It was four months now, that I was with the Aurochs. We moved where the herds of deer and gazelle went, so that we would not starve. Most times we found enough food, but there were some lean times, when the hunters returned unsuccessful.
We had to make do with the lizards and snails, and rabbits and birds that the women had managed to forage.

The aurochs hunters had sent a message with a runner to say that there was a herd of horse grazing towards the east, in the high grasslands, and also that there were plentiful herds of deer and wild aurochs. The sighting of the aurochs was a good omen, and orders were given to set off. It's not bad, how quick we were able to pack up and start to move. The women as usual, carried the heavy stuff, and took care of the infants and younger children. The older children as well as the women foraged as we went along, stripping trees of any remaining fruit, and collecting seeds and nuts, digging for edible roots, gathering herbs, and dry twigs and such for fuel to make fires.

I offered to carry the heavy things for Avni, but she would have none of it. She waved me off impatiently, and told me to join in with the young men. I had grown taller since I first came to the Aurochs, and I had filled out, too. Now the young girls who had laughed at my lankiness giggled and batted their eyelashes when I passed. The first few times, I turned around to see whom they were smiling at, but there was no one, so I concluded it was me they were mocking. So I scowled and strode away, trying to look dignified.

Weapons training was not such a pain anymore, since Kavus had advised me to use my speed and my surefootedness against the stronger, but bulkier Aurochs boys. So I never stayed in one spot, and kept my feet moving as we sparred, and it was much less painful.

Now and then we would come across little settlements of people who had fled from the flood. Some were thriving, but some had given up hope, and were nothing but dispirited straggling groups of gaunt looking shadows. I felt sorry for them, having lost their all. They spoke to us about farms and homes, and crops, and animals. We of course, had none of those things,so we could move where we wished. Yet even our kind had lost many lives, and some clans had vanished from the face of this earth.

Of course, the number of people on the move now, meant that the competition for the animal herds would be fierce. Fights broke out between clans, and sometimes, lives were lost. Animal herds, too, thinned, and the remaining had become wary and retreated far away from humans as they could. In the far off days, kavus said, he could remember the vast herds that grazed the grasslands.

Oh, I have rambled on, and evening falls, We will pitch camp soon. I am so hungry, I could eat a horse. I think I will sneak off for a little hunt, with Bijan and Oneek. I hope I am lucky....hopefully there will be horse for supper.