Page 14 of Feast

Yeah right. She was no match for a quartet of brutal ukkur warriors.

Nevertheless, Ika had stalked them through the night. She followed their massive footprints in the snow like a skilled hunter tracking her prey. It was something she had done many times before. Only this time her quarry was not a finnik or even a krelk.

The beasts she was stalking now were far more dangerous than that.

Ika watched them from her dark hiding place behind the snow-dusted trunk of a fallen tree. The ukkur had camped in a small clearing, and their campfire cast leaping, outsized shadows against the backdrop of snowy trees.

Two of the ukkur were fighting ferociously. The young one and the mean looking one with closely cropped hair. They were pummeling and beating each other with their balled fists, and the sounds of the blows rang through the forest like the sound of rocks slamming together. And the scariest part of all, they were grinning and laughing as they did it.

Rotting maniacs.

If this was how they treated their friends, Ika was scared to think of what they would do to their enemies.

Maybe Rolf had been telling the truth. Maybe these monsters would eat her.

It was hard to believe that these brutal creatures were the same species as her gentle, gray-bearded Rolf. Then again, Ika had no doubt that Rolf could be brutal too if he needed to be.

Ika shuddered beneath her cloak as she thought of how upset Rolf would be if he found her gone.

She would watch for just a moment more, and then she would return to the den.

The other two ukkur were far more mellow than their fighting companions. The one with the beard was working on arrows, binding the stone arrowheads to the shafts with cords of rawhide. But his technique was unusual—different from the way that Rolf had taught her to do it.

Then there was the leader.

Ika could barely see him from her vantage point. He was sitting back against a large boulder that concealed most of his body from her view. All she could see of him was an outstretched leg and the puff of steam coming from his hot breath.

Ika felt a twinge of disappointment.

He was the one she had most wanted to see tonight.

But she dared not circle their campsite to get a better view. To do that would be to risk getting caught, and she was already in enough danger as it was.

Plus, she had to consider the wind.

Rolf had always taught her to stay downwind while hunting, and that’s what she was doing now. But she had to be careful. The wind could change at any moment. If these ukkur caught her scent, that would spell trouble.

She was crazy to have come here.

She had never done anything so dangerous and disobedient in her life.

It was just that she had felt compelled to look at these ukkur at least once before they departed her territory.

But what was the strange feeling tickling at her insides?

Before, when she had watched them from her hiding place at the den, Ika had thought it was a desire to be like them. To be tall and strong and hairy the way a proper ukkur should be. Now, however, she felt that wasn’t exactly right.

No, what she desired was something different.

She desired to be with them, though she didn’t even know what that meant.

Ika caught herself fidgeting with her ring necklace.

Suddenly, the leader stood up. His long, thick mane of hair was limned with the flickering orange glow of the fire, and when he turned, Ika could see the light glinting from the smooth skin of the scar that slashed across his eye.

She ducked lower, fearful that he would see her.

Her heart was beating a frantic tattoo inside her ribs.