After just witnessing the gruesome falling of my peers, as well as the tribe's chief, I needed still to locate my sister, and my cousin.
All that surrounded me was death.. The fallen, pike filled corpse of a tamed mammoth was within a few steps of me - steam rose from the pools of blood that surrounded it. The bodies of my peers, their eyes still stuck wide open, as if still alert despite their emptiness. The silence of the lack of life, matched the sight of the young corpses in its dread fullness. I needed to be somewhere else - I needed, to not be around this any longer.. But I didn't know where to go.. I hadn't a clue.
Beyond the scene was a desert of snow, empty and devoid of plant life, just a field of snow and fog, too thick to see through. Behind me were the woods, where the chief had fallen just a three minute walk away. I still didn't know where to find my younger sister, and my lost cousin. That, became my first priority.
The blood I had streaked down my face as makeshift warpaint had dripped down from where I set it, and frozen onto my cheek within minutes. The nervous sweat I had broken into turned to ice as fast as it came out. My thick wool, and fur, was no longer keeping my warm, but trapping in the chilling cold that creeped up and down my spine. Cold.. Cold, and horrifying.
I turned back to the woods, to search for my sister. The pine trees were packed in snowfall, but the ground below them was easier to walk on with the snow below thinned out under my feet. I tried to make my strides longer, to cover more ground as I called out for my younger sister.
It didn't take long before I found her. Like looking into a dazed and confused reflecting pool, she and I could probably only be distinguished by height. We shared the same shoulder length dark hair, flecked with half melted snowflakes, and skin paled by the constant chilled overcast.. even our bear skin clothing matched (Both made by our mother). She seemed ignorant of what I had just come across.. Our fallen kin. Simply, addressing me casually.. Asking me where I was, why I fell behind from the pack after the chief died... I hated having to explain to her what I saw.. What happened to the others. Then, we looked identical. Both just as frightened, and confused as the other, both wishing we could revert to that morning and restart the day with a different outcome.
We briefly trekked through the snow to find our cousin, without slightest clue of his fate. It was sadly safe to assume he had fallen, but been unnoticed. We couldn't stay around any longer, and so we headed for the village.
Tired, mentally drained, and confused.. We walked nearly an hour before we returned to the village.. Just a bit too late. I had never actually seen a raid before, but this one certainly looked to be nearing its end. As we arrived, we saw huts and homes up in a blue haze of flames. The snow flecked in patches of black smut that had burned, floated, and fallen. It was the Kaomin tribe, one of our oldest rivals. I don't know how we even told one another apart - as far as I knew, we both shared the same culture.. Similar heritage. But we still fought constantly over land, and petty disagreements that could be resolved simply, but never will be due to a deeper hatred passed from generation to generation. Even I, despite this knowledge, still have a broad distaste for any of their kind.
Kaomin Raiders tore through our lowered defenses easily. The time of trial, is a time of festival, not of warfare. Perhaps they didn't know better.. Or perhaps they did. Upon my arrival, my legs and arms were tired from lugging around equipment much larger than is intended for me, but I could not douse the fire within myself. That which burned hotter than the bitter, bone chilling cold could possibly hold back. The Kaomin were making their exit, their tribe's chief was one of the last to leave - like ours, he was recognized by his ceremonial head wear, and shoulder guards. He rode out on a chestnut steed, smug and carefree, a menace to our people. I despised him just from stories, and would not let him leave here, despite knowing we had already lost our battle on that day, I charged him. I, a girl who had only learned to use these tools in the past couple of weeks, up against a man who dedicated his life to it. Why should he even have bothered paying attention to me? He surely didn't.
He started to ride past, but Orome was on my side that day. With what I had left in me, I sent a spear in his direction. My thoughts were racing, but my mind blank, only wanting the man who I believed was responsible for the deaths that I had to face. Responsible for the misery I had to endure. I have never thrown a spear with the power I did on that day, at that very second, since then. With the same force the bear who had killed our Chief, my spear went true, piercing strait through his leather, and fur, and coming out the other end. He hadn't the time to react, before he was dismounted, and laid on his back.. in the same state he left my friends.. My first kill.. The first human life I ended, and it was the leader of our enemy. Yet I felt no pride.. No pain.. No joy.. No remorse. He was dead, and that was all there was to it..
Our enemies did not look back upon him, or they surely would have taken me. They knew not the fate of our Chief, since he was not fallen by their blade, or spear, and did not capitalize against us.
The months that followed were dull.. We paid tribute to our fallen.. That one cousin of mine I couldn't find, remained lost, and was presumed dead. The Chief was recovered, and given a proper ritual, and he was replaced by his eldest son. My Uncle, Raithulu. My sister and I, were considered great warriors, simply for surviving the ordeal (more or less because we never told them which one of us killed the chief of the Kaomin) and were both taken under the wing of our uncle, and the greater warriors of the tribe, for further training in the way of the spear. Our path was decided for us, and from there, is where our journey truly began, to become, Wardens of the tribe.
