it has now been around a month since we settled out here on the fringes of clan Dulfar’s territory and we have all fallen into our individual routines. This has made life easier out here all alone nestled in the hills. We have only lost a few animals to disease and/or wild animals, but with the recent births that have just about wrapped up at this point, their numbers have been more than replaced. The rains hadn’t come to a complete end yet, but their intensity had gone down a good bit from what it had been at the start of the rainy season. There were now days when the sun would come out, if only for a little while.

      Today however was not one of those days and the earth was shrouded in a dull grey veil. It wasn’t raining at the moment, but the clouds loomed over the earth ominously looking to drop water down upon us at any moment, but by now I had grown used to being soaked, so even if it did begin to rain I wouldn’t be too bothered by it. I decided to go out hunting after I filled the water bin and checked on the sheep, goats, and chickens. I needed to be sure my animals and supply of food was in good shape. It took me four trips to fill up the water bin and around forty minutes to check on all the animals, since they were so spread out over the hills and one of the sheep had managed to hurt itself and had a limp, so I had to doctor it up and watch it for awhile to make sure it was ok and if it needed to be locked up for further observation. Which I had decided that it did not need any more observation and that it would be ok out grazing with the rest of my herd. The herd that was now grazing further and further away from my yurt, something that was beginning to worry me a little bit. what really worried me was that with my limited manpower, if something happened to the herd and it was spread out the way it is now I would be hard pressed to do anything about it. I will need to get some help soon or move on to a new area with fresh grass around my yurt, I thought as I walked over to the yurt to grab my hunting equipment. I passed Erdin on my way, he was running around playing with a stick pretending that the stick was a sword and he was fighting imaginary enemies. Watching him and seeing his innocence and youth as he played with his stick unconsciously brought a smile to my face, I will do all that I can to defend that innocence. It was quite lucky that I caught him on the way home, I could use him to catch and ready Batzorig for my hunt, so I interrupted his games and called him over to my side to walk with me. He walked, or rather skipped, up alongside me, I opened my mouth to reprimand him for his silliness, but he looked so happy right then, that I held my tongue on the matter and just ignored it. “I need you to get Batzorig ready for my hunt, Think you can handle it?” I asked shortening my strides as I walked so he could keep pace with me. I watched through the corner of my eye as Erdin’s face lit up as bright as the sun in the morning when it finally crests the mountains in the east. Lately Erdin had grown quite fond of the animals, especially the horses, so when I delegated out tasks to everyone in the mornings I tended to give him tasks that pertained to the animals. “Of course, big brother, leave it to me.” before I could even respond to Erdin he had started running full speed off towards the horses. I just shook my head at the site of his small form speeding off so full of energy, he certainly has become useful since I found out what he enjoys. I made it into the yurt where I found Erhi and Kulan drying out some meat, but I did not see Ulgar anywhere and I knew he wasn’t tending to our tools since he had done that fairly recently, I was planning on asking him to go out with me, but he was nowhere to be seen so it didn’t look like that would be happening. I thought about asking Kulan and Erhi to go with me in Ulgar’s stead but quickly decided against it not thinking they would want to come along for a hunt, so I just walked over to where my gear was set up  to grab my hunting equipment and be on my way. I picked up my bow, knife, sword and bedroll since I had no intention of getting back before dark I decided I would need something soft to sleep on. I went over towards Kulan and Erhi over where the food was kept, grabbing some meat and hard bread for my hunt. “I am going out and plan to be gone until at least tomorrow morning,” I said stuffing some jerky and bread into my saddlebag. “Be safe brother,” Erhi said with an innocent smile that matched her delicate features perfectly. “we will be waiting master,” Kulan snickered. I just rolled my eyes and stood up tall towering over my two younger siblings. “By the way where is Ulgar I intended to invite him for my hunt,” I said changing the subject and ignoring Kulan completely as I directed the question to Erhi. “Oh... uhhh he’s attending to some business,” Erhi said turning bright red in embarrassment. At first, I was confused by her demeaner and wondered what was so embarrassing before realizing what was going on. Erhi had very thin skin and was easily embarrassed which was quite odd and funny all at once. It was odd, since our culture didn’t have much shame to begin with, but it was funny to watch her get so flustered over simple things like defecating. “Oh, I see,” I said stifling a laugh, “Well please tell him that I asked about him when he gets back,” I managed to speak without laughing. Kulan on the other hand was bent over laughing gripping her abdomen due to the intensity of her laughter. Kulan’s laughter did not help the situation any and Erhi was growing redder and redder by the second. I placed my hand on Erhi’s shoulder, “I’m sorry to embarrass you Erhi, you need to just ignore it and not let it bother you.” I showed a reassuring smile to which she responded with a small almost not smile accompanied by a slight nod. I removed my hand from her shoulder and slung my pack over my own shoulder before turning to Kulan and kicking her in the shin which caused her to yelp. Kulan looked at me in anger as if she were about to say something but seeing the stern look on my face she instead conceded, huffed and looked away avoiding further eye contact with me. I headed for the doorway. When I got there, I turned to the girls again Kulan still avoided eye contact while Erhi was still quite red just slightly better than before. I smiled at them both, “She meant no harm Erhi that is just how she shows her affection.” Erhi giggled while I caught what looked like a slight blush on Kulan. I knew that if I stayed in the yurt any longer I would be caught up in more banter and wouldn’t be able to get away until the sun rose the next morning, so I quickly ducked out the door letting the Dulfar hide fall back in place. As the hide fell back blocking the inside world from the outside I could have sworn I heard what sounded like Kulan saying “That idiot.” I decided to ignore it and chalk it up to just being my imagination. Ulgar still wasn’t anywhere to be seen so I was just going to have to go hunting without him. I wonder what has made him so sick that he would still be gone even after all this time, I thought. I looked around for Erdin and finally spotted him out behind the yurt where he had Batzorig saddled and ready to go while he was petting her. It also seemed like he was feeding Batzorig something. I knew he was feeding her something he wasn’t supposed to be feeding with how quickly he hid his hand after he noticed me walking over his way. Usually I would let Erdin’s antics slide but not when it came to the health and well-being of my prized mount. “Erdin,” I demanded as I came to a stop not too far from him, “What are you giving Batzorig? show me now.” Erdin looked up at me with fear in his eyes. It hurt me to make Erdin afraid of me, but this matter was a serious one and I needed to be stern with him and set some boundaries. “Erdin,” I said getting even closer, now looming over him. Batzorig seemed to want to get between me and Erdin as she poked her head in between us to which I just pushed her aside ignoring her which caused her to snort at me.  Erdin looked at me nervously and then to Batzorig as if to ask her for a helping hand. I never took my eyes off him and with my intense gaze boring holes into his soul I was making him more and more uncomfortable to the point he just held up his closed hand that he had been hiding and opened it up for me to see what was hidden inside. He was so scared that he just held it out there and shied away looking at the ground refusing to speak or make eye contact. It was meat, he was attempting to feed my clan’s prized horse meat. “Erdin be honest with me now, have you ever fed Batzorig or any of the other animals’ meat before?” my tone hinted at the fact that I was not asking a question but instead outright demanding an honest answer. Erdin didn’t or rather couldn’t speak for fear and instead just shook his head indicating that no he hadn’t. I audibly sighed in relief it would be a disaster and I would have a lot of sick animals on my hands if he had been feeding all of them meat this whole time. Once the shock and anger had washed away I became curious. “Why would you want to feed Batzorig some of our meat?” “Well…” He shuffled around on his feet nervously steeling glances my way as he did so. I just raised and eyebrow urging him to continue. “I-I like rabbit so I thought Batzorig would too.” I wanted to laugh and cry at the same time. It was hilarious how innocent he was but at the same time that same innocence that I had been letting slide up to this point nearly caused me loads of trouble. Looking at him now I was once again urged to just let him go with a warning, but I knew that would be of no help to me or him seeing how he desperately needed to learn some things. I knew this was all my fault, but I still had to correct him now so he and I both could learn from this experience. “Erdin you can’t feed these animals meat like that do you understand?” I asked hands on my hips as I stared down at him, Batzorig still trying to nudge her way in between us. It was nice knowing that she liked Erdin to the point of trying to protect him from me. Erdin nodded in understanding but I was not done just yet. I went over and placed the saddle bags on Batzorig eyeing Erdin while doing so. He relaxed his shoulders thinking that he had avoided all punishment and to an extent he had since if it were his father that he pissed off he would have been lucky to get by with only a beating. Once I was done with the saddle bags I mounted Batzorig and turned her away from Erdin but before riding off I turned my head back to look at Erdin. “You will no longer be allowed to care for the horses you can still handle the goats and sheep, but you cannot touch the horses without my say.” Erdin’s little eyes opened wide in shock. I knew the horses, especially Batzorig, were his favorite, but he needed to know there were still consequences when you make a mistake. After speaking I rode off for my hunt leaving Erdin and the camp shrinking behind me in the distance, not because I wanted to avoid talking with Erdin anymore but instead for some dramatic effect after dealing out some punishment.

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      The wind felt good rushing over me as I rode Batzorig up and down the hills steadily heading further west as I rode. I could start to see the edge of the flatlands as they grew ever closer while I continued with my ride, letting go of everything and losing myself in the liberating sensation of the wind cascading over my body almost as if I were flying through the sky. I couldn’t just lose myself completely however since I did in fact come out here with an actual purpose other than avoiding my responsibilities back at the camp. None of my siblings would say anything to me but I could see it in their faces and their actions that they were growing nervous about our future, and honestly, I can’t really blame them. As it is I am not much of a man, I’m closer to a kid and I have just been thrust out here on my own and expected to do things right. It could be quite frustrating when you sit back and truly think about it. This was the real problem with losing yourself in your thoughts, your mind tends to drift towards unsavory topics.

      I brought Batzorig to a stop and began to scan the horizon getting my mind back on task not really wanting to get to into self-loathing at the moment instead I wanted to do something helpful for everyone and bring back some more meat and fur so that everyone could sleep, if even just a little more soundly at night. I could not really spot anything out on the horizon, and was just about to move on further into the plains when a breeze kicked up from the south and with it came very faint screams that rode on the wind. At first, I thought it was just my mind playing tricks and I hadn’t actually heard screams, but just in case I decided to sit there and listen for a second to see if I heard it again. And sure, enough not long after I had started to listen more intently I heard the screams once again carried on the southern wind. I was worried it was from my camp for a split second until I thought about it and my camp was not to the south it was to the east nestled further in the hills, so it couldn’t be my people and animals in distress, but it was definitely someone else in trouble. Who would be all the way out here, I thought curiously. Many thoughts ran through my mind on who it could be, first I thought of the worst possible case, of it being raiders trying to trick someone into showing themselves and becoming easy prey, or possibly they were even hunting me down personally since I did kind of piss the chief off. But then again it could honestly be someone from my tribe who needed some help and me being a warrior of the tribe, was obligated to help in a situation where my tribesman needed aid. I hesitated for only a split second more before turning Batzorig to the south to investigate the screams and lend my support if need be. I decided that even if it were raiders that Batzorig could outrun them with her unnatural speed, so I rode with a new determination. I pushed Batzoirg harder than I had when I rode out for my hunt but even then, she was still incredibly smooth, and I wasn’t even slightly uncomfortable in the saddle. I was steadily getting closer as every time I heard a scream they seemed to be closer and closer. I noticed that the sounds were coming more towards the southeast rather than due south, so I corrected Batzorig and spurred her on to ride even harder I didn’t want to miss the opportunity to lend them my aid and get into someone’s good graces, and maybe even gain a new ally in the tribe. Soon enough I spotted black dots way out in the distance that looked possibly like one or two yurts. My view being unobstructed from so far meant that I first spotted the Yurts while I was still a good way away from them, but I could still infer from the yurts that it most likely wasn’t raiders but my tribesman instead. I let out a sigh of relief at this realization then reached for my bow shortly after as I drew closer and could see what was going on. I could see the shapes of humans running around what would appear to be goats and sheep while they were being surrounded by wolves who were running back and forth looking for an opening to attack, sometimes going in as to attack a defenseless sheep just to back off after catching the attention of one of the humans. The wolves are taunting them, I thought as I drew ever closer to the action. The closer I got I realized the screams and yells I had been hearing on the wind were one man who’d I assume to be the head of the house barking out orders to those around him and trying to shoo away the wolves, but to no avail. Wolves are smart creatures and unless they are starving will not attack unless they know they can win with minimal losses. So, this battle had been lost before it even started, no matter how hard the man tried, the wolves would come out on top in the end. The wolves did not see him or those around him as a threat and I really couldn’t blame them. Even from my distance I could see that the defenders, regardless of the man’s efforts, were wildly disorganized leaving large openings for an attack and they were not threatening whatsoever. Through this I could infer that he wasn’t much of a warrior if he even was one at all. Even though I was hastily drawing near kicking up mud and debris in my wake neither the wolves nor the human defenders noticed me which to be quite honest was a good thing.  I can come in and dramatically save them, gaining their trust, I smiled to myself as I grabbed a handful of arrows and nocked one. There were over a dozen wolves so I had plenty of prey to choose from. I slowed Batzorig slightly and drew in a deep and long breath as I took aim. I then slowly released that held breath and as my lungs emptied I loosed my first arrow. Before I could even grab another arrow to nock a high-pitched squeal came from one of the wolves as it collapsed to the ground where it struggled for a few seconds before breathing its last.

       The squeal and sudden death of one of the wolves captured everyone’s attention, man and wolf alike turned their gazes to me as I readied another arrow, riding around on Batzorig searching for more prey. Having around a dozen wolves to choose from I quickly found a new target. I took aim, once again steadying myself and readied my shot. Wolves are cunning creatures and the one I was now aiming for caught on to the fact that whatever I was doing was dangerous for it, so it wasn’t just going to sit around and let me kill it. The targeted wolf began to run around erratically making it a hard target to shoot while a few of the other wolves ran over to attack me, trying to catch me off guard. Only a few wolves attacked while the rest kept up their encirclement it would seem they still felt like everything was under control regardless of the fact that one of their brethren now lay dead on the ground. Batzorig was a well-bred warhorse with good instincts so I let her handle the evasion while I killed the wolf that was running around as if it had lost its mind. I was not to keen on letting a target get away even if it posed a challenge. I found a pattern in its movements, focused in on it and then fired my second shot to a location where I felt the wolf would run into my arrow. Which it did but this was not a fatal blow and instead just injured the beast. Not being a cruel man and wanting to put it out of its misery I quickly nocked a third arrow and fired at the wolf again as Batzorig sped past it as it was laying on the ground whimpering in pain. With the second shot the wolf was now dead and all its comrades turned their full attention towards me and were now staring me down ignoring the people and animals they were taunting just moments before. The pursuing wolves had also stopped and they all stood still staring me down. I brought Batzorig to a full stop and turned her to face the rest of the pack and began a staring contest with the beasts. The wolves intuitively knew that I was the only one around here that posed a real threat to them and were now trying to gauge just how much of a threat that I was and if the danger was worth sticking around. We sat there staring each other down for what felt like an eternity. Finally, one of the wolves made a move. It was apparent that this was the alpha of this pack, he had a darker coat and was noticeably larger than the rest. The alpha and I stared each other down. I peered into the creature’s eyes and I found intelligence there, not the normal intelligence you credit to its natural instinct, no I mean REAL intelligence. It was almost like I was looking into another humans’ eyes. I was completely spooked by this and flinched back in shock which drew a snort from the alpha. The wolf’s actions just proved to me that this was a vastly more intelligent creature than I had previously realized and that made it that much more dangerous. I came to the realization that since this wolf had some real intelligence and he could clearly pick up on my basic emotions by watching me I decided to try and convey to him through my eyes the message to just walk away and leave us all be. I did this for a few seconds and then the wolf just snorted again before turning and padding off in the opposite direction away from myself and the people who had been besieged. The rest of the wolves followed their leader and soon became small dots in the distance heading off in the wide-open plains. The wolves leaving was the best outcome possible, because if I had to continue to fight them I am not so sure if I could have won, especially if I killed or wounded the alpha which would kick the rest of the pack into a frenzy. I am confident in my skill, but I doubt I could kill over a dozen wolves at once as they all bore down on me, maybe if they split between me and the others but I highly doubt that would have happened in that situation. I didn’t let my guard down until I was sure the wolves were gone but when they were I sighed in relief and put away my bow and extra arrows turning to the people I had just saved. They were all hugging each other with relieved expressions. They clearly knew the amount of danger they had just been in and it had shaken them greatly. The more I looked at these people I began to realize one very important feat, I have never seen these people before in my life.