Taming Of The Northern Tundra

The Elk Riders

The honorable ancients did not share their secrets with anyone - nay, not even their children. In those dark first years, they did share the fruits of their secrets that we might thrive, but they sought to make us independent so that the secrets could be extinguished forever with their death.

It was Tuan himself who slayed the first elk. He did chase the elk for four hours, and the elk did fall before him and was slain by Tuan's ashen spear. He spoke of this at a gathering, and those who listened were perplexed that such a mighty creature could tire so readily. Tuan explained that, indeed, the elk could not tire so readily. Rather, it had been irredeemably consumed by its own great inner fire for, under chase, the elk moved too quickly for the fire's heat to escape from the elk's mouth.

And so we learned to sustain ourselves on elk and small game like hares and lemmings in addition to the sparse fruits of the even sparser heath.

Young Tarek was the first elk rider. To say that he domesticated it would be a mistake. The elk cannot be domesticated, only controlled. Tarek was chasing an elk when the beast broke its leg and became ensnared in the heath. Tarek's older brother moved to dispatch the tortured animal, but Tarek stayed his brother's hand and burned some fedwit root before the elk's wild eyes and flaring nostrils. (One cannot forever hide a secret that grows when buried.)

TBC