Chapter 15: Chapter 15 - Tale
Ulf disappeared where he was standing from. The running hunter, who was at least a hundred and fifty meters away, was getting astonishingly closer until Ulf emerged right in front of him.
"Where are you running this hurriedly?"
The archer was startled due to Ulf's unexpected appearance. After seeing him closer, he was a bit higher than Ulf, had brown eyes and comparably big ears.
"Please! Can you let me go? I will never meet or bother you again in future." Even if he was wondering about Ulf's speed, he came to his mind soon and was trying to find his way to survive.
"I want to finish it as fast as possible too, man. So, I have my offer. If you answer some of my questions and do it well, you may go." Ulf was trying to have an honest-looking face when he was saying that.
Archer, who was desperate, tried to catch his only chance.
'I need to escape from here, only then can I think about revenge.' He was already scheming in his mind.
"Yes, I will tell you everything."
"Good choice. Then first of all who are you guys? I advise you to tell me the truth, if I have even a bit of doubt about your answers then the end won't be pleasant." Ulf was very curious about the origin of the people.
"We... we are the vagrants. We moved here from the west and settled down here for some time." He told him basic information.
'Vagrants? The guys who behave like nomads, don't have any settlement and always move?!'
To be honest they are the perfect example of how normal stone age humans should be. At that time it was almost impossible to see a huge group, which contained a few thousand men and women. They were moving from place to place or living in the caves. However, it must have been a sudden change of environment that made humans adapt to a different way of living. The man who was on the top of the pyramid now has been thrown from his dominant position. He was now rivalled or got dominated by other creatures.
That was why in order to defend themself, more humans started to gather together, settle down in one place and make it a shelter. However, not everyone shared the same ideas. Some groups still refused to become a part of the larger mass of humans and continued their old way of life. They were the vagrants. Life was harsher for them, as they numbered only a few hundred in one group at most.
"Okay, you are vagrants, but why did you try to kill me?" Ulf showed that he didn't fully believe him.
"Of course... of course for the food. What else? We saw you yesterday and were observing you from afar. However, you were stronger than us. So we retreated at that time. Then today when you started to separate from each other and left only one of you to secure the bags, we thought it was our chance. We do not have many hunters to risk hunting in the forest. With those bags, we would have food for a couple of days."
'So they weren't around us at night time, it's good then. I thought something went wrong with my enhancement method because I couldn't sense any humans near us at that time.' Ulf felt a bit relieved.
"Only fruits in the bags? Maybe you also wanted fresh human meat for dinner too. As I know it's one of the best delicacies for you guys." Ulf has been acting like he was cutting his hand, provoking the man in front of him.
"Meat... ah... no, how can we? I have never done anything like that." He was shaking his head, but the eyes were hinting differently, which were a bit brightened when Ulf mentioned human meat.
Cannibalism was a commonly occurring event in this period of history. Maybe it was because of starvation, the act of dominance on the weak or just preference for food. However, Ulf has never heard of cannibalism in his village. Maybe because they have enough food and a different mindset.
"Then where does your group of vagrants live right now?" Ulf asked the final question, he wanted to give the vagrant.
The man was a bit hesitant to answer this time. Though, when he was how Ulf was playing with his spear, began to speak once again.
"There is a cave in the big cliffs from the northeast side from here." The man even pointed Ulf in the direction of their living place.
"Okay, that's all... I must also hurry back. Maybe I was expecting something more from you." Ulf sighed.
"Then... I will go." He ran without looking back.
Ulf was looking at him for two seconds, exhaled, aimed and threw his spear toward the running hunter.
"Aaaah..." The spear penetrated his rear.
Ulf run and got close to him again. The vagrant was on the ground and couldn't stand up again.
"Why did you do that?... aah... you promised me that you would let me go!!" The vagrant gave an agonized cry.
"Promise? I just told you "may you go" and as if I would let you go just because of the promise." Ulf had a look, as if he was saying something obvious.
"Aah... hah... just... just kill me then..." He had already given up on any hope of surviving.
"There will be better experts on it soon. I will take my spear and leave you alone." Ulf pointed toward the south side and took back his weapon.
"Ahh... I curse you... You... and your whole tribe. My god Ḫaldi will punish you for your viciousness..." The vagrant no longer cared how strong Ulf was. He started saying everything that he had been holding back. However, because of a large amount of blood loss, he couldn't continue and lost consciousness soon.
Ulf went back, where he killed the first vagrant, covered the blood on the ground with the earth and brought the peak warrior ranker's corpse hurriedly and dropped it next to his companion. At that time he heard the laugh of hyenas.
When Ulf killed the last macaque yesterday with his enhanced eyes, he saw something else. The group of hyenas far distant was eyeing them. This territory must have been their hunting ground. At the same time, Ulf didn't sense the vagrants around them and that was why he was somewhat surprised about their sudden appearance. The hyenas came because of the smell of monkeys' blood but didn't dare to risk interaction with the hunters. Ulf knew from the experienced hunters that there were several species of hyenas in the forest.
The hyenas in front of him had the weakest individual prowess among the same kinds here - The hunters called them the evil-eyed hyenas. However, in this outer part of the forest, they were one of the strongest predators, because of their advantage in the number. They seemed to be so intelligent that they didn't want a confrontation with Ulf's team, which could climb on the trees and kill the macaques with the bows and arrows. However, wounded and powerless humans should have been a different matter and they really started eating two corpses on the ground soon.
'Here they are. Just right in time. It's time for the last step for a perfect disguise.'
Ulf took the peak warrior rank vagrant hunter's bone knife and injured himself above the left armpit, after that threw the weapon exactly where its owner's corpse was left. At that moment Ulf felt through the enhanced ears that a group of humans were nearing.
'They have come too.' He began to run toward them and saw his teammates. They must have heard the vagrant archer's cry when Ulf hit him with the spear.
"What's going on Ulf?"
"Why are you wounded?"
...
The hunters bombarded Ulf with the questions.
Ulf had a pained look and has been looking back, as if he was wary of something, and was trying to stop the leaking blood from the wound with his right hand.
"Hah, hah... there were the hunters... ah.. then the hyenas too... many of them..." From what Ulf looked like, he was nervous and couldn't speak fluently.
"Okay Ulf, you go back with others. I and Bo will go and check out the situation, when we come back, you will explain what happened. Guys help Ulf to stop bleeding. We have some honey and raw meat for emergency circumstances like this one." Broderick commanded the team and went with Bo to where Ulf came from.
After that, the second woman in the team - Ragna grasped firstly the honey to prevent the wound from an infection, and then the raw meat to stop bleeding. Ulf learned about this method here and was very interested in his tribe's past experiences, and collected knowledge about curing the wounds.
A few minutes later Broderick and Bo came back.
"There are 25-30 evil-eyed hyenas. They were eating something. They must be two corpses, but couldn't even discern who they could be, so the only chance is to listen to Ulf."
Five pairs of eyes were watching Ulf and waiting to hear him. Ulf, who 'calmed down' a bit, started telling about 'his version of the story'.
"When you spread and started the work, I was on my duty. After some time I heard weird voices in the distance and wanted to inspect what was happening. When I got near, I saw that two hunters were struggling against many hyenas. One of them was severely injured and the second one was helping him stand still. They noticed and got near me."
I pitied them and wanted to help. However, I would never imagine that an unharmed hunter would point me with his bone knife, to stab me in the heart. Probably he wanted to use me as bait for the hyenas and escape after that. I avoided the deadly strike, but still got injured. In return, I was able to pierce him in the chest and run away from there. Unlike me, those two could no longer defend or run anymore, so the animals didn't follow me. As for the hunters, they must have become the food for the evil-eyed hyenas."
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