Any animal can be loving, timid, cautious, or cowardly…right up until you try to kill it. Then all animals, from the meanest to the most mighty, open their own purple testament with abandon. So it was this time.
My first jab is aimed at the creature’s body. It bites flesh just below the shoulder. As I expected, the tip snaps immediately. What remains behind is a bloody stump of wood jutting out of the creature’s abdomen.
The beast rolls to its left to break free of my attack. As it does so, it spins around in the water. Its tail lashes out, striking me in the calf hard enough to knock me off balance. I fall to a knee. Instinct takes over, my and its own. The jaws are moving towards me, strong enough to tear me to pieces. I raise the spear, but as I am then, all I can do with it is bar the animal’s jaws. I hold fast with my left hand as the butt end digs into the mud.
There, there, I sing to the animal in my mind. It will be over soon.
I have the axe around my neck, held in a weak thong of fern stems. It’s intended purpose was just this. I tear the axe free with my right hand and go to work on the animal’s skull.
The first blow leaves the animal dazed. Then comes the second, the third, and I see its movements become confused, disoriented. I draw back the axe for a third strike, only to find a splintered stick in my hand. I drive this stick into the animal’s neck and hold it there.
There, there, girl Let it go. It’s all over. Let the blood run into the water. Your life for my life. That is the way of it. You did your best. You protected your eggs, the way you were compelled to. I may find them someday. I may eat them, or some descendant of them, but that’s not your concern. Let it go.
The animal slowly, and with great ferocity, surrenders its life’s blood to the water. Then it is still.