“Stop, Tabal! Stop!”
As soon as they exited the cave, they started running like crazy, and for good reason. Tabal thought Ator would come out right after them, and they needed to take as much distance as possible. He was on guard, frequently looking back, knowing that sooner or later he would have to engage in a fight, this time to the death.
Fortunately, the pursuit didn’t happen immediately, allowing them to gain some advantage, but they had been running for a long time, and Umma was completely exhausted. The girl stopped and bent forward, placing her hands on her knees as she tried to catch her breath. For a girl like her, with such large breasts, running was a rather ungrateful task.
“We can’t stop. We have to keep going!” he urged. “We need to gain ground before they come after us! Let’s go!”
“I can’t, Tabal. Let me rest, at least for a while!”
The young man looked at his companion. Her chest rose and fell spasmodically, and her face showed great agitation. Since they fled the cave, Tabal had maintained a ‘gentle’ pace, knowing that females don’t endure the run well. But they couldn’t stop for long. At least, not yet. While Umma recovered, he glanced around. The full moon flooded the vastness of the horizon with silver light, and he could see mountains in the distance that they had to reach before sunrise. There, they would hide and spend the day in concealment, watching to ensure they weren’t overtaken.
“They’ll catch us, Tabal. They are expert runners!”
“So am I!”
“But I’m not!” she replied. “And you’ll have to keep my pace! We should have stayed there!”
“Do you want to die tomorrow?” he growled.
“I’m not going to die. I already told you!”
“Nonsense! Ulla is ruthless and thirsty for blood. Your death is certain! Don’t you understand?”
In truth, Tabal was not entirely wrong. Apart from superstition, the sorceress decided to kill her upon contemplating the girl’s beauty. The peculiarity of those large breasts would have driven men mad, causing them to fight over her. Her very existence was a source of discord and would surely lead to disputes among them, as had already happened. The cunning old woman knew what she was doing: Umma was dangerous to maintaining the tribe’s integrity, and everyone’s survival was at risk.
“Or, maybe you wanna be Ator’s wife?” he added.
The girl shook her head fiercely, and Tabal replied, “I wouldn’t consent to it either. So, let’s go, quick.”
“Where are we going?” she asked, somewhat recovered.
“To the north.”
“What do you expect to find there?”
“I don’t know. We’ve never gone this far. But animals go that way, and we have to follow them if we want to eat. For now, we have to reach those mountains,” he pointed out, “if we don’t want to get caught this very night. My footprints are hard to follow, but not yours.”
“I don’t understand why they haven’t caught up with us already.”
“Because they haven’t come after us yet. Ator may have tried, but the men must have refused. Sabre-toothed tigers see in the dark and are dangerous.”
“Why hasn’t he come out alone?”
“He has a concussion. I’ve seen those blows from animals many times. If he hasn’t come out already, he’ll be like that all night. We have to reach those mountains before dawn!” he urged again. “With some luck, our tracks will be lost on the bare rock, and from there, we can go in any direction.”
Umma resigned herself, and they started running again, stopping at increasingly shorter intervals, much to Tabal’s despair. Finally, they encountered no tigers, and the sun was already on the horizon when they reached the mountains. They took refuge in a crevice among the rocks, which the boy covered with dry branches. It was a suitable vantage point to spot their pursuers, with enough concealment to move elsewhere if needed. But he wasn’t entirely confident. He began to consider that they had made a mistake, and the tribe’s men would scatter in the area once their tracks were lost. Surely, they would find him, and he would have to kill some of his comrades, or they might kill him first and take the girl, who was a thoroughly exhausted burden by now.
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Umma had fallen asleep as soon as she lay down, and he let her rest while deciding on his next steps. After a while, he woke her up and said, “Come on, we need to keep going.”
“Where to?”
“For now, upwards. We have no water, and we won’t find any on the plain. I hope to find some leftover snow at the summit. Come on, we’ll go slow.”
A few hours later, Ator and four more men had reached the base of the mountains. Since the tracks were lost, they spread out in the area and planned to meet at noon at the base camp. Ulla arrived at that moment with the two last men, and the chief briefed her, “They must be around here, resting. That woman must be exhausted, and they have no water.”
“We’ll climb to the top,” said the old woman. “We’ll catch them there.”
However, the summit was not a singular place but rather a collection of scattered peaks. The eight tribe members split into pairs and began tracking, with the sorceress staying with Ator.
Meanwhile, well into the afternoon, the fugitives had loaded several dove-skin water pouches with melted snow and tied them to their waists with wicker straps. In the distance, they had already seen two of their pursuers and stopped to decide what to do.
“I need to rest, Tabal, and so do you. We should stay here for the night.”
“Then we’ll be dead, Umma. If they do the same, they’ll catch up in the morning. We can’t always stay in these mountains to hide our tracks. There’s no food here, and on the plain...”
“Yes, I know. But they’ll catch us sooner or later if we keep heading north. They’ll do the same.”
Tabal closed his eyes and clenched his fists. She was right. The cold was intense, despite being wrapped in deer hides. They needed to get out of there as soon as possible, but in any case, that would only delay their capture. Umma sensed his desperation and, far from reproaching, said gently while caressing him, “Come on, Tabal. You’re not giving up now...”
He smiled, and they embraced, their faces close to kissing, until they heard a noise to their right. About a hundred steps away stood a sabre-toothed tiger staring at them. Its illuminated pupils fixed on the two figures, freezing them in terror. The animal roared, and a pair of hand-sized sharp knives glinted in the moonlight. The young ones turned around and started running downhill, but Umma slipped and began rolling down the slope covered with dry moss, barely cushioning the blows. Tabal still maintained his balance, but the tiger was getting closer. Finally, in the nick of time, the girl entered a narrow crevice between two rocks, and he did the same, taking refuge beside her.
Both lay on the ground, but the animal’s paw reached their clothes and got caught in the seams of the deer hides. Then Tabal tried to use his spear, which was under him, but the manoeuvre only resulted in a deep scratch on his side that made him scream in pain. Umma was practically trapped underneath and could hardly move, except sideways. Then, with her free hand, she untied her loincloth and waved it at the tiger to distract it. At that moment, Tabal seized the opportunity to finally grab the spear and thrust it forcefully into the animal’s leg. It roared loudly and withdrew slightly from the crevice entrance. However, hunger prevailed over pain, and it attempted again with its claws. It was a bad idea. Another thrust forced it to retract its paw, and the animal understood that it wouldn’t gain anything from these preys.
“Are you okay, Tabal?”
“It stings a lot…”
Umma turned to the right, trying to look diagonally, and that’s when she saw the tiger leaving. Then she stood up, took one of her dove-skin water pouches, and tried to clean the wound on her companion’s side.
“We shouldn’t waste water,” he interjected.
“It’s my water, and I’ll do with it what I want,” she looked towards the moon, now shining brightly on the horizon. “Besides, by this hour, I should already be dead, so, as I told you, I’ve triumphed over death.”
Tabal smiled and stepped away from her to look as well. Then he said:
“The tiger has gone, but it won’t be far. We should stay here to rest until dawn. After that, I’m afraid I’ll have to fight it.”
“Fight the tiger?”
“Yes,” he affirmed, with seriousness. “It knows we’re here, and it will wait for us.”
“But can you do it? What about your wound?”
“The wound isn’t deep. It will heal. Tomorrow in the fray, I won’t feel it.”
“But...
“I’d rather fight it than face Ator. The beast will most likely kill me, but at least you can escape while it devours me.”
“Oh, Tabal! Don’t say that!”
“Women aren’t used to seeing these things, but I once witnessed a fight with three men wielding spears against one of these tigers, and it killed them all. I don’t think I stand a chance,” he concluded. “But for now, let’s sleep.”