Part 7

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“But they are God’s creatures how can you wipe them from the face of the earth?” inquired Medin.

At last he opened his eyes, they flashed with indignation, “Do you wish that your wives and children be mauled and slain, or that you all live in fear your whole lives?” He stood and addressed them all. "Why should we remain beholden to a God that no longer speaks or meddles in the affairs of man? Send me your best hunters, those skilled with the spear and bow. I will teach them and lead them.”

“But what do we do in the meantime?” wondered Plebin, now a little afraid of the monster he had awoken.

“Build walls of mud around the settlement, I will show you how.”

Nimr took charge of the building works. People made mud bricks and he showed them how they should build a high mud brick wall, higher than any had dared build before. Its base was thicker than the top and it rose to three times the height of a man and high enough to stop most of the taller hunting creatures.

They also sent him their good hunters, those skilled in the spear and bow. When the building works were under way, he led the hunters to destroy those beasts closest to the city. Until that time men had lived in villages or small towns or even in tents, open to the wild.

Some creatures were fast and strong and intelligent, and it was impossible to catch them in pits, with nets or with the bow. Nimr thought long and hard to try to find a way to hunt them. There were goodly creatures, ones that could be useful to men, “If we could use the speed of the horse and the leopard we could catch them easily.”

One of the hunters had befriended a group of horses, his name was Tarn. Nimr asked for his help. “Tarn, have you ever tried to sit upon one of the horses?”

“My son tried once, but they are proud and were not willing to be ridden upon. The horse threw him to the ground, he badly hurt his back.”

“I am not a man to give up so easily, I would try to succeed.”

 A horse was eating near Tarn’s house. Nimr ran up to the roof and launched himself onto the back of the animal, he grabbed onto it’s mane with his hands. The startled animal bucked and reared. It was a minute or two before Nimrod was thrown to the ground. He landed on his bottom with a bang.

Stunned at first he drawled, “I shall not be mastered by any animal,” he made for the horse again, but it soon escaped.

“You will have to catch it with a rope first, but it would be best if you tried to calm it down before you tried to ride it!”

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