The Tallows- Book 1

Chapter 2

Hix-Arctic was jumping around, excited. Today was the day they would ride to the Arrowhead Market! Her mentor Mire-Cold was just collecting her ice diamonds and then they'd be ready to go. The Tundra tribe was one of the few tribes who had working carriages that could carry up to four Tallows and Hix-Arctic couldn't wait to ride in them. Her tribe only used them twice a year. Once to get to the Market and once to get back to their capital. They were a lot of fun and the babies would sleep almost the whole ride anyway, making the ride to and from a lot quieter.

"Come on, let's go already!" Hix-Arctic squirmed, trying to stay still. Mire-Cold laughed.

"Alright, I've got all the ice diamonds now. Let's get on our carriage. After all, the oxen aren't going to wait much longer"

"I can't wait much longer!" Hix-Arctic yelped, running off to the carriage. The ox teams were getting restless and were stomping their feet, waiting for the command to run. Mire-Cold shook her head in amusement and followed her apprentice, putting the ice diamonds into a pouch around her left wrist.

When they were both on the carriage, Hix-Arctic settled down next to one of her friends, Hix-North. They chatted for a while until Mire-Blinding climbed in. Mire-Blinding was Hix-North's mentor and he had been one of the very few warriors who had taken out a huge polar bear. He had a long scar across his chest from the struggle. Mire-Blinding held an aura similar to that of a royal and it commanded respect to everyone near him, so when he climbed into the carriage, the two apprentices quickly quieted down.

"How's it going you two?" Mire-Blinding asked the two apprentices.

"Excited!" Hix-Arctic responded happily.

"I can't wait to meet the new apprentices!" yelled out Hix-North, who was always making new friends with the other apprentices.

"Good! I brought you some of your own ice diamonds to use this year too, as you are two of the oldest apprentices" He held out two small pouches for them.

"Yes! Finally! We don't have to always ask for things now!" Hix-North said excitedly, taking their pouch carefully and rocking it in their arms. "Thank you" she just barely breathed out.

Hix-Arctic was a little less attached to her pouch. All Tundra apprentices received a small pouch of ice diamonds when they had three years left to be apprentices, so she had expected this. She thanked Mire-Blinding and tied the pouch around her right wrist. Almost everyone she knew was right clawed, but she herself was left clawed.

In the carriage next to theirs was Mire-Glacier and Hix-Bear along with Hix-Bear's parents, Track and Bone. As the oldest apprentice, Hix-Bear was expected to behave like a hunter, just like his parents, even though he was still an apprentice. It was a lot of pressure to be under, but the final apprentice year had a lot of effect on every Tundra Tallow's future.

Hix-Arctic wasn't really looking forward to that kind of pressure, but luckily she still had two more years left before she had to face it. Soon the carriages got the okay to set off. The driver of Hix-Arctic's carriage, Shrub, struggled a little to get the ox moving in the right direction at first, but soon they were cruising alongside everyone else.

About an hour into the ride, Hix-North began to get bored.

"How about we play a game of Search and Tell!" Hix-North suggested.

"That game's for babies" Hix-Arctic said, wrinkling her nose. Search and Tell was a game that young Tallows played to help their memory and to help them learn more about their surroundings. A Tallow would look around and spot something from their surroundings and the other Tallows would guess what the object is. The only hints they get are uses, dangers, and physical properties of the object. Babies were usually the only ones who played the game, but a few younger apprentices played as well. Most Tallows stopped playing the game when there wasn't anything left to learn or remember about their surroundings.