A New Name

[Sinami]

Tonight was the night I had been anticipating for as long as I had first heard my parents tell of it. Tonight was the rite of Om'riggor, the ritual hunt and passage into adulthood. Of course, I had been an adult for years and hunted prey on my own long before that, but it was still a rite of passage... a rite of belonging, and I wanted to do it. It would cement my place within the tribe even further and make me belong for real... or so I hoped at least.

For my hunt I decided to go east of camp and down a talbulk, since I'd never seen the point in hunting something for sport only. I'd rather hunt something I could get a lot of use and benefit out of. Pelts, meat, horns, hooves, and to some degree intestines, were all things that I could use in some way or another.

I had studied the talbulks of Nagrand for the past few weeks and I'd come to know their habits and favourite places for grazing fairly well by now. I knew they favoured the grassy slopes by the large canyon, so that's where I went. The grass was high enough to hide me from view and when I arrived at the canyon the talbulks were grazing peacefully, and I wanted to keep it that way for as long as I possibly could. As I moved around them I took great care to move downwind, lest they'd catch my scent and scatter.

Since I didn't have Frostfang with me I couldn't use him to single out one of them, so I'd just have to wait for one of them to stray a little bit away from the rest of the herd. I found a large tree close to the grazing beasts and sat down to wait, the bow across my lap. What I hadn't counted on, however, was the fact that I wasn't the only predator out hunting tonight... nor had I counted on the fact that I could be seen as prey...

I caught the sharp scent of cat seconds before it sprung on me and I managed to roll aside and avoid being impaled by its claws. The beast hissed and followed and I spared a fleeting thought to the fact that it seemed to move more like a humanoid being than a cat before I had to concentrate on surviving.

I am not at my best when I have to fight an enemy in hand to hand combat, so at first I was mostly trying to defend myself against whatever creature was attacking me and try to keep from dying. It smelled like a cat, had fur like a cat and from what I could feel its features was definitely feline in origin as well, but it's movements and limbs were more reminiscent of a humanoid, which served to confuse me greatly. The creature had the advantage of surprise and it managed to rake me with its claws a few times before I finally got one of my hands free and grabbed one of my arrows. I could feel the creature's hot and putrid breath against my cheek and in a wild, and somewhat panicked move, I raised my hand and stabbed it with my arrow.

The creature howled in agony and thrashed against me, indicating that my arrow had hit somewhere and hard enough to hurt, and then it suddenly went still. I crawled out from underneath the corpse and upon closer inspection I realised that I had managed, by pure luck, to stab the thing through the eye and into its brain.

Not quite believing my own luck I thought about how to proceed. The talbulks had long since fled, the noise from the fight, as well as the smell of blood, had scared them off. I wasn't exactly in the best shape to continue hunting anyway, the gashes from the creature's claws along my leg and arm were painful and I could feel the blood slowly oozing out and trickling over my skin. I rummaged through my pack for bandages and did a hasty job of patching myself up, pondering my next move. I might not have felled the prey I had first intended, but I did have a kill to bring back with me all the same... and perhaps someone back at camp could tell me what manner of creature I had battled.

It took some effort before I finally managed to lift the creature up and secure it over my back and then began the painful trek back to camp.

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I sat a bit away from the others, poking at my newly bandaged wounds. The blood loss made my hands tremble and my legs feel weak. I had left a clear trail of my own blood back to camp, but it was either that or fail my hunt...and the last one was unthinkable. I listened absentmindedly to what was going on around me, but all the different voices and scents were overwhelming my senses and I couldn't focus for long enough to actually hear what was being said. The other hunters told their stories and once they were done it was time for the last part of the ritual: the name giving. I shook my head to clear it and forced myself to pay attention... this was the most important part after all, at least it was for me.

"... It is by this act that you have shown yourself capable of dispatching your foe with swift accuracy. Just as swift as you appear able to befriend orcs here in this tribe, and are capable of becoming a part of this pack."
The words made my breath catch and filled my heart with a pleasant warmth. Warmth towards all the orcs gathered around the fire, this tribe, my new home. It had finally begun to sink in; I actually had a place here, they didn't mind me being here with them, being a part of their pack.

" So it is this night that we recognise your agility and swiftness, not only around campfires, but in the hunt as well. Be it at the campfire or in the hunt, you are most welcome to both, Sinami Swifthowl!"
I could feel tears well up in my eyes and I quickly brushed them away, more pleased than ever that my hood hid my face and expression from view. Swifthowl... the name echoed inside my head and made me giddy with pleasure and my heart felt like bursting. I felt like running a thousand miles and howl towards the moon in joy. Swifthowl. It felt so right, it felt like... me.

[Kozgugore]

(( Aw, someone who actually takes Koz's silly words for granted! Very lovely story to read, even in hindsight! And it's always a relief to see orcs welcome their new names as well. x3 ))

[Claws]

((Nice yawn like it a lot))

[Sinami]

((Aww... Thanks guys! I'm glad you like it. ^^ but, Claws... "Nice yawn"? I'm confused now. xD ))