The Great Hunt was one of the most important events of the year, and served to reunite its members in view of the great reunion of the tribe. Each clan brought grain, cheese, eggs and liquor in order to demonstrate their wealth, but bringing as much game to the feast as possible was a sign of strength and prestige for the clan as a whole.

But, this was also a way for individual lineages to be seen. The gifts were made in the name of the entire clan, but every head of the family gifted what their own lineage had procured with their own hands, so as to make their strength and importance visible to the eyes of their own clan and the others.

I was thinking about this as I found myself stationed in the bushes, waiting for the deer to charge with my brother. Wallia was further back and patiently waiting for me to begin the chase.

Soon, the ground began to shake at the sound of numerous hooves. From the bushes stampeded a group of deer, driven by a pack of dogs that bit on their heels. Some heads of families were following them, shooting arrows that stuck in the quarters of the slower animals. One of the deer didn't take long to fall to the ground and was immediately caught by the dogs.

Within moments the herd passed in front of us and the two of us started chasing them. On the other side, another pair of hunters also followed them at about the same time, regrouping the herd and preventing it from dispersing.

"That one!" I said, pointing to the largest female on the left side of the herd.

Aghiard drew his bow until his hand almost touched his cheek, and released the arrow, which pierced the deer’s shoulder but didn't manage to stick, falling away. The doe let out a cry of pain and bolted, moving even deeper into the group. My brother prepared another bolt but I stopped him, holding out my hand.

“Don’t waste your arrows!” I warned.

We waited for several moments, until finally the wound began to take its toll, and the beast began to slow again. A dog nearly bit one of the other beasts beside it, causing it to sprint and giving me a clean throw.

I shot an arrow that lodged in the animal’s hindquarter, causing it to bleat in pain again and sprint away. This time the wound was more debilitating, it took a few moments for the animal to start to falter, and for my brother to find a new window to strike its side. The dogs swung to target her, chomping down at the air behind her.

“Stop shooting, I’ll finish her off with the spear!” I ordered.

The animal began to kick to keep the dogs away, managing to hit one but inevitably falling further and further behind. At that point, in a desperate attempt to defend itself, it turned to try to chase the dogs away. I took the spear and, with a blow delivered using all the weight and speed of the horse, I drove my spear into the animal's chest. I had to go straight for the heart. She didn’t have time to react, before she was dragged back by the force of the spear. And she fell to the ground, dead.

I pulled on the reins and the horse reared, almost throwing me off. Turning, I headed for our trophy. As I looked back to the fleeing herd, I saw another head of the family bring down a deer with a javelin, but unlike me he continued to chase the herd with his second, leaving the fallen animal to the helper.

"Shall we just take this one?" my brother asked, tapping the felled animal with the end of his bow.

"The others are not worth it" I told him.

I dismounted and drew my knife. The three hunting dogs that had been tracking the deer had broken away from the rest of the pack and were now waiting for their prize.

"You know, being too selective can be counterproductive. Since you're the type to go after big game at all costs," he said as I worked my knife into the animal's belly.

"Well it's not like we didn’t catch anything, is it?" I replied.

With a single cut I managed to open the animal up to the ribs, and the entrails poured out from the opening. After a few more cuts I pulled them out completely and threw them to the dogs, who immediately began to feast.

Up until that point my brother and I had taken two deer and a wild boar, a haul that wouldn’t have been that admirable, if it weren’t for the impressively small number of arrows and javelins we had had to use. Earlier we heard that some had found an auroch, but Gunnar had already claimed it.

Wallia came to us as I finished gutting the deer, bringing me the ropes. I hoisted my kill up the nearest tree and my nephew, using a waterskin filled from a nearby stream, began to rinse out the hollow inside of the carcass. This made me thirsty and I grabbed my own waterskin, taking long gulps.

"There's not much time left. It might even be the last hunt of the day,” Aghiard told me, “if we’ve only got one last chance we'd better take what we can get," he took the waterskin from me and started to drink himself.

"If the chance presents itself we'll do it," I promised him.

Once the carcass was clean and its bleeding stemmed, I tied it to my saddle and the three of us headed to the meeting point.

On the way my mind went back to that morning and what my wife had said to me. Despite what I had told Heike, I was really trying to follow her advice, with little success.

The Wise Men interacted very little with the clansmen, even their chieftains, and rarely allowed anyone to speak with them. Hoping to speak directly with them by bringing a large hunting prize was a ridiculous notion.

But I could impress the Reiks and convince him to ask for me, since only the leader of all the clans could ever interact with them in person.

"If only I could find a real prize" I muttered to myself.

Finally we reached the assembly point, a clearing by a waterhole, where other heads of families had already gathered with their kills. The wagons, which could not follow us directly and had been forced to take a longer and slower route, were already partially loaded. Some were already full and their owners were relaxing by the fire.

We approached our wagon, pulled by an ox that had been tied to the trunk of a dead tree. I untied the corpse from the horse and hauled it to the wagon, dropping it in with the other kills. It could have held three, perhaps four more deer or wild boars, or a larger beast.

I approached one of the men who had filled his wagon, although only with deer carcasses. Haylwic was one of the younger heads of the family, so much so that he had chosen his uncle as his second and his uncle's son as his helper, but the fact that he had been among the first to fill the wagon spoke volumes about his skills.

“I see the hunt went well” I said.

“Thanks. How did it go for you?”

“A couple of deer and a wild boar.”

“Well, a wild boar is a good catch. I took the first things I could find and now I’ve nothing to do but wait, eating goat stew and mushrooms” he bemoaned, gesturing to the pot on the stove. It smelled very inviting and started to make me hungry.

“Maybe, but it’s still not much. Any news from the trackers?” I asked, trying to focus on him.

“Gunnar’s waiting for them” the young man said, pointing to the clan chief across the pool. The man was scanning the trees while his son and some of the clansmen ate.

As the clan chief, he had not only brought more men—four—but had also brought three wagons, although he had only managed to fill one completely. A wiser chieftain might have thought that was enough, but Gunnar was the type who liked to show off his strength whenever the opportunity came.

Which, in fact, worked to my advantage at the moment.

"Want some, kid?" Haylwic asked someone behind me.

I turned to see Wallia staring at the pot, foaming at the mouth. For a moment he didn't seem to notice the question, then he realized he was talking to him and looked bewildered for a moment.

"May I, Householder Haylwic?"

"Sure, we've made plenty. In fact, you can have some too."

"I don't have to be told twice," my brother said, sitting down on a mossy rock.

Haylwic's uncle looked at Wallia for a moment, then his nephew patted him on the shoulder and he began serving the food.

We spent the time talking, mostly me and Haylwic, trying to make up for his uncle's silence. Wallia, who had noticed the way the older man was looking at him, took his food and went off to eat alone.

We were suddenly interrupted when the trackers finally returned. The clan leader went straight to them and the conversation in the clearing quickly died down.

"It seems there's news" Haylwic said and we stood up to see if they had found it.

"East, in sight of the Giants' Feast," the tracker leader said.

"That far?" Gunnar asked, doubtfully. "Worth it?"

"Here, I'll show you."

A tracker reached into a leather sack and pulled out some dung, which was clearly not deer. It was fresh, clearly no more than a day old.

"Bison or aurochs?" asked the clan leader.

"Bison, at least twenty of them," the man said, anticipating the next question.

Gunnar stroked his beard, taking his time to think about what to do. He looked at his wagons, then back at the trackers.

"Are there any other things to report?"

"Up ahead, in the direction the herd was moving, we saw smoke rising into the sky."

"Another clan?" he asked with a start.

The crowd of people who had gathered around the conversation began to buzz at the news, filling the air with whispers and mutterings. Although it was still our territory at the limit, another clan settling so close by was trouble. What would normally have been a poorly tolerated inconvenience, in the run-up to the clan meeting was an openly hostile action.

"It could also be lightning" the tracker tried to say.

"The last storm was three days ago," the chieftain pointed out. "We must go there and check it out right away, there's no time to waste. Those who have a full wagon stay and guard them, everyone else comes with me" he finally ordered.

The crowd began to disperse, quickly going to get their weapons or if they had them on their horses.

"It looks like we'll see each other soon" Haylwic said. "Good luck."

"Should I come with you?" Wallia asked worriedly.

"You're just a boy, you'll stay here in the clearing," his father said peremptorily.

"What if it really is another clan? You're not equipped to fight-"

"Boy, humans are made of the same flesh and blood as any animal. If these tools can kill a boar, they can do the same to a man."