The Stag and the Horse by Fainne J. Firmin

Author:Fainne J. Firmin
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: prehistoric, stag, horse, mesolithic, early humans
Publisher: Celestial Isles Publishing
Published: 2023-08-15T00:00:00+00:00

A Story Lives in Firelight

A reasonable person would’ve turned around and gone home. It turned out the hunter from the marsh was not a reasonable person.

At first, I did think he was being reasonable and had left me alone. Then, Behorra kept stopping and looking back again, and when I turned around, there he was. He wasn’t close, mind you, mostly he was a dark shape, but he was still there.

It sent a streak of irritation through me, and I sped up my pace, going over needlessly difficult terrain. Let’s see him keep this up for long!

I lost him quick enough and felt a fierce satisfaction.

Then night came, and out in the distance I saw the tiny little flicker of a fire. Annoyance surged through me again.

I got up early, before the blue had been burned away by gold, and set off. I went fast, zigzagging and crossing my tracks and making it as confusing as possible as I headed north. At least I hadn’t told him my destination.

By midday, I was confident he would have lost my trail. I went more leisurely, shooting a rabbit and roasting it for a good meal. Behorra almost burned her nose on the fire. She was getting to curious for her own good.

Come nightfall, there was once more a fire in the distance.

I aggressively sharpened my knife until the light was too dark, and then I had nothing to take my feelings out on. He was still following me! How dare he still follow me! How did he even manage to keep following me?

I hardly slept, determined to outpace him and leave him far, far behind the next day.

I made a point of wasting time leaving an obvious trail heading west, then went back to my heading of north. I even got some good distance in, because I coaxed Behorra into letting me ride her at a bouncy trot for a while.

I walked for a while, even well into sunset, feeling confident that, finally, I must have lost him. I settled down, pleased with myself.

When I woke up, my nose was filled with the smell of the smoke of wet wood. I looked and saw him in the middle distance, lying down and sleeping as if dead to the world. His fire was more smoke and steam than flame. He must’ve walked all night.

“How’s he doing it?” I asked Behorra. “And why is he so determined? He’s just getting himself lost.”

Behorra didn’t have any answers. She seemed less concerned about him than I did. I sighed, my insides all tangled up and cross. I simply wasn’t getting rid of him.

I was sick of wasting the time and energy trying to lose him. He wasn’t going to be fooled, somehow, and the longer I spent wandering around, the worse the souls of my clan got. He could keep up this deranged attempt to keep following me, and I hoped he’d grow bored of it after a day or two more.

Though I left before he awoke, he quickly closed the distance between us.

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