As promised Haloor brought with her three people. Two women and a man. I looked at them and crossed my arms as Chuma scurried off looking sheepish. Her ears down as the much rger members of her cn looked at her with judging eyes. Though I could see Haloor’s smirk at what was in store for Chuma.

  “Spotted one!” Called the male as he stepped forward. “Haloor says you need lessons.” He had a club hanging from one of his hips and a bundle of weapons over his shoulder.

  I growled in my throat as I looked at the male stepping out of his pce. “I’d rather speak to the women.” I felt myself get tense as I wanted to teach the male a lesson.

  “We all work together, if you want to learn you must work with all of us. Either you accept it or you walk away. None of us will teach you if you do not follow our rules.” The two women nodded, betraying their sex.

  Haloor looked at me imploringly as she pressed her hands together and mouthed, They’re the only ones.

  I uncrossed my arms and nodded, “I’ll work with you all. I’ll follow what you tell me to do.” It was an effort not to clench my fists as they looked at me all with doubt in their eyes. “How do we do this?”

  The male nodded and produced a strange thin spear. It had a broad head shaped like a leaf. It was too light in my hand to be worth fighting with and I frowned deeper at the weapon. “I can’t fight with this.”

  One of the women stepped forward and pulled her own version of it. She hefted it and slotted the back into some sort of handle. She stepped and with one fluid movement unched it. I was amazed at how far it soared through the air before pnting itself in the earth. “You throw it, the wide bde bleeds the animal. You catch it after that.”

  “Why not use a bow? My… the spotted cn uses bows.” I bounced the spear in my hand. The bance was much closer to the tip of the spear.

  The other female scoffed and turned her head away, “We cannot afford bows. The wood we have access to doesn’t bend the right way. Too soft. We would have to buy the wood from other cns. It is easier to make light spears for throwing.”

  I grunted and hefted it mimicking the first woman’s form and hurled the spear. My release was wrong and it skidded across the ground bouncing violently. I took a deep breath and felt a flood of rage.

  The women ughed but at least the male stayed quiet as he walked up to me and handed me a bundle of five spears. “We will go practice. We all throw poorly when we start.” I looked at the male and took a deep calming breath. With a nod we both walked to gather the two thrown spears and headed off into the wilds.

  The sun was beating down on our shoulders as we approached a thick clumping of bushes and trees. We were maybe two hundred feet away when they stopped us and knelt down, pulling me to kneel. The male looked at me and pointed in the distance.

  With a quiet whisper he pointed into the distance, “These pces hold a lot of small beasts. It isn’t much for the whole cn but the hunters can enjoy good meals. We will all sight one animal. Then we all throw at it. If lucky, one of us hits it. Once it has bled for a little we close the gap and work together to club it. Most of the beasts have little blood. Help look and when you spot one you point it out. If we’re lucky we will find a caracol or boar.

  I knelt there looking across the savannah and squinting trying to figure out where something might be hiding. The calls of insects sounded all around us as the wind rustled the tall grasses. One of my compatriots whistled softly and pointed. They whistled and clicked quickly in some unknown code. A trickle of information filled my brain. My feat kicking in and telling me what was being communicated. Thought it was all jumbled and out of order.

  The male leaned towards me. “We are lucky, we spotted a boar. That bush right there.” His hand hit my shoulder and I fought off a growl as he leaned close and pointed towards one bush. “We prowl closer to the throwing range. Come, stay low, leave your extra throwing spears.”

  “Is that what the whistles and clicks told you?” I whispered as I pulled free one of the throwing spears.

  “It is the hunter's tongue. Takes months to learn it. Waste of your time.” I unslung my spears and crawled forward with them. Thankfully my natural agility kept me from making too much noise but the hunters around me were as quiet as the wind through the grass.

  We closed the distance to around fifty feet from the bush they pointed out. I paused with all of them and I followed their examples with fitting the spear in the thrower and we all assumed a throwing stance. I did my best to emute the ones around me as we twisted, extending, and unching the spears through the air. Mine quickly overshot them all.

  As they fell I heard a scream of pain as a thick thigh high beast charged out of the bush. It had rge curling tusks that could rip open flesh. It ran and ran in circles trying to find its attackers. The male hunter pced his hand on my shoulder and kept me still. We all waited silently as the beast raged.

  Soon it grew tired and slow. With a nod and a release of my shoulder we started to stalk forward. I felt a club put into my hand as we got even closer. We bunched together and everyone had weapons ready. The beast sniffed the air and whirled around on us.

  It charged, turning up the dirt with its rage. Without thinking I charged back at it. The other hunters called out in warning as I closed the gap. Just as it was getting close I cast forth my grasping vines. It stumbled and stilled as it fought against the spell. My club whistled through the air and with a bone shattering crack the boar stilled as its head caved in.

  The hunters ran up next to me and they shoved at me hard. I stumbled and whirled on them with my club in hand. “What are you doing?!” The male screamed. “You never charge! I don’t care how strong you are, if you’re injured no one can bring you back to the vilge. You’re too big to drag.”

  I stood above him and clenched my fist, “I got the beast didn’t I. What is the problem with that.” I felt the wooden handle of the club creak in my fist.

  “That isn’t the point. Hunters work as one. If we don't, someone gets hurt. If it avoided you because of your size we would have been out of position to keep ourselves safe.” The male stepped up to me and I bared my teeth.

  “Look, I had the chance to close the distance and keep us all from having to slowly smack it to death. So don’t get in my face about this.” I flexed as I towered over him and he looked at me with cold eyes. “Plus I’ll be hunting alone when I’m out of the striped tribe.”

  The male and both women bared their teeth as we stared at each other. The air grew thick around us all as I contempted what I would say when I returned alone with a boar. Then I remembered why I was here. Why I was tossed out of the cn. I rexed. “Fine, next catch I won’t charge forward. I’ll wait for the group.”

  All three of them stayed tense until I let go of the club and let it thump to the ground. “I’m going to get my spear and then I’ll haul the boar. That way you all will have arms avaible for the next catch.”

  All of our ears were on high alert as I stepped away from the three. If they wanted to end me now would be their chance. I tensed as I turned my back to them and walked away. I expected a spear in my back at any moment until I got to mine, thirty feet too far from our original target. I picked it up and turned to them. They were stringing the boar’s legs together and prepping it to be carried. I returned to them and hefted it up with one arm. I pulled it around my head and nodded to them. The beast had stopped bleeding.

  “You’ll need to stay back when we throw at the next beast. The blood will give us away. We will try to get one more catch and then we return to the cn.” They all turned from me showing me their backs just as I had shown mine. I did not strike.

  With our weapons collected we prowled across the savannah until the sun dipped low in the sky. We did not find any more beasts we could hunt. The nd stayed eerily quiet. “There was talk of a buffalo herd. Protected by lionkin.”

  “We won’t risk it. It is a whole pride that protects the herd and follows it around the savannah as nomads. They only cull the weakest and oldest of it and never let anyone else in on their harvest. We lost four of our cn trying to get one. The male lionkin decimated them. Even Oda would not have stood a chance without preparing.

  I nodded as we continued to walk along towards the people. One of the women spoke up, “We were lucky today. To get a whole boar and not get anyone injured is a blessing from the Gods. Praise Anhur.”

  We entered the cn and there was much fanfare at the sight of the boar. There were whoops and whistles. I relished in the attention as people looked at us with praise in their eyes. My chest puffed up until I id eyes on Oda and Bongani. My mood soured as I looked at them and I pulled the boar off my chest and handed it off. Chuma ran in front of me and hopped up and down excitedly. “Strong huntress. What can I do to repay you?”

  I grabbed her arm and dragged her behind me. She let out a yelp of surprise as I brought her in front of Oda. “I’m bringing someone while I command Bongani. I will not stand idly by while my mate performs.”

  Oda smiled as she leaned back. She braced herself on her hands and I could see worry in Bongani’s eyes. “What if I say no?”

  My chest rose and fell as I kept myself as calm as I could. “I don’t wish to use your tool again. I will use one of your cn.” I pulled Chuma against my side, she seemed flushed and excited. I could smell the barest hint of her arousal. But more powerfully I could smell the flush heat and potent musk of a breeding week almost beginning. It was no wonder she was sitting so far away from everyone else.

  “Mmmmm, I’ve never seen a woman cim another woman. If she wants it then I’ll allow it. You watch me and Bongani, I’ll watch you and little Chuma. What do you think of that male?” Oda ran her hand up the back of his head and grabbed tightly, making him whimper.

  “My mate cims all she wants. I’d let her mount the world if it pleased her.” Bongani looked at me with conviction in his eyes. “I’ll never shy from watching her take others at her will.”

  Chuma shuddered as she looked between me and Oda. She shied away from the growing hardness of Bongani though. Her fear of males was on full dispy.

  “She has a cock Chuma. Do you understand that?” Oda opened her eyes wide and smiled at us both.

  “I’m sure Aphelele will know how not to break me.”