The Auroch was declared extinct in 1617. Recently, through DNA, efforts have been underway to bring it back.
Tor checked his arrows. He had only five left. And two of those had been hastily repaired. One just recently that had broken in half on the boar and then fallen off in the brush. All of the arrows were battered from use. But that was what he had and what he would have to use.
As they crawled closer in the grass, they saw that there were three auroch, a bull and two cows. The bull towered over the cows, three heads taller than Tor. All of them down by the waters' edge, drinking. The bull was twice the size of the cows, too. Much more meat.
Tor whispered, "We will take the bull. It will be harder, but there will be more meat for your families and a cow may have a baby to replenish the one we will take. This animal is rare and a rare treat for all the food it will provide. Let's pray to the god of the grass silently that we will get close without being seen and kill it easily."
They prayed for a moment quietly, almost silently, in two different languages, two different gods for the same purpose, a successful hunt without injury.
"Gael, crawl to my right and be prepared to come in and plant your spear against the bull like you did the bear. Rena, you crawl to my left and do the same. Wait until I have loosed all my arrows before you move. I must weaken the beast. He is huge and very strong." Tor's voice quavered with the fear that he tried to hide from the girls. Like the bear, this would be no easy kill. He led the crawl silently forward like a lion stalking its prey. He was the lion now.
When he got so close as to smell the rankness of the beast, Tor rose up on his knees where he could see the bull towering above them, grazing by the water and totally unaware of their presence. With bow in left hand, he reached behind and pulled out an arrow. Pulled back quickly and unleashed it into the bull's rib cage right behind its front leg between the shoulder and the knee.
The bull, startled, shuddered a bit as the arrow found its way between two ribs into vital lung territory. Tor rose to his feet and quickly fired off two more arrows in the same vicinity, but only the third found its mark like the first. The second hit a rib and slid off, penetrating only the skin. The bull let out a mighty bellow and turned toward its tormentor, bright red blood running down from the two arrows that had made their mark. He charged.
Tor unleashed a fourth arrow directly into the heavy muscle of the bull's chest at the base of its neck as its legs bent forward and the behemoth came directly at Tor. Knowing the animal's poor eyesight and the setting sun behind him, Tor waited until the bull's sharp horns were upon him and he stepped aside while the tip of the left front horn fairly grazed his left shoulder. He fired off his last arrow into the vein on the bull’s neck as he passed at less than an arrow length, striking his mark.
Tor yelled to the girls, "Stay down in the grass! Don't let him see you. But if he comes your way, crawl out of the way. I'll tell you when to use your spears."
Frankly, though he was burning from exertion on the outside, Tor was cold with fear on the inside. This was by far the strongest animal he’d ever faced. And he never faced animals alone like this before. He had to prevail or the girls would be in grave danger. He grasped his dagger at his side. His weapon of last resort.
The bull had run on a few spear lengths beyond where he was standing and then, turned around, shaking, trying to dislodge the tormenting things in his chest and neck, where blood was spurting with every heartbeat, when he spotted his adversary again and charged once more. This time, Tor was brilliantly lit up by the setting sun and thought about diving into the grass like the girls, but didn't have time. Once again, as the horns came close, Tor stepped aside, this time to the left, thinking that the bull might have learned his earlier move.
Once again, Tor escaped injury from those sharp horns. He threw his dagger into the beast's neck with all his might. The bull was bleeding profusely and beginning to stagger as he stopped, and this time, slowly turned around again. He shook again and bellowed, obviously hurting from his wounds. Tor hand signaled to the girls and they both ran up and thrust their spears into the standing bull's quavering body and Tor helped them ram the other ends firmly into the ground, pinning the huge creature in place as it tried to lunged forward at them again.
The bull continued to bellow and try to break free, but he had lost his strength. Tor ran up to the dying fellow, pulled out his dagger and slit the animal's throat between the spears. The great beast fell to the left and broke all three arrows on that side. Gurgling its last breath in blood.
There was no time to waste. Tor set to gutting the animal while the girls began skinning it with their knives. They worked in silence, everyone knowing what to do from experience. Tor pulled out the heart and liver to take with them and then cut away as best he could at the tongue as another prize to bring.
When the girls had removed all of the skin except what lay under the heavy animal, they cut the backstrap where the best meat was, cutting sections for each to carry around their necks. There was no time to waste. They gathered up the meat and their things and fairly ran towards the fires' glow in the distance in pitch darkness.
The girls were far ahead of Tor when they reached people huddled around fires in the fall chill. Tor could could hear the squeals of joy as they were reunited with their parents and their siblings. He slowed to a walk and carefully entered the community, unsure what his fate would be.
A large man, followed by the girls, came out to greet him. Tor held out the heart in one hand and the liver in the other as an offering of peace and called out in his best accent a greeting of apology and offering he had practiced carefully from Gael in their language. Then, he awaited his fate.
The man rushed up and hugged him, lifting him off the ground, crying and thanking him for bringing the girls back. A feeling of relief came off Tor's shoulders as the man introduced himself as Gael's father and took the backstrap's weight from his shoulders after looking at the [heart of the tongue] of the bull with great pleasure.
Immediately, the clan gathered together a party of men and women. They carried torches and the tools they needed to butcher the bull that night. When they arrived at the carcass, they scared off a fox that was already on the kill. In the distance, the howling of wolves foretold that they had caught the scent of death and were on their way.
With several women cutting away and the men carrying off loads of the meat, sinew and bone, within a couple of hours, nothing was left but the spilled blood and gut pile. The women even carefully cut open the four stomachs and extracted the partially chewed grass as a very good source of greens for meals. A delicacy of vitamins and minerals.
Other organs like the great balls, the tail and the hooves were all carefully cut off and carried in bags back to the clan for medicine and other uses. No part of the animal that would be useful was left. Even the intestines were taken. For something they told Tor would be called, sausage, for stuffing.
Finally, the great skin of the animal was carried back on a pole between two strong men because of its heavy weight. When the tired butchering crew returned, they were greeted with sharing parts of the delicacies like the tongue, cooked by the youngsters who didn't go out on the butchering party.
Everyone was very tired, so with the meat properly secured from predators, everyone drifted off to bed in the makeshift shelters that were being restored in this new old place they moved to from time to time. Exhausted, Tor slept with young men where he was directed. It was the first time in over a moon that he didn't feel the warmth of the girls sleeping next to him. Already, he missed that feeling.
Tor found it hard to awake the next morning, partly because of his earlier exhaustion and partly because he had lain awake thinking of the girls instead of sleeping. But he had to get up with the other young men, when he heard them stirring.
He was greeted by smiling women and children all offering him a steaming porridge of meat and grain that was delightful to taste and warmed his body in the cool morning air. After that, with the children urging, he stripped to his loincloth and went swimming with them in the cold waters of the Po. He found that invigorating and cleansing. He emerged from the water with warm food in his belly and ready to face the day cleansed of his long journey. But so far, he had not seen Gael or Rena.
Tor's understanding of their language was tested when he got back in the encampment, because everyone, from young child to elder was all questions about the journey and what they had encountered on their way. Finally, when the sun was high in the sky, Gael and Rena emerged from one of the stone shelters in new garments with flowers sewn on them, their hair cut and arranged in a way that he had never seen, but very beautiful with wildflowers placed in to impart fragrance and color.
Tor had never seen Gael so beautiful. He was impressed. All the more, he thought about taking her for a bride. But she was tied up with the women for the day and there was no way he could talk to her while the men and children kept him busy with their inquiries and gifts they offered him.
A great fire was built and the cooking began for a great feast of celebration for the girls' safe return. Tor saw men returning with meat on their shoulders and when he inquired, found out that the two cows had also been slaughtered. Tor felt sad when he heard it, but would do nothing living with these people now. His people would not do that, knowing that those cows and their calves would continue a rare source of food for future generations. But these people could not wait. They killed whatever came within their encampment's reach, indiscriminately.
When evening came, the men began to drink the fermented juice of the grape and as the evening turned into night in front of roaring fires there was lots of laughter and good cheer until the food and drink, indulged in too much, had everyone going off to sleep. Tor thought of sneaking off and sleeping with the girls, but then thought better of it. He was a guest. With winter approaching, he needed to stay with these people. Not be ejected from their circle of warmth and protection to fend for himself.
Copyright 2019 © Ronald W. Hull
8/22/19
