The Lust of Horns

ROKK I

Father's brows sunk. 'Calm down, damn you, this is not a pigs pen.'

The room fell silent.

I snorted and chuckled, taking my seat. All eyes narrowed on me. 'What?' I looked around the table. 'All you'd need is your own snout and nobody would know the difference.' I smirked and resumed eating.

Each of my siblings screwed up their faces, and I couldn't tell one apart from another. They all had father's buttered-brown hair and buttered-brown eyes. Their own dull brown robes. And a rounded chin to match. The only difference between them was the stacks of meat positioned in front of them: Breeba, the oldest, always ate the pig ears, while Bromba, a year younger than I, only ate the cheeks and jowls; the two youngest, Horkk and Doomda, ate anything much like I did, but preferred the loins and hocks.

Father asked, 'Have you congratulated your sister?'

'On what, taking a bath?'

Breeba crossed her thick arms, and her face reddened.

'No. Last week Breeba had her first blood,' Father replied coldly. 'She has reached womanhood... or had you not heard?'

I looked at Breeba. Candlelight glistened off the grease on her face. I chuckled, 'is that what that smell is?'

'You best watch your mouth, brother,' Breeba said in a trying tone, 'or I'll stuff it for you.'

'I never knew you were so kind.' I slurped the grease off my fingers. 'If only it were that easy for men; I'd take bleeding of natural causes over a dance with a boar.' I nudged Horkk, 'you know what I mean--'

Father slammed his hand down, causing a bone to tumble across the table, and drown in meat sauce. 'Women do the bleeding, and men draw the blood, you worthless coward!' He glared and his lip trembled, then sunk. 'How did I bore such ignorance?'

"Mother's cunt, perhaps?"

Father's face went purple. The hoofling's eyes widened, frightened that he'd burst.

Breeba intervened. 'Do you know what this means? Eroh will become a man on the morrow ... And as a man, he'll need a bride.'

"And you won't be his first choice nor his second," I snorted. Surprisingly, my other siblings joined my ruse until father glared at each one of them.

Breeba yelled, 'Is that what you've heard?'

'Nope,' I said, shaking my head. 'If you don't mind my honesty, Great Sister, but you must turn and face your reflection. It's not a pretty sight unless you're trying to be the Lady Horn of a toad.' Breeba's lip curled downward and forehead creased. I said boldly, 'You've had eighteen summers and yet you've only now drawn your first blood. Sounds to me like you're lying to become the Lady Horn of a soon-to-be Chief Horn.

'Coincidence as it may be, that is not what happened.' Breeba replied with daggers in her tone. 'There is no other who would be worthy-'

'Ehem!' I raised a finger, 'But there is.'

'Whom?' Father snapped. 'That horse bitch, Nhedri? She hasn't had her first blood ... nor will she before I have spoken to the Chief.'

'But it is not the Chief who'll decide - It is Eroh.' I half-grinned. 'And he'll wait as long as it takes for Nhedri's hand.'

'Lies!' Breeba screamed, throwing an ear like a dagger. I ducked, and it spun overhead, squishing against the wall at my back. 'You're no good liar, Rokk!'

'If you think Eroh will have the final say, you're truly a fool.' Father wiped his hands. 'Reigrum has married five of his six daughters to the Horn Lords of the Horftz clans; no one man should have such influence." The children perked up to listen. I sank further in my chair, picking through my scraps of meat. 'And four of the five have bred boys. If Eroh and Nhedri have a son, Reigrum will have his hands in all tribal decisions. He is trying to assume power. He wants to become Chief.'