We girded ourselves for the hunt in kilts and light armored breastplates, then ate honey cakes and fruit. After a blessing from the High Priestess, off we ran into the jungle. We ran for two days, sleeping at night hidden in the branches of the trees.
The morning of the third day, we came down out of the jungle and into a vast plain. We could see a collection of huts off some distance to our left, the sounds of human habitation rising from the plain to greet us. We ran toward the village, reaching it shortly before sundown, but stopping short of entering the clearing surrounding the ragged collection of huts.
Athela was our huntmistress and she sent me and another young huntress, Leetha, in to scout the village. We circled the village silently, finding just women and young children moving among the huts. There was a track running away from the village toward a river and we followed the track to where it branched off in two directions. Down the left fork of the path was what appeared to be a deserted laundering place, with bits of sudsing flowers and other detrius scattered about.
Up the other fork, we found the men of the village at the river, bathing in the swift-flowing water. As silently as we had approached, Leetha and I returned to where our huntresses were hidden. We quickly explained what we had seen, drawing diagrams in the dirt, and five groups of huntresses moved silently out toward the river.
I carefully uncoiled my binding fiber and thought back to the men I had seen bathing. There was one in particular who had caught my eye. He was tall, several hands taller than even me, and had brown hair. His sacred rod had lain flaccid against his thigh but even in its sleeping state had looked powerful.
We reached the river and I signaled to my team which male I wished to take. Rushing from the tall reeds, we surrounded him quickly and I threw a loop of binding fiber around his torso. He stood there momentarily; looking bemused by the women surrounding him then calmly flexed his arms and broke my binding fiber.
I snarled and jumped upon his back, wrapping my arms around his neck as Leetha approached with her binding fiber. I shouted to Ameeni and she quickly poured the sleeping fluid into a cloth. Brisha ran up with the cloth and tossed it to me where I clung to the now thrashing and shouting male, and I quickly placed the cloth over his mouth and nose, holding it tightly so he would be forced to breathe of it. He continued to fight as the sleeping fluid did its work, until he collapsed on the bank of the river, half in and half out of the water.
The other Amazons had not been idle, and we soon had five sleeping men trussed up on poles and ready to carry back to our village. While the capture had taken less time than it takes to slaughter a pig, the rest of the men had run back to the village and the entire area was in an uproar. Athela signaled that we should move quickly, lest the entire village pursue us and we moved out at a fast trot, four huntresses to each man.
The village did send out warriors to pursue us, but we moved throughout the night and the less-skilled trackers of the village were not able to follow where we went, as we moved up into the foothills.
Mid-morning of the next day Athela called a halt and we all happily placed our burdens on the ground and stretched our aching muscles. I noted with some curiosity that my captive was awake and looking around with bemused eyes. None of the other captives had recovered from the effects of the sleeping fluid, so that this male was awake came as a surprise.
"Greetings." I said to him, speaking in the common tongue.
"Who are you? Why am I your prisoner?" He asked, lacking the good graces to respond to my salutation.
"We are Amazons, and you are our captive." I said, shrugging as if it should be obvious. Athela came over and looked down at the male with me. She seemed surprised by the amount of binding fiber we had used to secure the male to his poles. But after seeing him snap my lasso without seeming to exert any effort, I was not taking any chances.
"Amazons? But that's just a myth!" The man gasped.
