Page 40 of His to Worship
I send a prayer of thanks to the Great Mother for a successful hunt and slit the animal’s throat, putting it out of its misery. From there, it is simple to drain the blood, the stream freezing quickly in the cold.
We do not need to carry around a dripping kill. It would only tempt predators we need not encounter, and the blood makes the animal heavier. Soon enough, the kill is slung over my shoulder and we are trekking forward. With another Lieq male, I would likely hunt another large game, but to burden the females with a kill to carry would slow us down too much. Instead, I lead us to the many traps set along our way back to the cave.
As we go, the females pull any catches from the traps and gather the materials that make each trap. We need not leave good traps here when we will not be returning to this space to check them.
By the time we finally reach the cave, the hunt has proven to be highly successful. Alongside the large oftii, we have managed to catch several smaller prey from the traps we set. We will be providing more than enough food to sustain us on our journey and enough to replace some of what we took from the cache.
Only one of the Great Mother’s eyes remains in the sky, casting a soft glow over the frozen landscape as we approach the cave. In the dim light I can see that Enikk’s group is back and everyone is gathered around the fire already.
Enikk notices our approach first. I am surprised to see he is seated next to the scared one and she does not flee from him. I arch an eyebrow at him as I get closer, but he just gives me a wide smile.
“Oy, clansman, your hunt was bountiful I see,” he calls out, alerting everyone else of our arrival. Immediately, the two females with me are enfolded in the group. “You are just in time, Kuvier. Your female has made us quite the meal.”
“You made this food?” I turn to Sedona in question, shifting the large oftii off my shoulders. She gives me a sheepish nod. “I will eat more than any other.”
Sedona throws her head back with a loud laugh. “How about you get cleaned up first, then worry about out-eating everyone else?”
I grin at her joy, but continue around the gaggle of females to deposit the oftii with the catches the other two had already set down. As I pass Sedona, I cannot help but smack a kiss on the top of her head.
Once I have rinsed my hands and face of the grime of the hunt, I find myself seated next to my mate with a helping of what she calls ‘gyro.’ She has cut oftii meat thinly, adding spices from my pouch I would not have thought to mix. There are purple leaves served alongside mala that has been toasted. The leaves are from one of the few mountainous plants that grow through the snow.
“Where did you get the averii leaves from?” I ask curiously as I take a bite. Letting out a groan, I am astounded by how delicious the meal is.
“Your female is very resourceful,” Enikk butts in. “She sent me searching for an edible leaf. I brought her several, and she liked averii the best.”
“She is a great many things,” I retort, gazing at my Sedona with awe.
A great many things indeed.
TWENTY-FIVE
- sedona -
“Seriously, why do I have to carry this stuff?” Krissy grumbles, heaving under the weight of the furry knapsack on her shoulders. “I didn’t sign up to be a pack mule for some frozen alien safari.”
Renata shoots her a glare. “Quit whining, Krissy. You’re literally carrying like twenty pounds. Chill.”
“We all have to carry our own weight. You’re not special,” Meghan adds with a roll of her eyes. Meghan and Renata walk next to each other, several paces ahead of the rest of us, close to Enikk and Amari who are leading our group.
“Yeah, well, some of us have more weight on their shoulders than others,” Krissy retorts, shooting a pointed look in my direction.
I roll my eyes, choosing to ignore her jabs. Not much I could say anyway, I am one of two people in the group carrying nothing. When it came time to divide weight, I’d packed my bag with every intention to carry it. But, Kuvier being him was adamant about me not carrying anything, insisting that I “focus on staying warm and saving energy for the journey ahead.” Thankfully, Enikk made the same choice for Amari, so I’m not alone.
“We’re headed to a village full of swinging dicks. If you’re that upset, get your own goat dude,” Samra butts in with a matter-of-fact tone, referencing the fact that Kuvier had already explained his clan’s lack of women his age.
I fight the grin threatening to split my face. Samra’s come to be one of my favorite people. Her no bullshit attitude and willingness to tell the truth above all else makes her someone I enjoy being around. I love not having to guess her thoughts.
Her statement shuts Krissy up, a respite I know won’t last long. If there’s one thing that girl can do, it’s complain and talk. She’d told us all (very haughtily, I might add) that she was a big shot lawyer on Earth. So, I guess her never ending arguing makes some sense.
The landscape stretches out before us, a vast expanse of snow-covered terrain that seems both daunting and exhilarating. As we walk, the crunch of snow beneath our shoes fills the air, punctuated by occasional murmurs of conversation. We’ve been on the move for several hours. The walk is slow but consistent, and we haven’t stopped once.
“How long do you think we will walk today?” I ask Kuvier, squinting up at him through the three suns at his back.
“Many more paces. We will want to reach the cache before the second eye closes.”
The further into the mountains we walk, the more the path begins to narrow. Now in an alleyway created by mountainous rock, the wind and snow become even more treacherous, howling around us like a living entity. It’s definitely colder up here too, the kind of chill that seeps into your bones and makes you ache.
“How are you?” Kuvier asks after we’ve walked for a while without another stop. We’re down to only two suns in the sky and his voice is barely audible over the wind.