The First Tribe Read Online Free

that were attached to the thick stalk, appearing to be a line of embedded stones. The gatherers almost always worked in pairs to harvest them.
    The sacks were half full when an eerie, hollow sound came from across the plain. The gathers straightened from their chore, looking across the meadow in confusion. “What was that?” Chabil asked.
    “I have no idea. It sounded like the wind through the rocks, but I don’t remember the ancients describing caves on the other side of the grasses.” Sabra looked towards the older harvesters for explanation. The sound bellowed across the windswept field again, and Sabra watched Felana’s face pale as she turned back towards the tree line and the tansa initiates.
    “Get back to the forest,” Felana shouted. She turned towards the gatherers who were well out into the meadow. “Leave your sacks,” she screamed. “Run… back to the caves.”
    Sabra and Chabil stood in shocked confusion. Felana was already dashing towards the trees. “What is it? What is it, Felana?”
    Sabra and Chabil slung their bags to the ground. Only the direst circumstances would cause them to discard the fruits of several hours work. All the gatherers, looking confused, followed Felana’s mad run. “What is it?” Chabil called out again.
    “Kirabi,” Felana screamed.
    Sabra almost tripped. She grabbed Chabil’s hand to pull her along. “It’s too soon,” she gasped. “Our legends tell us that they don’t come north, until the end of second season.” The hollow sound made sense, now. The stories the elders told said the beast riders blew signals to each other through the horns of kilara. Sabra had always doubted the story as no more than a fantastic tale. No one could get close enough to the enormous animals to actually gather a horn.
    Chabil slipped, and when Sabra turned to help her up she saw a wall of giant shadows rolling towards them. “Up. Oh, Mother of Life. Up, Chabil, hurry,” Sabra cried in panic. They began to run again, with her friend favoring her left leg.
    “I can’t, Sabra. My ankle is twisted. Leave me.”
    “No.” Sabra leaned down so that Chabil could throw her arm over her shoulder. She wrapped an arm around her friend’s waist and half dragged her towards the trees.
    Felana reached the safety of the woods and she was relieved to see the tansa gatherers already nearing the rocks. Some of the identical utansas were holding down their hands to pull them up. The healers were not as strong or fast as the gatherers as they spent much of their time inside learning their mysterious art. When she turned towards the plain, she saw many girls still far out in the meadow, and Sabra trying to drag Chabil to safety. Felana was terrified of the approaching threat, but she ran back to Sabra to help with Chabil.
    “They’re so close,” Sabra gasped.
    Felana looked out on the field and she could see the outlines of the individual beast riders. “Sabra, you and the juniors need to take the side path to divert them from following us. I’ll take Chabil, but we can’t risk them catching the tansas.”
    More than anything, Sabra wanted to argue and get safely hidden. If she did not offer this sacrifice she would be spurned from the tribe… perhaps, her family and Zifan, as well. She transferred Chabil’s weight onto the older gatherer and turned quickly towards the large shifon tree to the left. It was far off in the distance, and she took off at a sprint.
    As Sabra ran by, several of the other first and second year harvesters followed her. They had seen the older gatherers in the trees, pointing to the other entrance to the forest. No matter the personal danger and fear, they knew that the tansa initiates had to be protected.
    Sabra’s chest heaved while she ran, her bare feet scrambling over fallen tree limbs and rocks. She did not dare look behind her. The terrifying sound of the beast riders’ surefooted bantas were thundering all around her and the deafening roaring yells of