SABIS the SURVIVOR

Chapter 8: Hand-to-Hand

Chapter 8: Hand-to-Hand

On the first day of warrior training, at the age of fourteen, Ravis learned the Ways of the Warrior passed down through fifty generations. Originally, Gadis the Great, the original warrior, had laid down his heart and soul for the Survivor Tribe─he had given his life for the tribe's continued existence. But before his ultimate sacrifice, it is believed that his philosophy included these commandments for the warrior:

1- Honour Mother Earth in all that you do

2- Each tribe member will help each other heal their wounds

3- Tracking and killing of beasts is performed only when necessary

4- Past hurts and errors reside in the past

The need for warrior recruitment was two-fold for the tribe: 1- Warriors performed the track and kill rituals every thirty steam cycles. These rituals provided needed resources for the tribe, and 2- Warriors could defend the tribe against marauders or other tribe enemies, like herds of wild beasts or rival tribal factions. Though in the history of the Survivor tribe, it has never occurred that a rival faction has launched an attack, the Elders maintain that it is essential for warriors to learn the art of hand-to-hand combat.

Young males and females were recruited by the Elders for warrior training. Training began at age fourteen for males and age thirteen for females. When a male recruit reaches the age of sixteen and a female reaches eighteen, they are offered a chance to track and kill. If they are successful, the Elders may promote them to full warrior status. They then can be called upon to track and kill for the tribe and defend the tribe in case of an enemy incursion.

Altogether for both the Over and UnderStrata, ten males and two females performed warrior duties. They served the seventy families that comprised the entire tribe. At its peak, the Survivor tribe possessed nearly two hundred families but with no contact with outside populations, occasional famines, miscarriages, and the increasing death toll from this dreaded affliction, the population dwindled to the current low point. Warriors lived for the glory of the kill as well as to honour Mother Earth. It was believed that warriors were both born and groomed for their role. So when Ravis, Dreis, Regis and Uris scored the highest point totals after the first two rounds of the Games, the Elders took note of who they would focus their attention on for future full-warrior status.

Women warriors were a recent addition to the tribe. In recent times, more and more tribe members had succumbed to the mysterious and deadly affliction, in particular the male warriors. So the Elders had proposed the addition of women to the warrior ranks and the tribe had voted in favour of their proposal.

Most women remained in their home caves to care for their young. Single and childless women typically spent their time either teaching in the school, gathering and sorting gemstones, or performing other tasks such as weaving, cleaning, cooking, drying and planting and harvesting vegetables. Men typically traded on the plateau, foraged for lichens, built conduits for water, fashioned tools for cave life, managed the steam baths and heat distribution, worked in the forge, and performed tribal medicine rituals.

-------------------------------

Regis

While waiting for the third and final round to begin, the remaining four contestants prepared themselves mentally and physically for their combat matches. They stretched, drank water, rehearsed their defensive parries and offensive strikes, and meditated.

As Ravis contemplated his upcoming one-versus-one against Uris, the boy he had just subdued and threatened to kill, Regis approached holding his hands open and spoke with a soft, apologetic tone:

"Hey Rave, I know that we got off on the wrong foot before, but I want you to know that I hold no grudges against you. Let the past stay in the past, as the Elders teach, and may the best man or woman win."

He winked at Ravis, backed off slowly, then turned and walked over to an Elder who was busy placing and securing a leather bag filled with small stones onto the upper arms of Dreyis. Regis and she would face-off in the first preliminary heat of the third round of the Games.

After the Elder finished fastening one leather stone-filled sac around each of his bicep regions, Regis pulled out his obsidian knife and slashed an imaginary horizontal line across his line of vision. Then he tinkered with his leather handle, spitting on it then rubbing it on his armoured vest.

He embraced these combat challenges as opportunities to feel the tension of battle. His Father was a Survivor tribe warrior and used to wrestle with him, even as a child. After wrestling, Regis would receive praise for his developing prowess as a 'warrior' and a hug that would squeeze him so tight that his insides were massaged.

When his Father did not come home that one steam cycle, his Mother left Regis with the neighbour, then followed the route that the warriors would take on their way back home from the hunting grounds. After searching long after Regis had fallen asleep, she eventually found him wandering around in circles near the Sea of Salinity. When she asked him why he had not come straight home, he babbled on about some lava flow and then pointed to the sky and shouted, "It is your fault why the world is full of ice and sleet, why the caves are the only place that we can find heat; in the name of Mother Earth, I command, I beseech. In the name of all that is holy, if I could reach, then I would change the ice to sand so we could live life as a beach."

Mother brought his Father to the Shaman and Shamanka. She pleaded with them to restore her husband's well-being. She said that she would do whatever she needed to do, perform any ritual, sacrifice anything so that Hurlis and Lourdis could successfully bring balance back into her soul mate's failing mind and body. But her supplications were all to no avail.

After that time, Father remained at home, rapidly losing his mobility until his muscles atrophied and he stopped breathing. Regis had seen the one man who he had loved and respected, fall down into a pit of self-pity and despair. His Father had been the strong one in the family but the affliction had knocked him over. He could not rise up from this sudden stroke of bad luck.

No words were spoken at his Father's death ceremony. Regis, being the only son and child, cut his palm, sent his Father's bones into Bone Lake ( the Sea of Fertility ), and received the usual platitudes from other families:

"Stay strong, you will honour your Father's memory with your deeds."

"You are the man in your family. Show your Father's spirit how a man lives."

While he struggled to recuperate from the loss of his Father, his friends avoided him─perhaps out of fear of catching the affliction or for fear of saying something really stupid like, "It's okay Regis, you still have your Mother."

Those silent times that followed depressed his Mother. She lost her drive to rise from her hammock or to socialize with the neighbours or her friends. So Regis decided to entertain her with an array of jolly jests, witty wisecracks, whimsical observations, and nonsensical quips.

By about thirty steam cycles afterwards, something changed inside of him. From a shy boy who hardly spoke, he became outspoken and willing to ally himself with others who could benefit from his loquaciousness. He became the school clown, the talkative one, the person who could fill the silence.

Now at these Stone Games, he was on the cusp of showing his Father's spirit that he had indeed remembered the lessons from his earlier time. This combat would give him the chance to seduce his prey with words, display himself as a worthy warrior-to-be, and capture the title of Stone Games Winner.

The ram's horn blew loud and long signaling the two combatants to take their stances. Dreyis and he stood opposite each other, only a body length separated them. Regis knew that this was his time. So he closed his eyes, breathed slow and deep, felt the blade in his right hand, and drifted away to his promised land─one where he emerged triumphantly.