Colony by Benjamin Cross (best way to read books .TXT) 📕

and drew a deep breath. “He was an orphan. He was taken in by the people of the Taymyr Lake, my ancestors, and brought up as one of them. He was taller than most of the other boys in the village and he was also very smart. He would sit and learn from the shamans whenever he had no chores. He was an expert skier and hunter, and he could shoot his bow and throw his spears while moving at great speed. He could do this even as a child.”

As he spoke, Lungkaju kept his body perfectly still and his eyes closed. But the remainder of his face became oddly animated. His eyebrows bobbed up and down, his forehead crumpled as he strained for the right words and his voice turned increasingly sonorous.

“Ngana’bta was given the job of protecting the clan’s reindeer from wolves. He did this with great courage by charging the wolves on his skis and killing the slow ones with his spear. His work made him fearless, and he led many hunting parties into the far, far north where most Nganasan were afraid to go. Then, in his twentieth year, the sun disappeared from the sky.”

“An eclipse?”

“Yes, but to my ancestors this was a very bad sign, Doctor Ross. The leaders of the Twelve Clans that hunted along the northern sea coast called a council. The earth told them that she was angry and that the greatest hunter-warrior in the land would have to perform for her a sacrifice.”

Callum had heard of the twelve clans. They were roughly equivalent to the modern Finno-Ugric peoples of northern Scandinavia and north-western Russia, and the northern Samoyedic peoples living between the Urals and the River Yenisey in north-eastern Russia. He waited as Lungkaju took a swig from his flask.

“To find the champion, each clan called for their best hunter-warriors to take part in a sacred contest. Lots of men, young and old, went along. Those that were chosen faced many very difficult tasks to test their strength and their speed and their skills with weapons. In the end, the last five men were given a final task. They had to hunt and kill three animals: a wolf, an ice tiger and a white bear. The hunters were allowed no help, not from men or dogs. It was very hard. Soon three of them were dead and another was not able to finish the task and went back to his village in shame.

“Now only Ngana’bta was left. He laughed and boasted, ‘Not only will I hunt these creatures, but I will hunt and kill them all in one day!’ The elders shook their heads and the shamans cursed him. Even the Nganasan, who knew of his skills, still doubted him as he vanished into the snow.

“He had only his skis and his ski-pole spears, but he had spent his life on the trail of wolves and he quickly found this first animal. He chased it from the rest of the pack on his skis and then killed it with his spear. Then he skinned it and went to the land of the ice tiger.

“He knew that ice tigers were smart and that they were afraid of men. He knew that they would never show themselves while they could see him and smell him. So he took off his skis. He threw the wolf skin over him and howled like a lost wolf. He knew that the wolf and the ice tiger were enemies because they both hunted the reindeer. And soon a very big tiger followed his howls. As the tiger pounced, Ngana’bta threw off the wolf skin and speared the tiger through the heart. Then he skinned him and went north towards the ocean and the great white bear.

“The bear was the hardest animal to hunt of all. He was twice the size of Ngana’bta, with sharp teeth and sharp claws and a very thick skin. The bear and the tiger were enemies, just like the tiger and the wolf, so he put the tiger skin around him and roared like a lost tiger until a very big white bear followed the roars. It had big claws and even bigger teeth, and when it saw the tiger, it roared also and then attacked. But Ngana’bta was on the ice and he had dug a hole in front of him. He had hidden this hole with snow, so when the bear was very close it fell down through the hole into the water.

“When he came up for air, Ngana’bta took off his tiger skin and stabbed his spear into the bear’s chest again and again until he was dead. Then he took out his knife and cut off the bear’s head. He went to the council, dragging the wolf skin and the tiger skin and the bear’s head with him. The elders did not think that he would live, so they were sitting in a circle drinking and laughing together when he returned, and he threw the bear’s head into the middle of their circle.

“Those that did not know him were now very scared. They knew now that there was a young Nganasan hunter of great bravery and skill. They were scared because the clans were not always at peace and Ngana’bta would be a very great enemy in war. They honoured him as the youngest-ever champion of the Twelve Clans, and after much talking they decided that he must go north. He must go further north than any man before. He must go to the Land of White Death. There he must hunt the monster called Tansu Taibaa. To please the earth, he must kill the creature and bring back one of its teeth.

“Ngana’bta laughed and said, ‘I do not believe in Tansu Taibaa. He is a myth. A simple myth for simple men. But I will go to the Land of White Death, and if I am wrong and he lives, then I will cut out his skull and