Book 2: Outliers
Chapter 1
Taig ran a strip of leather through his fingers. “We’re going hunting.”
Allen stood up from his seat on a rock. “I’m coming with you.”
Taig and Tara exchanged glances. She waved her hand. “That might not be such a good idea.”
“As you’re so fond of pointing out,” Allen replied, “Taman and I can’t survive out here alone, so it’s time we started to learn. If we got separated from the rest of you, we’d be helpless. Besides, none of us has any idea how long we’ll be stuck out here in the wilderness. We need everyone contributing. I’m coming with you.”
Tara sighed and Taig shrugged. “Fine. You can come. Just try not to get in the way.”
“Speaking of being stuck out here in the wilderness,” Reina added, “does anybody know where we are? How much farther do we have to go to get to Ursidrean territory?”
The others looked at each other, but no one answered.
“We’ve been traveling for two weeks,” Reina went on. “We should have been there by now.”
Allen surveyed the mountains to the east. “If I had to guess, I’d say we crossed into Ursidrean territory already.”
“But you said we only had to go as far as the border,” Tara pointed out. “You said the border patrol would pick us up as soon as we got there. We haven’t seen another person since we left the village.”
Taman spoke up. “I overheard my father talking to Donen. He convinced the Ursidrean Supreme Council to cut the border patrols. He said we didn’t need them anymore with the peace agreement coming into effect, especially along the Lycaon border where we haven’t had a conflict in years.”
Allen rounded on his brother. “The patrols were already close to nothing years ago. If they reduced them anymore, there would be no one left on the border. Anyone could cross back and forth between the two factions any time they wanted.”
Taman nodded. “That’s right.”
“Isn’t that the whole point of the peace agreement?” Tara asked. “Our parents have been working toward this for years.”
“And no one has worked harder or sacrificed more than Donen,” Taman replied. “He would be the first one to reduce the border patrol where he perceived the least threat, and that would be on the Lycaon border.”
Reina’s hand flew to her forehead. “This is terrible. We could be miles away from the city.”
“Actually,” Tara countered, “I think it’s a good thing. It means our factions have finally reached a lasting peace. It means no one will bat an eye when we get to the city. They won’t see us as an invading force. I was worried about that.”
“That doesn’t get us any closer to the city,” Reina pointed out.
“We aren’t exactly suffering out here,” Tara argued. “We have enough to eat. We’ve slept comfortably every night. We’ve been traveling at a snail’s pace, but we’re still making progress. We crossed out of Lycaon territory a long time ago. I don’t recognize this country, so we must be getting pretty close.”
“Admit it. We’re lost,” Reina told her. “We could have passed the city by miles, and we could be wandering around in these mountains for months before anybody finds us.”
Aeifa spoke up for the first time. “Would that be so bad?”
Reina crossed her arms over her chest and turned away. Tara shifted her leather pouch on the strap binding it around her waist. “There’s no use arguing about it now. Me and Taig are going hunting. We can talk about our plans for the future when we get back and have full stomachs.”
“I’m coming with you,” Allen repeated.
Taman stood up. “I’m coming, too.”
Taig waved his hand. “No, no, no. One novice is enough. We can’t take two.”
Taman set his jaw. “I’m coming. I have just as much reason to learn to hunt as Allen does. If you’re taking him, you have to take me, too.”
“I don’t have to do anything,” Taig shot back.
“Aw, let him come,” Tara urged.
Taig rounded on her. “Are you kidding? You’ve heard how they walk through the forest. The game run away from their noise long before we get near them. We never see any game with those two around. If they both come, we might as well not go at all.”
Tara strode to the edge of their camp. “You don’t have to go. I’ll take them out, and we’ll bring back some meat for everyone to eat.”
“Now just hang on a minute....” Taig began.
Tara didn’t listen. She walked out of the camp with the long leather thongs of her sling dangling from her hand. The Ursidrean boys hurried after her, and they plunged into the trees. Taig scowled. Then he threw up his hands with a muttered curse and ran after them.
Tara stopped some distance out of the camp and faced the boys. “Now listen to me. If you want to come hunting with us, here’s the first thing you have to learn. You have to run. You can’t walk. Taig is right. You make too much noise, and you move too slowly to be any good. You scare all the game away, and the animals run from you before you get anywhere near them. The only thing you can do is learn to run like the Lycaon.”
Allen and Taman stared at her. “But we can’t run like the Lycaon. We’re Ursidreans.”
Tara shook her head. “You’re part human, and I’ve seen you side by side with your father, who is Ursidrean. You’re much thinner and lighter than he is, so you should be able to run as well as a human.”
Allen opened his mouth. Taman stammered a reply. “But we’ve never run before.”
Tara’s jaw dropped. “Never?”
Taman shrugged. “We go through conditioning training, but we don’t run.” He glanced sideways at his brother. “I don’t think any Ursidreans ever run. We aren’t built for it.”
Tara straightened up. “Well, you’re going to run now. My mother learned to run with the Lycaon when she was a lot older than you, and more than one human woman joined the Lycaon warriors. Now I don’t want to hear anymore excuses. Allen, you go first. Start running. Follow that trail. I’ll come behind you to make sure you don’t get separated or lost.”
Allen looked down the trail. Then he looked at his brother. Taig snickered from somewhere behind them. Allen started to say something, but Tara cut him off. She shoved him down the trail. “Go!”
He shook off his doubts and set off running. They didn’t run very well at first. Tara barely had to trot to keep up with them. But the longer they ran, the faster and easier they went. Before long, she found herself jogging along at a decent pace behind them.
She glanced over her shoulder, and Taig shot her a big grin. He wasn’t rolling his eyes anymore. Maybe these Ursidreans weren’t so bad after all. They ran all the way up the mountain and stopped at the summit.
Both boys doubled over to gasp for breath, but Allen smiled at Tara. “How was that?”
She returned his smile. “Not too bad.”
Taman coughed. “How do you do it? You and Taig aren’t even breathing hard.”
“It’s just practice,” she told him. “You keep this up every day and pretty soon you’ll be as fast as any of us.”
“We still won’t be traveling any faster,” Taig broke in. “Reina will still have to walk.”
“At least they’ll be able to hunt.” Tara took three oblong stones from the pouch at her waist and straightened the thongs of her sling. “Now you boys stay here. I’m going down there....” She nodded down the slope.
Millions of miles of wilderness spread out in all directions around the mountain peak. Even higher mountains stood to one side, and bottomless valleys dotted the landscape between the ranges. The sun glittered on snow fields, and rivers tumbling into waterfalls disappeared into vast chasms. Some distance down a rocky bank, a herd of rut ox picked their way down a treacherous defile toward the west.
“I’m coming,” Allen told her. “I want to learn everything.”
“Me, too.” Taman moved forward.
Tara held up her hand. “You’ve have done a good day’s work already, but this is a one-person job. Even Taig is staying up here while I go down alone. Stay here, and you’ll be able to see everything from here.”
Allen frowned, but he didn’t press her. Tara fitted one of the stones into her sling and tugged it tight between her hands. The rut ox dropped one by one out of sight. She lowered her voice to a husky murmur. “Stay here.”
She set off down the path, but not fast. She dallied on the path to keep the rut ox in sight until the last straggler vanished behind a rock. Then she put on a burst of speed and ran after them. She hid behind the rock with every nerve stretched to the breaking point.
Her feet made no sound on the gravel slope. The rut ox stumbled on the path out of sight and knocked stones loose. The stones rang down the mountain and settled between the trees out of sight.
Tara peeked around the rock. The animals milled around and nibbled the leaves of bushes at the edge of the forest. They didn’t see her. She gave her sling a tug and set it swinging. She swung it faster and faster. Then she swung it around above her head. It whined through the air, and the rut ox lifted their heads to see where the sound came from.
Tara stepped out from behind the rock with the sling spinning above her head at full speed. She didn’t jump out, and she didn’t run. She walked across the grass toward the herd of oxen. She wouldn’t have much time to make her hit.
As soon as they saw her, they started moving away toward the trees, but she’d picked her time well. The oxen had only one narrow path to get away, and they couldn’t go more than single file. Cows and calves hurried away first. The bulls hung back to protect them, and that’s exactly the way Tara planned it.
She quickened her stride, but she didn’t still run. She had to stay steady on her feet if she had any hope of hitting one of them. The faster she walked, the quicker they hurried away, but they were too late. She didn’t have to reach them to kill them.
She planted her feet four yards from the last bull and let her stone fly. He was a young bull in his prime, but not as big as the others. He rolled his eyes and bellowed at her. He tossed his head and would have run after the others, but the stone whistled through the air faster than any eye could see. It smashed into the side of his head, right behind his ear.
He dropped to his knees with all his weight, but he was only stunned for a moment. He plunged forward, reeled, and crashed down onto his chest. His mouth hit the ground, and dirt mingled with bright blood.
Tara dropped her sling and rushed forward. She pulled a stone knife from her waist and leapt on the bull. She hooked two fingers into his nostrils and yanked his head back. The sun flashed off her knife, and she sliced the blade across his neck. The shaggy skin parted, and a spurt of black blood jetted onto the ground. Steam rose where it pooled in the grass, but Tara didn’t hesitate. She let go of the bull and jumped out of the way.
He plunged and reared and screeched in his death throes. He kicked and tore up the ground with his hooves. Every move sent another spurt of blood shooting out of his neck. Tara leapt clear of his flailing hooves.
The instant she jumped away, Taig took off down the steep slope. “Come on!” Allen and Taman ran after him, and the three young men stopped next to Tara. Taig slapped Tara on the shoulder. “Good job, girl.”