Heartseed: The fanged huntress

Stealth and Patience

As Asiu awoke, she was welcomed back to reality by a large grin on her brother's face.

"Do not panic, Asiu. You are safe" Tchumnetu assured her, with lips unmoving and a careful touch of his palm to her forehead "I have brought you back to the mountain".

"My osa? What of it?" She asked him drunkenly, still fatigued and not fully recovered, as she attempted raise herself.

Gently removed his hand from her forehead and placing it onto her chest and cupping her head, he lowered her back onto the bed.

"It is where all osa lay, with the osani, in the cleansed water. You need not worry. Restore yourself, then you may visit it, if you wish". With that, her brother respectfully put his forehead to hears before averting his sight from her as he exited her hut. The last time he would gaze upon her until she was with her offspring.

She lay there, on the bed of rock and grass, staring at the cloudless, grey sky through a small hole in the roof of the hut. Through this sight and the slight smell of moisture in the air, she already knew that rainfall would fall upon her tribe this night.

As she stared at the sky, a hazy image returned to her which then developed into a memory.

In such weather as would soon fall upon the tribe, Asiu once sat in a large, orange field; not too far from her tribe but further than most were willing to go alone.

In this field, she silently waited as small droplets of water delicately dribbled down her black face. She waited patiently. A long inhale and even longer exhale. One after another. She did not look out to the fields but instead lowered her head and placed her hands to the soil below her. With this calm rhythm of breathing, she allowed the chuka, small organs within her palms, to slowly vibrate and pulse.

With each of these pulses, she was able to see more of the landscape around her; though colourless and plain. This skill, sense through vibration, was one that all Atsiuni had, as all Atsiuni have chuka, but only very few had mastered such a skill so finely. Asiu's talent was rare.

Through these pulses, though slightly disrupted by the increasing droplets of rain that had begun to fall, she could see so much more. She could feel, just a few centimetres below her, the long, string-like insects that thrived and swam through the soil. She could see an distant creature pecking this soil only to then gracefully sweep into the air. Even better though, she discovered another animal not too far away from her location. She listened delicately as the mother tended to its children. She could hear the squeaks of its children as they delighted in playing with eachother. Here she focused harder.

With this patience and focus, she could just hear the beating within the chest of the mother. Slow but with quick flickers of strength. The mother was nervous, as one would need to be in the wildlands, but completely unaware that its presence had been noted. Another potential issue that this sensation meant that this animal had recently been bitten by a more ferocious predator, the venomous Sugr. A tough contender.

Asiu knew the target animal well. Far to long had she hunting these down. However, never before had a mother travelled do far from the great lake with it's offspring.

These animals were light grey in colour with a thick line of fuzz that followed the spine. A herbivore with a rounded head and bulky body. A large shield on its forehead allowed for it to attack prey or defend from predators. Incredibly strong, able to topple a small tree with enough force. But this strength and weight came at a cost. Where these animals were strong, they were slow and often easily frightened.

Asiu could only assume that this small family had travelled from the lake, their usual habitat to eat in a territory that had not already been taken by others of its kind. A risky choice but such is the burden of parenthood. Or do she believed.