A Yurha Life; Hatay's Story

I wrote this as a world-building exercise.  Hatay's story can be considered a pretty typical life for a member of the Yurha tribe.  

Birth 

Hatay is born on a late summer morning, beside the waterfall his aors, or pack, uses as a gathering place for religious ceremonies.  He is immediately placed on his mother’s chest to nurse and bond with her.  Once he latches on, the pack ruka, or priestess, speaks blessings over him to ward away ookwav, life draining spirits, as well as other negative influences.   

Hatay’s mother bathes the baby and herself with water from the creek, and his father and grandmother rub grease over the new mother and child.  The ruka pierces Hatay’s ears, and strings thread with carved stone beads representing Hatay’s spirit animal, the hawk, through the holes. 

He is handed back to his mother, who, with the help of her mother-in-law, wraps the infant in a belly sling for the walk back to the pack settlement. 

Hatay , along with his entire pack, and tribe, is Drayow, a wolf shapeshifter.  One day he will be able to turn into a wolf at will.  He will eventually learn what it means to belong to the Yurha tribe.  For now, he sleeps in his mother’s arms.  

Life in the family longhouse is quiet for a week.  Hatay’s mother rests, and does light work, most of her attention on the baby.  Members of the pack stop by to offer good wishes, however no gifts are exchanged, for fear of inviting bad luck.

A week after Hatay’s birth comes the night of the full moon.  The entire pack, including the gresi, alpha or chief, and soragav, the chief’s advising council, gather at the waterfall.   Hatay’s mother and father present him to the ruka, who showers him with the four elements, earth, fire, water and wind.  Hatay protests this loudly, to the amusement of everyone present.

The ruka calls down a blessing from the Old Ones and Rhua, the white wolf, and mistress of fate.   

Hatay’s mother announces his name to the pack for the first time, Hatekero, Singing Hawk.  The pack cheers, shifts to their wolf forms and goes running in the woods to celebrate. 

They return to the settlement a short time later, and the celebration continues.  Gifts of beadwork, tools and clothing are presented to Hatay’s longhouse.  In return, the members of his family provide food and entertainment, dancing and music.  The celebration lasts until early morning.

Childhood 

Hatay spends the majority of his first months held in a sling across his mother’s chest.  He is nursed on demand, and tended to immediately when he cries.  In the morning and at night he is unwrapped, cleaned and allowed to move around.

When the family speaks to him, which is rare, they speak as if he understands them, rather than using baby talk.  They also sing him lullabies, especially his mother and aunt, his chief caregivers. 

At around eight months, Hatay’s mother begins training him in walking.  For at least an hour or so each day she stands him up, gets him used to putting weight on his legs and encourages him to take steps. 

He begins toddling two months later, and soon is walking easily on his own.  He is immediately put to work, helping the women of the longhouse with their daily tasks.  At barely a year old, he is taught to husk tack beans, wash beans and yams and eventually to card fibers for weaving.

He is taken outside to relieve himself, and within a few months he knows to go by himself.  He also learns around this time that not all behavior is tolerated.  Misbehavior or tantrums earn him a smack.

Around this age, Hatay begins attempting to shift his shape, starting with sprouting fur and shifting muscles.  He fully masters shifting to his wolf form by the age of two. 

Hatay is given wooden or bone toys, and balls made of scrap deer hide to play with.  Around the age of six, he receives a small bow, carved with child’s designs; protective runes, sigils and his spirit animal.   He is also given dummy arrows that he will use to practice shooting with the other boys.  As the Drayow hunt primarily in their wolf forms, bows and arrows are used solely for defense. 

For the majority of his childhood, the only clothing Hatay wears is a hemp belt around his waist, strung with wooden beads, and other decorations, including bracelets, anklets and earrings decorated with stone and bone beads.  At the age of five, he is given a bone knife, which he carries on a sheath on his belt.  During cold months, he wears fur leggings and boots, and a fur cloak and hat. 

He is not fully weaned until his sixth year, by which time he has spent over a year nursing alongside his younger sibling. 

As he grows older, Hatay spent a great deal of time with the other children of the settlement.  They complete their chores together, and are then free to play.  With the other boys Hatay learns play fighting.  With boys and girls, he plays other games, chasing, ball games and even hide and seek.   

The children also go hunting for small game, fishing and gathering wild nuts, berries and eggs.  Hatay learns from older boys and girls where their pack territory’s limits are and the danger of crossing them.  This will put him at the mercy of another pack.  Neighboring packs are not necessarily enemies, but their borders must be respected.

A great change takes place in Hatay’s eighth year, when gresi, one of Hatay’s uncles, decides the current crop fields have been farmed long enough.  The land has to be allowed to rest and re-nourish.  The settlement is broken down, and following the guidance of the ruka, and the soragav, they travel to another location in their territory. 

A great deal of work is needed to clear the land, build shelters, and prepare the soil in time for the planting season.  Hatay is too young to help with the heavy or more complicated work, however he and the other children are kept busy for several days, fetching tools, water and food for the men and women.

In his ninth year, Hatay graduates from children’s work and begins to work alongside his father.  The men of the pack plow the fields during planting season, and do metal, leather and wood work all year long, as well as training with weapons.  It’s the responsibility of the men to protect the pack from dangerous animals such as bears, and enemy or rogue packs.  

At this time, Hatay also leaves off children’s clothing for good.  He no longer wears earrings or anklets, and begins dressing in a hide loincloth, and shirt. 

He is also permitted to have sleepaways, nights spent in the forest with other boys and girls of his age group.  The children are free to spend a few nights away from home, though never more than a week.  Hatay understands that that would be far too long to neglect his responsibilities to his family and pack. 

Adolescence 

In his thirteenth year, Hatay is declared a juvenile of the pack.  He is permitted to train in archery with a true bow and arrow, and he is given a leather necklace.  From that point on he hangs the bones and teeth of all his kills from his necklace to display his prowess as a hunter and his contribution to his family.

His education and preparation for adulthood also begins in earnest.  All children of the Yurha tribe are required to undertake the Trial in order to be declared adults.  They will be required to spend two weeks away from the pack settlement, alone, something Hatay has never done.  He will have to fend entirely for himself, and in the last days, take down a kill big enough to provide sustenance for the entire pack.  

With all this in the back of his mind, Hatay’s life goes on.  He helps with the planting and harvesting, wood and leather work and the small amount of metal work done by the pack.  He goes on sleepaways with his father and uncles, and sometimes other men of the pack, to learn the territory. 

On these excursions, he, along with the other boys, receives lessons in warfare, diplomacy and pack relations, game tracking, the ways of the Yurha and the ancient legends and stories.  He also learns about more mundane things, such as the best hunting and fishing spots.  Hatay is chosen every few months to join the pack’s full moon hunt, where he develops much of his hunting skills by watching the adults. 

Assigned to very different chores, boys and girls move into separate circles at this age.  They still spend time together, and sexual play is common.  Such play is permitted as a part of growing up, but Hatay is warned not to take such things too far, to avoid accidental pregnancies.  Both the boy and girl are considered responsible in such situations.  

Hatay grows nervous as he draws closer to his seventeenth year.  His Trial looms over him.  A few months before his seventeenth birthday, he spends a couple of days alone in the forest.  Without his cousins and other age mates, he is lonely.  But he resolves himself.  

The Trial 

A month after his seventeenth birthday, Hatay tells the pack gresi that he is ready to take the Trial. 

After a quick assessment, the leader agrees.  At the next full moon, two nights later, Hatay stands before the ruka, and the pack and declares his intentions.  The pack cheers for him and wishes him luck.  Fitted with a special hide sling that he will be able to wear in his wolf and human forms, Hatay shifts shape and disappears into the forest. 

The first few days are exciting.  For the first time, he hunts alone.  He manages to catch a rabbit, and eats a meal he doesn’t have to share.  

The novelty wears off quickly.  He misses his family, the closeness of his age mates, sharing a meal and a warm fire.  He doesn’t have anyone to talk to.  He has to hide from other pack members he comes across, and they in turn, ignore him.  

For want of anything better to do, he returns to the pack’s old settlement.  He had visited the water fall often during sleepaways with his friends, but this is the first time he has gone back to the ground of the old settlement.  He finds it strange to see the foundations overgrown with grass.  He spends a night in the foundation of his family’s old longhouse.

Days pass, and Hatay grows more accustomed to being alone.  He catches several small meals, as well as supplementing his diet with mushrooms, berries and some fish caught in the river.  

On the second to last day of his Trial, Hatay tracks a wild boar, a young male.  Despite Hatay being larger and stronger than a true wolf, this is a dangerous kill to undertake.  However, he has seen no other game.  Though coming back without a kill would not be any detriment to his status with the pack, Hatay does not want to go through the loneliness of the Trial again.  

He manages to wound the creature twice, with the second wound being a deep cut to a vein in the animal’s thigh.  He follows the dying beast, harassing it at the edges of the territory to keep it from escaping his reach.  Within some hours, he found the boar lying on its side, huffing and dripping foam from its mouth.  Thinking it nearly dead, he moves in for the kill.

He pays dearly for the mistake.  The boar rakes a tusk across Hatay’s side before running away.  Hatay loses precious time treating the wound.  There is a good chance the boar has traveled beyond his reach, into another pack’s territory.  

Luck, or perhaps a blessing from the Old Ones, falls upon him.  Hatay finds the boar just half a mile away.  This time it truly is drawing its last breath; however, with the reminder of his recent hastiness etched firmly into his skin, Hatay waits.

When the boar releases its last rattling breath, Hatay moves in and shifts to human shape.  He butchers the animal, and wraps about seventy pounds of meat in heavy burlaps strips that hang on his harness.  His status as an adult now secure, he returns home.   

Adulthood

Hatay is greeted by the pack leader, who addresses him as an adult, and asks Hatay what his new name will be.  With his brand new scar still fresh in his memory, Hatay names himself Katreagrero, Scarred Hawk.  He discards his childhood name, but is nicknamed Katay by his younger siblings. 

The pack divides up the boar, with the largest share going to Katay’s longhouse.  That night, the pack celebrates Katay’s new status as an adult, with food, music and dancing.  

With his new status, Katay gains an important new freedom, one only extended to unmated adult men and women.  He is free to travel into neighboring pack territories without the requirement of bringing tribute, in his search for a mate.  He does this every three or four weeks, and soon enough has made several new friends. 

As Katay’s age mates pass their Trials and join him in adulthood, they all forge friendships with the neighboring packs, and share ideas and practices.

Katay eventually settles into a relationship with a young woman named Orsee.  There is a bit of tension at first, as Orsee had previously shared an interest with Katay’s cousin.  A bit of counseling from the older adults of the pack calms the matter.  

Mating among the Yurha is a matter decided by the mating parties, but where they will live is entirely up to their packs.  The pack’s gresi and soragav may either welcome Katay’s future mate as a member of the pack, or honorably eject Katay from the pack, to be welcomed into Orsee’s pack.  The decision is based on the pack’s current size, resources and the status of Katay’s immediate family.  Of course, Orsee’s pack leaders are also involved in the decision.  

Talks between the gresiv and soragav last for a couple of days.  Katay’s immediate family is one of the larger ones in the pack, with 19 family members living in their longhouse.  It is decided that Orsee will become a member of Katay’s pack, and Katay’s immediate family will split into two separate longhouses.  Katay and Orsee remain in the larger longhouse with Katay’s parents and grandparents.

With that decision made, the pair can now take part in the mating ceremony, which is more an excuse for a celebration then a formal requirement.  By this point, Katay and Orsee have been sleeping together for several weeks.  It isn’t unusual for a woman to be pregnant before the official mating ceremony.   

The entire pack gather in their wolf forms, and following a blessing by the ruka, the newly mated couple runs side by side into the forest to spend their first hours together as a mated pair.  A few pack members run with them for a short time, to mark the ever present need for a pack. 

 

When the couple returns to the settlement, the celebration has already started.  The music and dancing last throughout the night, long after the new couple has snuck away to the empty longhouse for some privacy.  

Katay and Orsee settle into the routines of daily work.  Orsee joins the women of the longhouse in taking care of household work, caring for the children, maintaining and cleaning the longhouse, tending the small gardens, mending and washing clothes, and preparing food. 

Night is the time to be with bloodkin, sitting by the fire sharing stories from the day, favorite myths, and singing songs.  Pack-kin, all the members of the pack, gather together around the settlement fire once a week or so, to listen to the karak, the storyteller, recite the Old Words, and then to play music, dance and enjoy each other’s company.  

A few months after Katay and Orsee marry, Orsee becomes pregnant.  She gives birth near the pack’s creek, and Katay is thrilled to see his first child.  

As a man of the pack, and now a father, Katay has reached full adulthood.  His father and uncles now ask for and respect his opinion.  Shortly after the baby is born, Katay’s younger brother passes his Trial, and is brought into the soragav because he possesses dominant magic.  He is the first dominant born in Katay’s generation, and the family celebrates their contribution to the pack.  

 

Elderhood

Life goes on as normal, with a few small conflicts.  A clash with a neighboring pack leads to brief fighting.  No one is permanently injured, and Katay’s pack’s territory increases slightly.  A few unusually cold years cause the crops to fail, leading to dangerously low food supplies.  The pack is forced to subsist on jerky and dried vegetables.  Two children and several elders die, including Katay’s grandmother.  

The pack moves again to plant new crop fields.  Katay enjoys watching his children grow, the births of his first grandchildren, and settling into comfortable companionship with Orsee.  He carries on repairing tools and making spears and bows for the pack, until his hands become too arthritic. 

Katay and Orsee spend much of their time in these years around the fire pit outside the council den with the other pack elders.  Free from the burden of work, they have time to talk and do simple hobbies.  Katay carves designs into a pair of bows for his grandsons, similar to the bows he had as a child.  

Death

Orsee passes away first, at 92, though the pack can only guess her age, as she, like many of them, stopped counting her birthdays when she became an adult.   Katay dies just a few months later.

The pack prepares his body, stripping away his clothing, washing him and decorating him with beadwork, and jewelry.  His body is buried in the soil just outside the settlement, along with his favorite stone knife, his bow, and a few small carvings his grandchildren made.  

His family and pack share their memories of him around the fire for years, until he eventually exists only in stories.  Just a year after his passing, the pack moves to new crop fields, and Katay’s grave and his body return to the forest.