Positively my favorite holiday of the year! First, Nicky, who has been staring over my shoulder while I write is refusing to leave until I include this…since I love to hunt! As you know by now my Mother gave the beast the ability to speak. To me! However, not all beast can speak. The beast that we eat, can not speak, they were not given the gift of knowledge or speech. As I meet with my council members regularly this includes Shadow and Shadowdancer, who represent all beast of the kingdom. Hunting in general is done by all who must hunt for food, once a month, on the same day. This arrangement is to ensure the safety of the high beasts. And so it is with this same arrangement that The Hunt takes place. Now, Nicky, can leave me alone to finish writing!

As I was saying, this is my favorite part of First. This is the first official hunt of the new year. The day starts out with a huge hunting party heading out from the castle to hunt boar and deer. Raven and I lead to give blessing for a bountiful year. Other hunting parties go off from the villages and towns as well. What is caught is then taken to the kitchens to be cleaned and stored. The first kill is readied for the nights celebrations.

The Hunt at night is a completely different kind of hunt. It is at this hunt that the Seed Day virgins finish their transformation to womanhood. This is a time of pure primal animalistic ritual. It takes place in every village’s or town’s largest forest. The first kill of the day is roasted and ate, bonfies are lit, music playing, mead and wine flow freely, everyone feasts together. After the feast bards tell stories of love, lust, warriors… as they tell their tales the music changes from fast and lively jigs to slow steady drumming. It is at this point when some head home to enjoy the rest of The Hunt night.

The women dance about the bonfires as the tales are told, slow, seductive. The King of the hunt comes out. Dressing in leathers and furs, wearing the headdress of the stag. In some areas a steward plays this role, in some a designated man. Here it is Raven. It is a play of sort. Raven comes from nowhere dressed as the Hunt King. Brown leather pants, deer skin boots, and bracers, he wears no shirt, where others would paint designs onto their bodies he has no need, his dragon mark, dark, winding around his strong body. His hair loose and flowing, a single thin braid at his temple entwined with leather. The stag headdress of the Hunt King on his head. He stands in front of the bard as he weaves his tale.

Behind the women, the Queen emerges (me), the women part to allow the Queen to enter the dance. I’m dressed in furs to represent the hunted. A ragged short skirt of soft leather covered in fur, a shirt not much more than you may think a bra of the same soft leather. Deer skin boots to my knees, wrapped in rabbit furs match the bracers on my forearms. My hair is loose, tangled and wild, reaching my waist. I dance for Raven, slow, sexy, calling him, wild frenzied, begging him…his gold eyes glowing burning…the drumming grows louder, stronger, faster…Raven steps into the circle, the women all dance wildly around him. I join him in the center, running my hands over his body, teasing, and dancing. The other men join in the dancing. Raven reaches for me over and over and I jump from his grasp. And then all grows still and quiet. Raven lifts his horn and blows initiating The Hunt.

The women scatter, running through the forest. This night their are no lovers, no husbands or wives, only the hunters and hunted. It matters not by whom you are caught, for this night you are their prize. It is for this reason not all participate in the hunt. Of course I am trickier than the others, as I can change into beast to hide, ensuring it is only Raven who catches me. Oh but I do enjoy giving him a good run! I love the way he stalks me, I love to watch him. It is hard at times not to just stand there and let him find me. I’m on fire with need by the time he does!