ch002: the dream and the hunt

Vardlokkur awoke long before the dawn with the strong feeling of loss and longing. He has been traveling alone since last spring, visiting people living far to the south. He has spent last summer on the shores of the great lake. 

That girl visited him in the dreams again. Her face, full lips, long dark hair, beautiful hips and long legs still danced in his mind. The smooth, longing music of the nomadic tribes of the south played a lonely note in his head, her hips shook rhythmically to the drum beat, her beautiful hands spread to the sides followed the soft tone. She was not of his people, but then again, there were so many strange people from different nations down south, not like here, up in the northern mountains. Here, lived his people, but he still missed her.

The beautiful shapes of his dreams have fled quickly as if scared of this cold night in this far, far away place. Suddenly, he felt emptiness piercing his soul. There was no point sleeping anymore, he needed to clear his head. 

He got out of the shelter and could still see the stars above the tree tops, he recognized familiar constellations, for him they were old friends, compass, calendar and the time piece. It was early, but it was a good time to think about a hunt. Normally, he hunted the rabbits and and prairie hens with snares, he did not need to take any bigger animals, normally he wouldn't, but since he traveled mostly in dense forest for last few weeks, he did not see any rabbits, nor fowl. He got a few squirrels, but they had hardly any meat on them in spring. This time he had to get deer and early morning was the best time for it. He back-tracked to the edge small clearing he spotted the last night and waited with the clear view of the path, downwind. The bow he carried was a war bow, used more for the defense than hunting. A smaller man, or woman could hook the bowstring on the tree branch and hang on it while holding to the bow handle and not being able stretch it to the full draw. He would use the bow on bears, wolves, bob cats in these forests, or the lions and tigers of the south, he did not like to take big animals unnecessarily. Yes, he had to use it against humans, too, but he had no regrets about these he had slain. The fifty paces of clearing was nothing for the bow, he knew that the arrow would pass clearly thru the deer chest on both sides smashing the bones on the way, he could do the same at two hundred paces. He waited, knowing the deer would eventually come to the clearing.

The music of a stringed instrument of a far away came back to his mind, it filled the forest around, the shy light was emerging to the east.

There was a hardly hearable movement across the clearing, a small heard of deer entered carefully. He spotted the smaller doe at the end. Silently, he made a short prayer and let the heavy arrow fly, the bowstring hitting home was almost totally silent due to the bow profile and the feathers intertwined into the bowstring. The arrow that came thru the doe and splashed some bark of the old tree behind. The herd run across the clearing and toward Vardlokkur, never aware of his presence. The doe never knew what hit it, it was dead in few seconds, still on the edge of the clearing, few steps from where it stood.