Primitive Instinct: The Journey Home

I held the bow steady as I waited for the halka, a goat-like creature, to step forward as it grazed on the tiny sprigs of green grass that had started to grow in some places as the sun melted the snow more and more.

It took the step and I let my arrow go, piercing it right through the jugular and quickly notched another arrow to take another before the herd scattered.

Diesel stood from where he’d been waiting by my feet and walked with me to collect the two halka to add to the sled that had a couple of pulak on it already. Once the halka were gutted and on the sled, I turned back towards the camp.

It’s been over a month since Roar left, and no one has seen anything of the hunting party that had left that day. I was not the only wife worrying at this point, but I was probably the one that was considering going after them the most. The only reason I didn’t was because the chief, Rag’pi’kien, somehow knew I was planning on it and stopped me. Diesel even stopped me, much to my annoyance.

So, I spent as much time away from the camp as I could. I couldn’t be at my tent and not think about my hunter, so I went out to do what I could to feed the rest of the clan. Most of the best hunters had gone in the party to find the kaakan, which was a problem, now that they had been gone for weeks longer than they should have been, so I was doing the clan a favor by hunting so much. Diesel and I left early in the mornings when the sun was still low and would bring in sleds of meat for the clan all day long until neither of us could do it anymore. Then, I’d go into the tent and cry until I fell asleep, then I’d wake up and do it again the next day.

I trudged through the snow that was lingering back to the camp with Diesel beside me for the third time that day. I came out of the trees and stopped as a sob choked me. I pushed it back and kept going, ignoring the whine from Diesel. It hurt, but everything kind of hurt right now. I wasn’t sure how much longer I could convince myself that he was going to come back and that was the truly frightening part.

I made it into the village and went to the smoking tent where the Mapok in charge of it nodded their greeting to me and started taking the creatures from the sled. Normally, they wouldn’t take anything that wasn’t already skinned and cut up, but I was one of the only hunters with any kind of experience left here. I wasn’t single handedly feeding the clan, because there were younger hunters out in the woods and fields doing the same thing I was, but they lacked the knowledge Roar had passed along to me that allowed me to hunt the larger, more elusive creatures, like the halka.

I left the smoking tent and the Mapok that were now skinning the creatures to be put inside to go to the small tent across the camp for a bit of lunch and something to drink before heading out again. I kept my head down and ignored a lot of activity going on around me. It was hard, trying not to think about what could have possibly happened to Roar to keep him away for so long and seeing all of the other people wasn’t going to make anything any easier.

“Well, Dies,” I sighed when I took the leads off his harness. “I think we’re going to have to get creative again soon. That’s a lot of hide.”

It was one of the things the chief made sure happened as a kind of ‘thanks for not letting us all starve’ gesture. When I left the creatures at the smoking tent, they would skin and butcher it, then take the hide to be processed and returned to me. I now had a giant pile of it sitting outside the tent.

I dug around until Diesel had his lunch and I was chewing on a big bite as I tried to figure out to how and where I was going to store all of this freaking hide when I felt... something. I know no one was near me, because Diesel was still happily chewing on his chunk of meat, but it almost felt there was. It was a warm feeling that I missed, now that Roar wasn’t...

I gasped and jolted up, looking around frantically until I saw him looking around for me as the rest of the clan shouted and welcomed them all back.

“Roar,” I whispered, and Diesel looked up at the hunter, standing and wagging his tail before he barked, getting the immediate attention of my husband.

I took off running as Roar pushed through the crowd, smiling widely and I jumped into him, knocking the air from him and throwing him off balance until he fell backwards, making everyone around us laugh as I kissed his stupid mouth.

“I have missed you, too, my isha,” he laughed and sat up before standing, keeping an arm banded around my back so my feet dangled under me as he took me back to the tent.

“You!” I snapped and pushed free to shove at him. “You said no longer than a month, jackass! That was weeks ago!”

“Did you think I wasn’t coming back?” he smirked, and I shoved at him again.

“You didn’t say anything to me before you left! Don’t you ever do that shit again or losing your ears will be the least of your concerns!” I snapped and he chuckled as he grabbed my hands.

“I’m sorry you were worried,” he grinned, not looking very sorry at all and that pissed me off more.

“Diesel! Where’s my knife?! I’m shaving his fur!” I said and Diesel whined and grabbed the knife from the sled and ran away with it. “Traitor!”

“Calm down, my isha,” Roar chuckled and grabbed me in a tight hug, not letting me go when I tried to shove him again until I was clinging to him tightly, not wanting him to ever let go again.

“I’m so mad at you,” I cried into his chest, and he chuckled again before bending and picking me up so he could kiss me deeply.

“I missed you, too,” he told me, and I scowled at him. “Be angry later.”

“Infuriating male,” I mumbled then kissed him back.

“You’ve been busy,” Roar said hours later as he rubbed my bare back with a paw.

“It helped me not turn into a weeping mess during the days,” I said, laying on top of him, unable to stop myself from tracing a line of muscle on his bare chest with my fingers. “And the clan needed it. There weren’t enough skilled hunters left here to keep everyone fed.”

We, like many others, went to our tent after the hunting party returned and reunited properly after being apart for so long. It might have been the small travel tent still, but that was all we needed right now. I was just glad to have my hunter back.

“We had to travel far to find the kaakan. It took longer than any of us expected and there were many when we found them,” he said after a moment. “We had to wait for some to separate so they didn’t kill us when they began to run.”

“Did anyone get hurt?” I asked.

“You mean me?” he chuckled, and I smiled. “No. Nothing serious, anyhow. Kaakan are very large. Some bruises are expected, but nothing that didn’t heal on the journey back home.”

“And did you get enough hide to make our tent? I like being close like this, but I don’t think leaving our supplies outside is wise,” I asked and he hummed.

“There is hide for many. I stitched our tent together on the way here,” he said. “The rest will go to others who need it.”

“So, what do we need now?” I asked him.

“I took many of the kaakan on the hunt. In trade for the hide, we will have the bones we need in the morning,” he said. “We just need to put it together and find the poles to hold it off our heads.”

“I missed you, Roar,” I sighed.

“I don’t know how many times I nearly left the hunt to come back to you,” he said, wrapping his arms around me. "I’m sorry I didn’t wake you when I left. I wouldn’t have been able to go if I saw you watching me. It was difficult enough with you asleep.”

“Don’t ever do that again,” I pushed to my hands over him. “If you have to go on a long hunt again, you better wake me before you leave.”

“I will wake you in the future, my isha,” he nodded.

“What does that mean?” I tilted my head a little.

He thought for a moment before he frowned.

“What is it that you and Ivy say? What I am to you and what Osh’ri’ca is to her?” he asked.

“Husband?” I asked and he nodded.

“Is there a different word for what you are to me?” he asked, and I blushed a little.

“Wife,” I answered.

“That is what isha means, wife,” he smirked and pulled me down to kiss me hard enough to turn me into putty in his paws.