NADANU, PART ONE.
Bal'RajKitran listened to excitement in the female's voice, waiting for an explanation.
-"When I looked into those eyes," she licked her odd mouth nervously, "I remembered." Her eyes flickered to his, "T-there is a beast back h-home," she faltered on the word, "T-those eyes and the scars on its face…" She took a deep breath and finally said: " Nadanu, the Great celestial lion."
He knew exactly what kind of creature she was speaking of, but he remained silent as the girl gave him a detailed recollection of what happened that Ad'nam.
- o -
Two Nak'Stras earlier.
"Damn," she cursed as she yawned, covering her mouth with one hand.
It had been her turn to watch the fire but the warmth had caused her to fall asleep at her post, the flames had gone out, and all that remained was a few red-hot coals among the stones.
She quickly scrambled to prepare more tinder and wood, tossed dry branches piled nearby and added some into the fire. She blew carefully on the coals and white smoke plumed from the pile. The girl continued doing it until a fire erupted from the fire-pit.
The yellow flames danced, casting odd shadows on the cave's walls. She raised a hand and moved her fingers, smiling as the giant shadow mirrored her movements. At that moment, a guttural sound was heard.
-"Yuva, is that you?" She stilled, her eyes scanned her surroundings quickly.
Her gaze found the young man in the darkness, sleeping soundly not far from her, she heard the soft snores emanating from him. A soft grunt echoed from the depths of the cave once more.
-"Who is there?" She raised her voice. They were still the Va'Naras in this territory, most of the time the two clans got along well, but there were rare occasions when violent clashes occurred. "We meant no harm, we were just looking for shelter from the storm."
The young female took one of the branches from the hearth and armed with the impromptu torch, she walked into the darkness, assuming the noise came from there.
-"Hello? Harih oh? " She used the formal greeting.
The cavern narrowed as she went deeper, water dripped from the stalactites on the ceiling. The floor of the cave was slippery, and her feet were soaked. She frowned and glanced down. It wasn't water; she was standing in a small pool of blood.
Her eyes alighted on a pale, pink cracked bone with some rotten meat attached to it, flies and maggots crawled all over it. More fragments of different sizes were scattered about... The growl echoed once more.
The blood chilled in her veins as she stilled, her heart pounded hard and her eyes widened. Her feet inched backwards, one careful step at the time... They had entered the lair of a predator, a large one judging by the scattered remains.
She waved the torch, looking for a sign of the beast. It's not here , she thought, unless…
The horrifying realization struck into her mind like lightning, stopping all other thoughts, she turned around and hurried up back to the cave's entrance.
The torchlight danced around her as she approached the opening, there was an eerie silence out there, the usual chirping of nocturnal bugs was absent. Reflecting eyes flashed briefly in the darkness like stars just for a blink, but it was enough to put the girl on high alert who in turn warned her companion.
-"Yuva," she whispered as she shook the young man urgently. "Yuva, wake up now, we're in danger!"
-"Rarama?" He groaned and then yawned, "W-what happened?" His voice was muffled but he continued anyway, "Has the storm passed?"
-"Something is out there..." Rarama pointed at the darkness outside.
Yuva raised his head and looked towards the cave's entrance. The growl rumbled once more, the young man sat up.
Just outside the illuminated area by the firepit's pale light, a mass of pale orange fur, sleek muscular body with curved, black claws appeared. It hesitated just for a moment before stepping inside the cave and Rarama had a full view of the creature.
The nightmare had a short snout with amber eyes furrowed by deep scars across its face, the large teeth were capable of breaking a man's bones effortlessly. She wondered why it wasn't afraid of the fire until she noticed the vakra had a broken spear stuck on its side. This wasn't the beast's first encounter between it and the Nara. The great cat was bold and had survived many battles.
-"Nadanu!" she exclaimed, eyes widened in both fear and wonder. It was a cave lion. An unusually large specimen even for its kind that for a moment, Rarama thought the Celestial Lion itself had descended from the abodes of Isya and her children.
Yuva's chest was pounding, his heart trying to get out of his chest, laying in a semi-crouched posture, he stretched his arm, reaching for his weapon just a few steps away. The great cat let out a roar that echoed through the cavern as a warning.
The man stopped, If only he could get up... but Nadanu kept his eyes on him, so he tried again until he managed to grab the spear by its tip with two fingers and very cautiously pulled it. He turned to Rarama who was trembling, and hissed urgently at her.
-"Rarama, grab your spear. Quickly!"
The young woman complied, very slowly she moved sideways toward the place where her equipment was piled up. Nadanu snarled again and charged, claws scraping against the stone. Yuva shoved her roughly out of range of those massive paws and took her intended blow. He screamed in pain as the sharp claws sliced at his side, throwing him against a rock.
-"Yuva!" she shrieked, fearing the worst.
The young man was badly hurt, bleeding profusely from three diagonal wounds on his abdomen. The lion approached deliberately, the scent of blood seemed to excite it, making it ignore Rarama completely.
She managed to grab her spear, "Hey, over here!" she yelled at it in an attempt to draw its attention away from her friend, but the huge creature was too focused.
There was only one thing to do, wielding her weapon tightly and attacking, she drove the sharp point into the animal's back. It roared painfully and whirled around, clawing at the girl's leg. Rarama fell onto the cave's wet floor face down.
She lifted her head in time to see Nadanu hesitate between Yuva and her. After what felt like an eternity, but was in fact a couple of heartbeats, the lion finally decided to come for her first. It approached cautiously, its jaws opened, ready to take her life, she could already feel them in her throat. The hot and putrid breath of the animal hit her in the face, she'd let it come as close as possible if she hoped for a chance to kill it. She reacted with speed, powered by both fear and adrenaline, burying her flint knife into the lion's eye. Warm blood splattered across her face. The big cat's snarl was high pitched and laced with agony, it clawed aimlessly before fleeing to the bottom of the cave, seriously wounded.
-"Yuva!" she screamed, getting up despite the pain in her ankle and walking to where the young man had fallen. Her eyes kept alternating between him and the darkness of the cave, in case Nadanu attacked again.
Yuva moaned and pressed his hand to the wound in his chest, trying to stop the bleeding. She helped him up, placed her free arm on his shoulder, and they walked back to camp laboriously. At mid-morning, when they were a considerable distance from the cave, they stopped at a stream where Rarama tended to his wounds, using knowledge of local plants, applied a sage compress to stop the bleeding, and horsetail as an antiseptic.
Rohit had already completed his ascent in the sky and half his descent, bathing the mountains' snowy caps with orange light when they finally reached the circle of mammoth-skin huts.
-" Mahmuni! Mahmuni!" Rarama called for the medicine woman. "Yuva is hurt!"
Everyone was gathered at the center of the hut circle, at first, she thought they had come out to meet them, alerted by her screams, but she immediately realized that they were looking at the center of the circle. It wasn't until they got closer she was horrified by the sight.
There were three bodies. A hunting party that had gone out two days ago, following the trail of a herd of Gao in the valley, near the place where she and Yuva had seen the bright light during the storm.
They were unrecognizable, two of them had been completely skinned and the third was beheaded and boned like a fish. She recognized him only by his tattoos, it was Ketur, the brother of Clan leader Netr. She quickly deduced the other two were Tiva and Kavu, they had left with him.
-"We found them by the river," a pale, young hunter called Balat explained, "Hanging from a tree," he swallowed and then cleared his throat as he continued in a rush, "we didn't find their weapons, except Ketur's" he handed a broken spear and a flint knife to Netr, who looked them over a long time.
-"Ketur's knife," Netr said, flipping the weapon on his hand, his calloused thumb rubbing over the familiar carvings on the antler hilt delicately. A strange glowing green liquid stained the blade, while touching it, the glow passed to his hand. "What 's this?"
-"I don't know…" Balat said, "It's not blood."
-"We were on the ridge collecting flint when Balat came to us," Manu, the stone worker intervened, turning at Ketur's apprentice, "He told us Ketur wanted help to hunt the rest of the Gao." Balat nodded. "He guided us to their camp and we found the site deserted."
-"Everything was in order, there were no signs of a fight, just a few tracks heading into the forest," Manu continued, swallowing, fear obscured his face. "We searched in the woods until we found them."
-"This…" the old clan leader crouched beside the bodies to take a better look at it, "Nadanu didn't do this," he swallowed as his eyes lingered on his brother's corpse "Neither Munayah or even a vicious Vakra. This has never been done before." In all his life as an experienced hunter, Netr knew of nothing that skinned men.
-"W-What did this to them?" Rarama asked, horrified, her fingers tightening on Yuva's wrist that she held over her shoulder. Mahmuni stepped into the circle, looked at the bodies, and muttered something unintelligible. It was then that Netr noticed Yuva, who was moaning and covered in dried blood from a tearing wound at his side.
-" Little one … W-what happened?" Netr asked worried, but the girl was still looking at the bodies, "What happened?!" the clan leader insisted, Rarama snapped out of her momentary trance.
-"I-it was Nadanu," she stuttered, emphasizing on the name.
-"The great Celestial Lion? Are you sure?" Netr noticed that she was referring to a mythical beast instead of a common predator.
Two of the men gathered there helped her by holding the young man. Rarama refused the help as she could still walk.
-"I-it was b-bigger than the common vakra." Rarama stretching out her arms to show its dimensions. "Deep furrows on its face, a spear tip stuck in its side."
-"It ambushed us in the cave we used as shelter…" she paused, omitting the brief, intimate moment between the two. "Near the Standing Stone valley, passing the hill," Rarama continued, her eyes were wet with tears. "I-it attacked me but Yuva took the hit… I managed to hurt one of its eyes. That's how we escaped."
As a hunter he understood the natural world, prey and, of course, predators, if a large predator has taken the area as its hunting ground, they have to kill it before it takes a taste for the camp. In matters of the gods he always followed Mahmuni's advice, but the way his brother and hunters were slaughtered… Something wasn't right.
-"My people," Netr raised his arms to the sky, imploring silence, "This is what we will do," he spoke calmly, grief laced his words. When all eyes were on him, he closed his eyes for a moment, tears were forming, "Tonight, we must pray and rest, ask for guidance." he paused for a moment, "we will take turns watching during the night and when Rohit awakes, the other warriors and I will look for the signs…" Finally, he turned towards the Shamaness and the young couple, "Mahmuni, please tend their wounds."
She nodded and she gestured to the men which complied, one lifted Yuva by the shoulders and the other grabbed his feet.
Moments later they were inside the medicine woman's hut. Rarama sat, leg crossed over a deer skin while Yuva was laying on a hay-filled mammoth skin bed. The medicine woman treated his wounds with a paste made of pine sap, sage and mold all mixed together in a basalt bowl.
-"Mmmghhhahh," Yuva grunted as Mahmuni applied the paste on one of the wounds made by the lion.
-"Easy..." she soothed Yuva, "This will stop the bleeding, and maybe the black sickness," she explained calmly, her voice turned pensive, "Rarama made an excellent job with those bandages," she turned towards Rarama, "You should be a Mahmuni."
-"I… I can't," her eyes lowered, "I'm not wise enough to interpret the signs of Isya or her children." Rarama kept her head down, "What do you think happened to the hunters? Do you think the Va'Naras killed them?"
The medicine woman said nothing as she finished treating Yuva's wounds, who was now sleeping peacefully due to the belladonna infusion that she gave him earlier. The old woman got up and went outside the tent, she craned her neck up and looked over the starry sky. Isya had not risen yet, and they glittered like fire bugs on the water.
-"The Va'Nara are peaceful people and usually they stay away from us, it wasn't them..." she finally said.
-"But it wasn't a beast, Mahmuni," she insisted, "The animals do not take just the skin of their prey leaving everything else."
-"Rarama, Balat said something interesting," Mahmuni began, "He said that the night before they saw a bright light fall from the sky," she paused and then continued, "He thought it was a sign from Isya."
The girl's eyes widened in emotion, "We saw it too! It fell near the great mountain," her voice increased in speed with her excitement, "very close to where Ketur and the others were hunting..." she trailed off before she continued slowly, "It was before we were attacked by Nadanu..."
-"Mmmmmm," The shamaness stared at her in silence, immersed in her memories. She rummaged through her medicine bag and pulled out an amulet of bones linked by the braided nerve of some animal. She undid the knot and spread the little bones over a wooden bowl. Her wrinkled wide mouth grimaced slightly before she took a deep breath, "Tell me about the light."
Rarama swallowed and nodded, "It was green light, and bright…" She frowned as she remembered, "A white fire tailed it, it like Vasri's spears but not..." she hesitated and then added "Hm, now that I think about it," she looked at the other woman, "it didn't make any noise when it hit the ground, Soona."
Soona smiled warmly, that is what she was called before becoming Mahmuni , one of Isya's names.
Rarama Is a very perceptive girl with a shrewd mind, Mahmuni thought, Her memory could easily compete with mine.
Since she was a child, the medicine woman had a prodigious recall, she could remember details just by looking once, which led her to successfully interpret the signs written in heaven and the efficient use of herbs and mushrooms. Soona hoped Rarama would become her successor, but she was simply not interested.
The signs were there: the bodies, the strange light, and the lightning without thunder. She remembered a story told to her by her grandsire...
-"Arudra..." A single word came out of her mouth.
-"Arudra?" Rarama asked, raising an eyebrow.
"The Celestial Hunter," the Shamaness explained, pointing towards the part of the sky where seven points of light illuminated the night sky. "It is said that every few cycles Arudra comes down to Iyeru."
-"He came down?" Rarama was intrigued, "What could a god want down here?"
-"My grandfather's grandfather, Onoru, told him that Arudra comes down in the form of Ikal looking for pelts so that his wife can make him a new outfit."
-"Ikal?" Rarama asked again, curiosity was really killing her. "Is he a spirit too?"
-"Cerami said that Arudra cannot be seen, like the wind," Soona explained.
-"Mahmuni?" Rarama asked after pondering about the matter, she pointed to another part of the sky, "Do you think that Nadanu jumped down from the sky and Arudra came to get it back to where it belongs?"
The Shaman watched the celestial vault silently and after a few moments concluded:
-"Maybe you're right, Rarama," she smiled at her and added, "Did I ever tell you that you would be an excellent apprentice?"
-"All the time, Mahmuni. But I just want to be with Yuva," Rarama answered with a smile of her own.
-"You can't blame an old woman for trying..." She sighed, resigned, "Go to sleep, little one. Netr and the others are watching in case Nadanu attacks." The old healer went back into her tent. Rarama stared at the starry night for a little longer and then she headed back to the hut she shared with her grandsire. She was tired and the old man was already sleeping, she leaned in a corner, covered herself with a skin and let darkness take her away.
- o -
Hello readers, welcome back. Before anything else, thanks to elven_prophecy for her extensive reviews and expanding the action scenes.
I hope you have enjoyed this chapter. Originally this was officially the longest chapter I'd written, but I decided to split in two as there's a few things I want to add to it.
The Nara (human) language is pretty much extensive this time. Some of the words came from Ralamuli, a tribe from the Sierra Madre on Chihuahua, Mexico, where I am from. I expect to include more of that fantastic mythology into the story in the next chapters. Meanwhile, here's the glossary and don't forget to comment.
Nara Words.
Antaka - Death, Lord of the Underworld.
Arudra - The celestial hunter (Orion constellation).
Cerami - Old man (Name), Soona's grandfather.
Gao - Auroch (Bos primigenius)
Hari oh - Hello, formal greeting.
Ikal - Spirit, invisible.
Iyeru - Mother Nature, Earth (planet).
Manu - Stone worker (Name) He's a smith, he made stone tools.
Munayah - Cave bear (Ursus speleus). Big Dipper constellation.
Nadanu - Cave lion (Panthera spelaea). Celestial Lion (Leo constellation)
Netr - Leader, Chieftain (Name). He's the Clan leader.
Onoru - One-who-is-father (Name), Soona's great grandsire.
Rarama - Light feet, Swift feet (Name).
Rohit - Sun (Pr. Ro-heet).
Soona - Waning moon (Name), Mahmuni's real name.
Va'Nara - Neanderthal (Homo sapiens neardenthalensis).
Vakra - Any big cat, Tiger.
Yaksa words.
A'dnam - Day, planet cycle.
Nak'Stra - Lunar cycle, month.