Three days after the games were held, Alqa went out to practice her archery. She saddled Nergui and put the bit and bridle on, taking her weapons and other equipment with her. She rode out to the open field, just to the east of the War-yisra. She had barely begun stringing her bow when she heard a horse’s trotting footfalls. She stopped what she was doing and turned around, Qotoiyan waved to her from atop Tagdur. Alqa waved back and Tagdur stopped, letting Qotoiyan dismount and he approached Alqa. “Hey, Alqa. Do you have any plans of what you need to do over the next few days?” Qotoiyan asked.
“No, why?” Alqa responded.
“I’m going on a hunt and was told to go with people from outside of my Yisra,” Qotoiyan explained. Alqa thought for a bit before responding, on one hand it was a chance to hang out with Qotoiyan, but on the other hand it was a risk to go hunting with strangers. But her wish to spend time with Qotoiyan won out and she decided to go.
“Sure, sounds like fun? When are we going to leave?” Alqa told him.
Qotoiyan smiled, “we are going to leave at dawn tomorrow, at the north end of the War-yisra,” He told her.
Alqa spent a shorter time practicing archery then she had planned, and the rest of the day making sure she had enough food, arrows and making sure all of her equipment was ready for hunting. She oiled, polished and sharpened her sword. That night she had trouble sleeping, her mind raced with excitement but she eventually fell asleep. She woke up before dawn and lit a wicker candle. By the very dim light she prepared Nergui and put her belt on, sword, dagger, quiver fully stocked with bow and arrows. She packed her travel yurt and wrapped her cloak around her body and mounted Nergui. She rode north and after a bit she met up with the group, Qotoiyan was there, as well as a few others. She greeted Qotoiyan and all the hunters waited for a bit before the rest got there. Once everyone was present, they did introductions and set off north.
It was midday when Alqa saw a small brown pile on the ground, she raised her fist and the party halted. “Poop,” Alqa said. She dismounted and picked up a twig and broke it into two, picking through the poop. She saw light brown fur, like it was from a geres. “Looks like a wolf most likely,” Alqa called back to the party.
“See if you can find any tracks,” Qotoiyan ordered the party and at once all sixteen split off, looking in the nearby areas. Nobody found any, but the poop was still relatively fresh. “Everybody, back together, the wolves couldn’t have gone far,” Qotoiyan ordered the group. They continued on, veering northeast and the next day, a warrior named Erdem spotted wolf tracks. The party followed them carefully, making sure to be alert in case of spotting the wolves.
Early the next day, Qotoiyan approached Alqa. “There is a stream a little to the west, would you like to check it out? There will almost definitely be animals there,” he told her.
“Shouldn’t we bring everyone else?” Alqa asked, confused at why they would go to the stream with only two of them.
“We’ll be scouting, we can move more quietly if it's just the two of us,” Qotoiyan explained.
“Ok,” Alqa said. It would be a great chance to spend time with him. They went to the stream together, as they approached the stream Alqa saw a herd of gere drinking from the stream or otherwise lounging about. They quickly and quietly returned to their horses and rode back to the waiting hunting party. When they returned a warrior named Naimanzuunnadintseteg approached them.
“We saw wolves, tracking something, moving west,” she reported.
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“Probably the gere,” Alqa said.
“Thank you Naimanzuunadintsetseg,” Qotoiyan responded and then ordered everybody to get their bows ready and mount their horses.
The party set off, moving towards the gere. They made sure to remain downwind of the gere so as to not alert their prey. “Ok, everybody, we kill as many gere as we can and take them back. But kill no more than we can carry. Each horse can carry one, and we can drag three on the blanket,” Qotoiyan instructed everybody. “Wolves have been sighted in the area, so if you see them, let us know,” it wasn’t long before Alqa heard snarling and the cries of fearful gere. She saw a cloud of dust rising. Qotoiyan saw it too, “Dang wolves. Let’s go!” He spurred on Tagdur and the rest of the party followed him. The horses seemed a little reluctant, but they were trained to put aside their fear witht he promise that their rider would protect them. They crested the hill and saw ten wolves chasing the gere. The warriors set off into a chase as well. “Wolf or geres! Either will work no more than twenty-one kills though!” Qotoiyan yelled. The wolves noticed them and began to turn to flee.
“After them!” one of the warriors yelled. Screaming war-cries the warriors bore down on the wolves and loosed volleys of arrows. Wolves yelped in pain as arrows struck them, the rush of adrenaline surged through Alqa’s body.
“Stop!” Qotoiyan ordered, a few wolves scampered away. “We can’t destroy the whole pack,” Qotoiyan told them. The warriors agreed and after a little bit dismounted their horses and collected their arrows and the dead wolves. Six in total, they saw a trail of blood from a wounded wolf while picking up arrows. The thrill of the hunt took Alqa and she mounted Nergui and rode after the injured wolf, finding it after a short while. It lay in the grass, its surviving packmates licking their dying comrade and whimpering, their tails displaying sadness. Alqa raised her bow and drew back an arrow. She loosed the arrow directly into the dying wolf’s head and it fell limp, the other wolves, startled, fled once more.
She dismounted Nergui and came to the wolf. “Thank you for your sacrifice, beautiful wolf” She whispered to it, though it was already dead.
Qotoiyan caught up with her, “Don’t go off chasing wolves on your own!” he yelled at her. Alqa looked down.
“I’m sorry, I just thought it wouldn’t be right to leave it. It was already dying,” Alqa tried to explain.
“You could have been hurt or killed, think next time. We will go after it, but we will do it together,” He said, holding his head.
“Sorry,” Alqa meekly apologized. Qotoiyan dismounted and came over to where she was kneeling and knelt down beside her.
“I was scared that you would have been hurt or killed. I don’t think I would have been able to forgive myself if I invited you on a hunt that got you killed. Please think next time,” Qotoiyan explained, finally seeming to calm down.
“I promise,” Alqa told him, meeting his gaze. She held it for a moment and then quickly broke it and took the arrows out of the wolf and flung it over Nergui in awkward silence. They returned to the party.
“Are we going after the geres?” one of the warriors asked.
“No, we need to get the meat back before it goes bad. Is it all secure?” Qotoiyan answered. The warriors nodded. Qotoiyan led the party back towards the War-yisra. On the way back one of the warriors spotted some marmots. So the warriors dismounted their horses and crept up to the marmots, Qotoiyan stayed close to Alqa. They waited for the rest of the day, taking shots at whichever marmot they saw. They bagged a total of thirteen marmots that day and in the early morning continued back towards the War-yisra. They arrived back around midday and while a couple of the warriors set up tables, racks, fires and pots, Alqa, Qotoiyan and a couple other warriors brought the animals from the horses. Once everything was ready, Alqa sharpened a skinning knife and began skinning the marmots. She passed the skinned marmots to Qotoiyan, who gutted them and passed them to a warrior named Qoiya. She cut them into long strips and took them to hang in the yurts. Alqa then started skinning the wolves and passed them along the same line. These however were made into bana instead of being left to dry.
Once the bana were done boiling, they poured water over the guts to clean them, and then poured them into the boiling water and cooked them that way. Then they put them into bana and boiled them again. They then raised a blue horsehair banner and began passing out the bana to warriors who came by to get their food.