The Race to Freedom

Uzimati 2

There. He saw it. It was grazing on a strand of fuzzy plant, munching peacefully. Uzimati halted in his tracks, brandishing his obsidian-edged spear into his hand. Setting the spear into position, he saw the animal had transformed itself from the creature he remembered. Roundness and short black tails were normally attributed to this succulent creature. But now they were more lean, more power in their muscles, and their tails were longer and glinted with a razor-edge in the sunlight. This was a tougher opponent to bring down.

Silent as the still air itself, he snuck forward on the tips of his toes, bent forward, head up, mouth shaped in a O, the shape it always fell to during the precipice of a hunt. 

The deer saw him. Shun! he thought to himself, but outwardly remained still. It would be pointless to throw the spear now.

The deer charged forward, directly at him, eyes crackling with an anger and ferocity Uzimati had never experienced nor expected. Deers were timid creatures, easily startled and always (always!) ran at the slightest sense of danger. But this was a different world, a different time, and deers weren't cowards of the past. 

Himself, Uzimati was shocked. This was bizarre. But it wasn't necessarily a bad thing. He wasn't going to run, he wasn't going to tell this deer that a human could be scared. He quickly threw the spear at it, shooting in a swift blur. In a millisecond, it sliced a deep gash through the left side of the deer's face, burrowing deep into its bulging shoulder muscle. It screamed, thrashing, Uzimati stepped back, looking around for a second weapon. Sometimes a rock or a big tree club could help finish the animal once it was wounded. But he didn't want to annihilate his opponent. He wanted to eat it. 

Taking steps back, Uzimati sprayed his eyes around manically. He saw a large bow-like object to his right and snatched it up, just in time to see the creature, blood squirting out and running in rivulets across its face, charge only five metres away. He jumped to the side and felt the beast rush past him in a bursting gush of air. 

It circled around for a second attempt, but Uzimati was too quick. With all the strength of a top Miwok Tribe hunter, he smashed the wood into the face of the deer with one mighty swing. The deer was crushed, knocked to the side by the humongous blow. It twisted, spasmed before a second before its heavy breathing gave out. It lay still at the feet of Uzimati. 

When he returned, Dante and Yula had been shocked to see a massive deer strung limply over his back. Uzimati just walked past, descending into his traditional scowling facial expression, as if this were all their fault. As if they weren't trapped here too. 

They had cooked the deer, and Dante had been surprised when Uzimati took some of the bones. Throwing them away, he did not do. Instead, he began to use the sinew alongside with some cedar Yula had found to begin hand-crafting some sort of device. When he asked Yula to ask Uzimati what he was doing, Uzimati had grinned at him with a bright white smile. 

"He says he wants to increase the hunter levels". And no more was said.

So the next day they had continued. It was Day 3 now since their sudden and unexpected arrival onto the land of mystery. They had tried following a river for a while, but it was small, virtually no greater than a tiny tributary whose springs were located only after a few hours of marching up hill over dusty rocks and tree roots which to Dante looked like the tendrils of some enormous creepy beast. But they had pressed on, Uzimati leading. He miraculously understood their direction simply taking a quick casual glance at the stars. Now, with spear in hand as a makeshift walking stick, he was forcing a severe pace. 

Dante was hauling himself over yet another valley ridge, filled with the traditional giant trees and baking humidity when he noticed Uzimati had paused, gazing transfixed upon the view ahead. 

Uzimati felt pinpricks of deja vu sweep through him as he absorbed the scene ahead. Shock blossomed into delight, and he charged forward, running on and on, faster and faster, legs rushing in a shaking blur of motion. 

Dante watched him until he was out of sight, hidden by the great massive trunk of one of the smaller redwood trees. Yula stood next to him, scanning the ground ahead meticulously. 

"Do you see that?" She asked him. He had become more relaxed in her company, but she still gave him a strange sense of unease.

"I see trees, and I see more trees, and I do not see hope" he said bitterly, beginning to walk forward.

"Well, I see a building, and I also see smoke. Black smoke. Don't you?"

Dante tried, tried but his vision obviously was not as good. "I think I might need glasses" he muttered sadly, wondering if the race offered an optometrist. 

"Glasses?" She asked quizzically, and then realized, remembering an old journal she had read "Oh." 

"Well" she continued. "We'd better not lose our finest deer-hunter". 

Dante looked at the strong bow that Uzimati had made for him that night when they had eaten a great deer-centered feast. Pears and deer. His first proper meal in the wilderness.

"Not for long" he grinned shakily, and began running after Uzimati, Yula galloping and skipping behind him.