This chapter is dedicated to ___Shhhh who also made the cover above. Please go check out her profile and her graphics shop, that would mean a bunch to me.
Also, please everyone donate or do what you can for the people in Australia suffering from the droughts and bushfires. They're worse than ever and anyone who can, in anyway, please help. ~I say this from Australia.
Anyways, hope you enjoy the chapter. It is almost double the size of my other ones! Also, this book is getting close to the end, so enjoy the last few chapters!!! ~🖤
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We quietly made our way towards the mammoth, taking our time to place each foot carefully and quietly.
I knew, like everyone else in the hunting party, that this was kind of weather would atract unwanted preditors.
The cold wind and thick snow meant a lot of prey would be hibernating or hiding underground to avoid the cold. And a lot of vegetation would be covered up by thick layers of snow and ice, and that meant there was much less prey.
This meant a lot of preditors could be after the same prey.
I imagined all the other preditors stalking the same, one tusked mammoth me and the hunters were hunting. A chill ran down my spine as I imagined I was the prey all the animals were hunting, then I quickly disgarded the thought. The only preditors that would be around here in this cold, would be large birds or sabers.
Sabers. Axel and his pack could be looking for prey too. And based on past experiences, this is a popular hunting spot for the Sabers too. I decided it would be wise to keep a close eye out for any Sabers, there would be a fifty percent chance they'd be here, and a pack of hunting Sabers is never a safe thing.
"She has a missing tusk, that makes her an easier target." I heard the cheif say, just above a whisper, only a metre ahead.
"Go for her legs, once she's down, she'll be easy to take out, got that?"
The party quietly agreed.
"Ready..." The cheif started.
I reached into my quiver and pulled out my bow. "Attack!!"
The hunting party ran out of their hiding spots and into the snowy clearing where the mammoth stood. I quickly grabbed an arrow from my quiver and knocked it onto the bow. The hunting party struck the mammoths legs with their swords and axes. The mammoth stepped back, trying to avoid their weapons, then swung her trunk at the men, who flew back metres from the impact of the blow. I shot at the mammoths face, making it miss its next blow with its trunk. I ran into the clearing, trying to get better shots at the mammoth. My father, using his large sword, sliced a deep gash in the mammoths foot. The mammoth kicked him backwards with her injured foot.
The air began to smell of blood and I knew we had to kill the mammoth fast, or the smell of blood would atract another preditor.
I pulled back my next arrow, aiming for the mammoths eye, when suddenly my consintration was broken by a loud vibration of running feet. Or in this case, paws. I swung my head to the right to see a pack of about fifteen saber tooth cats, charging towards my hunting party.
"Look out!!" I yelled as loud as I could, my voice reaching all the ears in the clearing.
Everyone looked at the Sabers as they ran in their direction. The Sabers needed the meat as much as we did, and they were reading to fight for it.
The Sabers were almost up to me within a few seconds, and I knew I couldn't outrun them, so in the desperate situation I was in, I crouched onto the snowy ground and covered my face, my bow falling on the floor. I couldn't kill these Sabers, they were Axel's family. But I couldn't outrun them, and being trampled by a pack of hungry Sabers was never a good thing.
But as I heard the pack run past me, and even a couple jump over me, I uncovered my face and cautiously stood. They were dodging me. I looked past the Sabers that ran past me. Raz lead the Sabers towards the hunting party, chasing them away from the mammoth so they could then catch it for themselves. You may be my friends, I thought with a grim smile as I watched the Sabers run, but that doesn't mean I'll let you take my prey.
I ran past the last saber that ran towards the hunters. My closed shoes sunk in the deep cold snow as I made my way towards the injured mammoth. She wasn't injured too badly and she could make an escape while the two preditors were fighting. With my bow I had scooped up from the snow where I dropped it, and an arrow in place, I shot the mammoth successfully in the right eye. Blood sprayed from the mammoths eye socket and she trumpeted in pain. She looked at me with her one good eye, as an arrow stuck awkwardly from her now blind eye. There's only one of them, the others are running from the Sabers, she's only small, I think I can take her on, the mammoth seemed to think as she watched me raise another arrow to the bow string.
She ran towards me, her heavy feet stomping clouds of snow around them.
I shot my arrow at her chest, but it just went spinning into the air, bouncing off her thick skin and fur as she ran.
I hurried to grab my next arrow, but once it was I my hand, the mammoth was standing before me, her trunk raised high in the air.
Her trunk smacked the bow out of my hands and sliding metres away across the slippery snow. My arrow that was in my other hand, fell on the ground in front of me from the wind of the blow.
I stood before the massive beast, its single tusk was too close to me for my liking.
I stumbled back onto the snow, falling in a failed attempt to avoid the mammoth.
I sat now, with me arms behind me keeping me sitting, and my legs straight in front of me.
This was it. I couldn't take on an adult mammoth on my own. And my bow is gone. I could scream out for help but the hunting party was too far gone, along with the Sabers. I was doomed to die at the tusk of a mammoth. I shut my eyes tightly to avoid the gruesome seem that was to come.
My whole life seemed to flash past in a blind, my friends, my family, my missions. But one memory lingered longer than the rest. Back when I was a young child, when I was only five. "When I'm older, I'm going to go hunting, and I will bring back a mammoth!" I exclaimed, my heart filled with pride as I imagined the praises I'd get from my parents. But my parents eyes widened in surprise. "No, no Lian. Only men hunt, you will stay at home with me and wash the clothes and sweep the floor." Mother explained. My excitement and pride was now replaced with confusion. My mother knelt in front of me, so she was now at eye level.
"Why?" I asked in genuine confusion.
"Because men are big and strong, while women are softer and weaker." Mother explained with a straight face. She wasn't joking? I shook my head.
"Not me! I will train, and I will catch a mammoth all on my own!"
I opened my eyes with sudden burst of determination. I was not going to die like this. I would save women from everlasting slavery, I would save the humans and dragons from the war, I would bring justice to the women, I would live long enough proove myself,
I would catch that mammoth!
Using my arms that held me in a sitting position, I pushed myself into my knees and dodged the mammoths blow. Its tusk stabbed into the snow where I lay less than a second ago, getting stuck for a couple of seconds before yanked it out, spraying large amounts of snow into air. But it was already too late. I quickly leaned forward, grabbing my arrow that had fell from my hands, from under the mammoth. I held it tight in my right hand, as I used all my power from my arm and legs as I pushed into arrow into the belly of the mammoth. A loud trumpet echoed in my ears, as the mammoth fell onto its side, limp and lifeless.
A line of blood trickled quickly down my arm, then soaking into my sleeve that was pulled up to me elbows. As I watched the blood drip from my sleeve, staining the white snow beneath it, I heard a familiar voice.
"Lian!" My father called before her appeared in front of me, the rest of the hunters behind him.
I noticed the Sabers slip quietly into the trees and out of sight.
"Lian, you done it!" My father exclaimed in excitement. I let go of the blood covered arrow in my hand, my skin sticking to it for half a second before it was free.
I stood up shakily, looking down at the lifeless mammoth in awe.
"Lian." My father repeated, putting both his hands on my shoulders, gripping them firmly. I looked up at my fathers face, full of pride. "You done it Lian, you killed a mammoth, on your own!" He exclaimed.
I gave a short chuckle, still shaken from the close to death battle with the mammoth.
"I told you I would." I said, with a hint of sarcasm in my voice. My father smiled even wider now. "I remember." He said before embracing me in a tight hug.
I had done it. I had made my father proud. I had caught the mammoth. I had shown my worth. Now the only question was, would my village except it.
6/January/2020 (First chapter of 2020! Have a happy new year!)
April Bluebird/BlueWhiskers1
Dragon Age
Chapter 16; A Promise Forfilled.
1694 words.
5.46k reads.
(Good game to play~ Collecting Cats.
Good movie~ Mulan
Good book~ Ranger's Apprentice
Good Author~ Kathryn Lasky
Good Wattpad book~ Shade (By KittyCatzy)
Good author~ KittyCatzy
Good YT channel~ MrBeast)