Heart of the Herd
The herds were on the move, and soon there would be a hunt. The hunters needed to know how the herd was moving, because hunting zebra is not so hard if you don’t have to chase them. The trick is to watch the herd long enough to learn where it will go next. Then you go out ahead of the herd and wait for it to find you.
The boys sent to watch the zebra herd thought they had seen something strange from time to time, but the thing with zebras is that the stripes make it hard to tell where one ends and the next one starts. So, they were unsure if they had seen anything or not. What they thought they had seen could not be real. People don’t have stripes, and zebras do not walk on two legs.
The herd was moving towards the river like it always did this time of year. The water would be shallow, but it would still slow the herd. With only a few places to get down to the water, the zebra could not move as fast, making them easier to kill. When the zebra reached the river, it would be time for the hunt.
Preparing themselves for the hunt to come, the hunters practiced with the dances that would teach the boys what to expect. Blessed by the holy man, and with weapons in hand, the hunters left the village while the sun still tried to hide in the grass at the edge of the world. At the river, they would stop and wait for the herd to pass them on its way to the river.
Once at the water, the herd would begin to bunch up as they came down to drink. The ones in back would be in the way of the ones in front when the hunters moved in. The hunters would run into the herd and kill what they needed, plus one for the lions, who would take what they wanted anyway. It was a simple plan that had worked for as long as anyone from the village could remember.
The herd moved constantly, coming together when food was abundant or water was scarce, spreading out when water was abundant or food was scarce. Now water was scarce, and the herd was moving from one water source to the next. All the herds did the same, and where there was water, there was no food. Where there was food, there was no water. This was just the way of things. That the herd could not imagine anything different did not make her like it.
The lions would be near the water. Lions, the herd understood. If you could see them, they were not a threat, but when you could only smell the lions, they were hunting. When you found the lions, everybody ran until the lions ate. The fear lasted until the chase was in the past and everyone caught their breath. Here, the water held a different fear. A hidden thing that pulled you below the water and swallowed you.
Now, something different was following the herd. Something half remembered, and it made her nerves. Something from then was now, but she could not remember what it was. Now was easy for her. That is where the herd lived. Now she was safe. Then she hadn’t been safe. She wanted to stay in now with the herd, but something from then was stalking the herd. All fear was supposed to live in then, but it was here now. If only she could remember what it was?
Normally, she stayed deep in the herd. There was little to eat there, but it was safe. Members of the herd would go to the edge of the herd to eat, then, when not hungry anymore, stop and let the herd surround them, safe. She never got hungry. She never had to go to the edge of the herd. But she was small, and when the herd bunched up around water, pushing to get a drink, she often found herself near the edge of the herd. On one of these occasions, she saw them, shadows from then out in the open. Startled, she made an alarm sound and ran.
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The herd knew that what you could see was not hunting you, but she didn’t care. The strength of the herd is that it has many eyes and ears to find danger. Most members will never see what they are running from, and they all know that. Zebras around her ran because she was running, and that gets the zebras around them running because to lose the race is to disappear. In this way, she had the whole herd moving away from the shadows of then.
The hunters waited and watched casually as the herd of zebra moved past them on their way to the river. The herd would not approach, but it would not be very far away either. Everything was just as it had always been. Until something not possible was spotted in the herd. The boys had said that they had seen a two-legged zebra while watching the herd. Now, some hunters thought they saw it too. In an instant, it disappeared back into the hard.
As they strained to see what it was, the herd changed direction to run upriver away from the hunters. Whether this thing had moved the herd or the hunters had spooked the herd did not matter now. The herd was running, and if they were going to eat, they had best get what they could, now!
They moved at an angle to cut off some of the zebras before they could get back up the bank. Frustrating as this was, they would still have some success today, and the zebras still had to drink. They would not go far. Tonight, there will be meat and stories. The hunters could spend an extra day or two hunting to get enough food to feed their families until the herds return next season.
The hunters killed four zebras, and the lions took one, so they had three for the village. While preparing what they had killed for the trip back to the village, they speculated on what they had seen and what it might mean. Those who had seen it were certain they had seen a woman marked like a zebra. Those who had not were just as certain that the others were telling stories to cover up spooking the herd.
After returning to the village with the meat they had and telling their stories, the hunters returned to the river to continue the hunt. Of course, they would take whatever presented itself, and at the river, game was still abundant. The other herds were still easy to hunt, methods learned by sons from fathers uncountable worked as they had always worked. Only the zebras were different. No matter how the hunters approached, as soon as they saw the zebra on two feet, the herd ran off.
The herds of the plains still provided ample meat, but zebra skins were prized for their beauty and sold well at the market. Eventually, most of the hunters saw the zebra on two legs. They began calling it Wadne oo xayn (the Heart of the herd). To redeem their pride, the hunters had to capture the Heart of the herd. The problem was how to get it out of the herd.
The hunters tried everything they could think of, but when the herds moved on, they had less than a double handful of zebra hides to show for their work. Maybe when the herds returned, the Heart of the herd would not be with them, and they would again have bragging rights as hunters who kill whatever they wish.
The herd traveled north and back south again, as the seasons came and went. Always, the Heart of the herd was seen, and zebras were the hardest of all the herds to hunt. Wherever the zebra went, villagers spoke of the two-legged spirit of the zebra and how she protected her herd. Some even complained that the lions were easier to kill than zebras.
Of course, the stories grew about what it was: demon, demigod, spirit, witch-doctor, or illusion. There were more stories than storytellers. The only things that linked the stories together were the descriptions of the zebra woman and that only the greatest hunter could capture her. Some said that she would grant any wish to the hunter who captured her, in exchange for freedom. Others claimed she was an enchanted queen seeking the one who would prove himself worthy, then the two of them would bring back the splendor of some long-forgotten empire. Most believed that she could not be killed or captured and had been sent to protect the zebra from the hunters by a displeased God.