SABIS the SURVIVOR

Chapter 9: Encounter

Chapter 9: Encounter

Sabis stayed seated as he caught his breath. The spear in his right hand had impaled itself into the softer and more forgiving earth of the beast's lair. The spear looked like a lightning rod, ready to attract any rogue atmospheric electrical bursts. Fortunately for Sabis, the storm that raged was a simple ice storm without any thunder.

Just overhead from this protected alcove, he could hear the screaming wind whip the ice pellets at will. If he were still exposed to that ice storm, he shuddered at how those pellets would be hurtling at his face and other vulnerable areas.

An even deeper chill ran through his veins as he scanned the floor of his temporary refuge. About ten feet in front of him lay the brass handle of his prized blade. But there was no blade attached to it.

He let out a deeply disappointed and frosty breath for the lost blade.

"I must have jammed the hilt into the edge of the icy entrance as I slid into this refuge. Unfortunately, the tribe's blacksmiths had not ever tested their blade and handle construction on an icy crag."

He scanned the dimly illuminated area directly underneath the entrance to this lair but observed no blade. Otherwise, the entire lair was ensconced in shadows. Sabis raised his right hand to two feet in front of his face.

"How many fingers do you see?" he mockingly aped the tribal medicine healer that his Mother insisted that he visit after every visit to the Sea of Fertility.

After several long and slow breaths, his vision adjusted to the beast's shadowed den.

There lay a pile of bones stacked up in the shape of a pyramid. This miniature bone mountain of apparent discards stood as high as Sabis' shoulders.

"Oh Mother Earth, one more set of bones and this pile would topple over. I best be moving on before that huge creature catches me for his meal."

Sabis quickly scanned the pile for anything familiar.

He wondered how the pile of bones stuck to each other. Was there some glue that the beast excreted from its saliva?

Staring intently at this pile of discarded bones reminded him of a time in his younger days when he and an Elder tribesman from the Over Strata had participated in the 'coming of age' ritual. Though his birth afforded him an automatic OverStrata membership, in order to become a full-fledged warrior member of the Overs, he required an Elder to observe his first tracking and subsequent killing of prey.

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His eagerness to succeed at this 'track and kill' test for the coming of age ritual had caused him to spend far too much time polishing his hardened bone blade and solid oak handle that his Father had bestowed upon him in his earlier time. This was his first chance at glory, at the age of thirteen, to achieve warrior status. Both his Father and Mother had praised him for his warrior skills and he beamed with pride as he felt his tunic caress his lean torso and support his breathing with its flexible fabric. He donned a hunter's head-wreath adorned with the shells of crustaceans found in the 'Sea of Snails' and he carried his bone blade and bone spear regally like a true warrior, across his upper back slung in a lightweight harness made of entrails.

Elder Bullis met him near the 'Wall of Dancers', where ritual dances were performed at the end of the track and kill test. For those who succeeded on their test, they would dance with glee around a fire made from the bones of the recently slain prey. Then they would take a bone from the fire and scratch a stripe into their forehead thus marking them as a full-fledged and 'hardened' tribal member.

For those who failed their test, they would forego the dance and forehead stripe ceremony. Afterward, trudging around the bone ash remains like a bone collector, these unsuccessful warrior recruits would collect the fire's cooled ashes and spread them on their cheekbones so that they would temporarily carry the 'sign of softness'. These softer recruits would have to wait until their next ritual of fire before they could 'earn their stripe.'

Sabis and Elder Bullis traveled outside of the caves for the test, dressed in their mossy tunics and headgear. Mud covered their hands and their feet. The ritual hunting grounds were located far away from their home cave and thus they carried water and cave rations in their knapsacks. First they traveled underground for nearly a steam cycle. When they finally arrived at the steep and perilous mountainous terrain, Sabis was ready to show off his basic tracking technique: he felt the ground for heat signatures and listened to the songs of nature for clues as to his prey's whereabouts. Soon he spotted a male Markhor that darted away at high speed.

Sabis observed all four corners of the surrounding area that his prey used as a refuge. Carefully and quietly, he and Bullis cornered the prey. Sabis noticed hidden underneath a pile of discarded bones ꟷ his prey's hiding place. He squatted in his warrior stance and breathed in sync with the cool wind that prevailed. In through his nose and out through his mouth. When finally he spotted the rustling in that pile of bones, Sabis impaled his prey with a quick thrust of his bone spear.

Sabis now recalled Bullis' words from that experience:

Don't tell him what he wants to know, don't sell him any souls that glow. Keep close those who speak from the core, save their words and perhaps more. Believe when an elder bows, swear an oath and take some vows. Forever young breathe spirits proud, they render their decision loud.

Not a slave on a quest, or one to lie down like the rest. Yoked with wounded hide and foolish pride, torn between the tried and true. Current trends and things to do, no matter what, he sees it through.

The world is waiting for a new man, with an attitude for choice. A yen for defending land, someone who avoids slipping through sand, does not teeter nor play games, faces his judgment and accepts blame. As he climbs each mountain and perceives its mist, walks with time and registers risk.

Whispering souls travel the wind, they speak to his fear with ease, and carry it away to a better place. A gift that lets him see, the shape of now is what we do.

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Could he prevail over this new beast in SkyGod's domain? He breathed in through his nose and assumed a warrior stance while the cold wind howled above. Like a torrent of rushing water, the gale-force wind muffled the surrounding sounds that Sabis could have used to hear an advancing or retreating prey. As he focused on the bone pyramid, Sabis did not hear or notice the return of the beast behind him. With a 'get out you're not welcome' roar, the beast stood on its two hind legs, as thick as ancient tree trunks, and showed Sabis that he should be ready to flee.

As the beast charged him from behind, Sabis dodged the beast's claws and snapping jaw by taking two steps then grabbing hold of his 'grounded' lightning rod spear, swinging himself around the spear and then prying loose a rather long and sharp rib bone from the bone stack. He uttered a quick and reflexive prayer,

"Mother Earth, with your strength and power, guide my hand in this desperate hour. Let it be."

Not looking at the beast's sharp fangs or menacing size, Sabis zeroed in on the beast's exposed chest. He launched his newly acquired weapon with full force at the beast as his foe hurtled towards him. Sabis' scalp tingled with the huge rush of air as the beast's momentum carried it past him, finally slamming into the bone pyramid.

The wind above the lair still screamed as the beast's saliva streamed out of its maw. But now there was only the howling wind. Sabis had to blink back his tears from the biting cold air. Now the swirling wind caught the beast's spurting blood and streaming saliva in an updraft and then like a frothy red and white torpedo, the fluidic mixture crashed into the side of Sabis' face almost knocking him over. More blood pulsated outwards from the beast's pierced heart. In an instant, it fell over to one side and in so doing, caused an audible crack as several of the ribs from the pyramid were severed.

Sabis approached the felled beast and attempted to remove the projectile that he had thrown only a moment ago. As the sharp rib bone was first released by the beast's deeper softer parts, then by the less yielding muscle and hide, Sabis almost fell backward onto a cracked rib that was lying on the ground next to the beast.