Thinning the Herd

Written for the Daily Flash Fiction Challenge with a word limit of 300.

The prompts: This story must involve a winter sport.

Thinning the Herd

Ignuth and Mudsock struggled into their heavy winter clothes. This was to be the biggest day of their young lives. They were going to participate in their little Eskimo village’s oldest ritual; one designed to recognize the fittest amongst them while keeping the population in check.

Today they were going to go polar bear tipping.

The idea was to sneak up on a sleeping polar bear, which happened to be standing at the time, and push it over. That was step one. Step two was to outrun an animal with the speed of a snowmobile.

Needless to say, few survived.

The polar bears thought this was great sport. Every year they would bulk up on Eskimo youth; not as tasty as seals but much easier to catch. They had learned to stand very still and then amazingly, the food would actually walk right up to them.

The day started with a parade down the center of the village’s short main street; a mud path about a hundred yards long. The two-person teams would walk together amidst cheers and much ado. They always tipped in pairs.

Ignuth considered himself to be very lucky at having drawn Mudsock as a partner. Neither boy was very physically adept. Ignuth was extremely fat, signifying the wealth of his family. Mudsock was from an even richer family and thus even flabbier than Ignuth.

All of the other teams eyed Ignuth with open envy. They had all wanted to tip with Mudsock. The reason for this was clear. When tipping a polar bear, it was not necessary to be the fastest or the strongest boy in the village. The polar bear was always going to be faster and stronger.

There was only one key to success. You simply had to be faster than your partner.

Word count 299


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