Stone Punk Chapter One

Stone Punk Chapter One: Hunters in the Dawn

    Things had gone wrong right from the start. 15 year-old Dreght clutched his spear tightly, running in the near-dark of dawn. Trees flashed by as he sprinted across the frozen ground. An elk burst the wrong way out of the shrubs straight at him. Past him, both of them dodging to avoid impact. The deep smell of deer briefly swirled though the cold empty scent of snowy pine. A yearling calf came next-  impulsively, Dreght swung his spear like a club at its legs, tripping it, lost his own balance, fell. He scrabbled on all fours in the snow, couldn’t get his spear. The calf was bounding to its feet, mamma elk coming back for it at full speed. Dreght leaped for a tree, put it between him and the angry 1,000 pound mother, sucking three big gasps of the cold mountain air into his lungs. He pushed off downhill, running through the redwoods. Ahead of him, Vereghk screamed again.

      Swerving around a tree at full speed, he almost stepped on the prone body of Gogghrath in the elk-trampled snow. Dreght skidded to his knees and fell back toward the hunter. Gogghrath was groaning. Further into the woods, Vereghk was shouting. Dreght nudged the injured man laying next to him. “Gogghrath!?”

“Go... Vereghk,” Gogghrath wheezed, “Vereghk,” but Drehgt was already up and sprinting on.

      He could hear the stomping, the crack of antlers breaking brittle branches. Leader Frightch appeared to his right, focused on the source of the noise. Ahead of them an angry bull elk came into view, doing its best to kill Vereghk, who was desperately playing a game of round-the-tree tag with it.

      The giant deer was twice Frightch’s hight, with antlers nearly the same distance wide, and it weighed more than ten of him; a creature of both bulk and grace. The lead hunter noticed  Dreght first with relief, then with an angry questioning look, shaking his own spear at the spear-less young man. Dreght ducked his head in a shrug and scanned the ground for something, anything to use as a weapon, as his leader began advancing on the pirouetting beast.

      Frightch added his shouts to those of his brother Vereghk, and when Dreght, too, began to shout as he threw rocks at it, it finally stopped its rampaging to reassess things. Dreght hit it squarely with another fist sized rock. 

“NO!” Frightch shouted “we need!  ...him,” but it was too late, the massive animal was already in full flight. Frightch dropped his spear, strode over to Dreght, and clubbed him in the chest with both fists, knocking him down and standing over him. Dreght looked up at him while the surrounding woods returned to their customary stillness, and the blood pounded in his ears. 

      Moments later, rejoined by limping Gogghrath and young Skaghet, the five squat, bristle-bearded hunters took stock of the situation. It was a disaster. The Family was desperate for meat. Instead, they had seriously injured nearly half their hunters.

“Blood, look” said Dreght, optimistically pointing at the few splotches of crimson in the ruins of snow around Vereghk’s tree. “We may be able to catch up to it”

      Vereghk, one arm hanging limp, leaning heavily against the tree that had saved his life, disagreed hoarsely “No good; I missed. It was almost on top of me, there were so many, very fast. I stabbed at the soft spot, here,” he gestured between his hip and his stomach, “but I hit bone, the leg I think. It twisted my whole arm, broke my spear, threw me into the air. When the big elk turned to fight, I could see it was not injured much. It may limp, it will not bleed much or long; probably, we can not track it.” 

      His older brother Frightch, grunted in agreement, gestured around at the group, looking at Dreght “Gogghrath’s leg does not work, Vereghk’s arm does not work, and you and Skaghet are too young to pair or assign alone. The big bull fought easily, ran easily. If it is wounded less than will kill it, we can not go after it like this. I would like to leave one able hunter with the two injured to return home and send two of us after the elk, but who would go? Who would stay? We failed. The elk lives today.”

      Dreght, knowing Frightch lay some of the blame for that failure on him, tried to find a solution. “You could go,” he said to the head of the family, “and take Skaghet; he is only 12 years, but has his full height to add to your strength and wisdom. I am tallest, and strong, though young. I would stay and do all Vereghk says; his shoulder is injured, not his head.” 

      Their Leader mulled it over. Then Skaghet spoke up as Frightch considered. 

“Leader,” he said, nervously, the first thing he had said all day, “I saw... I saw strange people.”

      Four pairs of eyes locked onto Skaghet. “People? Are you sure? What people?” Frightch asked, “Breghath’s Family? Norbagh and his stupid brood?”

      Skaghet shook his head, “No. Strange... I saw strange people up the mountain, across the open grass when the hunt began. They were tall. Their hair was black. They were, different. Not like other families, maybe not people? But, they had strange clothes, they talked, they had people faces. Almost. Strange, but people.”

      Frightch stood immediately, picked up his spear, waved a hand, “This hunt is over,” he said definitively, “lets go now; Gogghrath, can you walk, or do you need a pull-cot?”

      Gogghrath tried a few hobbled steps using his spear like a crutch, grimacing, “Maybe not the whole day- you think there will be trouble?”

“Skaghet said they talked. He heard them talk. We’ve been shouting. They must know we are here. Why didn't you tell us right away, Skaghet?"

"The elk.. everything happened so fast, Vereghk screamed, I thought, I would tell you after we killed the elk, I thought..." he trailed off helplessly"

      Vereghk shot a glance at his older brother "The People from Over the Mountain?"

      Frightch frowned, "I don't care. New neighbor-family, or grandfather's old stories, whoever it is, they might be watching us by now. We must get down the mountain quickly, we are not strong enough for a fight, if fighting is what they chose. Skaghet, you should have told us sooner. We may lose more than that elk today; let us go very fast, and quiet.” Swiftly, nervously, the five dwarvish hunters moved off deeper into the woods through the early morning light.