Instability Ch. 1: The Hunt

"Hey, Theo!" I said loudly from outside of my friend's tent. "You almost ready? The Tribe's gonna banish us if we fail to bring home a boatload of fresh meat today!" I joked.

After a few minutes of standing and waiting for Theo, he finally walked out of his tent, looking as sleep-deprived as ever. "Virtues…need to be cherished, for they're all we have," he yawned. I assumed he meant I had to be patient—this kid was always a bit hard to understand.

"Yeah, but the rest of the tribe can't really wait—we're running really low on food," I explained.

Theo rubbed his dark eyes and yawned again. "Traps? An animal cannot be caught by will alone."

I lifted up my heavy pack, which was full of traps, snares, and bait. "I have plenty. You have both your bows, right? I'll need one this morning; my father's been using mine for the past couple days."

Theo nodded and motioned for me to follow him into his tent. From inside, it looked very roomy, but the roof cast many dark shadows across the floor and Theo's face, causing the shadows under his eyes to look even darker.

Theo was one of the few inhabitants of our nomadic tribe that lived alone, and he liked it that way. He had even insisted on having a place of his own instead of bunking with my father and me. And any time I walked into his tent, I could see why he wanted to live by himself.

Most families' homes were covered in dark, cold colors such as grey, blue, and black; Theo's, however, was always very bright and lively, decorated in oranges, reds, and yellows.

"A sunset is beautiful and calming; dusk, however, is dark and menacing," he would tell anyone that asked about his color choices.

But one of the most outstanding things that made my odd, sleep-deprived friend very different was the fact that he had many more belongings than any one tribe member would even dare to have. Not many families even had as much as him; the more belongings you have, the more you have to carry when the tribe travels to different areas.

"How can you keep all your things with you, Theo?" I asked for the first time since I met him nearly ten years ago when I moved to this tribe.

"If a cluttered house is a sign of a cluttered mind, then an empty house is a sign of an empty mind," he replied with a smile, but not really answering my question.

"What?" I asked again as I grabbed a bow and quiver from his sunset-colored rug.

"The answer is all around you, Jamie. You only have to be silent enough to hear." Okay, that still didn't answer my question, but I figured I'd never get a straight answer from Theo, so I dropped the subject.

"Let's get going before the animals run back into their homes." This new area was abundant in rabbits and deer because of its usually mild climate and forest environment, so that's what we'd be hunting today. It's certainly a much nicer climate than our typical desert or tundra climates.

Theo nodded and offered to hold both bows since I had the traps. I obliged and we were finally heading into the forest next to our camp.

The forest was very dark, but we were fine with it, because our Tribe had once lived in a dark wooded area that had, at the time, sheltered us from a violent blizzard. Because of our knowledge, we were able to silently navigate our way through the thick pine forest and set up multiple traps along what we believed to be a game trail. After those larger traps were set, we proceeded to find our way to a large meadow.

Since we came from the dark of the forest, the light from the meadow left the both of us temporarily blinded, but when we were able to see again, we found that the meadow was teeming with rabbits.

I grinned happily and whispered quietly to Theo, "We could feed our whole Tribe for weeks with these rabbits!" It was true. Just one rabbit—which averaged about two feet tall—could easily feed a small family for at least a day. I silently strung my bow, but stopped when I felt Theo's cold hand lower my arm. I looked at him, perplexed. He motioned to me that we should only kill a few. I did not understand his reasoning, but didn't question him—that would come later.

With that, we decided to kill about five rabbits each, making sure to pick off the ones grazing on the outskirts of the meadow. I stayed hidden behind a thick pine tree, my dark shirt blending in with the shadowy forest behind me. Theo proceeded to walk silently over to the other side of the meadow.
Then, I put some old vegetables out in front of me, to serve as bait. Now all I had to do was wait for a rabbit to take the bait so I could have a clear shot at it. For several minutes I waited behind the tree, silent as the grave. After a while, I looked around and was pleased to find six large rabbits nibbling on the soft bait. I took shots at five of them.

Without a breath or a sound, I was able to shoot four of the rabbits right in the throat, killing them on sight. My fifth arrow, however, missed its mark by mere inches and only hit the pale grey rabbit in the shoulder. I was lucky enough to have dazed it enough that it ran towards me. I dropped my bow and took my skinning knife out of my bag. I pinned the rabbit to the ground and, grimacing, slit the innocent animal's throat, tightly closing my eyes as I did so. I became lightheaded for a moment as I felt warm blood run over my hand.

After taking a deep breath and trying to prevent myself from vomiting, I grabbed the other four rabbits and started to tie all five together, being careful not to coat the earth below me in too much blood—I didn't want the other animals to know that a killer had been here. After that was complete, I looked over at where Theo was standing. I gestured to him that I had caught my rabbits, and he returned the same signal, holding about six dead rabbits above his head. I motioned for him to come back over to where I was.

When Theo was back, I started to talk again. "This was an excellent place to hunt; we should come back the next time we're on hunting duty—as long as the Tribe doesn't decide to move again."
Theo nodded and began to walk back in the direction of the Tribe. I followed him, the dead weight of the rabbits causing me to walk slower and much louder than usual.

Finally, after what seemed like miles of walking—which to a nomadic tribe member usually wouldn't seem like much, but when you're carrying five rabbits that are about 30-odd pounds each, you get pretty tired—I finally saw the back of my tent.

"Father?" I called loudly. "Father, are you here? Theo and I caught rabbits for the Tribe!" This had been my first official hunt, so I had to show my father what I had caught.

I saw my father's smiling face appear through the back door of the tent, and I grinned back at him, proudly displaying the rabbits Theo and I caught. "Excellent hunting, m'boy!" he exclaimed as he came out of the tent to help carry a few things and take the bows back to Theo's tent. When he came back, he said, "It looks like I've taught you both very well. Theo, I bet your parents would be proud."

Theo's face lit up at my father's comment. "Many thanks to you, Mr. Makoto." He bowed.

"No need to thank me for something that is true." My father had always been so kind. "And Jamie," I looked up at him when he mentioned my name, "I know for a fact that your mother would be proud of you." My father had hardly ever mentioned my mother since her passing four years ago.

I found myself grinning like a child at my father's words. "She'd be proud of you, too, Father, for teaching me so well." He smiled again, his blue eyes shining in the afternoon sun.

I barely looked my father at all, except for my eyes. I had my father's pale, striking blue eyes. Besides that, he looked almost nothing like me. While my hair was a very dark brown, with streaks of reddish brown, my father's was jet black. I had tan skin, like my mother, and his was a dark, olive tone. I was very close to my father, but no one would know at first glance that we were related until they saw our eyes…

"Well, how about I take your hearty kill to the Tribe's cooks? I know they'll be very grateful for all of these—we haven't had fresh meat in weeks." He took our rabbits and started heading towards the Tribe's gathering area.

When he was out of view, I looked over at Theo. "You know, my father sees you as a second son. He would love to have you live with us instead of living in that lonely tent of yours." What I told him was entirely true.

"No," he replied simply, much to my dismay—like my father, I had also wanted him in our family, as he was like a brother to me. "This word does not need any more heartbroken families." I forgot to mention; Theo tends to mix up the words 'world' and 'word' a whole lot. I haven't the darndest of a clue as to why. "Heed my worlds—if I am to be a member of your family, bad things are bound to happen once again." What did he mean by that?

"Theo, what are you talking about? You're the nicest kid I know. A bit odd and extremely confusing, but kind. How could you possibly hurt our family?"

"Curiosity killed the cat." With that, he left and started walking towards his tent. I didn't follow.
Instead, I found myself running back into the forest when I heard the sound of something shrieking in pain. It continued to scream, and I continued to follow the bloodcurdling sound until I came across the source.

It was a deer, a young buck with a very dark coat almost the color of my own hair. I could see the whites of its fear-filled eyes as it tried to get out of one of my traps. The trap, which consisted of a complicated maze of cables, holes, and sharpened sticks, had left the buck with a broken leg and large gashes in his flesh.

So my makeshift trap did work. The deer had fallen for the trap and now lay bleeding and broken, seeming as if it were praying for my mercy.

But there was one problem: The merciful thing to do involved killing this innocent deer. I'd never killed anything this large. On the other hand, I could let it go and let its wounds fester and grow. When the deer died of its wounds, there would be a possibility of it contaminating the earth surrounding it, and, in turn, contaminating the Tribe if not properly taken care of. Everybody in our Tribe knew that eating dead, rotting meat was almost always lethal. That's how my mother died—she had been given the meat of a mouse that had been drinking water that was contaminated with death.

I wouldn't let that happen to our Tribe. Not again. "I'm a hunter," I told myself, "I can do this. The meat and skin will benefit the Tribe." I took out a large dagger from my hunting belt. "I'm eighteen now. I'm legally a man. I can do this." With my right hand, I began to stroke the deer's neck, calming it as I brought my knife closer and closer to its throat. "Shhh…" I whispered, and the deer began to hold still. With one last scream from the buck, I drove my dagger into its throat and it went limp.
I couldn't believe it. I had killed it. I had killed this huge animal that was big enough to give each family in the Tribe a feast for days.

Ignoring the warm sticky blood that coated my hands, I began to release the body from the cables. I hefted the heavy animal over my shoulders, and as I started to walk back to the Tribe, I kept hearing Theo's words run through my mind:

Curiosity killed the cat.