The sun brightens the eastern horizon but has yet to drive
off the cool chill of the rapidly ending night. I have been up for quite some time, milking and tending the goats
belonging to my secondparents. I am in
my eighth year and this is one of my responsibilities, as it has been since
K'miza and G'arrone adopted me just over a year ago. I'm not very fond of goats, but I like everything we get from
them. Their milk I like in any form,
consumed as is or made into yogurt or cheese.
Their hides can be used for many things; sandals, clothing, shelter, the
uses are nearly endless. The stomachs
and bladders are used as waterproof containers to either hold liquids or to
boil those same liquids over hot coals.
Their intestines, after being thoroughly cleaned, are used to store fats
or a mixture of fat, meat, and grain to make a kind of sausage which, when
smoked, will keep for a very long time.
The meat can also be dried in the sun or over a smokey fire to preserve
it. Sometimes certain berries and some
fat are pounded into the meat before drying.
This is called pemmican and is a very nutritious food, which keeps well
and is superb as travelling fare. The
bones of the goat are of course used to make tools such as awls or knife handles
and sometimes arrowheads or spear points.
The marrow is removed first since it is very valuable as a food
source. The bones can also be burned as
fuel, if the fire is hot enough, or boiled with the hooves and hide scraps can
be made into glue. Tendons, pounded and
separated into their individual strands, are used as binding material, when
applied wet they shrink as they dry and make a very tight binding. Very little of the animal is not used for
something.
I slept poorly last night, probably due to my
excitement. G'Arrone, my second-father,
informed me before I went to bed that today he would begin to teach me of the
Yierka. I rush through the rest of my
morning chores, barely able to contain myself.
I take the waterskins to the natural spring in the center of the oasis
and fill them, gather some dates, get the fire going in the outside cooking
hearth and start some water for tea, scrape the hides that are in the
stretching frames to make them soft and then rub a mixture of animal brains and
fat into them and place them in the smoke house. This preserves them and turns them into leather. My second-mother taught me how to do
this. Her leather turns out very soft
and pliable but she says it takes a lot of work to make them that way. The skins must be scraped and worked many
times to make them soft. If one wants
hard leather for use in things like the soles of sandals or pieces of armor
then the leather is boiled in oil. This
makes the leather very stiff and hard.
As I work I think of Yierkas, the steed of choice of the
raiders of my clan. Although we have
horses and camels, Yierkas are the beasts that are born and bred to the Sea of
Fire and best suited for mounted warfare in the desert, and today I get to
learn about them. To ride the yierka,
and become a respected and feared raider is probably every Tehir boy's goal; I
know it is mine. I dream almost nightly
of riding the beast into combat, my burnoose and veil flying in the wind, my
warcry ringing loudly, carrying into the desert sands, my yierka carrying me to
victory.
My second-mother, K'Miza, calls for me, breaking my reverie;
it is time to break our fast. We have a
porridge made from the remnants of last nights supper, yogurt, cheese, the
dates I gathered earlier, and tea. This
is our typical breakfast, not too filling, but enough to start the day. My second-father eats very slowly this
morning, savoring every bite and every sip of tea. I've wolfed my meal down and sit, none too patiently, waiting for
him to finish. As he continues to eat I
steal occasional glances his way and to my second-mother. I can't stand this wait; time is
dragging. Finally my second-mother says
to him "G'Arrone, stop teasing the boy.
He's as anxious as a starving Morduska, and half as patient". G'Arrone looks over at me and gives me a big
grin and a laugh. "Come on then
Radeek" he says, "let's get this day started." I bolt from the tent and am waiting for him
as he comes out.
Together, as we walk towards the yierka pen, G'Arrone speaks
to me of the yierka. He tells me they
are very unpredictable creatures and have a very bad disposition. He states that to ride the yierka takes a
special quality; one must be able to overcome the personality of the yierka, to
never show fear of the animal and to always respect it. G'Arrone tells me that yierkas have killed
many Tehir who were either not prepared or not strong enough to command and
ride them. He also tells me that not
all Tehir become riders of the beast, it's not a mount that everyone is
destined to ride. G'Arrone goes on to
say that the greatness of a raider is due in no small part to his yierka; the
meaner the yierka the greater the raider must be in order to control it.
I see the yierkas, large creatures, milling about the
enclosure. Only the largest and
fiercest are chosen as mounts for combat, the rest become beasts of burden,
pulling carts or bearing loads. I ask
G'Arrone which are his. He gives a yell
and five of the beasts, snorting and spitting, approach. He shows me the mark that is borne by each
of them... the symbol of an arrowhead painted in scarlet on the flank of the
beast, the mark of G'Arrone. There are
very few yierkas here larger than his.
He tells me that these are his yierkas and that each has seen
combat. I reach out to touch one but he
stops me. "You are not ready
yet" he says, "you are not to touch these beasts until you
are". He looks at me, a softness
in his eyes I rarely ever see.
"Radeek, you are my son, and though you are not of my bloodline we
are bound by blood. I speak as father
to son, your time will come, but there is much for you to learn between now and
then. Until that time you will do only
as I say where these beasts are concerned, do you understand?" "Yes Vozhib" (which means father
in Tehir)", I say to him, with as much pride as I can muster, "it
will be as you say."
And so it was, we spent the remainder of that day and many
more days for weeks and months after that with him teaching me of the
yierka. It wasn't an every day thing,
but I treasured those times when he taught and I learned of the beast of the
desert. I was taught how to care for
yierkas, I learned of the equipment used to ride and to control them, but most
importantly I was taught to respect them as the powerful creatures they
are. G'Arrone took great pains to teach
me that yierkas are not pets, they are implements of warfare and should be
treated accordingly. I would practice
on horses, which I already knew how to ride, then camels. The signals used were nearly the same but as
he kept telling me, the yierka needed a far firmer hand. He taught, and I learned.
I was nearing my eleventh year when G'Arrone came to me one
morning and bade me to follow him. He
had a package under his arm covered in a very well tanned and softened
hide. We approached the tent of
Bophwaz, my clans Master of the Desert.
I have been to this tent many times to hear tales and learn the
histories of my people; Bophwaz is a superb storyteller. But today it is only my second-father and
myself who Bophwaz has in his dwelling; even his wife is absent. Bophwaz bids us to sit as he offers us both teas. As we sip our tea my father speaks to
me. "Radeek, today is a very
special day for you, a day you will remember always." This puzzles me, but I am also excited. I do not ask of what he speaks for to do so
would be rude, although I find it very difficult to say nothing as I sit
quietly and respectfully.
G'Arrone hands me the package he carried with him and bids
me to open it. I do so, barely able to
contain my excitement. As I work on the
bindings of the package Bophwaz speaks to me of courage and honour, of being
Tehir. He tells me that to be fearless
is not to be without fear, but to be able to control that fear, to put the fear
aside and to do what must be done, regardless.
I get the package unwrapped and inside is the very last thing I expected
to see, a complete tack kit for the riding of the yierka. The wrapping was the saddle blanket, there
is bit and bridle, various straps and belts, saddlebags... and a pair of
spurred riding boots. Tehir in my clan
wear sandals almost exclusively, except to ride the yierka. The boots denote a rider of the beast and
those who do not ride the yierka never wear them, for any reason.
As I gaze disbelievingly at the boots in my hands G'Arrone
tells me that my saddle is waiting at the enclosure and that if I wear the
boots then I must ride the beast. I am
unsure of what to do but then I remember the words Bophwaz spoke about fear,
and dealing with it. I remove my sandals
and don the boots. G'Arrone, Bophwaz
and I walk to the yierka enclosure, and there, placed on a large rock, is my
saddle. G'Arrone yells and his yierka
approach. There are a few more than
when I was first brought here, his herd has grown. He bids me to choose one from among them. I may choose any one of them that are
unbranded that suits me. I look them
over carefully. I look for clarity of
eye and an abundance of spirit. In
other words, I want the meanest one I can find.
I make my choice, not the largest, but a good-sized
beast. Both Bophwaz and G'Arrone nod in
approval. I enter the surround, bridle
and blanket in one hand, saddle in the other, and approach the beast, our eyes
locked on each other, neither of us looking away. The yierka snorts at me, eyes glaring and mouth foaming; I do not
flinch or break my stride, though inside I am trembling. I choke down my fear and continue walking
towards the beast with what I hope is a confident step. As I get close enough to the beast to feel
it's breath upon me I say to the yierka, in a loud, firm voice, "Kruzhib
Zome, Uodi Radeek Andoran, uodi lovid."
In common this means, roughly, "Brother of the Sand, I am Radeek
Andoran, I am your master".
I place the blanket and saddle in the sand then quickly
place the bridle on the yierka and lead it to the edge of the surround where I
tie it in place. I then put blanket and
saddle on it and quickly mount the beast.
It immediately begins to try to remove me, forcibly, from it's
back. Hurriedly I yank the reigns and
use the spurs on my boots to attempt to gain control of the animal. This is a battle of wills, one that I do not
intend to lose. I squeeze my legs
against the sides of the yierka with all my might and continue pulling on the
reigns as hard as I can, keeping the head of the beast as low as possible. My second-father and Bophwaz watch carefully
but say nothing, this is between the rider and the mount and they cannot
interfere.
After what seems like an eternity, but was surely less than
a minute or two, the yierka settles down.
I look over at the two men who are outside the enclosure and my
second-father nods to me and motions me over.
I give the appropriate signal to my mount and it walks towards the
men. I dismount and tie the beast to
the surround and my second-father tells me he will now mark the beast as
belonging to me. He reaches into his satchel,
removes paint and brush, and proceeds to mark the yierka. When he finishes he motions me to him and
points to the mark he has placed upon the animal. It is an arrowhead design exactly like his, but painted in black
rather than scarlet. He says to me,
"Radeek, this will forever be your mark and will one day be the mark of your
family. The arrowhead denotes your
attachment to me, as my son. The color
black shall be your color for it was the blackness of smoke that led me to
you." I thank G'Arrone, my father,
who raised me as his own, who has taught me to ride and care for the yierka,
and who has given me my first mount.
As G'Arrone said, this truly is a day I shall never
forget.
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