Chapter 1
Her dark hair flowed behind her as she ran on the wooden bridge stretched over a deep ravine. Her feet, accustomed to rushing through the crowd, easily avoided the numerous people walking in the same or opposite direction. Many were startled by her sudden appearance but they just smiled and greeted the familiar face. She returned their greeting as she ran passed, not even waiting for to let her seventeen year-old body rest for she knew she was late. The foraging had taken more time due to a small skirmish breaking out between the gatherers. She who was nearby was called in place of the chief to settle the fight and thus she was late. She got off the bridge which was embedded into the side of the rocky wall of the cliff and ran up the stairs in the middle of the large wooden platform. The heavy colorful curtain was tossed aside as she rushed in. On the other side, a large man stood with his back facing the door with a large and dignified hawk perched on his left shoulder.
“I’m sorry I’m late Father”, she said in between gasps. The man turned his head full of short black hair that grew longer as it approached the back of his neck. Both the gazes of he and the hawk on his shoulder fell upon her.
“I have heard what happened from Aderyn. You handled it well, Circe.” He said smiling through the wrinkles that creased beside his eyes.
Finally catching her breath, she returned the smile and entered further into the large wooden building. Several windows made up the walls with nothing obstructing the outside with the inside of this room. Colorful woven carpets and quill given by the villagers decorated the wall along with small trinkets carved out of wood and animal bones. At the back of the room was a large table stacked with paper and parchment, tanned leather and large leaves. Before this table filled with various documents stood several men, one of them facing the young woman that just entered. A deep scar spread across the right side of his face and smaller scars made up the rest of his deeply tanned body. The hawk whose claws dug into the furred leather attached to the man’s shoulder stared at her with its dark eyes. She stared back, only for a second with a sense of longing before turning her attention back to her father, Tehuti. Like her father, she too had deep dark hair but hers fell over to the middle of her back. He light brown eyes, so light that it sometimes looked under a certain light, was the opposite of her father’s darker eyes. Although her skin was the same characteristic tanned color as the rest of the villagers, it wasn’t as dark as her father’s or the other men gathered here. She looked at each individual’s face, all of which she recognized, and greeted them with a smile.
After giving instructions to the other men there, he went through a door at the back and Circe followed suit.
“Circe.”
“Yes, father” she quickly answered after hearing the severity in his voice.
“…I’m putting you back on the hunting team.”
“…”
For the past two years, Circe has switched back and forth between different jobs, learning the tasks each group is responsible for as the next leader and the hunting team was the first group she was assigned to. This means this time, it isn’t to learn the duties of a chief.
“You know why I’m putting you on the hunting team again.”
“…”she looked down on the floorboard, “because I have yet to find my soladis” she muttered amongst her disappointment and shame.
Soladis. A person’s, a human beings non-romantic life partner in the form of an animal. It is said that each human being has been partnered with an animal the moment they were born but don’t find each other until later on in life. They share a special bond with their partner. The animals with normally shorter lifetime, shares the lifespan of the human partner while the human benefits from the help of their anime partner in their daily lives. They share their knowledge, their power, their experience with another. And without one, a person is regarded incomplete.
Gannet’s Roost, a village built on the side of a cliff with scaffoldings and wooden platforms over a deep ravine with a shallow river extending at its bottom. Soladis of different species lived in this village although most of them were of the bird species for some reason. But more importantly, most of the villagers found their partners by the age of twelve. And Circe is seventeen.
“The hunting team explores a wider area than the foraging group or any other group for the matter. That is why, I want you to go with them from now on. Go and find your soladis.”
Or without one, I cannot make you the next village chief, she heard her father’s unspoken words. She looked up to see Shae, her father’s hawk, his soladis. She had no such partner standing by her side. No such being to support her when she’s down or when she had lost her mother. And she desperately longed for one.
Circe closed her eyes for a brief second. Of all the jobs she was assigned to the past two years, hunting was the one she excelled in. She opened her golden eyes with renewed determination. “I understand.”
Circe settled a few things from her previous job and relieved her task to another individual within the few days she had before the next hunt. She also took the time to renew her hunting equipment. Even though her old ones were still useable when hunting, it’s better to be safe than sorry.
It was still dark, quite a bit before daybreak that she left her house; a bag on her waist, a bow on her back and a spear in her hand. Circe jogged out of her house through the morning chill and jumped onto a wooden glider fastened with ropes and wooden poles. She slid across slid across the rope, holding her spear horizontally, onto another platform and without having both her feet on it, flung herself into a large basket. She used the momentum she gained to pull down the vines next to the basket and pull herself up the cliff. Being the only one in the basket-lift, she easily and quickly pulled herself up to a higher platform and jogged up the stairs to another slider that led to another lift always staying amongst the middle platforms as she made her way up to the edge of the cliff. Some of the hunters were already gathered at the edge of the cliff while others were still not there yet. She greeted them with a nod and they did the same as not to disturb the rest of the sleeping villagers and preferring to keep the energy for the hunt than useless chatter. When everyone gathered among whom where older and more experienced men and women, the small cluster of people moved away from the edge of the cliff.
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The sky was dark and filled with fading stars; the long grass wet their moccasins with morning dew, their senses were vigilant as they walked the earth. Many soladis took to the sky. The eagles and hawks, used to hunting from birth, soared further above and away from their partner in search of live food. The smaller birds, packed with a loud cry, kept an eye out for any carnivorous danger in the far. And the nocturnal animals, both birds and rodents, look danger more close by. Without her own soladis, Circe walked behind the group of hunters keeping her eyes on the surrounding as she adjusted to their pace. The chilled wind slowly settled as dusk broke in the horizon as they moved towards denser patches of trees, moving further away from the cliff’s edge. According to the hunters from the previous hunt, they approached the last feeding ground of the herbivores. They slowed their pace before coming to a stop. Their eyes were vigilant for any sign of movement but none of the hunting birds had come back. Their prey weren’t nearby. But where to move next? Moving to any given direction would be a waste of time and effort without knowing if their prey was up ahead or not. So they waited. Some sat down; preserving their energy, some fed their soladis, some even kept look out for any sign of the hunting birds even if they weren’t theirs. The sun took its rightful place in the sky during this time, heating up the chill left by the night. Circe was among those that were sitting on the ground but she restlessly looked around for any sign of animals, any sign of a partner. Of course, she didn’t let it show on her face – so as not to bother the other hunters – but she also didn’t want her worries to distract her from the task at hand as she felt it bubbling deep in her subconscious. So she sat. And she quietly looked around while others awaited the return of the birds.
The soladis finally returned when the sun was high in the sky and the heat was at its peak. The birds rested on their partners’ shoulder as they ate and drank food before several among them took flight once again. The hunters rose and followed the birds which were flying slower than when they first took flight. They walked at a steady space, drinking water at regular interval. The hunting birds took turns leading the way and resting their wings alongside their partner. It was a long walk, much longer than Circe had remembered from her previous experience. It made her confused and she unconsciously abandoned the task of scouring the field of long grass and small shrubs only to pay attention to her group and their hunt. It was only after several hours of walking that the birds ceased advancing. Instead, they circled an area a bit further ahead, hidden by a handful of young trees. The hunters stopped walking and undid the latches on their bags. They sat down and ate. Readied themselves with a light meal, enough to fend off hunger but not weigh them down. With dried fruits in her mouth, Circe checked the condition of her bow, strung the cord to make sure it was fitted nicely. She checked her spear, its sharpness and whether the hilt was solid or not. She finished her meal of dried fruits, nuts and a few strips of dried meat before settling behind the lead hunting group. They crouched down close to the ground as the birds disappeared from the sky in order to not seem suspicious to their prey. The leading hunters hid behind the nearby trees and watched a mother deer and its fawn. The other deers were too far away. Getting the ones in the furthest back would be difficult Circe had concluded. Before even getting any precise hit on them, the whole pack would have run away. It was better to focus on the mother and the fawn that were close. As Circe drew her conclusion, she looked behind her. The backup group kept an eye out for everyone’s bag and equipment and the surrounding. Although they weren’t fighting, they still steeled their weapons just in case they needed to take action. Beside them, everyone’s soladis rested keeping a conscious eye on the hunt but also awaiting their return trip home.
Soladis. Circe felt no such special bond amongst the prey before them. As she turned her attention back to the deers, her eyes met that of the hunting group leader; an old friend of her father’s. She shook her head at his questioning gaze and he nodded his head. The man in his late thirties raised his hand with visible scars; several arrows were nocked to a bow and aimed at either the mother or the fawn. The hunters silently watched their movement. Something’s definitely weird, Circe thought. The leader was taking more time than necessary to signal the attack. Was it because I’m here? Thinking it might be because she was in search of her soladis, she quickly shook head. I already signaled him that it wasn’t among them. Then…what’s wrong? The leader finally swung his hand forward. Several arrows flew. Two struck the fawn and all the arrows that were directed at the mother were knocked back. Before even seeing if her arrow hit the target or not, she abandoned her bow and rushed with her spear. The deers having heard the bows’ release began escaping but Circe wasn’t the only one to charge. Lead by their leader, they attacked the mother and her fawn letting the other deers escape. Her target in front of her, she dismissed all surrounding noise and ran forward. Spears flew over her head which led to blocking the deers’ escape route but she didn’t stop or slow down to see where they landed. With nowhere to run, the female deer rampaged. Circe shifted her body weight to the right, forcing herself to turn without decreasing her speed. Having dodged the deer’s hoof, she didn’t wait for it to position itself and thrust her spear forward. The sharpened rock thrust deep into its neck and after a few spasms and the last bit of its adrenaline burning out, it fell motionless. She pivoted in place taking the speak head out and used the momentum to aim at the young fawn only to find it lying motionless on the ground already. Circe stared at the two dead bodies, the blood trickling down their wound. She let out the breath she was holding in and noticed a wetness over her brows. She swiped her forearm over it noticing it was only sweat. Looks like I was more tense than I thought, she thought to herself.