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“Hyaa!” Savva lunged, but was met only by the hard ground, a puff of dust, and the sounds of the other village children laughing. He pushed himself up onto his legs and grabbed the wooden sword that had flown out of his hand before he even got close to the cloth dummy.
Savva turned to the other children and scowled. “I’d like to see you guys do any better!” but the laughter only erupted louder than it had before.
“Come on Savva.” all of the children quieted down as soon as the boy spoke, as they always did. The small crowd parted for Nikandr to walk through, a large grin on his face. “You can’t seriously believe you’re anywhere near the best upcoming swordsman in the village. Especially when you haven’t got someone as great as my father, Aleksandr, to teach you.” The boy had a mocking frown on his face, pouting at Savva, as Savva continued to scowl. “Oh. Sorry, I forgot, you haven’t got anyone at all.” The pout turned into a wicked smile as Savva knew it would eventually. The children’s laughter boomed again.
“At least if I had a dad he would love me!” Savva shouted, unfortunately louder than the sound of the laughter, that once again quickly died down.
“What did you just say to me leech?” Nikandr sneered.
Savva felt a flash of panic and he stepped backwards, gripping his sword hard enough to turn his knuckles white. “Oh um, noth-” Savva didn't have time to finish his sentence before the village's warning trumpet was blown, and the adults came and began grabbing their children and running towards their homes. Savva turned to run towards his and his mother’s house, he heard Nikandr call out behind him, but didn’t bother to turn around and hear whatever nonsense would come out of his mouth.
His mother met him outside, before he could step in the door she scooped him up into her arms and carried him to their basement, the door to which was already open. Savva’s mom carried him down the ladder, closing the door behind her, and huddling them into the furthest corner away from the door.
“Don’t worry Savva, we’ll be okay.” His mom said, though it seemed more for herself than it did for him. Savva had heard the trumpets multiple times in his life, and he had heard rumours of what the hyenas did when they got to villages. But he had never seen them, and everyone he’d met who had encountered the hyenas had only told stories of having their crops stolen. That didn’t seem that bad, to him at least, the villages around them produced lots of crops every year. Surely they could bear to share a few patches every year?
“Mama, why are we scared of the hyenas?” Savva asked, even though he felt like it was a stupid question. His mother looked over at him, meeting his eyes briefly before looking back up at the hatch door.
“The hyenas are evil creatures. Filled with greed they are, they take and never give.”
“But we don’t have anything to give them.”
“I’ve heard that when hyenas have no harvest to take, they take the villagers instead.”
That struck fear into Savva’s heart. Where would the hyenas take the villagers? They had nothing to offer and nowhere to go. “Mama, why don’t the white wolves protect us anymore?”
“They’re long gone, Savva.” she paused for a moment before relaxing back against the barrel she had been sitting against. “The last one was chased away from the village, not even a year before you were born.”
Savva settled back into a bag of grains they had gotten at their market trip only a day ago. “But why?” Savva’s mom kept looking up at the cellar door.
“We can discuss it when you’re older, Savva.”
That was a sentence Savva had heard multiple times from multiple different people. You’ll understand when you’re older, apparently he’ll understand everything when he’s older, but he wanted to understand now. Why couldn’t he hear about the hyenas? The white wolves? Why his dad was never around? He was ten years old! He was the man of his house! How would he grow up strong and protect his mother if he never knew what was going on?
But he wouldn't push it. He didn't want to make his mom upset.
Savva sat in the silence, he would try to strain his ears to listen every time he thought he could hear something. He hadn’t ever been near the hyenas before, he’d only heard stories. He heard they were big and loud. Crashing into everything that crossed their path, and just destroying things along the way for fun. Mama had seen the hyena’s though, she said they had bright yellow fur that would warn any predators away, with a dull blue covering their heads and back legs. She also said that they had red, the same colour as blood on their paws. She said it was their curse for joining hands with the rikkies.
The rikkies. His mom didn’t talk about them a lot, other than the bedtime stories she would tell him, about before they fell, when they were still good. Savva didn’t think she liked them anymore. Whenever he would ask about them, as they are now instead of how they were years ago, she would go all quiet. Or she would tell him to go do something else. Savva would usually listen, but sometimes he would turn back to Mama anyway and she would look like she had tears in her eyes. It was unlike mama to cry about anything, so after the first few times he tried not to ask about it too often.
Mama stood up. “You stay right here okay? I’m going to look.” The trumpets of the village were still going off, noticeable, but much more quiet in the small cellar.
“But Mama, what if there are hyenas out there?” Savva tried to whisper, but seeing his mom slightly flinch at his volume he knew it didn’t work.
She ruffled his hair and crouched down to look him in the eyes. “Don’t worry Savva. I’m just going to peek my head up from the kitchen window, you’ll be able to hear me the whole time. I'll be back before you know it.” she paused for a moment to look at him, a small, reassuring smile on her face. “Okay?”