sheer luck of the gods that another catastrophe did not occur,” Miri said.
Jinn said nothing as he bowed his head in shame. His lips trembled and he was about to shed tears, but Miri walked up to him and placed a reassuring hand on his shoulder.
Miri smiled at them. “Despite your failure to follow my lead, you nonetheless proved your courage and you might have even saved our chief hunter. That is to be commended,” she said to him before looking at Nyx. “As for you, I sensed that you were able to redouble your efforts after the initial setback. In the end, you proved to be the catalyst that brought this monster down. For that, I am proud of you both.”
Nyx and Jinn looked at each other and grinned. The hunt was a success.
Chapter 3
While the wounded man was carried back to the camp, the other hunters went to work. They used flint knives and axes to skin the creature, its scaly hide would be used in the making of their thick leathery cloaks, cuirass armor, and lining for their tents. In addition to being a hunter, Burd was a master bone worker. He supervised the careful removal of the dargon’s ribcage. The rib bones would be reshaped in the coming weeks, and used to make spear shafts as well as lining for the inner part of their war shields. The curviest bones would be used to make bows. The smaller, thinner cartilages would be reshaped into arrow shafts. Powdered bone meal would be used as both fertilizer for the fungi farms and as medicine for the tribal healer. The thick leg bones would be used to make the handles for their flint axes, while the dargon’s teeth and claws would be made into daggers and spearheads.
Every hunter had a secondary skill. Krag was the tribe’s best sinew maker and he masterfully sliced the dargon’s tendons from the joints before placing them into a skin sack of fermented algae wine, where they would be infused with the special liquid to make them more malleable. After a few moons, the flexible sinews would be stretched taught to make many useful items. The final end products would be used as rope, bowstrings, and slings. The dargon’s stomach and intestines would be sewn and dried to make waterskins and sacks. The creature’s heart and liver was a delicacy, and it was quickly cut up into pieces and stored in leather bladders. The two dargon eyes were given to Nyx and Miri respectively, it was their prize for baiting and killing the great beast. The animal’s tiny brain would be taken back to the healer for study.
The hunters tried to save as much of the dargon’s blood as they could. The body was not cut open until all available blood had been carefully drained and poured into bladders. The lungs were carefully unraveled and allowed to dry out in the sun, this part of the animal would be used to make fine cloth. The belly was diligently sliced open and every bit of fat was squeezed into leather skins- all this would be rendered down into oil back in the settlement. The remaining flesh was cut up for transport back to the village. It had been at least three moons since there was a feast, so everyone was in a great mood. By the time the sun had begun to set, all that remained of the dargon’s existence were some crimson patches in the dirt. A few desert beetles came out of hibernation to feast on the little bits that were left behind, but two of the more enterprising hunters scooped up the bugs and placed them into their sacks for later consumption.
By nightfall, everyone was back in the camp. Dried manure was laid out and used as fuel for the smoldering fires. There were plenty of songs being sung and the remaining ration of algae wine was used up. Everyone was set to make the return journey back to the tribe’s village at the crack of dawn. Even though Voot was in terrible pain, he nonetheless joined in the singing and took his full share of the residual wine before falling asleep.
Krag sat cross-legged by one of the bigger fires while he chewed on a hunk of meat. He needed to ask the bone maker for a new spear shaft. Krag felt himself lucky to have survived without a scratch and even recovered his metal spearhead. If he had lost that most prized possession he would have been in a worse mood. As it stood, he considered the hunt to be a great success. The village now had enough food to last until the next cycle, at least.
Jinn limped over and sat down beside him. Krag sensed that the youth wanted to say something, but he didn’t seem to have the courage to do so. Jinn made a sideways glance at him before staring back into the glowing embers of the bonfire in front of him. The smoke gave off a ripe, pungent smell.
Krag swallowed the remaining piece of meat and looked at the younger man. “What is it?”
“I just wanted to say how sorry I am for disobeying the protector,” Jinn said softly. “She told me to stay by her side, but like a fool I ran forward. I was lucky to only sprain the muscles of my knee.”
“And if you had not run off like a fool,” Krag said. “I might not be around to chastise you. It was a heroic thing you did, but you must take care to always follow the lead of the ones who have experience in this.”
Jinn nodded. “You are right, Krag. I cannot believe how stupid I was today.”
Krag let ou
t a big, throaty laugh as he got up, patted the youth on the shoulder and grabbed a half empty wineskin that was lying nearby. “You are learning, boy! The fact that you came here to talk to me about it is a portent of your maturation. I believe you will become a great hunter someday. You will get better as you partake in more hunts- though I fear we may have slain the last of these beasts. This could very well be the final great hunt of our tribe.”
Jinn had a quizzical look on his face as the older man sat beside him and began to drink the remaining wine. “What do you mean, chief hunter?”
The wine was having its desired effect. Krag shrugged as he stared into the glowing fire. “Think about it. The last time we hunted and fought a beast this size was over thirty cycles ago. Now, most of our hunts produce only smaller animals. The last expedition we did a few moons ago yielded nothing more than a pair of dwarf-sized octapedes. It wasn’t even enough meat to feed the entire tribe for one meal. In my younger days, the smallest of them were around six feet, there was even a time when we brought back a queen, that beast measured twelve feet long, and it was a monster! The hunts we have had in the last three cycles have dwindled down to almost nothing. There was a time that even the wastes were teeming with all manner of beasts. Now, there is nothing but dust …and more dust. I fear that in the next few cycles, we will find nothing at all.”
Jinn let out a deep breath. “Then what do we do, Krag?”
“I do not know,” Krag said softly. “It will be up to the elders of the tribe to decide. Our hunts have been ranging farther and farther from our settlement, and they barely bring back anything. We are spending too much precious resources to organize these expeditions. If I were an elder, I would vote to uproot the entire tribe and make the journey to a better land, one that is teeming with beasts we could hunt.”
“Where would these lands be?”
Lands of Dust (The Dying World Book 1) Page 3