Urban Hunters Collection Books 1 to 3

By Gary Taaffe

URBAN HUNTERS COLLECTION BOOKS 1 TO 3

Before Billy’s search for girls begins, he must first survive his older brother’s sickening game with a sun–bloated dead kangaroo, fight for his life against wildlife, endure initiation with the slice of a knife where a boy never wants a knife to go, and burn under the coals of a fire for his Tribal Scarring. Can he pull off the impossible and earn his brother’s respect?

Billy’s search for girls begins, if only he knew what one looked like. The city is a dangerous place for a boy from the bush and with lives at stake, he’s forced to call upon his ancestors for help.

A beautiful blue–eyed city girl appears before him down a darkened alley. But all is not well — Amber’s covered in blood and mud and stained in tears. How will she react to a near naked Aboriginal boy wearing a dead kangaroo for a hat?

• Language: English
• Publisher: Gary Taaffe
• Release date: Sep 23, 2012
• ISBN: 9780987176035

Gary Taaffe

Gary Taaffe is the No.1 Bestselling Amazon Author of 9 fiction and 2 non-fiction books, including the Urban Hunters series for Young Adults and his Stampede series, a no-nonsense guide to book marketing for authors.New York Book Review, W.D La Rue said, “I would read ANYTHING this man wrote.”Gary lives in Forster-Tuncurry, Australia, where he’s surrounded by waterways for fishing and bushland for hunting. He writes fulltime with new books coming out in quick succession.If you want to be the first to hear of his latest release, sign up to his newsletter, and if you want to find Gary socially, click one of the links below:Subscribe to my Readers Group newsletter to be the first to hear of new releases in the Urban Hunters series: http://eepurl.com/_E311Subscribe to my Marketing Strategies that Work! newsletter: http://eepurl.com/baqxn5Instagram: Gary_Taaffe https://instagram.com/gary_taaffe/Pinterest: Gary Taaffe https://www.pinterest.com/garytaaffe/Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/pages/Gary-Taaffe/212091488802148Twitter: @Urban_Hunters: http://twitter.com/urban_huntersPUBLISHERGary is a perfectionist who creates stunning books, both inside and out.He always has formatting jobs on the go for fiction authors but his latest claim to fame are his step-by-step publishing guides that are paving the way for clubs and committees around the world to gather large groups of people together to publish their stories, photos and works of art into highly sought after full colour books.Check out his Services page for more information.

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COLLECTION

Books 1 to 3

Gary Taaffe

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Titles available in the

URBAN HUNTERS

series (in reading order)

1. Four Small Stones

2. Tribal Scarring

3. Walkabout

Urban Hunters Collection Books 1 to 3

4. Budgie Smugglers

5. Bullies

6, 7, 8 …

See the end of this eBook for more information on these titles.

At the end of this eBook is a Cast of Characters that sets forth a brief description of some of the characters featured in the URBAN HUNTERS series to date.

Be sure to check out the Glossary too to see some interesting Aussie spellings and colloquialisms as they appear in each episode.

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— CHAPTER ONE —

FOUR SMALL STONES

"Where’s your spirit, Billy?" Cobar said as his withered legs lowered him to the edge of the cliff face beside his great–grandson. He peered past his dangling feet to watch a stone descend beyond his eyesight into the river far below.

But Billy didn’t answer.

Cobar’s wisened years afforded him an enduring patience, so he tuned into the caress of cooling shade lavished upon him by a tortured old eucalyptus tree. He admired the twisted, gnarly, old trunk that bulged and clung with determination to a crack in the ancient rock wall. He unconsciously gave his nose–bone a twist while he considered how life had sculpted his own body. A fall down an embankment and a gash in his forearm had drawn a hungry dingo to the smell of his blood. So Cobar ate the dingo and salvaged its foreleg for a trophy. The bone now sat above his lip like a moustache, giving him an air of importance, and a memory that made him smile. All the twisting had made his nose itchy, so he slid out the bone and gave his nose a good scratch.

Finally, Billy sighed as if dragging himself into the relief of his elder’s presence.

Mother come to me last night, he said.

That’s why we have Corroboree here, Billy. Cobar spread his arms wide, displaying the mist swirling up through the carpet of treetops across the river. The spirits are strong, the ancestors can talk to us.

She want me to follow the river till the brown snake stand up, where he watch over them whitefellas.

Ah, it’s you! Cobar said while sliding his bone back into place. She show me big Red kangaroo go down river in a canoe.

Why she want me to go, Grandfather?

No future for you boys here. We the only Aborigines left. We gotta find you some girls or no more Dreaming.

But, Grandfather I’m only thirteen! I’m not even man yet. Them whitefellas gonna kill me too.

Your mother won’t let that happen, Billy. That’s why she pick you — you smart, you listen her, not like brothers. He indicated his head towards Billy’s older brothers, Mallee and Pindaari.

A tiny smile curled one edge of Billy’s full lips as he noticed Mallee selecting some stones from the dirt around their campsite — he knew his day was about to get interesting.

Not time yet anyway, Cobar said. Maybe when it is time, you be man. When you see the big Red kangaroo, you will know it is time!

Billy sat, despondent and quiet, while he considered how intense his mother had been this time. He knew she wanted him to leave soon, but he didn’t feel ready to go on his Walkabout yet. He wanted time to grow into a man at his own pace, like his brothers had, not in some kind of a hurry. He thought about the kangaroo and hoped Cobar was right, but then he worried about the fact that there were big Red kangaroos everywhere. The drought had lured them to the coast from out west in search of water. He decided not to look at them.

When you got no future, Billy, you got no past — no Dreaming to guide you into the future. Gotta have your Dreaming or you get lost, like us, we nearly lost. Can’t hide here anymore, little fella — time to find our future!

Hey, Billy! Mallee called.

Mallee’s only goal in life was to make galahs of his younger brothers and by the way he’d been giggling with Pindaari, Billy figured it was his turn again.

Walkabout through the whitefella culture, Billy. You be OK. If it’s safe for us, we find plenty wives for good lookin’ fella like you.

Billy wondered what he’d do with one wife, let alone plenty. He’d never even seen a girl before. Still, he figured Cobar would teach him all he needed to know anyway, so he let the problem go.

OK, Grandfather. Billy rose and waited while Cobar struggled to his feet. But first I gotta cook me up a couple o’ galahs.

Cobar smiled in anticipation, put his arm around his favourite grandson’s shoulders for support, and they wandered back to their Corroboree site.

What? Billy said as he stepped onto a massive rock platform that jutted out from the cliff face like a balcony at a theatre.

Mallee said nothing and held out his four small stones for Billy and Pindaari to behold. There were two small stones; about the size of a wallaby’s nuts, a slightly larger, rounded stone made of granite that was quite heavy, and then a bigger stone again with sharp edges that wasn’t very heavy at all. He selected the smallest one for himself with a grin, and then offered the remains to Pindaari.

What’s this for? he said, as if he didn’t already know.

Billy couldn’t believe how stupid they still thought he was.

Just pick one! Mallee said.

Hmm, Pindaari pondered while rubbing what he liked to think of as a beard. He picked out the stones one at a time, scrutinising them carefully before taking a moment to consider his findings. Then he selected two at a time to compare their weight and shape. He even gave them a spit and polish to compare their colour before annoying Mallee by putting each freshly spat stone back into the palm of his outstretched hand. Pindaari walked around in circles with one hand on his hip, the other rubbing his chin intelligently. Then he kicked up the dust as if he was struggling with his decision. Occasionally, he stopped to give Mallee and the stones a ponderous look, before going back to his chin rubbing and dust kicking.

Bloody hell, Pindaari, will ya hurry up?

Pindaari considered Mallee’s impatience, and then raised one eyebrow in sly recognition of a clever thought. He began knocking the stones together, listening carefully to their sound, before putting them back again to reflect on the result with more intelligent chin rubbing and dust kicking.

Mallee dropped his head, shaking it from side to side. He looked like he was giving up, but then he filled his lungs and huffed out a huge sigh to help him tap into his reserves of patience. He wedged his free hand under his armpit and adjusted his outstretched arm for the long haul, while looking at Pindaari with contemptuous patience.

I swear you galahs are gonna turn me into an ancestor! he moaned.

Billy laughed — whatever the consequences of the game were, they’d be worth the memory of Mallee’s face. Pindaari was like a predator prowling around his prey, poking it and prodding it for pleasure. Mallee was about to lose it, Billy could see it in his face — he’d clenched his jaw and squinted his eyes. Pindaari must have seen it too because he quickly snatched up the granite stone with a satisfied grin.

Finally! Mallee cursed. Then he impatiently offered the last two to Billy, as if trying to pressure him into making a quick decision.

I wanna pick first, Billy said.

Mallee’s whole body slumped and he sighed so heavily that he looked like he was emptying.

Why? he demanded.

‘Cause I want the little fella.

Mallee did his head drop thing again and said,

"It don’t matter how big it is. Alright, you have mine and I’ll have the big one then."

Pindaari looked shocked and shuffled about nervously, which he tried to hide from Billy while waiting for his reply.

No way! You probably wanted the big one all along! Billy said.

"No I didn’t! It don’t matter how big it is! Will ya just pick one?"

Billy was tempted to drag it out a bit longer in the hope they’d let something of their plan slip, but judging by Pindaari’s surprised expression when Mallee offered to take the big stone with the sharp edges, he wondered if Pindaari wasn’t the one being set–up. So he decided to take the big stone, just to show them that he wasn’t scared.

Pindaari seemed relieved.

Mallee didn’t say anything. He just grabbed his spears in deflated triumph and headed straight down the mountain trail without even looking back to see if his brothers were following him.

— CHAPTER TWO —

Sanctuary

Cobar watched the boys trail off through the scrub and waited — sure enough, Billy turned back before he disappeared to give Cobar a wink. Cobar grinned and nodded in return. He was excited for Billy, he was off to have some fun with his brothers.

It was the middle of summer in the year 2011, the boys had grown up but for the most part, Cobar realised, little had changed in the last thirteen years, not since he’d stood holding Billy, blood–soaked and motherless after his tragic birth. Billy’s mother, Elanora, lay on the ground at Cobar’s feet, he’d just cut Billy out of her stomach, blood was everywhere and she was dead. He didn’t even have time to think about what had to be done — after a day and a half in labour, Elanora had died suddenly in a lather of sweat, so he quickly cut the baby out before it died too.

All the family was by her side, trying to comfort her, trying to help her. They were still in shock over her abrupt demise when suddenly Cobar performed the gruesome task with his stone–age knife. It was incomprehensible, but in the same instant, he was pulling the newborn out of her open belly. He held it up with his hands under its armpits, but the baby hung limp, and lifeless. The calamity tore at everyone’s hearts. Suddenly the boy gasped a breath and squirmed about. The clan’s sense of joy was tragic. They laughed, cried and screamed in frustration.

Cobar put him straight onto his mothers breast, hoping to get at least a little nourishment into him. He couldn’t suckle. He was too weak after running his own marathon for life. They named him Billy, after his mother’s love of billy tea, and wrapped him in a specially softened piece of leather, where he went straight to sleep, exhausted. He lay so completely still that they found themselves constantly opening his blanket to see if his chest was moving up and down. It was, barely.

He needed milk and he needed it fast. They considered rushing out of hiding to find a milking mother back at the church mission from where they’d escaped when Billy’s father, Mandu, was a newborn. However, they feared the government would take Billy from them, just as they would have stolen Mandu had his family not escaped back into the bush to live.

That was the government’s solution to the black problem at the time. To steal the black’s babies and give them to white women to bring them up proper. To teach the girls to be housekeepers and the boys to be cheap labour. To boost the economy and dilute the population at the same time — Hurrah! At least it wasn’t barbaric like slavery, someone must have reasoned. Killing them outright had become too distasteful for a modern, new Australia. Still, they had to do something with the way the blacks were complaining all the time about the theft of their land and the murder of their people. Cobar knew the story well.

He asked Mandu what he wanted to do but Mandu couldn’t think straight — he’d just watched his wife die a slow and agonising death, and his newborn baby lay dying in his arms as well. He needed Cobar to decide. Cobar wondered if he could go back to being a stockman again as he’d become when he and his son, Burnam, were first rounded up like sheep and marched out of the bush. Cobar knew they were lucky that day with Constable Hopkins finding them instead of his old–school father, the sergeant, who preferred to shoot the blacks on sight like vermin. The constable wanted to be a preacher. His father wanted him to be a policeman, and so it was. However, the sergeant was attending a funeral that day so young Hopkins scored another group of heathen souls to save. His father was furious, but the constable felt the Almighty Father held rank, so he walked with a jaunty step as he pompously dropped in on the mission to check on his flock.

Cobar had shown an interest in horses, or at least they saw him looking at one with interest, so they sent him into the paddock to be a stockman. Really, he was just hungry and wanted to eat one. Burnam showed an interest in becoming a butler, well, that’s how they interpreted him holding up a whitefella’s dinner plate to say that he and his father were hungry. Mrs Windsor tried to hide her befuddlement when Mr Windsor turned up with a near naked sixteen–year–old Burnam on her front porch. She’d retired from teaching English to follow her husband into the wilds of Australia to raise cattle. But she was bored. Today however, her cunning husband had a solution — a butler! And a heathen one at that who needed educating.

Burnam didn’t mind. He found everything new and interesting and she really was quite a nice old lady. He didn’t like the silly outfit she insisted he wear, but he changed his tune when the girls from the mission started to take an interest in him. He liked Binda. She had big, round, brown eyes that fluttered shyly whenever she saw him. They married and before long, a baby was on the way. They called him Mandu.

Life wasn’t too bad, until one ordinary day in 1963 when a van arrived at the mission and left with everyone’s children. It changed everything. Burnam and Binda made immediate plans to flee to the bush