Chapter 1 (Fragment)

But Tuhar Wolf and particularly Peace-Renown and Maxim insisted upon finishing the task they had begun. Finally, the boyars agreed but none seemed at all anxious to return to their posts.

“Permit me, gentlemen,” spoke up Maxim, “a few words before we start again. Since my friends, the Tukholian youths, are guarding the entrance to the pass they will not allow any beast to leave or enter. Therefore, it will not be necessary for us to keep at any great distance from each other. Also, I think it would be best to divide ourselves into two separate companies and skirt along the edge of the gorge. In that way we’ll drive all the animals into the center and with the aid of the Tukholian youths, in a more closely knit line, we’ll surround the beasts and shoot them all down at once.”

“Yes, yes, that’s best!” cried some of the boyars without noticing the sardonic smile which momentarily played about Maxim’s lips. The company then divided itself into two groups, one led by Tuhar Wolf and the other by Maxim. Peace-Renown, without being able to explain to herself just why she made the choice, joined the second group under

Maxim’s leadership. Perhaps she thought it was for the sake of adventure, for Maxim made it plain that the second line of march was the more perilous one.

Once again, the horns bellowed and the two groups separated. The huntsmen advanced singly and in pairs, sometimes coming together in groups and at times separating completely from each other, seeking outlets and pathways, for to proceed entirely in groups was impossible. They were now nearing the top of the hill whose rocky summit was barren of all growth. Just below the summit barring their path was a piled-up wall of boulders, fallen trees and broken branches. To get past this was the hardest and most hazardous part of their journey upwards. In one place the debris was piled as high as a tower.

Logs, branches, twigs, rocks and tangled masses of leaves formed the natural wall of a fortress. Maxim crept along the ledge of the abysmal gorge, catching hold here and there of the moss and infrequent growth among the rocks, seeking a pass which would lead them into the fortified, woodland fastness. But the boyars, who were not accustomed to such inconvenient and death-defying paths, continued on along the wall of the rampart hoping to find some break in it.

Peace-Renown stopped and hesitated as if something held her near Maxim. Her bright, intelligent eyes surveyed the towering mass, searching for even the smallest opening which might permit a passage through it. In a moment she was audaciously scaling the barrier of sharp rocks and timber. Standing at its top, she looked around her imperiously. The boyars were now some distance away, Maxim was not in sight and before her there stretched an utterly impassable confusion of rocks, branches, twigs, tangled vines and uprooted trees. But wait! A short distance away she noticed a giant pine log spread bridge-wise over the impassable area, seemingly presenting a safe way to reach the summit.

Without further reflection upon the advisability of her move, she started in its direction and setting her feet upon the log, once more glanced backward haughtily. Proud of her discovery, she raised her handsomely-wrought horn to her coral lips and blew upon it triumphantly, its sound rolling over the woodland necropolis, detonating down into the ravines, crashing against distant mountain tops, echoing, re-echoing, until it lost itself in some dark jungle of underbrush. In a moment from some distance away came the answer of her father’s horn and then of the other boyars. Peace-Renown paused, balancing herself on the log. It was a very ancient and dried-out one and from beneath it, within the impenetrable confusion of twigs, branches, logs and rocks, there seemed to come to her ears a faint sound as of a crunching of teeth and a low murmuring. She listened again more attentively, but she heard nothing. Reassured, she set her feet upon the log and proceeded confidently. Hardly had she taken five steps along it when the dry punkwood cracked and snapped under her and the daring girl went down with it among the branches, twigs and stones.