Litha

 Lance had barely been there for over a month and already had the honor of participating in the Caveman Hunt. 

The dawn of MidSummer was a bright and warm June 21st. The previous night had been relatively warm. They’d all slept in the ceremonial cave in loincloths and facepaint, but it was still a very modern hunt. All of the facepaint was toxic free and cruelty free; a new standard of production loosely enforced by the UCE, or the United Countries of Earth; a globalist movement that never valued nationalism over humanity.

So these nearly naked, absolutely wonderful men all got up at dawn and started to warm up. They had varying degrees of face makeup to full body glitter. These rabbits were easy to catch. 

Jackalope was a cruelty free animal farm. Problem was they might have been a bit too cruelty free and been turning their rabbits into drug addicts. No animal was slain while awake, but the blow darts tipped with Trazodone THC Indica usually put an animal to sleep in less than a minute, with varying degrees. The Jackalope Promise was that any animal that didn’t go to sleep in less than 3 minutes got to live. They’d get a small gold hoop earring on each ear to assure they’d either be sold as a pet or live at Jackalope Ranch until they died of old age; the sleep formula to put them down would then get modified and often strengthened. 

Each hunter leaving the cave left in search of the rabbit they had in mind. The Earth God was a black rabbit that held galaxies within; the rabbits that hopped about them now all had a bit of the Earth God in their own way. These rabbits were the same brown-red color as the dirt around them, but they had all sorts of stripes, speckles, and spots of bright white; each pattern as unique as a fingerprint. 

Only feeders could be hunters. Though often a man participated in differing types of work, each man that left the cave’s primary duty on the ranch was to feed the rabbits. This was a hunt of intent. They watched the rabbits as they fed them, to determine which were the bullies, and these were the ones they hunted now.  

Lance was after SkullFace, the secret name for the rabbit he had in mind. As a general rule at Jackalope, every male rabbit was Buck and every female rabbit was Dorothy. Naming rabbits was frowned upon unless it was a single one you kept with you for at least 20 hours a day.   

Though Skullface was a perfectly friendly rabbit, Lance just didn’t like how lazy this rabbit was. It never did anything other than lay there, all red with a bright white head. Then walk to food, eat, and immediately nap right in the way of the other rabbits trying to get to food. 

This rabbit's day had come. The rabbit Lance intended to bring back to the execution elder in the earth temple was SkullFace.

The trouble was where to find him. As soon as they left the caves, most of the rabbits swarmed them when they saw the blow dart guns. Each rabbit got put to sleep occasionally, for their medical check ups, and the formula was obviously a pretty good way to get put down.

Lance ran through the Junipers to where there was almost a forest of Ponderosa Pine. There behind a Ponderosa was the sprawled, lazy form of SkullFace. Lance slowly approached, mostly sure the lazy rabbit would hardly stir. But he wasn’t even five feet away before one ear pricked up, then the rabbit sat up looking alert. Then when he was one foot away, the rabbit bolted. But Lance was a quick draw and a good shot. After the hit, the rabbit jumped three hops then collapsed. 

Lance was glad he completed his hunt so early in the morning. There was much he wanted to do today. Before the Litha festival, he wanted to visit Odin’s temple.  

He approached the earth temple with his back wrap that comfortably supported the limp body of SkullFace. He kissed his hand twice, each time touching it afterwards onto the face of one of the black rabbit statues that stood sentinel to the door of the earth temple. 

Then he entered the tent whose only light was from the small holes in the canvas where sunlight came through. It took a minute for Lance’s eyes to adjust. 

Then, he silently made his way to the altar before the sitting Elder with a sharp ax. The old man had a headdress that held the antlers of a pronghorn deer; those elders held a black veil off his face. Lance laid the rabbit on the altar and backed out of the circle drawn around it. At the edge of the circle he knelt down and put his hands together in supplication. As soon as his hands touched, the Elder brought down the ax to sever the head. 

Without a word, Lance picked up both the body and head and left the tent that was the heart of the earth temple. He made his way to the butcher where the meat would be used for stew and the guts for compost. Or they usually would have, but as was his right as a hunter, Lance claimed the head and guts for himself. He put them in a neat bag and hiked to Odin’s temple. 

There were all sorts of temples on the land, but Lance’s favorite was the one that was furthest away. On the very edge of the property, was Odin’s Temple. It was a platform altar that was also the roof of a treehouse on the top of a tall tree. 

Lance saw Odin’s ravens swarm the temple as they saw Lance approach. They knew they were getting an offering. This was his favorite part of the offering: the climb. As he climbed the ladder to the tree house, Ravens flew around him. They screamed at him for not bringing enough in a very thankful way. 

Standing on top of this roof on this windy day, Lance knew why there was a liability waiver. But he loved it. The rough wind seemed to plant him more firmly on the roof. He scattered the guts on the roof, then threw the head as far as he could.

Legend had it, if a raven caught the head, that meant Odin would grant you a wish… ‘I want to be living my best life…’ Lance thought as he threw the head. It was caught mid-air at noon on MidSummer.