Chapter 9

Two months passed and summer was coming around. The tribe was getting busier due to an event that was coming up. It was a gathering held every other year, most tribes use this event to find a mate to avoid inbreeding in the case of smaller tribes, catch up with acquaintances and exchange info. It was necessary for the Rock Skull tribe that only had just over seventy people.

Bigger tribes could afford to send a delegation of hunters along with other tribe members and still have enough manpower to defend and hunt for those left back at home. Medium sized tribes like the Rock Skull tribe could send a delegation but it would be risky due to manpower shortage, while small sized tribes could not afford splitting up and had to bring the whole tribe to the tribe gathering. Even though attendance was not mandatory all the tribes in the larger region would most likely show up.

Froll discussed if the whole tribe should go with Dhuk and the other elder hunters and they all agreed. The main reason was due to the majority of the tribe having relatives from other tribes who will be there and they could start making the journey earlier than usual, due to Grud being a one man hunting party and bringing in a surplus of food for the tribe to preserve and pack for the journey.

And so preparations were made and the tribe started their journey. This journey was estimated to take three weeks from where they usually based themselves, the location of the meeting was named The Ancestor Rock where supposedly was where the first Shaman had come to be and where the first shaman first communed with the Great Spirits.

As the tribe traveled they hunted along the way so as not to totally rely on the ration that they packed. The slightly complicated part was that the tribe traveled during the daytime and the hunters also had to hunt during the daytime, which means they had to separate from the tribe while the tribe was on the move.

But this was not so much an issue as the tribe would leave tracks and markings as to where they were headed, in the worst case scenario that the tribe had to scatter or take a different route without leaving any markings, all the hunters including Grud had been to the meetings multiple times and already knew the route and landmarks to guide them to The Ancestor Rock.

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It has been a week since the tribe started its journey to The Ancestor Rock, so far everything was fine, the worst things that happened so far was some hunters having a few bumps and scratches while hunting and one of the younger kids eating a poison berry and having the shits for three days.

Now it was night time and the tribe was camped near a ravine with a river running through it. Grud was with Nita enjoying her company and some dinner when a warning call sounded out through the camp from one of the hunters standing guard from up river of the ravine. Immediately all of the hunters picked up their spears and either formed a parameter around the tribe or headed towards the warning call.

Grud saw some of the hunters formed a parameter and rushed towards the warning call to find around fifteen wolves barking, growling and posturing aggressively towards a growing line of hunters.

Grud had heard and seen wolves before but that was a lone or pair of wolves, not in a large pack like this. It was a good thing that the more experienced hunters were there to shout the other hunters into formation to avoid any members getting picked off.

Even as powerful as Grud was now, he was not confident in defending himself from so many wolves at the same time. After a few seconds of pelting the wolves with some stones, screams came from behind where Grud was previously and Grud recognized one of those screams as Nita's. He looked at Froll who was in the line of hunters and quickly shouted "We are getting attacked from behind!" before sprinting back.

When Grud got back to where Nita was, he saw some dead wolves and the hunters that formed the parameter being engaged in combat with more wolves. He rushed to the nearest wolf that was nipping and snapping at a hunter and ran it through with his spear, lifted the impaled wolf and slammed it into another wolf, at which point the other hunter took the opportunity and finished off the slammed wolf.

Grud looked around and did not see Nita. he looked at the hunter that he just assisted and asked "Where is Nita? What happened?" Just before the hunter was about to move on to assist the other hunters, he said "A pack of wolves attacked us, while we were defending, two of the wolves rushed pass us and managed to separate two woman and chased them towards the ravine, I think one of them was Nita" Grud cussed "Shit! That was just a distraction just now, this is the real attack. I am going to find Nita." and dashed off before anyone could say anything.

As he sprinted through the dark forest while relying on his enhanced smell to track where Nita ran to and his enhanced sight to avoid tripping on anything, his ears picked up the sound of the wolves running after him and shortly after some howling.

Back at the camp a howl in the night was heard and slowly the wolves backed off but still could be seen skulking around just behind the treeline, Froll managed to get to the backline that had been attacked and was informed of the two women that were separated and Grud that went after them.

Froll cursed to himself, he wanted to chase after Grud to find Nita but he had a duty as Chieftain to defend his tribe first and started barking orders to get everyone into a more defensible position, then get some of the hunters to form a hunting party to track down their missing tribe members and possibly kill a few more wolves along the way to let them know the Rock Skull tribe was not to be messed with without paying a heavy price.

When Grud was nearing the ravine, he started hearing the shouting of two women trying to scare off animals. When he actually saw them, Nita and another of the tribe women were on a tree growing sideways out the ravine and over the river.

They were waving tree branches at a wolf that was eyeing the two women cautiously due to the first wolf that tried to attack them on the tree being knocked off balance, falling into the river below and swept away by the river current.

Grud immediately rushed towards the wolf and the wolf hearing his approach turned towards Grud and pounced at him thinking it could over power Grud. Unfortunately for the wolf, due to Grud's enhanced reaction time along with the adrenaline pumping through his body, the wolf looked like he was coming towards him in slow motion. In order to avoid the wolf's bulk crashing into him, Grud whipped his spear out and smacked the wolf to the side and ran past the wolf to put himself between Nita and the wolf.

When Grud got into a position to defend Nita and the other tribe woman, he saw that the wolf that he knocked aside was recovering and quickly sprinted to it and spread it thru the neck as it turned towards Grud, the wolf twitched for a second and fell limp.

Just as Grud was extracting this spear from the carcass, he heard snarling and barking along with the sound of multiple wolves running towards his location. Grud hurriedly extracted his spear and got back to defend the women on the tree just as around ten wolves came into view with more coming.

The situation was looking worse as the seconds went by and the wolves closed in around him with his back to the tree sticking out over the ravine and the girls on it. To the wolves this was a prime target, three prey separated from the main group and cornered. The pack could take its time to wear down the defenses of the cornered prey and go in for the kill. When the wolves felt Grud was properly surrounded, one of the wolves made the first move and pounced at Grud with its jaws wide open ready to clamp down on Grud.

It was at this point that Grud made a mistake that new hunters who never faced pack tactics before made. Grud wanted to quickly cut down the number of attackers and plunged his spear into the pouncing wolf, but before he could recover his spear from the impaled wolf, two more wolves charged at him from the sides. He managed to dodge the bite towards his leg but he could not avoid the other wolf biting onto his forearm, forcing him to abandon his spear and take a step back.

As he took a step back he began striking the wolf clamped on his arm on the side of its head, while the wolf that missed its attack towards his leg made a followup attack towards his other leg. Seeing this, Grud kicked the wolf and sent it flying a few feet away with a yelp. This was followed by more wolves attacking.

After a few powerful strikes to the side of the head, the wolf that was clamped on Grud's arm loosened its grip from having its brain rattled and was yanked off Grud's arm. Less than a second after hitting the ground, the wolf felt its hind leg getting grabbed in a strong grip and immediately felt itself flying through the air and colliding with something which knocked it unconscious without knowing what happened. What actually happened was after Grud pried the wolf off his arm, he grabbed the disorientated wolf by a hind leg and started beating other wolves with it

After the first four wolves were beaten to death by the now very dead wolf that Grud was swinging around, the wolves took him very seriously but were still not deterred from the still fighting meal in front of their eyes and after a few minutes they settled into a sort of stalemate.

Grud battered away wolves that thought they had a chance to score a hit while Grud retrieved his spear and other than that, the wolves would just feint attacks in order to keep up the pressure on Grud and wait for him to tire out.

After close to more than five minutes of defending Grud heard a howl come from back where the tribe was camping and with that howl, the wolves in front of Grud suddenly became a lot more aggressive with their attacks and no longer using any feints. The wolves rushed and mobbed Grud, he fought as hard as he could, after batting away and stabbing a few wolves he was finally caught on the right just after he made a swing to smack away a wolf pouncing at him.

Just behind the wolf Gurd sent flying were two more wolves, one managed to latch on to his right forearm and the other his right thigh. Seeing this, the wolves on his left tried to bring him down but Grud was using his spear in his left to smack the wolves away while trying to avoid impaling them as he learnt his lesson from having his spear rendered almost ineffective just now. While he was fending off the wolves on his left, he was using his right arm with a wolf clamped on it to strike at the wolf on his thigh.

To the wolves this was a new experience. Never have they hunted something so small but so strong, when they bite into Grud, they had trouble sinking their fangs all the way into his flesh. Even with their weight clamped on to this man to bring him down, he still moved around with ease while beating on their pack mates. This hunt was going worse than expected while attacking a tribe of this size.

After a few minutes of the wolves throwing themselves at Grud to try and finish him off fast, Grud saw something in the distance. Lights were converging on his location, this tribe was coming to the rescue. Which he was thankful for because he was exhausted, breathing heavily while bleeding from multiple bites and scratches. Because of the wolves aggressiveness, he was pushed back so far that he was forced to step on the tree the girls were on where he heard a worrying creak. While having a denser body was good in a fight, it was not so good for a tree that was rooted as precariously as the one Grud just stepped on.

After another minute of defending while keeping the wolves attention, he noticed that he and the wolves were surrounded by this tribe and upon the signal of one of the hunters, the rest of the hunters charged the remaining wolves causing the wolves to divert their attention to the charging hunters. As the fight broke out, Grud saw the wolves were getting cornered and slaughtered, he pushed off the tree, speared one wolf and landed a wide swinging hook to the side of another wolf caving in its skull.

But as he pushed off the tree, that was all the stress the ground the tree was growing out of could handle and the roots were detaching from the crumbly cliff of the ravine. Grud heard screams and turned around to see the tree rapidly drooping. He dropped his spear with an impaled wolf and rushed to the tree when he heard a snap and the tree jerked down only hanging on by half its roots.

The tribe woman managed to hold on but Nita who was further back lost her grip and fell off the tree into the river below. Before Nita even hit the water Grud had already jumped off the cliff after her.