Diaman's DnD Diary

Chapter 10: Ice Lands' Tragedy Forgotten In Snow part V

It was the Night of the Hunters. A week before, most of the older Shamans - including Mami's husband Barck - and Hunters went South to find jobs and trade the money they make for some of the southern merchandise. For the Shaman tribe, this kind of life-style had been a relatively new thing. Until just a few decades ago this clan had been the same warrior clan, like all the other savage-tribes around. Battling each other, there were constantly fewer and fewer tribes, commiting genocide among themselves.

However, at the time when the latest Chieftain was still a teenage girl, a prophecy had been spoken by the Seer. That if they continue fighting on like this, the whole Clan will be wiped out. It was a great decision for the proud warriors and what inspired them the most had been the fierce attack of a barbarian Kah'luk tribe - sworn enemies to the Shaman tribe.

Choosing to survive, they abandoned their homes and life-style, trying to settle down. Though the Kah'luk tribe had never shared their sentiments and went after the now-peaceful Shamans with all their might. Even nowadays the Shamans had to move frequently to avoid a blood-bath.

The Night of the Hunters was a perfect demonstration of how the tribe used to be spontaneous, unrestricted, cruel, primal and wild in the past. Were it not soiled by the after-events, I would consider it the best night of my life.

This event takes place during the first month of the year, the season of hot-berries. So in preparation for this day, the girls gather tons of theses rarities. But let me first explain the effect of this somewhat peculiar berry. Hot berries speed up the metabolism, releasing lots of energy of the body into heat, making even Ice Lands' toughest weather a summer walk. Of course, for a Shaman event, it is not only hot-berries to gather. It is mostly various hallucinogenic mushrooms and the bark of a blue oak, all resources helpful to us Shamans in enhancing our connection to the Spirit World, blurring the borders of our world and the Spirit Realm.

The whole Clan gets ready for the Night of the Hunters together. A night of wild sensuous dancing, crazy adrenaline heroicism, sharing visions of Spirits around the fire and naked swimming in freezing deadly waters of the Ice Lands' Sea under the influence of the hot-berries.

I was a bit nervous about the whole event prior to it, however, excited all the more.

Me and Far'mer were preparing together in his home. I was dressed only in boots and some sort of loincloth made of fox furrs - like all the other males - gulping down hot-berries to keep myself warm. Far'mer then helped me with war paint and entangled a few bird feathers in my hair. Blue - the same he used for his flight feathers. I sort of felt like his younger brother, it was a nice feeling.

"So the first is the hunt? But I can't hunt at all..." I worried.

"It's ok. You will use your bear to lure the animals to us," he smiled and when I opened my mouth to ask some other stupid question he quickly put some sort of herb on my tongue.

With a small surprise I let the thin leave dissolve itself on my tongue. "What is..." But somehow I couldn't care less anymore. "Far'mer, let me put paint on you, too!" I took the bowls of red, black and blue colours from the table.

"That's the spirit," he smiled.

...

The horns and drums sounded. The women of the tribe were standing on both sides, making a way for the men heading to the forest. It was somehow spectacular to see the whole tribe - otherwise heavily clothed - now without a care in the world, with so much skin exposed. Women in light short dresses, and green twigs in their hair, men shirtless with furrs around their waist, both decorated by various colours, often determining the families or friendships.

The young men and women were eyeing each other, already making plans in their minds for tonight. I noticed Lily waving at me cutely, so I waved back, still kind of hazed. I remember, I could easily feel all the excitement around me, from the hunt, from the evening that were to come...

...

The hunt itself was crazy. With our senses hightened, we were so much closer to the animals than normally, it felt like we were actually able to think like them. It was as if we knew exactly, what each animal would do.

Sek'dan'n - a boy of my age - was especially looking forward to tonight, given his beloved Gilda had probably promised him the moon if he comes back successful tonight.

"Hey, Damian!" he called to me while we were sneaking through the bushes about 100 meters from a lone boar. "Get him to come at me..."

"What? Shouldn't we wait for Far'mer and the others?"

"Nonsense, man. This one is mine. I can feel it. Today's my day."

I looked at him and saw the determination in his eyes. "You're crazy, Sek..."

He cheerfully nodded at me as if I just gave him a praise and moved to a different location, getting his spear ready for attack.

I took a deep breath and summoned Bear right next to the boar. The Bear roared loudly and stood up on two legs. The frightened boar started running right towards Sek. I closed my eyes.

...

"Tell us once more, Damian!" Sinma laughed when her brother Sitran and Far'mer joined the circle around the bonfire after unloading what they'd brought.

The war colours became fuzzy with all the sweat running down from us all comming back from the hunt. In the comfortable haziness of the uplifting smokes comming from the fire-wood - most likely a special kind of fire-wood I shifted from my seat next to Lily that she'd save for me and skipped to sit next to Far'mer. I almost tripped but Sirtran caught me by arm and helped me sit down, smirking. "It's easy to tell, you're here just a short time. Not used to salvebark, huh?"

I chuckled, looking up at him as he sat down next to me. Both his and Far'mer's smeared warpaint made them look almost like demons but somehow I didn't find that scary.

"Damian, c'mon! You can talk so well! Besides, Sek is already all over Gilda!" someone exclaimed, interrupting me in my admiration of the two handsome men sitting next to me on both sides.

"Okay..." I liked the attention, I liked feeling appreciated, I liked being praised... and I felt amazing at that moment... "Well, so Sek told me to draw the boar towards him, right? I called upon the Bear and he emmerged! Rawr!" I shifted with both of my arms up, imitating a bear standing on two legs. Both the young adults and children around the fire laughed - most likely, my impression of a bear was probably on the cute side... rather than intimidating.

"The boar jumped up and started running away. Then Sek's giant eagle Spirit appeared, directing the bewildred animal right at him. Sek stoood there with his spear and the boar was heading straight towards him. It was the boar or Sek at that moment. Those few seconds felt like eternity, they stared into each other's eyes, none of them moving an inch to the side to avoid the uninevitable collision. And then... Sek aimed his spear!" I imitated the movement with my arms. "And threw the weapon right in between the two dark and desperate eyes and bam! The boar was dead. Instantly." A round of applause started, for the third time today.

And then someone yelled: "To the water!" And everyone - including me - got up and ran for the shore to jump into the freezing water of tthe Ice Lands' ocean.