For the Téchni, each season was dedicated to specific activities. Spring was for taking stock of things damaged by the winter wind and snows. Summers were for repair and for building new things. Autumn was for installing newly built things and otherwise preparing the domas for the cold. Winter was for sitting by the fire, sleeping in, and hunting big game.
When the snow deepened in the mountains, deer and elk would roam through the foothills into the forests in search of food. Lapinas, too, would head for lower elevations trees and shrubs had any leaves for the furry ungulates to eat. This migration brought animals close enough that the Téchni hunters could venture out for the day and use their finely-built bows and arrows to take down large animals. During the rest of the year, the only animals in the forest were squirrels or ground hogs. There was not much meat on them and their small hides were only good for children’s clothing, gloves, or moccasins.
Beelo hiked from the meadow to his doma and towed the carcass behind him. There was only fifteen minutes until sunset. Waiting so long for the beast to be in the perfect position took longer than he had expected. In fact, Beelo nearly gave up for the day before he found his quarry. Coming home late and walking in the dark was a risk, but bagging a lapina was worth it.
Only the best hunters were patient, quiet, and skilled enough to take down the large furry beasts and bringing one home was a cause for celebration and a source of pride. The lapina were not only prized because of the difficulty in taking one down. They were also valuable because their hides were used to make the special coats worn by the Téchni. The coats they wore while hunting and while watching for slinks. The skin was strong, but supple when prepared correctly. The fur, which was sewn on the inside of the coat, protected the wearer from the cold and kept their body heat inside, safe from detection by slinks and other animals with heat-sight.
Beelo trudged across the snow, accompanied by the soft scraping of the sled behind him. The only other sound was the occasional breeze as it whistled through the pine boughs. Beelo crested a rise which divided the range of evergreens from the deciduous forest of the willow and doma trees. The top of the rise was rocky and barren, which meant Beelo had to steer the sled around sharp stones that could tear the doma leaf sled and endanger his cargo.
It was as he steered around one such rock that Beelo heard a faint sound above the wind. He stopped walking and when the the sound of his sled and snowshoes ceased, Beelo was astonished by the oppressive silence. The wind gusted gently and he heard the sound again. It was a haunting wail, barely audible as if it had traveled a great distance to reach Beelo’s ears. Beelo lifted his mask and lowered his hood to better listen. Beelo strained his hearing and concentration. He felt compelled to identify the sound and from where it came. He realized he was trying to so hard to be quiet that he was had not breathed for a while. He felt lightheaded. Beelo took a few deep breaths and was about to put his hood back up when he heard it again.
The plaintive, heartrending moan was louder this time but as it came to an end, there seemed to be a finality about it. Whatever the source, this was the last sound the creature would ever make. Beelo had at first tried to dismiss the sound as having come from an animal. Perhaps it was a wounded elk, disabled from a fight or a fall, which laid there and called out in pain. But Beelo knew the sounds of elk and the other animals of the forest and surrounding foothills. That wail did not come from an animal.
The alternative sent a chill through Beelo. He knew that if he followed barren ridge line of this rise to the west, it would lead him to the craggy hills the Téchni called Terramort. The dead lands. Rocky bluffs, cliffs, and caves spread for miles. There was no fresh water, no trees, and hardly any life. No life except the slinks. It was in this jagged, inhospitable landscape where the slink found shelter from the sun. It was to this dark, dangerous land they dragged their victims.
Another chill ran through Beelo’s core. The sky was much darker and the disk of the sun had almost completely disappeared behind Maternas. The horizon was a deep, reddish orange and Beelo knew he had only about five more minutes until all light would be gone. He had at least an hour’s hike before he reached the first of the doma trees and at least another hour before he came to his own tree.
He pulled up his hood and replaced the mask over his face. He checked his grip on the rawhide strap and set a quicker pace than before.
After an hour and a half, Beelo passed through a row of willow trees. Since the sun had set, the only light he had was from the stars. The Téchni had keen eyes and starlight on a cloudless winter night was just powerful enough that a keen-eyed hunter could avoid obstacles and see the outline of a tree a few paces away.
With some sadness, Beelo remembered a hunting trip a few years ago. He and his brother had spent all day stalking a pair of lapinas and were starting to run out of daylight. Baro was worried they would not find their way home in the dark and Beelo bragged he could find his way home from anywhere in the valley with his eyes closed. The two brothers made it home a full hour after sunset, but they had a cloudless sky of stars and a the light of a half moon to help them.
This night, the stars peeked furtively through the clouds. There was no moon. Beelo could have walked with his eyes closed for all the good the wan starlight did him. Branches swiped at his masked face and his snowshoes kept getting caught on the limbs of snowbound trees. He trudged on, relying more on instinct than eyesight. When he passed through one more grove of willows, Beelo was confronted with a familiar shape.
The vague outline of the trees that made his doma was unmistakable. Relief washed over Beelo and he suddenly felt the fatigue he had ignored all night. Although he was close to home, he still needed to stow the lapina carcass and climb to his door. It would take all his remaining energy to make it that far and still have the will to knock.
Beelo took a deep breath and trudged towards his home.