Taruka Beastkiller
| Taruka Beastkiller | |
|---|---|
 | |
| Gender | Female |
| Race | Tuskarr |
| Occupation | Fisher |
| Status | Unknown |
| Relative(s) | Deceased father, Makusha (mother), Unka (younger sister) |
|
“Taruka. It is not hook, net, or spear that makes a true fisher. Is the patience to use them well.”
- — The advice Taruka received from her father
Taruka, later called Taruka Beastkiller, is a young tuskarr fisher and the titular protagonist of the short story "One Small Tuskarr".
Biography
Taruka was the smallest tuskarr of her clan to take on the task of fishing. Her cord on the catch master Kattik's counting staff is colored blue, blue, green, red, and yellow. When she was young, her father took her out to sea to teach her to fish, as is traditional among tuskarr. However, the very next day, she was invited to go kite-flying and her father went to sea alone only to never return, leaving Taruka alone with her mother Makusha and her younger sister Unka. The mast from her father's boat washed ashore a week later, becoming one of only two things she had left of him. The other was his cherished spear, which he'd almost never used. Years later, Taruka shortened the mast and stepped it in her own tiny boat; due to her slight build, she could not row one of the bigger boats and relied on sailing most of the time. Without her father's guidance, she taught herself to fish through trial and error.
One afternoon, as the clan was stocking up on food for a journey to Kamagua, Taruka returned to the camp with a catch of seven spotted yellowtail. Her rival Onaaka (who had caught a huge emperor salmon) belittled her for the catch and Kattik gave her only one knot as a reward, claiming that the fish were small and three had early gill rot. Taruka was disappointed by this, since she was saving up on knots so she could buy kite silk for Unka from the hoarder Warrak. She took the yellowtail to her friend, the butcher Larati, who admitted that no other catch master would've given her more knots and did not believe Taruka's claim that she would catch more and bigger fish. Shortly after, Taruka was sought out by the old fisher Harooka, who warned her about a danger in Lyquokk Strait and told her to instead take the safer route around Praak Island on her way to Kamagua. Taruka became suspicious and concluded that the other fishers were simply trying to keep her away from a prime fishing spot.
After a sullen dinner with her sister and mother—who was working on a shirt as a slower way to earn knots for Unka—Taruka went out to the family's sled and looked at her father's scabbarded spear, reminiscing about how he had once told her "If I need the spear, Oacha'noa will tell me so". As she thought this, she suddenly heard a strange voice say "Yes", even though no one else was near. A gust of wind then appeared and deposited several ice crystals in the pattern of a kraken—Oacha'noa's mark—at her feet. Taruka interpreted this as a sign from the goddess and took the spear with her as she set out in her boat the next morning.
She headed north along the coast until Praak Island appeared in the distance. After some hesitation, she steered into Lyquokk Strait but saw no signs of fish anywhere. After an hour of sailing, halfway into the strait, she saw a huge sea creature approach and realized that Harooka's warning had been honest. She got her father's spear free before the beast moved under her boat and lifted it out of the water. The boat capsized, but she jumped up and grabbed onto the creature's scales. When the monster dived headfirst into the water again, she slid down its back towards it neck and managed to plunge the spear into its eye and brain, killing it. The creature disappeared in the deep, depositing Taruka in the water. She found and climbed onto her upturned boat and was at a loss for what to do until the beast's corpse bobbed back up to the surface. Realizing that its body was filled with air and could therefore function as a ship, Taruka tied her boat to the creature's tail, stepped the mast in its blowhole, and attached various other parts to the corpse to create a makeshift rigging that she could roughly steer. The dead beast attracted many scavengers, and Taruka used her net to catch enough fish to keep her fed on the three-day voyage north to Kamagua.
When she arrived to the town, everyone wanted to help tow her strange vessel/catch into the harbor. One of them was Onaaka, who quietly admitted that it was a very good catch. Dozens of tuskarr gathered on the shore to witness the spectacle, including the catch masters of all the clans as well as Makusha and Unka. When Taruka waved to her family, everyone waved back. Taruka Beastkiller, as she was now being called, singled out Kattik in the crowd, stated that she didn't think her latest catch had any gill rot, and jovially asked him how many knots it was worth.[1]