"Yes," answered Shizumaat. My friend introduced both of us to the hunter and Haruda nodded at a place before it. We sat and the hunter said, "Let us hear your first question."
Then my friend asked a question that surprised me. "Haruda," began Shizumaat, "the size of the kill you return with every day; it could make you master of this tribe’s clan masters. Your ability to fill the mouths of the Kuvedah could fill your hands with power. Yet you remain a hunter. Why are you not the Kuvedah’s master of masters?"
Haruda studied Shizumaat, then laughed. "Is it your mind that my success at hunting would also make me a success at ruling the Kuvedah?"
Shizumaat thought. "No. It would not make you a success at ruling the tribe. Nevertheless, it is common to see those who turn the thing they can do into a means to force others to make them something they cannot do so well, but for which they will be well rewarded."
The hunter shook its head. "I do no such thing."
"Still, you could force your rule upon the tribe if you wanted. Is it simply that you do not want to rule?"
The great hunter looked up from dressing a stone point and frowned at Shizumaat. "I am what I want to be, young one. The path to my happiness does not cross that of either Kangar’s or Buna’s. I have no desire to rule."
Shizumaat thought some more. "Haruda, do you not think that one graced with a godly gift is meant to rule, rather than grub for food?" I looked at my friend as though Shizumaat had gone mad. Why was it baiting this great hunter?
Haruda stood and its skin changed from yellow to red-brown. "I hunt, young one with all the questions. I do not grub. And my skill at hunting I earned. It is no gift."
"One more question, Haruda." I was torn between wanting to run from the hunter’s presence and strangling my friend.
"Be quick," ordered Haruda.
"If your skill at hunting is no gift, what then do you do differently? Why do the other hunters bring in so much less game?"
"They have their ways, and I have mine. My ways are better." Tired of the questions, at last, the hunter stood, turned, and entered its hut.
Silently cursing Shizumaat for offending Haruda, I waited until we returned to our shelter. A food preparer brought us some cooked meat, and by the time we had finished eating, my anger had passed. Still, when we stretched out to go to sleep, I asked, "Why did you question Haruda in that manner? Most of the things you asked had nothing to do with hunting."
"No, Namndas, but they did have everything to do with the hunter."
"What do you mean, Shizumaat?"
"Now I know Haruda. I can now put aside studying Haruda and can concentrate my study upon what Haruda does."
Before Aakva’s light touched the sky, the hunters began stirring. We ate cold cakes and drank leaf tea with them and Shizumaat went to Buna and begged for us to be allowed to accompany the hunters. Buna laughed at Shizumaat. "The hunt is difficult enough without being burdened with two youths who never ran the grass."
"Namndas and I are to be denied this experience because we have no experience?"
"Yes," answered Buna.
Feeling as though I should say something, I said, "But to get experience don’t we need to experience the experience?" Each word that came out of my mouth sounded more stupid than the one that preceded it. I was cursing my mouth when Shizumaat nodded approvingly at me.
"Very well said, my friend."
"Impossible," said Buna, despite my pithy argument.
"I will take the pair of them with me," said Haruda. We turned and looked. The chief of the hunt had been listening to us.
Buna frowned, yet its lips seemed eager to smile. "Haruda, we rely upon your skill now more than ever that the game has thinned. These young ones would hamper you, would they not?"
Haruda turned from Buna and looked through the tent opening at the other hunters as they packed their food and weapons for the hunt. "Many times I have claimed to be able to teach my hunting ways to the other hunters. Just as many times, they have all said that it is a god gift, and continued to bring in less each season. It is my intention to take these two soft temple creatures with me on the hunt, and by dark the tribe will proclaim Shizumaat and Namndas next to me as the greatest hunters on the Kudah. Perhaps then the other hunters will allow me to show them what I know."
The hunters, when they were told Shizumaat and I were to become great hunters, laughed at what they thought was Haruda’s joke. There was Buna’s prayer for a good hunt, then, upon Haruda’s silent signal, the hunters began walking east toward the mountain of the morning sun.
By the time Aakva was above the mountain, its light making us shield our eyes, the hunters had broken into smaller parties and had gone in different directions. Shizumaat, Haruda, and I were left by ourselves. Shizumaat and I followed Haruda farther to the east until Aakva was a hand’s breadth above the mountain. It then stopped, turned about and faced us.
"You wished to know what I do differently from the others. Today you shall learn. The most important thing you should learn is that I am no more talented or gifted than the other hunters. Why I bring down more game is simply the manner in which I hunt. First, though, we shall see how the others hunt."
Haruda crouched and began running in a great arc toward the left. We raced after it, and soon we began ascending a slight rise in the plain. Just before reaching the crest, Haruda crouched and Shizumaat and I crouched next to it. Haruda pointed down toward the west and we looked. "See, there? There in the stalks just before the trees. It is Vorusma’s head. In the distance there should be game."
I strained my eyes and could just make out the movement of stalks in the still air. The hunter called Vorusma crept silently toward the movement. Vorusma stopped as a horned head atop a long neck came up from the moving stalks. It was a fine, huge darghat. The head, almost without perceptible motion, surveyed the beast’s surroundings. When the creature’s gaze came to rest upon Vorusma, the beast reared up, turned, and fled. Vorusma hefted its weapons and followed at a dead run, trying to mount its spear in its throw-sling.
I had never seen anyone run as fast as that hunter, but Haruda laughed and pointed as the darghat outdistanced Vorusma. The hunter did not quit running until it dropped into the stalks, exhausted.
"Young ones," said Haruda, "I could show you the same act a hundred times today, for this is how the Kuvedah hunts the darghat and has always hunted the darghat since before Daultha had its doubts. Sometimes the darghat is old and slow, sometimes stupid. Sometimes the others bring in game, but not often. Now I shall show you how Haruda hunts the darghat; and how you shall become great hunters."
We moved to a treegrove, and rested in the top of a thorn tree. Through its branches the plain could be seen for a day’s hard walk. After a few moments, the hunter pointed at a movement in the distant stalks. "There. Do you see it?"
The tall grass moved and I faced the hunter. "I see the stalks moving," I answered.
Shizumaat whispered, "A darghat!"
I looked back. In the distance I could the see the distinctive long neck and horned head rising above the tips of the stalks.