Nutridiluvian part 4: Calves of destruction [Orignal Short Story]

"Do you see them over there by that ridge?"

As the old man pointed in the direction of the herd, Wanda saw two small figures carefully maneuvering along a protrusion below a cliff. There would be more of them on the other side.

"They are just kids! Look at them, they barely know how to hunt."

"They aren't kids. These two are about twenty, twenty-two, maybe. These southerners are human, but very different from us. See that calf up there, they want it. Think you can startle it with a stone from here?"

Wanda picked up a palm sized flat stone and skillfully threw it at the edge of the ridge, just above the had of one of the two southerners. The stone had the desired effect. The calf made its way back to its mother, and the two people quickly made themselves scarce. They both jumped down from the protrusion into the man-high shrubs below and disappeared from sight for a moment. Then Wanda saw them again, running. They were joined now by four more of them, running as startled deer into the nearby woods.

"Look at them run, like prey animals. Look at their frail bodies, their tiny skulls. Why do we fear these southern tribes so much ?"

"Don't be fooled by their tiny skulls. They are cunning little evil bastards. They know they are no match for us on the battleground. They know they are no match for us hunting. But they know how to play the long game. That calf they were going for, they weren't just going for it because they are too weak to bring down a full-grown mammoth, they went for the calf because it is a young bull. They wanted to take it south with them."

Wanda looked at the old man in confusion. Take the calf south? What could these skittish and frail looking creatures ever hope to achieve with that? At that moment Wanda saw seven young armed men running towards the forest edge. They were her tribesman going after the southerners.

"They won't catch them. We never catch them once they are startled. They may be terrible huntsman and a fifteen-year old woman like yourself could take on a hand full of their strongest warriors, but once they decide they want to make themselves disappear, they are pretty much gone."

"They're vermin. Harmless creatures catching young calves and then disappearing for years. I really don't understand what all the fuzz is about. "

"You were probably still too young to remember it now, Wanda, but it is their way of taking the North from us. They are killing us Wanda, they are killing us by taking away our food. Once we are gone, they will come in ant take the north. "

"That doesn't make any sense, great-uncle, they take just one calf, then they disappear for years before anyone sees them again. I really don't think we have anything to fear from them."

"No Wanda, they take one calf, then they bring it back to us so 'it' can kill us. You know the tusks at the south end of our village?"

Wanda looked at the old man with fury in her eyes.

"The tusks from the bull that killed Dad when I was young, the bull that killed eight of our best hunters? How can you even ask me that? They brought that bull to us? How does that even make sense as a strategy? They take a calf, somehow manage to grow it into a monster of a bull that then kills eight of us. The bull must have been at least sixteen before they brought it back. That means two years to kill one of us? How would they expect to ever defeat us at such a rate?"

"That's not how they are killing us dear. The bulls they bring back are huge, they are strong, but they are sterile. They take the young bull, take it down south and feed it some kind of grass seeds that make them grow like crazy. We don't know if the seeds makes them sterile, or they have some other trick for that. What we do know is that once they bring back a bull, it takes over the herd and starting two years later, no more new calves. It took us six year to figure it out, and that is twelve years ago. It took us another four years to finally bring down the bull. That's how they are killing us Wanda. And our tribe was lucky enough to figure out their strategy. Who knows how successful they are in other valleys."

"If that is true, great-uncle, you need to unite the tribes and take them on down south. Take the battle to the enemy for a change. We can't just allow these little monsters to make mammoths go extinct, drive us to survive on only deer and rabbits. We need to go south and kill every calf they took."

"That's a unique perspective, Wanda. I shall bring your idea to the council of elders. Maybe if we unite a hand full of tribes, they may hide from us, but they can't hide the calves from our trackers."

Nutridiluvian

This was the 4th short story in the Nutridiluvian series. In this series of speculative fiction short stories I try to explore some of the wild theories, ideas and concerns about current developments with regard to nutrition. Earlier stories in this series are:

• Room of Consequences
• The Photocalypse
• Meat The Resistance

Ragnarok Conspiracy

If you enjoyed this short story, please consider getting a copy of my novel Ragnarok Conspiracy that is available on Amazon, Play, iBooks, B&N, Kobo, Bol and Smashwords.