"Ardath Mayhar - Hunters of the Plains" - читать интересную книгу автора (Mayhar Ardath)

Shivering again, Do-na-ti began to trot, taking the chance of running into some enemy, for a strange fear
of the open had overtaken him.

In the shelter of the rounded lodge, protected by layers of brush and earth from the gods of the sky, he
would feel safe and warm in the midst of his crowded family. There he and his mother would skin his
badger. Then she would scrape the hide and rub the raw side with ash. She would be up all night,
working the fur to make it dry enough, supple enough, in such a short time, to serve as his hood on the
day of the ceremony.
The wind shifted uneasily, straying from south to west to north. The smell of rain was heavy as the storm
approached, whirls of dust curling upward from the dry soil beneath the grasses. Tufts of dead sagebrush
tumbled across the way, driven by the wind.

More and more, the boy longed to see the low huddle of houses at the edge of the sky, for when the
gods quarreled and fought, it was best for humankind to be hidden from their sight. His strong young legs
pumped steadily, but he was growing weary by the time the hump-shouldered straggle of homes
appeared against the backdrop of a low hillock.

It was with great relief that he sped forward, now running amid gusts of rain-laden wind, toward the low
doorway of his mother's house. His small brothers were standing beside the pole frame, taking down
drying meat to save it from the wind and rain. Ka-shi shouted with excitement when he saw the striped
shape bobbing about his older brother's lance shaft.

"Do-na-ti has killed his badger!" the child cried, and heads popped out of other lodges to see.

Now, observed by so many of his people, Do-na-ti slowed to a casual pace, holding the lance high
between his hands to show the carcass of the badger. He could see E-lo-ni's face, half-hidden behind the
curve of her family's lodge. She pretended not to look, but he knew she had seen and her heart must be
pounding as quickly as his own.

His mother came to the low doorway of their lodge and ducked out of the opening. She said nothing, for
it was not proper for a parent to boast about the achievements of her children, but her eyes were bright
as she reached for the spear.

The boy lowered it into her hands, and their gazes met over the striped fur. Today a man-son dwelled in
the lodge of Ash-pah and De-lo-nit. He could see the pride of that thought in the straightness of her back
as she bore his prey away. She had lost two sons older than Do-na-ti, and this was a great day for her,
he knew.

Ka-shi and Pe-ti-ne, his sister's son, both were still too young to hunt badger alone. The animal itself was
not so dangerous, if one took proper precautions, but the trek to find its burrow and the long wait for a
chance to kill it exposed the hunter to the many perils that lived on the plain. Very young boys could not
be risked for such purposes, and that made the achievement enviable in their eyes.

The pair tagged at Do-na-ti's heels, awed by his sudden elevation to the status of an adult. The few
seasons of difference in their ages loomed larger now than it had only yesterday. Do-na-ti found himself
filled with pride at their expressions of awe, as he made his way to the lodge of the Elders.

Tu-ri-nit, who was elder of the Badger Clan, had gone inside, for now the wind had risen to wild gusts,
carrying stinging grit and even small pebbles as it battered the plain and flung itself against the solid curves
of the houses. The old people were huddled together inside, although even with the storm approaching