Genesis 27:3
Now then, get your equipment-your quiver and bow-and go out to the open country to hunt some wild game for me.
"So... tsagasee means 'outsider'?" Penelope clarified, digging her toes deeper into the mud of the river. Around them, the summer sun beat down on the red dirt, baking it. The distant shuffle of feet and the lap of the water against the river edge created a low cadence. It had been six days since Penelope's attempted kiss – and she was still wrestling with the embarrassment. As far as her withdrawal was going, all that was afflicted her now was infrequent mood swings and disturbed sleeping patterns.
"Yes." Waking Cloud stretched out beside her, brushing the yao guai fist's fur to clean it. Penelope scratched the back of her head and sighed.
"So what's 'friend'?"
"Na'ne."
"Na'ne," Penelope repeated carefully, scooping up some of the mud and shaping it into a lumpy ball. She cocked her arm back and threw it; it landed with a heavy splash into the river. "And how do you say 'hello'?"
"Holadu." Waking Cloud finished combing the fist and began to strap it securely back on her arm. The sound of footsteps caused both of the young women to look up from their seat by the river.
Two Sorrows hunters stood over them, throwing spears in their hands. One of them, a thin, muscular man with dark brown eyes like muddy pools of water, started to speak rapidly in their language. After a moment of this, Waking Cloud nodded and fired back.
"What's going on?" Penelope asked as the Sorrows woman stood.
"There is a hunting party going out to search for Bighorners," Waking Cloud explained. Penelope paused, glancing at the two Sorrows hunters.
"Can I come along?" she finally asked, a little shyly.
Waking Cloud hesitated. "I am not sure… Joshua would not like it…"
The courier sighed loudly and gave the older woman a look of annoyance. "I'm tired of sitting around this camp like an invalid. I can help." She pressed her lips together. "Please?"
Waking Cloud paused before saying something to the man with the dark brown eyes. He glanced at Penelope, his eyebrows drawn together, before answering Waking Cloud.
The older woman looked back at Penelope. "He said it is fine. But you will need to prepare for the hunt in the Sorrows way." She touched her chest. "I will show you how."
Penelope nodded, standing. "Well then, lead the way."
. . .
The group crouched at the top of the low cliff, watching the ground below. Penelope breathed in deeply, almost choking on the dust that flew up her nose. Waking Cloud had given her the skimpy, midriff-baring clothing that belonged to another Sorrows woman before dunking her in the river and asking that she roll in a pile of dirt. Otherwise, Waking Cloud ascertained, the Bighorners would smell her. Once that was done, sticky mud had been applied to her face to match the markings of the other hunters. Since then, the dirt and mud had dried, cracking across her skin and sending dust up her nostrils. She had been allowed to keep her straw hat, her hair swept up into it.
She tightened her hold on her spear, trying not to fidget. Killing Hawk, the man with the dark brown eyes and, as she later found out, the head hunter of the Sorrows tribe, sat beside her, hardly making a sound. Turning her head to look over at Waking Cloud, she leaned towards her.
"So let me get this straight," she whispered to the Sorrows woman. "Flying Gecko is supposed to lead the Bighorner herd into this canyon – dressed as a Bighorner?"
Waking Cloud nodded, eyes trained on the ground below. Penelope blinked before sighing. No one else seemed to think this was a ridiculous idea. And yet...it had apparently worked for years. Go figure.
There was a distant roll of thunder, and Penelope looked up, puzzled. The sky was cloudless, clear and blue. Beside her, the hunters suddenly stiffened, each of them readjusting their hold on their throwing spears. Killing Hawk gave a hushed order and the group stopped moving, their eyes zeroed in on the entrance of the canyon. Penelope turned her head, craning her neck to see.
The sound of thunder suddenly grew louder, and a small figure in the pale red of Bighorner fur zipped past the boulders and plants that littered the canyon floor. A pair of curled horns, too big for the figure, bounced on its shoulders. Behind him, a red wave of fur and snorting followed.
Killing Hawk let out a whoop and vaulted over the edge of the cliff to skitter down the edge. The hunters followed him closely, Penelope last in line. She looked up to see Flying Gecko, bedecked in a Bighorner hide and horns, trying to scale up the canyon wall as quickly as possible to escape the stampede.
The disguised hunter reached for a handhold and missed, slipping to fall about seven feet and land on his chest. He wheezed, his arms and legs moving sluggishly. A few meters away, a Bighorner bull eyed him and stomped aggressively.
Penelope glanced back at the hunting group, hesitating. Killing Hawk looked over his shoulder and barked at her, gesturing for her to follow. She looked at him, back at Flying Gecko, still stranded and blind to the angry Bighorner approaching, and turned on her heel, sprinting towards the angry Bighorner. Killing Hawk shouted angrily at her.
The Bighorner grunted, bucking a bit as Penelope slid in between the bull and Flying Gecko, lying prostrate on the ground and groaning. She made a harsh noise, stabbing her spear toward his head, and the yellow eyes of the bull narrowed, snorting angrily. He pawed at the ground, tossing his horns angrily.
Penelope stepped aside, pulling the Bighorner's attention away from Flying Gecko. She stabbed underneath the bull's front leg, the spear piercing the flesh of the joint. The Bighorner bellowed and butted Penelope in the chest, sending her backward against the canyon. She hit the wall hard and gasped, holding herself up. The Bighorner bucked angrily, the spear still stuck under his leg.
Shaking her head dazedly, Penelope zeroed in on the spear in the huge animal's torso and lunged forward. Her hands curled around the spear's shaft and she tucked in, rolling around the spear and partway under the bull. It bucked again and snorted.
She thrust the spear upward, between two ribs, and the Bighorner bellowed in agony, the bellow fading into a raspy gurgle. Slowly, the bull stumbled before falling to its knees and finally down, its flank heaving once or twice before it stopped moving. Penelope panted, wiping sweat from her brow. She wrenched the spear out of the bull and turned back to Flying Gecko, who was still lying on his chest, wincing as his hand touched his side.
Gingerly, she moved his hand away and touched his side. With a few prods that drew sharp cries of pain, she withdrew her hand and sighed.
Waking Cloud was at her side. "What is wrong?" she asked, crouching.
"Flying Gecko was climbing the side of the cliff to get away from the stampede and fell. Some of his ribs on his left side and one on his right are at least fractured, maybe broken. I think his sternum may be cracked as well."
A shadow blocked out the sun from Penelope's peripheral and she blinked, looking up. Killing Hawk glared down at her, seething. He barked at her, his words meshing together to fall on Penelope's confused ears. Waking Cloud snapped back angrily.
"What's...what's going on?" Penelope asked during a lull in the argument.
"Killing Hawk was angry you had not followed the party – I am explaining to him what happened."
Penelope grunted. "Well, if he's going to complain, he can at least accept that Bighorner bull I killed over there as an apology," she remarked archly, jerking her head to the carcass.
Waking Cloud arched an eyebrow before speaking to Killing Hawk. The Sorrows hunter turned his head and his eyes narrowed at the sight of the bull several meters away. He looked back at Penelope before muttering a short sentence and stalking over to the carcass to inspect it.
"So...?" Penelope prodded. The older woman gave the courier a smile.
"He thanks you. And as for myself – I will make sure that Daniel and the rest of the Sorrows know of your deeds this day. After all, it is not every hunt that a hunter protects one of our own and kills a Bighorner by themself." Waking Cloud's smile was wide.
Penelope turned a blazing scarlet. "I-it's not a big deal." She cleared her throat and turned back to Flying Gecko, stroking his forehead gingerly. The motion relaxed him, as she had suspected from first-hand experience. "Here, um, help me make something to carry him back with."
Waking Cloud nodded and the two of them set to work.
. . .
Penelope smiled tiredly as she gently set the makeshift stretcher down beside Daniel. He examined the half-asleep Flying Gecko before looking up at Penelope.
"You look like a mess," he remarked, eyeing her muddy, dust- and blood-covered body.
"Apparently this is what they do to prepare for hunts," she replied, hands on her hips.
"And was the hunt successful?"
Penelope smiled before pointing at the other hunters, struggling to hoist the large beast to the water's edge. Daniel raised his eyebrows.
"All hail the great hunter," he stated before looking down at the Sorrows man lying in front of him. "Now – what happened?"
Penelope opened her mouth to speak before her eyes drifted upwards and landed on the silhouette of a man covered in bandages. Her mouth shut immediately with a click of teeth. Daniel turned his head to see what she was staring at.
Joshua was frozen at the sight of her, barely covered by the Sorrows clothing and painted with mud and clotted blood. Her green eyes shone at him from under her hat, strangely bright in her mud covered face. He found his eyes caressing her almost naked form and thanked God for the bandages hiding the sudden rush of blood through his system. Finally, he cleared his throat.
"Penelope," he greeted.
She swallowed. "Joshua. Good to see you."
"You as well."
Silence.
Finally, Daniel sighed. "As much as I would love to sit in the quiet: what happened to Flying Gecko?" he asked, rolling his eyes toward Penelope. She jumped before scratching underneath her hat, praying that the mud hid her reddening features.
"He fell. Couple of fractured ribs, maybe a cracked sternum."
Daniel examined the Sorrows man thoroughly. "Waking Cloud told me that you saved his life, fending off that Bighorner bull by yourself." He chuckled. "I know I'm terrified of the angry ones when I'm armed with a pistol – and you just did it with a spear!"
Joshua's gauze suddenly quirked as his eyebrows shot up. He looked at Penelope in almost anger.
"Yeah, something like that," she mumbled. "Look, I need to go help Killing Hawk and the others with dressing the Bighorner. I trust you have this in good hands."
She stood and started to walk past Joshua, but was halted as his hand snagged her arm.
"Why would you put yourself in danger like that?" he snapped. "In your condition?"
Penelope suddenly felt her awkwardness replaced with anger. "And what condition is that? Being a woman?" She wrenched her arm away from his grasp. "I'll do what I damn well please. I didn't need you to rescue me in the Mojave, and I didn't need you against some goddamned Bighorner. So stop babying me, already."
She stalked off. Joshua folded his arms and grunted, his eyes following her as she hurried away.
