UnHeralded Strength, Book I.36
Hunting lions…
Warning: grisly toward the end.
Hephaistion fairly flew along the hard packed dirt path, his breath even spirits high. Having been too ill to take part in the earlier hunts, he now relished this new opportunity to show his renewed strength and health. Having consulted the notes he and Krateros had made that fateful day, some weeks back, he followed the deep pug marks, knowing with the keen instincts he possessed that they were finally on the right track. And so they followed them for several stadia until they had gone quite from the camp and deep into the forest and then, surprisingly, into a barren, hilly area they had not explored at all. Slowly they climbed up a rock strewn embankment. Though fresh greenery flourished after winter rains and the ground was softer than near the camp little grew here. The ground was rough and scree strewn making it hard going at first. There were few indications of man in the area, no villages, not even the outlying encampment of bandits, which would be expected in such an isolated area.
"'Tis odd," Hephaistion stopped leaning on his spear drinking water as he wiped his brow. He grinned at Alexander who studied him anxiously. "I am well, Mother, fear not." He grinned back, threw a saucy smile in Krateros' direction and moved on. Gradually they began to notice subtle changes in the landscape as it grew rockier. Hephaistion found himself frowning, a scent assailed his nostrils. Krateros showed he noticed the same.
"'Tis strong!" Ptolemy said as he caught up with them. "Like a battlefield, but where are the dead?"
"A cave!" Karanos who had strayed a bit from his father's side, but was safely within arm's reach of Nearkhos and Perdikkas who was watching him closely, shouted, his voice wild with excitement. Immediately Perdikkas ordered him to stand aside with Kleon, and Menander, another of Alexander's pages and wait until needed. Krateros came up trailed by the rest of the hunting party.
"'Tis a small opening." He knelt down and peered inside. "I cannot enter." He looked about at his companions. "Alexander, you and Nearkhos, I think." Krateros eased himself up from his crouch, grinning at Hephaistion. "We're a bit too large, it seems." Hephaistion shrugged.
"'Tis undoubtedly the lair of some bear, or wolf."
"Perhaps not…" Nearkhos' voice echoed back to them, and as they waited expectation on their faces, Alexander came out quickly followed by Nearkhos. Both men looked greatly disturbed.
"They are lions, and they are…" Alexander's voice drifted off, disbelief clear in every word. "I know not what, never have I seen such a site. The cave is full of skeletons, some beast," He looked up meeting's the frightened eyes of his pages who moved closer toward Perdikkas, Laomedon and Ptolemy while helping to unpack Philotas' horses, which he had graciously offered for this hunt. His servants were about to set up camp. "Most human." He turned toward the servants and grinned at Philotas, his own disappointment showing. "We cannot set up camp, 'tis too dangerous."
"Man eaters!" Hephaistion gasped, taking in Alexander and Nearkhos' ashen pallor. Only a sight of strong disturbance could draw the color from their faces and make their eyes dark with concern like this.
The servants, some Nubians whom Philotas had bought while in Egypt did not cry out as one might expect, but began to talk excitedly among themselves and broke into a kind of song that echoed and answered back into the great spaces around them. He quickly silenced them. "What do you need me to do, Alexander?"
"Your nets, and ready all weapons. We will set a trap for them. They can sing, 'twill ease the mood." He nodded toward the small band of pages, packed like deer about Perdikkas and Ptolemy's protection as they continued to work. He had brought some of his younger pages this time, now he regretted doing so, most were untried in battle as yet. Then he turned to Krateros and Hephaistion.
"If you both creep in upon your knees, you will just make it. I want you both to see what we saw. The first few feet are tight, but then it opens into a great cavern. Philotas, I am sorry, but you are too tall, even on your knees, 'tis too tight an opening." He looked away gripping his spear tightly in his hands. "I fear…" He swallowed, still visibly shaken. "I fear they have been feeding off these lands for a long time."
Going toward Philotas he asked. "Of what do they sing?" Philotas shook his head, but one of the Nubians, a tall man, black as Nyx, with a magnificent bearing who topped Philotas by a foot at least, his hair filled with bits of leaves and what appeared to be colored clay spoke up in broken Greek.
"You speak Greek?" Alexander grinned enchanted in spite of the growing grimness of the situation.
"Ah…gret Kenng, lyns… we zing of lyns, a uunting zong." Alexander nodded for a moment listening to the rhythmic voices that raised their song. He wished he knew the words…perhaps later. He promised himself.
Meanwhile, Hephaistion led the way into the cave being a slighter inch shorter than Krateros. They dropped their spears beside them and crawled in. "Gods...! Krateros' voice, the single word, impacted by the emotion in it echoed back through the mouth of the cave and into the ears of those waiting. When he and Hephaistion emerged they looked equally grim. Immediately the song died out falling, tumbling into quiet after its final echo and an expectant silence took its place.
"I counted twenty skulls, at least." Hephaistion panted, as he gulped down water and splashed some in his face. He was beginning to feel overheated, but would not say anything. Alexander would order him to stand down with the pages.
"By Pluton below, we will not catch them as they were regular lions. Non, this pair, they are Typhon's get." Alexander struck the ground with his spear butt, and began to pace thinking. "Seleukos, can you get inside? You are just a bit shorter than Hephaistion. If you can see if there are any other entrances, Krateros go with him, and count as many skulls as you can. We will have to bring them out for burial." He paused a moment, glanced about then grabbed Hephaistion by the arm. "You come with me." Unceremoniously he pushed him down upon some rocks. "Now sit. You're breathing hard."
"I am fine, just a bit warm, 'tis rising hot."
"Nai, 'tis, but now, I order you to sit and drink more water. We've a long, hard hunt before us, many days worth even, I know it now. I'll need you then, so save your strength. Do it, Hephaistion, that's an order!" He tossed him a water skin and walked back toward the cave's mouth. Hephaistion made a face behind his back but obeyed, and ordered the pages to gather one of Philotas' prized hunting nets to gather the skulls and other bones in. The boys appeared a bit pale as they went about the grisly business of gathering up the bones that Krateros and Seleukos were setting at the cave's mouth.
Finally after some time, Seleukos came out, his hair dusty, his knuckles, knees and feet scrapped raw holding his arm up over his face as though to cover it from something. "'Tis rank in there, more than 'twould be expected. No other entrance, but it goes back a long way the ground thick, like a flowered carpet scattered with bones. Many are quite small…" His eyes were cold as he met Alexander's gaze. Then he sighed deeply, and drank water as he wiped his dirty face. "There's another cache of skulls, Alexander, I cannot…" He turned back, his eyes narrowed and thoughtful as he looked off into the distance.
"I estimate at least sixty skulls."
For a moment only silence answered back the bird call and animal chatter as each man took in the meaning of what he had just heard.
"Sixty?" Hephaistion near whispered.
"Six..Sixty! Zeus save us, that's a fearsome lot!" Perdikkas whistled along with Nearkhos who both stared at one another as though they had each seen something they could not put words too.
"Oh, god! Zeus, Father preserve us and those about us who share this countryside." Alexander looked skyward praying softly. Then he turned quickly, and was back in the cave before anyone could utter a word. Hephaistion was in up in an instant and followed him. For a while there was no sound but their footsteps that seemed to recede into the distance. Then they came back, their faces drawn, eyes dark and serious.
"About ninety to a hundred in all, I estimate, the bones are so deeply piled…" Hephaistion let his voice trail off as he returned to his rock and grabbed another water skin from Philotas' out stretched hand, he dosed his head with this, then walked over toward Menander who kept supplies and pulled a wineskin from a basket and gulped down a good mouthful "'Tis rank, foul!
"Is that net full?" Alexander inspected the hunting net. Fortunately it was one of Philotas' best, a good sound one, finely woven, heavy and tough, and large enough to hold several hundred bones. "We will empty the cave. Now, before we camp." He did not look about to see that his Companions agreed, it was an order.
"Nai," Hephaistion, held out the water skin to him. "Some of the bones, a few skulls still have bits of hair and cloth upon them. They…they can be identified."
The hunting party continued with its grim task, first posting Krateros, Alexander, Philotas, Hephaistion, Nearkhos, and the Nubians, with the toughest hunting net among them at the ready should the lions return. Leaving Laomedon, Seleukos, Erigyus and other companions to organize the pages with their morbid task.
"Alexander!" Seleukos' strong tenor caught his ear and he came running, spear in hand.
"Come, look, you must see this…prepare yourself, 'tis bad." He paused as Kleon came running out of the cave vomiting and sobbing. Karanos followed him, his face was white, his blue eyes pale, but his hands were steady and he seemed to have grown up in the last hour. He held Kleon's head while he vomited and stroked his back speaking soft words of comfort.
Alexander followed him toward the back of the cave then stopped, as though physically assailed by a vile scent, almost buried far in the back of the cave; lay the small corpse of a child. Beside it lay fresh droppings. It had been freshly killed, and not fully consumed. He caught himself cutting off the strong desire to vomit. He turned his head toward the cave entrance, shook himself, took a deep breath and moved closer to imprint the scene and what it meant upon his mind. Then he spun about moving toward the entrance quickly to call out brusquely as he reached the open air.
"Come, we go now! They will return soon. I do not wish us anywhere near when they do." He turned toward Krateros and Seleukos who had come out behind him, the small corpse in his arms. Karanos, moving quickly whipped off his own cloak and wrapped it about the remains. It had been a girl child, dark haired in a blue dress with an agate bracelet upon her remaining arm.
Karanos' actions were not missed by Alexander who made a mental note of them, and in time as they moved along at a quick trot, away from the cave and its horror, the horses' heavy with the net of bones, he caught up with him and patted his bare shoulder. "Good work, Karanos. You are a credit to your father. Come see me later, just before third watch." He moved off, quickly catching up with the line of hunters, running alongside Krateros, Philotas and Hephaistion.
"We will have to trap them." Voicelessly they agreed with their eyes and grim smiles. "These I think will not let us hunt them, they hunt us." As he went on ahead, the Nubians began singing again keeping time with him, as he ran alone his golden head glimmering in the dying rays of the sun, knowing it was his duty to prepare the camp for what was coming.
To be continued…