It had been an unlucky hunting season.
First of all, their big man, Grunk, got himself gored by a woolly rhinoceros in the first week of the expedition.
Grunk — always the big swinging dick that Grunk — had tried to stab it in the eye instead of dodging to the side. Still, if he’d been successful, that would have been sweet. They could have ended the trip right there. The jackpot. Instead they had to chase the rhino until Grunk’s massive bulk finally fell off the horn.
After Grunk’s wipe out, morale was low. Their youngest and cockiest hunter, Mrog, made the somewhat risky decision to prove to the others that the Thunka Grunka clan still had the moxy to take down any prey they wanted. Including cave lions.
Yep, Mrog had been an idiot. It was probably best that he hadn’t had a chance to mate before he became cat food.
That just left Thag as the only other hunter with an ounce of creativity or ambition. After all, if they came back to the Grunka village without a shitload of meat, his mate Onga would be sharing slappies with that bastard shaman, Weasel-Scratch-Face-Brother the next time he went out hunting for sure. Especially since their last fight and the total failure of the shalli whacker.
So when they saw it, Thag knew they just had to take it down. It was the fabled unicorn — basically a tall woolly rhino with twice the speed, and twice the horn.
Remembering Grunk, the other hunters were keen to just let it go on its way, but Thag said no, they should risk it, but no hot-dogging. They would work as a team.
Later, Thag would remember that as the defining moment of his life, and always told the youngsters to take risks, but calculated risks.
It didn’t solve the problem with Onga though.
Inspired by:
Elasmotherium | Too scared to be a millionaire?. Originally published in 2005.
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