Spirit Animals: Life Of Tarik - Book 1

Hunting

It had been a week since Tarik had left to join the Greencloaks. LaReimaja missed him so much that whenever she thought of him a pain would throb in her chest. The day after Tarik left, LaReimaja's brothers told Faisel that their brother was a Greencloak. Faisel looked suprised, but said nothing. She would secretly visit him everyday without getting caught. They would always meet each other at the river nearby. Today, they had planned to hunt together.

LaReimaja's face lit up as she saw her friend emerge from some bushes.

"Hello Faisel," she greeted warmly.
Faisel dipped his head in greeting, "hello."

Faisel was carrying two spears for them to hold. He handed a spear to LaReimaja, and kept one for himself. LaReimaja studied her spear. It had been made with bamboo with an obsidian top. Weapons like this are usually from Zhong.

Long ago, Faisel had lived in Zhong. He had told LaReimaja that his parents had been arrested for not looking after him properly. Faisel was forced to move to Nilo, where he was adopted by a married couple who could not have kids. His new parents loved him and took care of him. But LaReimaja knew that Faisel still missed his real parents.

"Ready?" LaReimaja asked, gripping her spear.
"Yes, we will hunt gazelle. They usually travel in herds that way," Faisel pointed across the river. "We will need to cross this."

LaReimaja didn't like the idea of getting her feet wet. But she knew that if she didn't they would not be able to hunt anything else other than small crabs, which wasn't much to eat. Slowly, she dipped one foot into the water. It felt cold after she put her other foot in. She began to walk through the water without having trouble. The river was not deep, but she wasn't tall either. She could hear Faisel pushing through the water behind her, and within a few moments, they had made it over safely.

"Okay, we need to be quiet so they don't hear us coming," Faisel whispered.

Faisel dropped into a low crouch, moving forward carefully. LaReimaja copied what he was doing, and followed. After they had pushed through some tall grass, the herd of gazelle came into view. LaReimaja always thought of a gazelle as a beautiful animal, she felt bad for hunting one today.

Faisel paused and watched the herd with LaReimaja behind him. He felt her breath on the back of his neck. LaReimaja waited for him to give the signal.

Suddenly, a gazelle had moved away from the herd, closer to the children. It looked sick and old. As it grazed on some grass, Faisel clicked his fingers and sprang forward. LaReimaja chased after him. The gazelle herd let out cries of alarm, and the stray creature that was being hunted, turned and ran for its life.

Faisel pointed his spear as he ran and threw it forward with power. The spear pierced the gazelle's hide, causing the animal to slow down. LaReimaja threw hers and it went straight through its back leg. The gazelle fell and struggled on the ground. Faisel and LaReimaja approached the animal and pulled out their bloodied spears. The gazelle died as blood oozed from its wounds. LaReimaja helped Faisel drag the carcus back to the river, where they set up a fire and filled their bellies with fresh-kill.