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The chaotic thumpering of a rampaging woolly mammoth signalled the start of a gruelling hunt.
If Sara was successful, her tribe would never have to worry about meat again for as long as it would take a meandering infant to take her first baby steps. Sara hoped to be able to witness it for herself—the moment her child rises to her feet as she clings onto her mother’s hands—but, for now, she must focus on the hunt.
A moment’s distraction could easily cost her her life, and Sara was determined not to let that happen. She would not be able to bear hearing Ayaka mourn over her death as her body returns into the earth, let alone force her to raise their child on her own. There was a limit to how much she would be willing to burden her tribespeople for making one fatal mistake.
Sara would not let that happen, thus she was wholly prepared to make the kill. She had planned this for several moons, when she came across the mammoth lost and wandering along the winding river’s edge. It was very unusual to come across such a beast when the tundra was many mountains away, but she decided not to let the opportunity go to waste. Not when it was clear that the weary beast would not survive the sweltering climate for another few days.
With several traps in place, and the uncountable bundle of arrows Ayaka had painstakingly assisted in crafting, the cavewoman raised her bow and aimed carefully, before making her first, crucial shot—and it hit the mark as intended, drawing an anguished trumpet that roared directly into her skull.
It had daunted Sara, but she refused to back down.
The mammoth became disoriented, clumsily tumbling in various directions as it struggled to regain its bearings, with an arrow pierced through its eye and the world spinning in a heatwave around it.
However, the beast was not foolish, and it soon focused what remained of its vision on Sara. It had no idea whether it was the punt-sized creature’s fault that it was in such pain but, nonetheless, it was going to take out its rage on her.
It roared again. This time, Sara could sense its fury; the murderous intent directed towards her that was as pronounced as its massive tusks. Knowing what was to come next, Sara lowered her bow and began to dash towards one of her traps. Then, just as she had expected, the mammoth began charging towards her with the might of a thousand thunderstorms. Its trunk was raised at attention, pointed towards the sky, as though a higher being that would smite her in one killing blow.
A cavewoman could not outrun a mammoth —certainly not without her crocodilian mobile—but Sara had already planned ahead.
As she sprinted, she leaped and led the beast towards her first trap: a snare fashioned from the sturdiest fibre her tribe could find, tightly woven and bound in hopes of being able to trap and hurt the gargantuan beast—and their efforts were not in vain, as the beast foolishly caught a front leg into the snare and found itself caught, a sharp ring of pain digging into its foot. The momentum from being forced to a stop had also caused it to fall forward and dig its tusks into the tough, brittle earth.
Sara then shot another arrow towards the other eye, but a last-minute flinch from the mammoth caused her to miss her target. The point of her arrow pierced shallowly into its forehead instead, like a twig soon to break off from a branch.
Clicking her tongue, she loaded her third arrow, but little had she realised that she was careless. She had been too urgent in wanting to attack the beast, and forgot to maintain her distance from it.
On the other hand, the beast knew it was cornered, but it was not ready to give up so easily. The desire to live was a natural instinct. Sara should have known that very well, for someone who clung onto the same innate desire.
With a harrowed cry that struck deeply into Sara’s heart and and left her momentarily stunned, the mammoth swung its head and forcefully gored its tusks through the earth, flinging broken sand and rocks flung into the air, casting an ominous shadow that blocked out the skies from the cavewoman’s eyes.
Only then did she realise she was standing too close to the beast. She was within its reach. She might not survive—
“Sara!” A familiar figure tackled and whisked her off to the side, away from the ensnared mammoth. Any longer than the fizzling of sparks from a flint and Sara would have been struck the next instant by the sheer force of nature. Her life would have definitely ended right there and then, and she knew that. The sudden motion caused her to be swept over by a dizzy spell, but the arms around her body made her feel a lot safer than when she faced the furious mammoth alone.
It was Ayaka. Sara knew it was her. She just knew, and she confirmed it when the mother of their child pulled away from her with a searching look, scanning her body for any visible sign of bleeding or broken bones. Thankfully there were none, though Sara was clearly shocked by something.
Like an almighty, divine spirit had been invoked to save her life.
“Sara, Sara! Focus! We’re not done here yet, and neither is our prey,” Ayaka warned sternly, pulling the cavewoman back to earth.
Her partner had arrived with one of her most prized possessions—a pointed tusk of an elder mammoth, honed and tempered with a never-before-seen extended edge that could easily draw blood. It was crafted by the matriarch of the tribe, whose depth of knowledge and ingenuity was beyond mortal understanding. She had gifted the weapon to Ayaka in recognition of her mastery over the one-handed wielding of sticks.
While a cavewoman should not expect to be able to stand up to the strength of a mammoth, even a tyrannosaurus rex should think twice before facing Ayaka in a duel to the death.
(Then again, even Sara could probably beat that lizard in an arm wrestling challenge without breaking a sweat, considering how shrivelled its arms looked.)
“Right.” Sara could feel her strength returning to her body with Ayaka by her side. Not only because she was being protected, but because she would have to protect her as well.
“Where’s our little bird?” Sara trained her gaze onto the mammoth, who was becoming exhausted by the snare that had long disappeared into its fur. Based on how the ground had been stained a dark crimson as the beast struggled, it was safe to assume that the trap was still working, but they should not rely on it for long. After all, if a mammoth would simply succumb solely to a hoop of twine, they would have gone extinct a long time ago.
“With the Matriarch. She said she would be making our little one a hairpiece when we return with the kill,” Ayaka replied coolly, “so she has instructed us not to take too long.”
“Alright.” Sara’s focus has returned entirely, with her arrow nocked and her bow fully drawn, pointed directly at the mammoth’s remaining, bloodshot eye.
They need not communicate what to do next, for they had done this many times before.
The whistling of the arrow served as Sara’s cue—for Ayaka to raise her tusk and dive forth for the killing blow.
This time, the beast did not manage to swerve away in time, and the arrow took away what remained of its sight. Amid the shock, Ayaka expertly dashed forth. She leaped away from the panicked swinging of tusks, then swung her weapon at a precise angle, slashing the mammoth’s arteries open and spilling its blood into the ground. It was like watching a volcanic eruption, as though its body had already begun returning to the earth in the most destructive manner possible.
Nevertheless, no matter how much it attempted to fight back, its fate was sealed the moment Ayaka raised her tusk. As though to surrender to that fact, the mammoth fell to its knees, then into the ground.
The hunt was over.
“You two have done a good job putting down the mammoth. The tribe will be well fed as a result of your efforts, and we will not be short of materials for many moons. Good job,” the Raiden Matriarch commended the couple after their return from the winding river, where they had taken down a mammoth then took a bath to clean themselves up.
“It’s our pleasure, Matriarch.” Sara bowed deeply. “Thank you for taking care of our child as well. I hope she has been on her best behaviour.”
The Raiden Matriarch laughed. “She was just like you when you were a little one too. She is just like her mothers—lovely and clever, with an indomitable spirit. She might also turn out to be a proud warrior worthy of protecting her family.”
“Thank you for the high praise, Matriarch.” Ayaka bowed as well. “I hope we may be excused, if there is nothing else. I believe we have kept our little bird waiting.”
The matriarch nodded in agreement, then dismissed her two outstanding warriors so that they may retire for the day—
—and pamper their baby warrior, as they should.
Their eyes lit up the moment the family was reunited again, with their little baby in Sara’s arms cooing and giggling upon recognising her mother.
Whenever Sara had their baby in her arms, Ayaka would always get to witness the tension in her body melt away and her stern gaze soften with love. Only when her soulmate had their child in her arms would she truly relax.
(Well, Sara would do the same with her too, of course.)
“When do you think she will learn to walk one day?” She asked her sweet Sara, who had taken a deep breath and smiled blissfully.
“... After we hunt our second mammoth, I suppose,” she mused in response, then beckoned for Ayaka to join them.
“You’d better be careful next time,” Ayaka chided first. She allowed herself to be pulled into a hug only when Sara nodded in agreement.
“I will, for our little warrior’s sake and yours.” She sealed her promise with a kiss.