THE HUNTER AND THE BOBCAT
(REVISED BY BOST 2025)
Once there was a great hunter and his family who lived, at high altitude and in a remote part of the Northern wilderness. As they were a long distance from any other dwelling or settlement, it was seldom that they saw any faces other than those of their own household.
The mighty
hunter, tall, stout, with long shoulder length black hair and raven black eyes,
was nevertheless content living in isolation, for he had a fair wife and two
healthy, boisterous sons. Sons that were so much like him in both character and
in temperament. One day they will also be a mighty hunters same as him. He was
glad of that. But for now, each day his two young sons were left in the lodge
while he went out hunting in quest of the game whose flesh was their primary
source of food.
Game was very abundant in those days and his labors in the hunt and chase were often well rewarded. His two sons were still too young to accompany him and so all day long they were free to play make believe and discover things so long as they played within the confines of the lodge.
Observant as
they were, they once espied a young man who visited the lodge during their
father’s absence, and noted that these visits became more frequent as time went
by.
Curiosity
winning over, once the elder of the two asked his mother in all innocence:
"Mommy,
tell us who this tall young man is that comes here so often during our father's
absence. Does the stranger wished to see
father, but misses him? Shall we tell father when he comes back this evening so
he can delay his departure time just a little?"
"Donquri,
you little fool," said the mother angrily, "this is grown up
business, mind your bow and arrows, and do not be afraid to enter the forest in
search of birds and squirrels, with your little brother. It is not manly to be
ever about the lodge. Nor will you ever grow up to become a warrior if you tell
fibs or all the little things that you see and hear to your father. Say not a
word to him about this."
The boys
obeyed, but as they grew older and still noticed the visits of the stranger, their
gut feeling being ill at ease, they resolved to speak again to their mother.
They now told her that they meant to make known to their father all that they had witnessed, for they frequently saw this young man passing through the woods, and he did not walk in the path, nor did he carry anything to eat. If he had any message to deliver at their lodge, why did he not give it to their father? For they had observed in other cases, that messages were always addressed to men, and not to women.
When her
sons spoke thus to her, the mother was greatly perturbed. Fear took hold in her
heart and she in great fury admonished them:
“You are
still both young and have no real comprehension of things. Hence, you should not interfere in adult
concerns. If you insist with your meddling and cause trouble, I will be forced
to be more severe. “She said, "I warn you both, do not speak of this to
your father or me ever again!"
In fear they, for a time, held their peace, but still noted that the stranger’s frequent stealthy visits to the lodge persisted, they long at last resolved to brave any consequence and disclose this fact their father. Their loyalty to their father demanded it after all!
Accordingly,
one day when they were out in the woods, by then having grown up and learned to
follow the chase, they caught up with their father and quickly told him all
that they had seen in the past.
They watched
with worrying eyes as the anger manifested on their father’s face then grew unnaturally
dark. He remained silent and still for a while, and when at length he looked up
there was unholy fire flaming in his pupils.
"It is
done!" he said. "My children I ask that you tarry here until the hour
of the setting sun, and then come to the lodge and you will find me there."
In two
shakes of a hat, he was at the lodge. The door flew open, and he barged right
in resembling a big fierce bear ready to tear everything about him into
smithereens.
But she was seated lone mending some tears in the children’s coats.
“Where is
he?” He bellowed.
“Who?” She
cried out in fear.
“You know
very well who?” He murderously grabbed her by the shoulders and shook her
senseless. “You broke your promise... Now I shall not beholden to my promise. I
shall vanquish your kind one and all.” He growled at her.
She knew no
amount of pleading will be of any use. He was heartless, a brutal hunter that
had no compunction about killing entire species and wiping them from the
mountains. Long ago on that terrible day he’d cornered her
and her younger brother after killing her parents, the two little bobcat pups
were shivering with fright.
Tears streamed from her face remembering that cursed day and all the miserable days after that when she was not free and missed her brother terribly. Her only solace was that her kind was left alone from then on to thrive and hunt in the mountain whereas all other predators faced extinction without mercy from the Hunter. Some species were hunted to extinction. Meanwhile her brother had grown up among other bobcats that adopted him. Missing his sister terribly, he’d eventually tracked her scent and found her for the bond of kinship was very strong.
She was
fearful for what the Hunter might do if he ever found out; still she could not
help herself, for she loved her brother dearly. He called on her frequently and
relayed to her all the news about her kind which somewhat mitigated her
homesickness.
She pleaded and pleaded with the hunter for his mercy. But he was bent on revenge and called on the Great Spirit to punish her. The Great Spirit constrained by Heavenly laws, punished her for violating her promise; hence, she was turned into a horrid version of a Bobcat. And so from then on she was barred from having any contact with her children as well as being shunned by her own kind. Tragically, she was condemned to live a horrible existence for the duration of her natural life, always lurking in the shadows.
Meanwhile, the
two ingrate sons, that had more their father’s genes (DNA) than their mother’s,
remained sporting away the time till the hour for their return had come.
When they
reached the lodge the mother was not there. They dared not to ask their father
whither she had gone, and from that day forth her name was never spoken again
in the lodge.
In the course of time the two boys grew to be men and, although the mother was nevermore seen neither in the lodge nor on the paths in the forest, nor by the river side, bound by maternal affection (love), she still lingered near the lodge.
Changed, but
the same, with ghastly looks and arms that were withered, she appeared to her
sons as they returned from the hunt, in the twilight.
At night she
darkly unlatched the lodge-door and glided in and bent over them as they sought
to sleep. Oftenest it was her bare brow, white, and bony, and bodiless, that
they saw floating in the air, and making a mock of them in the wild paths of
the forest, or in the midnight darkness of the lodge.
Fuelled with
false facts, with outraged bias against her, the sons viewed their mother as a
terror that hunted their peace and lives.
They cursed her existence for according to them she made every spot
where they had seen her, hideous to the living eye. The hunter never witnessed
such; still he was frustrated and grew somewhat weary of his sons’ complaints. Finally,
his sons were resolved, together with their father, now stricken in years, to
leave the wilderness.
They began a
journey toward the South, where there would be settlements. After traveling
many days along the shore of a great lake, they passed around a craggy bluff,
and came upon a scene where there was a rough fall of waters, and a river
issuing forth from the lake.
In pursuit
of them the mother came out of the woods in the form of a giant, grotesque,
rabid bobcat. At this moment, one of them looked out and saw a stately crane
sitting on a rock in the middle of the rapids. They called out to the bird,
"See, grandfather, how we are persecuted? Come and take us across the
falls that we may escape her."
The crane so
addressed was of extraordinary size, and had arrived at a great old age, and,
as might be expected, he sat, when first described by the two sons, in a state
of profound thought, revolving his long experience of life there in the midst
of the most violent eddies.
When he
heard himself appealed to, the crane stretched forth his neck with great
deliberation, and lifting himself slowly by his wings, he flew across to their
assistance.
"Be
careful," said the old crane, "that you do not touch the crown of my
head. I am bald from age and long service and very tender at that spot. Should
you be so unlucky as to lay a hand upon it, I shall not be able to avoid
throwing you both in the rapids."
They paid strict heed to his directions and were soon safely landed on the other shore of the river. He returned and carried the father in the same way; and then took his place once more where he had been first seen in the very midst of the eddies of the stream.
But the
woman, who had by this time reached the shore, cried out, "Come, my
grandfather, and carry me over, for I have lost my children, and I am sorely
distressed."
The aged
bird, now questioning his earlier judgement, at first obeyed her summons, and
flew to her side. He was a suspicious sort and seeing how hideous she looked in
her grotesque bobcat form, once more doubted her story. She had to have been an evil spirit in
pursuit. She would harm them soon as she crossed the water. And so feeling
rather noble he harboured a secret desire to harm this evil spirit and defend
them. He carefully repeated the warning, expecting her to disregard it, that
she was not to touch the crown of his head. Outwardly he begged her to bear in
mind that she should respect his old age, if there was any sense of virtue left
in her.
She promised
to obey; but they were no sooner fairly embarked in the stream, that instantly
the crane cast her into the rapids, and shook his wings as if to free himself
of all acquaintance with her.
“Why have
you wronged me?” She cried as she sunk in the raging stream. The woman
disappeared, was straightway carried by the rapid currents far out into the
waters, and in the wide wilderness of shore-less depth, without companion or
solace, and was lost forever.
“I’m
preventing you from harming any other, you foul creature!” He responded very
much pleased with himself for doing the noble thing.
Suddenly
however the gust of wind derailed him and unable to find his bearing, he too
plummeted into the waters.
“What a
fool!” The hunter gritted his teeth for the loss of such a fine meal. They
picked themselves off the ground and trudged along to find some other game to
satisfy their growing hunger.
The mountain
spirit could stand this injustice no longer, and in one breath, turned the
hunter and his sons all to field mouse.
They
deservedly from then on live in fear and hunted by many.
Meanwhile,
the mountain spirit, being merciful, had also breathed life into her lungs, and no, she did not
perish as the rest had assumed. Her unconscious body was delicately carried off
by torrents (fast flowing streams) to further down the river and reaching a tributary,
therefore, missing the dangerous, cascading waterfall, she was gently deposited
on the shoreline. Heaven works in mysterious ways; it so happened that her
brother the bobcat had been in pursuit of a game which led him to that very
spot where she was beached. To cut the long story short, the two siblings were re-united, and from then on, she lived blissfully (joyfully) among her kind,
forsaking forever the human form, as a beautiful bobcat.
Fin
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