Penthesilea's Wish [Vol.2]

Chapter Eighteen

(The plains near Themiskyra, Northern Anatolia, 1243 BCE)

It was a late winter afternoon, when Penthesilea, now age twenty-one, began the long journey back to the encampment with her half sister whom they called "Hippolyte-the-younger." They were caught in a storm returning from an all day hunting trip and were unlucky since morning not finding any game due to the heavy weather. Crossing the windy plains in what is now western Turkey, they were experienced in such matters of the hunt since their early teens. Soon, however, it would be dark in this wilderness and they both considered the great distance they must cover to be back safely with their clan, the Daughter's of Moon.

Penthesilea by now had a sleek but powerful body. She had been highly trained for endurance most of her life, as well as the tactics of hunting and warfare. They were ingrained in all of the females of her society and by her age natural to all the young women. Her sister Hippolyte, age seventeen, was also physically fit and capable with her weapons of bringing down the largest of the animals which roamed these wilds. These were chiefly jackals roaming in packs, deer, the aggressive wild boar, and an occasional lion.

The two women passed through a shallow stream with their horses and began a steady gallop to carry them up to a ridge for an overlook of their position. Suddenly a large female boar shot out of the brush to the right of them, turning and running at full speed. The heavy headwind of the storm made it difficult for the horses to keep their speed as the chase led upward to the top of the flat mesa. As the boar made a radical turn to out-maneuver her assailants, Hippolyte broke away from a parallel position and sped off to anticipate where the animal was leading. As Penthesilea kept close to the chase, both women readied their spears, as it was the chosen weapon for the tough-skinned boar. They both began to close in on their prey from different directions.

Clearly challenging Hippolyte, the boar accelerated in its run toward her and Penthesilea prepared to make the first throw. Jumping off her horse as the animal approached and readying her spear to impale the charging beast in its frontal attack, Hippolyte planted the shaft of her weapon firmly against the earth and readied herself for the impact. Penthesilea feared her younger sibling would not be able to place the spear lethally at the animal's throat from her downhill position. Hippolyte, herself sensing this disadvantage decided to throw her weapon instead. Riding up close behind them, Penthesilea watched Hyppolte's throw which sent the sharp javelin glancing with power off the beast's hard head, grazing one of its eyes. This miscalculation left her sister in harms way of the large pig's sharp outer tusks and deadly hooves as it adjusted its path and violently turned on her.

As the muscular animal lunged for her sister amid a loud squeal, Penthesilea let fly her own javelin with great force intended to intersect with the beast in its attack. A powerful gust of wind hit the shaft of the spear in flight, grossly altering its trajectory by an arm's length. It sailed with great speed and force just to the right of the boar's vulnerable neck and tragically struck Hippolyte directly in the chest.

As her sister collapsed onto the ground with the long iron-tipped spear firmly logged within her, Penthesilea dove off her horse, double-bladed axe in hand. She landed upon the charging animal, breaking its momentum with the iron weapon. She sliced deeply into the boar's spine, paralyzing it, and then repeating to wield the symmetrical blades in a series of violent strokes until the incapacitated animal-its throat cut and one leg practically severed, rolled bleeding away from them into the brush. Wailing into the wind, Penthesilea dropped the labrys to kneal down and pick up her dying sister in her arms. She laid her in a clearing and removed the spear with some difficulty. Pressing her fingers deeply into the wound to try and stop the bleeding, she held her tightly against her own body until the girl's breathing could no longer be felt or heard. She kept her in this embrace under a tree all night and until the young Amazon's body was as cold as the earth beneath them.