Rating: PG for animal death, hunting, and blood, theoretical child endangerment
Fun fact! The name thing with the pumabirds is called a noa-name. Also keep in mind that an adult Nyji is only 4 to 4.5 feet tall. The Nyji nation Felino is part of separates things by hunter (/ gatherer / warrior) and homemaker (/ farmer / crafter) instead of male and female.
Pig-ant
Nyji crop nets and fields are swarmed by children with simple weapons, eager to fend off pests. It’s not expected that one will kill something until they’re at least nine, but the noise and projectiles scare vermin off. Felino was an early bloomer, impaling a pig-ant going after the hanging vine-cherries with his blowgun. He got to it first and when his parents retrieved him they weren’t sure if the red on his hands and face were from the fruit or the bug.
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Millipede
When Felino earned his knife, he still wasn’t big enough to go with the other hunters, but he could go solo so long as he kept the village in sight. When he came back with a millipede as long as two adult Nyji, both his parents and the other hunters highly suspected he had broken that rule, but as the millipede was a valuable source of poisons, medicine, and materials, he got away with only a mild scolding.
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Flying Frogs
Nyji don’t usually kill the vibrant frog-like wingefts. The trees produce enough fruit for both people and efts. But an overly wet spring meant fruit rotting on the trees and a boom in wingefts. So any available Nyji were required to fight back the waves of hungry gliding creatures that hit every day. Felino, now an adolescent, was in the inner ring of skilled hunters that focused on the ones that got past everyone else. They ate wingeft until they were sick and sported multi-colored accessories that fall.
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Green
His brother was still deciding whether to be a hunter or a homemaker when he got an offer to join a trading expedition. It was with imploring eyes and an unsteady voice that he asked Felino to take care of his plants, and then offered detailed notes when Felino agreed. It wasn’t that complicated and Felino was laid up with a broken arm anyway. Felino dutifully watered, fertilized, and gave his brother updates in their weekly chats. It was three months later when the expedition returned and Felino proudly showed off the blossoming plot.
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Spikehorse
Soon after Felino finally got to go on his first big hunt. It followed the century old pattern to harvest a dozen of the thousands of migrating spike-horses to fill the village’s winter stores. They’d be competing with pumabirds, giant efts, and saberdogs. The hunters stayed in pairs, armed with great bows only used for this hunt and for ceremonies. A whoop and thunder; several spike-beasts spooked into their ambush. Felino aimed, his arms shaking, and let loose. His wasn’t the only arrow in the calf, but it’d been a crippling shot. His first big kill.
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Pumabird
Pumabirds were a danger when one left the village: ambush predators camouflaged above and not shy about killing Nyji. One never spoke its name while on the ground and in the village it was usually called “green grandfather.” Felino always kept watch, as he had been taught, for fresh claw marks on tree trunks. He was flanking hunters returning with a carcass and vegetable baskets when he heard a rustle from above. His knife flew before he quite realized. It lodged in the birds neck. The others turned to him in shock and raised toasts to him that night.
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