Khochu saw it—the waterfall. He canoed to it, fishing a little for his tribe. The day was warm, and birds chirped in the treetops.
When he finished his hunt, Khochu returned to shore. Before the wall of water was his people's village. Not only that, but they shared it with the cannibals.
The tribes smiled at each other and did everything together. It was as if they were never enemies.
Khochu pulled his canoe onto the shore and picked up the net that held the fish he caught.
Kobe, waiting for him, leaped to his feet. The boy and the dog hurried into the village, taking the fish to Yerik.
A grin stretched across his face, and he clutched Khochu's shoulder. He even went so far as to pick him up by the legs, and his people clapped and cheered.
Yerik held Khochu up to the Sun. Its rays bled through the green treetops, covering him in a warm, yellow light.
Chief Priven scurried to Yerik and looked up at Khochu, a huge, friendly smile on his own face.
Birds, including Eva, soared into the scene, rushing by on either side of Khochu, causing his hair and clothes to wave.
A couple of deer, bears, and wolves stepped out from the forest and joined the festival. There was definitely a place in the world that was much better than where Khochu and his people currently lived.
Spirits soared down from the atmosphere and circled Khochu.
He waved at each one.
One spirit, another chief, stopped by his ear and whispered, "Home. You can do it. You are Khochu, the next great chief of our people."
Chief?
"What?" Khochu shouted, and boom!
Yerik dropped him.
As Khochu tumbled toward the ground, he reached for the heavens and screamed.
***
"Ahh!" Khochu's eyes snapped open, and he shot to a sitting position.
Kobe whined. He backed away from Khochu and growled. However, he calmed down when he saw the fear on his face. It was most noticeable in his eyes.
"Chief?" Khochu cried out, glancing at the dog. "No! The Spirits are wrong! Ahh!" He lowered his head and gripped it.
Kobe trotted toward him, but Khochu yelled, "No! Go away!" and glared at him. He did not want him right now. He just wanted to be alone while he tried to figure this out.
Hurt by his remark, Kobe backed away again and plopped down on the other side of the cave. He gave Khochu his space.
"Dogs," Khochu mumbled, turning away from him. Crawling forward, he peeped through the hole he was trying to widen. Only a small section of the storm hit the area overnight. For now, gentle snow wafted from the atmosphere. However, the clouds were much darker in the direction of Khochu's village. He had to get home soon. Vika and Sasha were probably worried sick.
The first thing Khochu did before he grabbed the elk femur and went back to work was check his injured arm. Even that morning, it still bothered him. He must have hit it harder than he thought.
Shivering, Khochu pulled off his coat and rolled his shirtsleeve to his shoulder. What he saw, though, worried him. He hoped his arm wasn't broken. It was slightly swollen, had dry blood caked on it, and a mammoth bruise.
Kobe felt the boy's anxiety and attempted to join him again.
Khochu let him that time. Kobe always gave him hope.
The dog stopped beside his arm and licked the blood off it.
At the sight of him cleaning his injury, Khochu cracked a smile and rubbed the husky behind the ears. "Let's do this, Kobe. Let's get out of this cave."
Kobe took his tongue off his arm and nodded.
Eva, who returned that morning, used her sharp bill to peck off some of the ice, while Khochu used the femur. Finally, after an hour into the job, the friends managed to remove the ice from the rock blocking Khochu's access to the outside world.
Feeling a touch of excitement, Khochu attached the bone to his belt and pushed his shoulder against the rock.
Kobe climbed up a few more rocks and also pressed his shoulder against the one Khochu was trying to move. Freedom was one rock away.
Eva also helped, but stopped throwing small stones when she thought she heard something over the wind. It sounded like a battle cry. The teratorn's eyes landed on a dry bush, widening when something, or someone, popped up from behind it.
The figure quickly retreated behind the bush when they saw the bird.
While Eva examined the area, a loud noise behind her made her jump—the rock. The one rock that kept Khochu trapped in the cave all night rolled down the wall and crashed into a few more rocks.
"Yes!" Khochu shouted when he saw how wide the hole had opened. "We did it!" Whooping, he picked up Kobe and hugged him tightly. "Thank you, Kobe!"
Kobe nodded, but let out a low growl.
Khochu gathered his things, put his coat back on, and slid out of the hole.
Kobe followed him.
Ah, that fresh air tasted good. Khochu held his arms out to his sides and examined the snowy atmosphere. He thanked the Spirits for watching over him during those twelve hours he was stuck. When he dropped his arms, he headed toward Eva to thank her, too, but before he reached out and touched her wing, the condor squawked.
She leaped ahead of her friends and spread her huge wings.
"What is it, Eva?" Khochu asked when he saw what she was looking at—the bush where the figure popped up.
Kobe's ears perked, but he quickly pulled them back and growled. Also sensing something, he stepped in front of Khochu and Eva.
Great. Only thirty seconds free, and already something was stalking Khochu.
"What is wrong with you guys?" he asked his friends, then pushed past them.
The second he did, the same voice Eva heard yelled, and the figure popped up from behind the bush. They chucked their spear toward Khochu, and it landed a foot away from his arm.
Kobe barked and rushed toward the bush, but tripped over his foot and tumbled to the ground.
The figure ignored him—it didn't want something weak—and leaped out from behind the bush. It was a human. A girl, to be exact, who looked to be around Khochu's age. She must have been from the rival tribe because she wore a necklace of human fingers around her neck and ignored Kobe and Eva. Instead, she ran for Khochu.
He yelped and sprinted. Just one look at the girl, and he knew she was dangerous.
When she passed her spear, she ripped it out of the snow and chased him. The entire time she did, she glared and tightly clenched her teeth.
Khochu hurried toward his village and soon stumbled upon an igloo. He did not bother to check whether anyone was in it. The Spirits literally just freed him from the cave, and now he was trying to save his life again.
Khochu jumped onto a piece of ice beside the igloo and clutched its side. The ice cracked under his feet. He hauled himself onto the igloo's roof and quickly pulled the femur bone off his belt. He used it to break the rest of the ice platform. Ice pieces flew in every direction. Unfortunately, Khochu's hands were so sweaty and cold that he accidentally dropped the femur in a snow pile under him. He couldn't care less. At least he was safe from the crazy cannibal girl, hopefully.
Khochu grabbed his dagger and held it at the ready. If he had to hurt somebody, he would. He shook from head to toe, and his injured arm sobbed in agony.
It did not take long for the girl to reach the igloo. She stopped beside it and looked up at Khochu.
Now, seeing her up close, Khochu realized she was quite pretty, minus the finger necklace. Aside from that, she had long, black hair, deep brown eyes, and a lighter skin tone than he. There were a few braids in her hair, and she wore a brown, diadem-like band around her wide forehead. She was dressed in a long elk-skin dress lined with hyena and bear fur, brown pants, and tall, fluffy boots. There was black paint under her eyes, and a white streak of paint ran down the center of her forehead. Two more streaks of the same paint rested on her chin, and there was manure on her cheeks and hands.
"Get down!" the girl shouted at Khochu. "Only a child would hide from his own battle! My people need food, and you are perfect!"
"'My people need food, and you are perfect.'" Just imagine how scary that would be if someone said that to you. "You are my breakfast, lunch, and dinner. Grab the spears!"
Khochu could not understand why the cannibals were targeting him rather than the others in his tribe. What was so special that they had to eat him instead?
The girl focused on Khochu's arms and legs, licking her lips. There was blood on them, and she added, "I can taste your arms and legs already! Well, are you going to come down and fight like a man, or not?"
"No, thank you," Khochu answered, shaking his head. "I'm comfortable here. Who are you supposed to be, anyway?" He did not realize how much his voice was shaking.
"Ha! Ha!" the girl laughed. She stabbed her spear into the snow again.
Khochu jumped and tightened his grip on his dagger.
A proud smile stretched across the girl's face, and she stood straight. "I am Nikita," she explained in a mature voice. "Daughter of Chief Priven and Firstborn of Zia the Great. My ancestors guided me to you, and I shall follow through with my father's request."
Daughter of Chief Priven. Memories of the crazy man replayed in Khochu's mind. This thing was his daughter?
"Who are you?" Nikita asked, clutching her spear.
"Um," Khochu answered in his trembling voice. "I am Khochu… Son of… Vika and Sasha." He blushed.
However, as soon as he said his name, Nikita's face softened, and she asked, "Khochu? Son of Vika and Sasha? Oh my. I am so sorry." She released her spear and sank to her hands and knees in the snow. Then, from out of nowhere, she started to worship Khochu. It was as if he were a god.
He merely stared, but was too scared to move. His eyes did not leave Nikita's finger necklace. Within a few more minutes, he heard Kobe and Eva.
They hurried onto the scene and faced the cannibal.
Kobe snarled, and Eva squawked angrily.
Nikita pushed herself up and glanced at them. "These must be your friends." Rising to her feet, she brushed snow off her dress and approached Eva and Kobe.
Khochu tried to stop her—"Um! I wouldn't!"—but she didn't listen.
Nikita fell to her hands and knees again and crawled to the angry animals.
Khochu expected the worst, but what he saw wasn't it.
Nikita poked each animal's tummies, and they fell to the ground. The dog and the bird looked relaxed and rolled around in the snow. What the—? What did that beast do to Khochu's best friends?
Another wave of anger washed through his body, and he finally found the guts to crawl down from the igloo's roof. The ice under his hand, though, cracked, and he landed in the snow pile that the femur bone had fallen into.
Hearing him, Nikita faced him.
Sitting, Khochu cringed and gripped his arm. He saw Nikita coming toward him and gasped. His eyes widened, and he quickly removed his hand from his arm. Oh, this was the end for sure! Nikita was going to take him to her people and stir-fry his arms and legs. He wondered which muscles and organs tasted the best stir-fried. On the other hand, maybe Khochu shouldn't think about that. Whatever the case, the girl scared the manhood right out of him. She was terrifying!
Khochu jumped to his feet and hurried away from the igloo. His eyes caught another dead tree further down the field, and he focused on it instead of his village. When he reached the tree, he jumped into it and climbed to one of the highest branches. Hands shaking, Khochu hugged the branch and held his dagger between two fingers.
How could Khochu pass his rite of passage and become chief if he was scared of everything? His parents told him that the shaman gave him the gift of bravery at birth, but he did not feel brave. He merely felt like a typical teenager, afraid of the woman he loved, and Nikita was no exception.
Gosh, why was she so beautiful?