Yggdrasil

Chapter 13: Mesa - Getting Better at this Hunt Thing
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years later...back near the Ark

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The kids, or their animals, weren’t very well trained. They were training themselves. All the information was available to them via cyber-neural interface but they didn’t know the right questions. They were gradually learning. There were some interesting discoveries. They discovered some things that they should have know from the beginning.

The elf babies had been decanted and raised together as a group. However when one or another individual showed certain predispositions or tendencies their education was then custom tailored. The education of a Griffin-Gaucho a Bear-Vaquero or a Buffalo-Wrangler were all subtly different. Unfortunately the invasion has prevented all that. All their teachers were gone to war before they were decanted. They had pretty much taught themselves. They were ignorant of much knowledge they should have at this age.

Baranatha was a Buffalo-Wrangler. She, and a few others like her, had the capacity to establish rapport with multiple animals. She rode the herd. All the other children were en rapport with ONE animal. Kraki with a bear, Kara with a Griffin. Baranatha was en rapport with SIX of the monster buffalo, at one time. It was a hive mind of sorts. Individually the Buffalo weren’t very smart. Herbivores don’t need to be very smart to sneak up on a leaf.

The carnivores, the bear or the Griffin were smarter than one buffalo. ALL the Buffalo and Baranatha were pretty bright though, at least as intelligent, if not more, than any other team. Since her rapport had the most brain power she dealt with the wagon. The “engineer” position was normally filled by dwarves, but there were no dwarves so the elf children made do. The huge wagon was a marvel of technology and they were learning more about it daily. One day she made a discovery.

“Guys!! HEY GUYS...I’ve FOUND something. Come look. See what I found”.

She was excited. Kara and Kraki clamored into the wagon and pretty soon THEY were excited. Baranatha had found the weapons locker. They had all been babies or un-decanted when their teachers had left and babies had no need for weapons, so they weren’t informed of it’s existence.

“OH! OH!”

“ Look at THIS!”

”Hmmmmm...I wonder what this does?

“...oh...shaaaaarp….careful it cuts”

”Long, sharp and pointy…”

For all the way that the children acted, they were careful. They were the product of an uber-tech culture. Caution around unfamiliar objects was almost imprinted into their genes. Had they not been naturally cautious their cat-like curiosity would have endangered them greatly.

They had a focus now. There were some specific questions they could ask the computer. They could run some search strings. They did.

“I feel so STUPID” said Kraki indicating a lance. “With this thing I’ll be able to kill much, much easier. MUCH easier.”

“Ooooooh….” Marveled Kara….”Loooook at theese” She held up a crossbow.

So it went. Upon discovering the weapons they were able to download and activate neural imprints and tutorials. They would learn to use these new tools, and quickly too. It would be as if they were just refamiliarizing themselves with old skills. Neural Imprints were like that.

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In the next few weeks the Gestalt learned how to hunt effectively. Each hunt was an improvement over the last. They refined and upgraded their technique almost by the minute. They developed strategy, tactics and the best division of labor. They learned not only about some of the weapons but also how to operate some of the ‘magic’ technology in the wagons. They got better. The Hunting Gestalt ameliorated, upgraded, updated, refined, enhanced, boosted, polished, amended, and tweaked their technique almost every waking minute.

Then they dreamed ‘after action reports” while asleep.

They became really good at killing.

Time passed.

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The hunters were, however, even after they had become uncannily skilled, still children. To them hunting was fun. Gryphon-Gauchos would scout the area and locate the game. Then they’d swoop down and herd it toward the bear Riders. The young Griffin-Gauchos, all female oddly enough, would often shoot a few arrows into the hapless beasts. They used dummy arrows that stung, shocked or made loud noises, but did not kill. Why haul a thousand pound carcass any further than need be? They wanted to kill the animals near the wagons.

The young strapping Bear-Vaqueros, all male oddly enough, took great joy in their speed and strength. They would slaughter the poor animals. Occasionally they ‘released the beast” and let the bear make the kill. Most of the times they did not. It was cleaner and quicker to use a weapon. A bear paw with it’s claws and the jaws with it’s teeth were deadly and fearsome enough but were less suited for harvesting large quantities of game than were their weapons. Most of the time the elven riders used a lance.

Baranatha had also made another discovery even more important than finding the weapons locker. She discovered that the meat wagons could automatically process, and store their kills. All that was required was to flip a few switches on a control panel. If done correctly that would deploy a chute from the rear of the wagon. The kill was then dropped onto that chute. Everything was automatic after that. Silently the carcass would move up the chute and disappear into the interior of the wagon, there to be processed and stored. It would not spoil. Nothing was wasted.

The weeks turned into months and the children had grown quite good at harvesting protein. Then one day misfortune intruded. The youngsters had been carefully culling the fringes of a large herd of literally thousands of large cattle when they were attacked by aliens.

They were taken completely by surprise. Some of the children were killed in the initial ambush. Oddly enough their alien attackers weren’t very good shots and had missed more than they hit. The kids had become very aggressive since they left the Ark and instinctively knew that offense is the best defense. They had instantly counterattacked and blown thru the ambush. They destroyed the alien’s cohesion. Unfortunately the evil creatures had spooked the herd with their loud weapons and caused a stampede.

As luck would have it when the panicked herd stampeded they happened back upon the Slipneir road. They were near it’s source and the yellow bricked road stretched off into the distance away from the gate. The herd, in their many thousands, turned and ran down the road, naturally following the path of least resistance . The youngsters and their attackers were swept along in the turmoil, fighting each other when:.....

.......... the gate activated.

.......... god's own strobe light exploded in silent eye searing brilliance directly behind them.

........ suddenly a large number of animals and small wagons were running in and amongst the stampeding herd and the combatants.

……...were they more enemies or could they be allies?

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To be Continued
If you missed the start of this book
Chapter 1
Chapter 2
Chapter 3
Chapter 4
Chapter 5
Chapter 6
Chapter 7
Chapter 8
Chapter 9
Chapter 10
Chapter 11
Chapter 12
Chapter 13
Chapter 14
Chapter 15
Chapter 16
Chapter 17
Chapter 18
Chapter 19
Chapter 20
Chapter 21