Bunduki (Bunduki Series Book One) Read Free Page B

expedition to India.
Not a mile away, while Hooloock gibbons swung from the branches and
fed in a fig tree, a large sounder of white-lipped peccaries were
foraging at its foot on the fruit which were being dislodged. Later
he heard the calls of chimpanzees and of Asian jungle fowl. He saw
tracks left by bongo, giant forest hog and buffalo as well as
identifying—by sight—a South American three-toed sloth and a
Malayan tapir. Still further on, a bull guided its harem and young
away as a jaguar appeared at the edge of the clearing in which they
had been grazing.
    Birds, reptiles and smaller mammals
were also present in a similar geographically confusing profusion.
By their lack of fear, they were none of them used to human beings.
The only creatures that appeared to be absent, he noticed with
relief, were bothersome insects, ticks, leeches and other
parasites.
    It seemed to Bunduki that he
had stumbled into a kind of vast zoological gardens, in which
creatures from every continent had been gathered and were allowed
to roam at
will. Even Mangani, unless his imagination had been playing tricks upon him.
That was possible, he had to admit. There had been no signs, nor
sounds, of them apart from the very distant answer to his
challenge.
    Altogether the environment through
which the blond giant was passing struck him as being something
Dawn and he had frequently discussed and hoped to find as children.
He could not even start to guess where on Earth it might be, which
aroused another possibility—farfetched as it might appear to be—for
him to consider.
    The time was almost noon and the
continuing pangs of hunger caused Bunduki to set aside the train of
thought which his summation had brought to mind. Instead, he
started to hunt in deadly earnest. Gliding silently between the
trees and through the undergrowth, with keen blue eyes constantly
flickering glances from side to side, ears straining to catch the
softest sound and nostrils testing the air—although his sense of
smell was not so well developed as that of the other members of his
adoptive family—he looked more like a predatory jungle creature
than a civilized human being.
    At last Bunduki found his prey.
Halting in cover at the edge of a large clearing, he looked to
where half a dozen grayish, somewhat squarely built creatures were
feeding on the banks of a stream. They were capybara and, although
rather large for his needs, made good eating. There was another
point that appealed to him, as the former Chief Warden of a game
reserve. Their species bred in such numbers that, particularly if
his theory regarding his location was correct, the death of one
would not seriously deplete the stock.
    Standing erect and relaxed,
with his left foot pointing towards the target, the blond giant
extended his left arm and turned the bow from the nearly horizontal
carrying position almost to vertical. The fingers of his bow-hand
were curled around the pistol grip of the handle-riser, taking the
pressure of the draw against the base of the thumb. His right elbow was
raised outwards to shoulder level. Tucking the little finger of the
draw-hand out of the way, he folded the remainder—with the nock of
the arrow between the first and second digits—over the string.
Utilizing his tremendously strong back and shoulder muscles, rather
than those of his right arm, he drew the string and arrow
rearwards.
    Being a hunter, as opposed to a
tournament-target archer, Bunduki favored the high, or cheek draw.
Tilting his head slightly to the right, until the second finger of
his draw-hand was touching his cheek just over the last tooth in
his lower jaw, he attained his anchor point. He took aim swiftly
and carefully, holding his breath to avoid the motion of his chest
disturbing his posture. Then he relaxed the fingers of his right
hand to accomplish a smooth release. Uncoiling from the arcs into
which they had been drawn, the bow’s upper and lower limbs caused
the string to straighten and thrust