[50024 Years Ago/ The Plain]
Mike walked alone and looked to the hill far ahead. The eight hunters had gone over it some time ago, but Mike made no hurry to follow. He wouldn't be allowed closer than a stone's throw from the hunting party according to Pult's rules.
Pult had seemed to welcome Mike on the hunt, but once they had hiked beyond sight of the village, he'd said that Mike, as a novice hunter, would only cause trouble for them in such a dangerous undertaking, and was relegated to following at a great distance.
Mike was fine with being set so far behind. In his opinion, it wouldn't be a fair hunt, and he would be glad not to be part of it. Pult's vow to bring back a lion had seemed heroic but then he'd shared a secret: the lioness he was after was badly wounded. He'd seen her limping slowly across the plain and he felt that she would be an easy target.
Mike plucked up a stalk of grass and began chewing on the end of it as he considered this plan. If the lion were badly wounded, it would be easy to kill, but if the wound were minor and had been healing well, the lion could have gained back quickness enough to cause trouble even for eight hunters.
"Seven," Mike said, then spat out the stalk of grass. He didn't count the youngest member of their party. This was Dugg. He had little experience but had been allowed along because he was the chieftain's son and also because he was enamored of Pult, and Pult enjoyed the hero worship.
Dugg had followed the big hunter around for years, and now he was going to follow him into what might be the greatest danger of his life; even greater than the island of water snakes.
Mike bent down to study the spoor in the soft brown soil. The pawprints of a lion crossed his path. The limping gait was revealed in the placement of the tracks and in one of the tracks was a tiny spot of fresh blood.
The tracks went to the southeast, while the path of the hunters headed due south. Mike sighed in relief. Perhaps the lion was already far outside of the range of the hunters, and they wouldn't have to learn just how tricky wounded predators could be.
Then overlapping cries came from beyond a hill, but not in the south. They came from the southeast.
"Oh no," Mike said.
Then he stood and ran forward following the tracks of the wounded lioness.