Chapter Six – Just When You Thought School Couldn't Get Any Worse...
By the end of the summer, Ekk’s hut was finally finished. The walls were without gaps. The floor was soft and covered with animal hides. There was even one animal hide hanging across the opening, just like a real door. Clan Chief Ghun went inside for a look, and was very impressed. He sat down, and didn’t want to leave. He stared thoughtfully at Ekk for a long time, and everyone knew what he was thinking. The hut was so big and so nice it should be Clan Chief Ghun’s hut. He opened his mouth. Lint, watching very closely, waited for him to say,
‘Hut mine.’
But he didn’t. Instead he said,
‘Boys hunt soon. Boys ready?’
It was obvious Ekk was taken by surprise because he jumped slightly. This meant that his feet stayed still but his bushy eyebrows jerked up and down.
‘Children hunt soon,’ he agreed.
At the end of every summer, the children in the school had to go hunting. It was an annual test. Every year each child was given a different animal to hunt. When a boy had hunted every type of animal the clan ate, they were allowed to leave school, become a man, and join the other hunters. But while they were still at school, the boys were not allowed to keep their own tools. They made them at school, and kept them at school. This year, however, the children had not done any tool making. They had been too busy doing hut making. The older children had half finished tools from last year. Lint didn’t even have a sharpened stick, neither did Unta. They were about as ready to hunt as Tan was.
That very morning, Ekk led them up into the school cave to do tool making. Lint took an instant dislike to the cave. It was damp, smelly, and cold, whereas outside, in the sunshine, it was the opposite. There were old, forgotten piles of bones, rocks and sticks at the back of the cave. For as long as the clan could remember, this cave had been in use, for one reason or another. Lint couldn’t understand why. It was horrible and creepy.
All the children seemed to know which of the half made tools in the cave were theirs. There was a scrabbling through the piles of rocks and sticks until each boy emerged, a satisfied smile on his face, holding a lump of flint or a sharpened stick. The children greeted their stones and sticks like long lost friends. Lint was sure he saw Ithil talking to his lump of flint.
A man’s tools were the most important thing in his life. The better your tools, the more respect you had within the clan. The greatest taboo in village life was touching another man’s tools. Tools were sacrosanct. If you made them, they were yours. Only you could touch them; everybody else was forbidden. Tools were more than just tools; they were a part of you.
The older kids set to work at once, scraping, sharpening, and soaking wood. Dec was the only one ready to begin the process of hafting, which meant attaching his flint blade to a shaft. Ekk sent Unta to choose a flint stone. Unta took a long time over this, picking up pieces, weighing them in his hands, swiping them through the air. Ekk let him take his time. Ekk didn’t let Lint. Ekk simply pointed to the nearest stick and told Lint,
‘Make sharp.’
Lint looked at the stick. It was so brittle it looked ready to snap. It was good for nothing but firewood. As soon as Ekk’s back was turned, Lint put it straight in the fire and chose another, sturdier looking, stick.
Lint soon discovered that making your own tool was harder than it looked. All around him, the others were struggling too. Flint stones cracked the wrong way, branches splintered, sticks caught fire and blazed for too long, so the sharpened point crumbled into ash. Even Dec, who had got further than anyone, had no luck fixing his finished blade onto a shaft. Every time he tried to attach it, the blade fell straight out. Dec began to believe his flint stone was cursed. He was tempted to choose a completely new piece of flint.
In the middle of these struggles, Clan Chief Ghun arrived at the cave. Ekk went outside to talk to him privately. For some reason whispering was something the adults in the clan weren’t very good at. When they talked to each other, they always had to shout.
‘Children hunt tomorrow,’ Clan Chief Ghun told Ekk.
Ekk grunted agreement. He knew the children were not ready, but he said nothing.
The children lined up the following morning with hands shaking, and bellies churning. Ekk had said nothing to them, but they all knew what was going to happen. No one said anything, because no one wanted to admit it, but they were all nervous, even afraid.
Ekk sent them up into the cave to get their tools. Unta tried to tell Ekk his weapon was not ready. Ekk didn’t listen. Dec returned with his spear. He had finally attached the blade, but it still wobbled which wasn’t right. Ithil had only just finished his flint blade yesterday and because he had not had time to haft it properly, he had tied it with strips of hide to the end of his shaft. He hoped it would last the day. Ayat, Olgan and Jet did not have flint stones ready. They brought out their old, sharpened sticks from last year. Hohn, Ban and Kelc also brought out sharpened sticks. Unta did not have a stick, and his flint stone was not ready. He brought out nothing. Lint, whose stick had splintered late the day before, brought out an unsharpened but sturdy stick he found at the back of the cave.
Ekk started at the top of the line. Each child had to be given a different animal to hunt. The longer the child had been at school, the more difficult the animal they were expected to hunt. Ekk looked at Dec and said,
‘Wolverine.’
To Ithil, he said the same. To Ayat, Olgan and Jet, he said,
‘Fox.’
To Hohn, Ban and Kelc, he said,
‘Hare.’
He paused in front of Unta and looked at his bare hands.
‘Eggs,’ he said.
Then he came to the bottom of the line, looked Lint straight in the eye, and said,
‘Cave bear.’
There was a gasp from higher up the line. Lint thought it was Olgan. Ekk swung round and stared down the line, waiting to see if anyone else dared make a sound. Today he had brought with him his stone club. Everyone kept silent.
‘Go,’ he bellowed.
They all ran off, alone, and in different directions. This hunt had to be completed on your own. Working together was cheating.
Lint ran away from the clearing, past the village, and through the trees until he was out of sight of Ekk. Then he stopped and looked around. There was no one in sight but he could hear the bushes moving close by. Someone was there. He headed in the direction of the noise, and found Kelc.
They had a quick whispered conversation. Lint told Kelc his idea. Kelc was unsure, but Lint talked and talked until he talked him round.
Together, they headed further into the forest and before long they heard other voices. It turned out to be Hohn and Ban. They were not supposed to be working together, but they were anyway. They looked up guiltily when Kelc and Lint came crashing through the bushes.
There was another whispered conversation. Lint explained his plan. Hohn agreed straight away, and Ban, who was not sure, eventually agreed as well. Soon all four boys were on the move, looking for the older kids. For the idea to work, they needed their help. For one thing, Ayat was huge. For another, Dec and Ithil were the only ones with proper spears, even if they were wobbly. And lastly, the more hunters, the better their chances. Everyone knew that.
They found Ayat first. He was standing very still in the middle of the forest wondering how on earth he was going to catch a fox.
Lint didn’t even need to talk Ayat round. He happily joined the others. He was much happier when he didn’t have to think for himself. They found Jet next. He was crouching next to a small dark cave in the cliff, much too small for a man or boy, but just right for a fox. He didn’t want to abandon his fox den until Ban and Hohn made so much noise the fox fled. Grumpily, he decided to join the others.
They found Olgan next. She had already killed a fox. She was surprised to see the others all together, but quickly agreed to join them. Lint thought she looked a little relieved to see
him. She slung her fox onto her shoulders, and they all spread out, looking for Ithil and Dec. Olgan soon found Ithil, Lint found Dec. Neither had found any trace of a wolverine. Dec’s eyes lit up when Lint explained his plan.
‘Yes!’ he agreed, and immediately took charge.
‘Come on,’ he called to the others. 'This way.'
They headed back to the village. On the way Hohn spotted Unta climbing a tree and called to him to join in. Lint frowned, and opened his mouth to tell Hohn to keep quiet. He stopped when Olgan put a hand on his arm.
‘We need Unta,’ she told Lint. ‘We need Clan Chief Ghun on our side.’
And she was right.
So it was the entire school who joined in the hunt. Dec led, but they were of one purpose, one mind. They hid themselves in the bushes surrounding the village. They were hunting for real now, hunting as a group, and their prey was their lazy, useless and cruel teacher: Ekk.