Down in the village, Achram’s wife, Rhita, woke up in the very early morning. The sun hadn’t even come up yet, and the whole sky was still a somber blue. Even the earliest of hunters don’t even wake up this early, yet she forced her eyelids open for another day of hard work.
Ever since Achram, her husband and the provider of their family, left the village to trek up the Icy Mountain, she was forced to go out into the wilderness and find food for their children.
Usually, Achram joined the hunting parties of the village and they went as a group to the lair of deers and bears alike. It was dangerous to hunt alone, so the village men decided that going with others was the safest way to hunt.
Even without any hunting experience and survival skills, Rhita one day decided to try and join the hunting parties. She decided that she wanted to at least try and become their assistant, the one who would carry all their equipment and their loot.
She would have been satisfied if she only got foot meat as a reward, the least rewarding part of any game. The foot meat was usually thrown away anyway, so the men wouldn’t be losing anything by giving Rhita a small piece as her share.
However, the moment that she stepped foot outside the village with the rest of the men, they all turned on her and berated her for trying to ruin their hunt. They were all saying that she would bring bad luck to the party, and would cause death.
Rhita was only planning on hanging at the back, away from all the fighting. She wouldn’t even go to the lair until the hunting was completed. She wouldn’t be interrupting any of them in their hunt. There was no way that she’d ruin the hunt.
The men didn’t care. There was never a woman who joined them in their hunt before. In their perspective, women should only be at home doing house tasks and tending to children. That was the only thing they were good for.
Letting Rhita join the hunt was akin to letting a one-year-old child join. It would have been better for everyone if Rhita just stayed home.
“Go home. Blame your husband for his incompetence. Tsk, shame him. He has let his family starve while he goes and chases death up the mountain.”
The rest of the men already accepted that Achram died in the mountain. Not even the eldest and strongest hunter in their group was so arrogant that he believed he could conquer the mountain and meet god.
The only one who didn’t believe Achram’s death was Rhita. She believed that he would one day go back down the mountain with the blessing of god inside him. He was pulled by the mountain for a reason. He wasn’t just hiking up the mountain to his death, he was trying to find god.
“Please. I won’t disturb your hunt. I am not cursed by unluckiness,” pleaded Rhita.
The men knew that without Achram, his family would eventually succumb to hunger. However, they didn’t do anything. In this harsh world, they could only think for their own families. They didn’t have enough to feed their family for a week; they had no room for pity. Generosity kills.
“Your children need you. They can’t lose another parent,” said the eldest hunter.
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Without the consent of the lead hunter, Rhita was forced to return to her home. But without any game or carcass, her children couldn't eat any meat or food. She needed to find a way to provide for her family or else they would starve.
So, each morning, Rhita would go to the hunting grounds by herself in search of berries and fruit. She only went to the outskirts; she wasn’t crazy. The best time to go was early in the morning when predators were still asleep and prey was just starting to wake.
She would get a handful of mangoes, apples, and some berries on good days, which was just about enough to feed her four children. Even if it wasn’t enough to feed herself, she was satisfied if her children were fed, especially her oldest son.
Her oldest son was just a few months away from becoming old enough to join the hunting trips. Berries and vegetables weren’t enough to feed his growing body. He needed meat.
So, on extremely good days, she would find rabbits and hares to hunt. She used her extremely nimble hands and small stature to creep up on the little creatures and kill them with her own hands.
However, those little creatures were not simple animals. They would bite and thrash, causing bruising and cuts to Rhita’s arms and chest. Even when her body was bleeding, she didn’t care. She was going to bring meat back to her family.
—--------
“Mother, this is rabbit meat! How did you get it?” Uno said, his mouth salivating while looking at the cooked rabbit leg in front of him.
“Is this for us?” Dos said. She, too, was excited upon seeing real meat again after a long time, but she was able to hide her greed. As a woman, she knew the hardships she must have gone through to hunt this.
“Yay, meat! I was getting tired of eating leaves,” Tres said. She was younger than Dos, and like Uno, she couldn’t help but show her excitement.
Rhita smiled when she saw her children’s smiles. She had her hands behind her back. Her arms were bandaged with leaves and cloth, but she felt the cuts bleeding again. She didn't want her children to see it.
“Yes. This is a present for Uno. He’ll soon join the hunting parties, right son?”
Uno raised his hand in the air, assuming a proud stance. “Yes, mother. I need this to grow big muscles so that I can kill bears with my own hands!”
“Cool, big bro. Can you hunt bears so that I can wear fur coats like a grown woman?” Tres walked up with excitement to her big brother.
Uno put his arms around Tres. “Of course, I can. Hahaha! I’m the best hunter in class right now! I’ll hunt so many bears that I’ll cover the whole house in fur!”
Tres looked up to her older brother in excitement. She completely believed every word he said. Only when her older sister told her the truth that she turn disappointed.
“Don’t lie, Uno. You’re not even allowed in the hunting zone yet. You’ll just be on the outskirts and carry meat back to the village,” Dos revealed. She was a realist, and she didn’t think that Uno should bring Tres' expectations up if he couldn’t fulfill them.
“Hmph! Watch me. I’ll show all those old fools that I’m going to be so much better at hunting than they are!” Uno retorted. “Oh! It’s time I get to hunting school.”
“Aren’t you going to eat rabbit meat? I thought you needed to grow a lot of muscles?” asked Rhita. Uno’s legs were already out the door without even touching the rabbit meat she prepared.
“I don’t need to eat meat, I’ll hunt my own! That’s how a man should do it!” Uno then ran out of the house haphazardly carrying his wooden sword and flailing it around as he ran.
“Be careful you idiot!” shouted Dos. She couldn’t believe that he was older than her when he was acting like a child.
“Go get 'em big bro!” shouted Tres.
Rhita sighed and smiled at her oldest son. She didn’t think that children could mature so fast. He might not show it, but he cared a lot about his siblings so much that he didn’t eat any of the food and reserved it for them.
“How about you girls? Do you want to eat the rabbit?” Rhita asked.
Dos shook her head. Like Uno, she also pretended to go to school. “No thanks. I have to go and learn how to sew from the Seamstress. She’ll teach me how to make fur coats and earn food without hunting like her.”
Dos walked out of the house, leaving Tres and Rhita by the door.
“How about you little one? How about you eat the rabbit?” Rhita asked.
“Yay!...but I’ll only eat a little bit, okay? I want to save it for my little brother. He needs it so much more than I do.”
Even her youngest daughter had grown up so much to care for her sibling.
“Is Quatro still sick?” she asked.
Rhita sighed and looked back to the room behind her. She nodded. Quatro was still sick. He was the reason why Achram braved the dangers of the Icy Mountain to try and make contact with god. That was their only hope of saving their youngest child.
From the moment he was born, Quatro was different from other Thall babies. Instead of crying, he would mumble. Instead of learning to walk and crawl, Quatro would stay in bed with his eyes closed.
Quatro would always cry in pain through different parts of the day. When they asked the elder of the village, he said that Quatro was cursed and only had a few weather cycles left to live. In such a moment of desperation, Achram decided to go up the mountain and ask for god’s grace to try and save him.
Meanwhile, in the other room, a young Thall was lying in bed with his eyes closed.
In his dreams, he saw a Thall with a resemblance to his father. However, his whole body changed. He no longer had hair all over his body, his skin was a striking pure yellow tint, and there were markings near his eyes. This man was different, but a child knew his father the best. This was him!
“Fa…ther…”