"Up. Up, I say! It's dawn!" Pace's fervent tone echoed inside the tent. "It's time. It's dawn!"

"Oi, come off it, you!" A man mumbled grumpily from his cot.

"Go back to sleep, would you?" Another voice echoed.

"The night has passed! No time for sleep," said Pace.  As he spoke, the lingering remnants of last night's drink fell from his lips and his sanity seemed to fade with them.

A third man entered the tent through a gap in the canvas.  Pace eyed the small black pistol hanging from his suspender.

"It's time. Today's the day." Pace pressed on, this time directing his word to the new arrival.

"I do say, it's been one week, Pace.  Yesterday was the day.  Or was it the day before that?  Dawn isn't going anywhere.  No need to chase it." A thick Irish accent dripped from his lips.

"Forgive me, Callan. I was unaware I am paying to chase the dawn," Pace sneered.

"Of course not, Pace," Callan said. "It's just, I thought–"

"I do not pay to hear your advice either."

"No. You do not," said Callan stiffly.

Pace crossed the dirt floor, closing the space between them.  He stopped just short of Callan and stared into his sad eyes. 

"Today is the day, Callan. Mark my words," Pace insisted. "I will catch a wild hog and hold its heart in my hand!"

"Going on about the heart again? Tune it down, Pace." The second man stood from his cot and wiggled the knob on the oil lamp.

"Aye, Goodwin. Today's the day. It is." Pace nodded.

"Reckon so?" Goodwin jeered. "I hope it will be or God help us all. If I hear one more miserable word about a wild hog's heart."

"He's left the reservation, he has. Hopped down the rabbit hole," another man laughed, clapping a hand on Pace's shoulder. "It is just a boar, Pace!"

"That is where you are wrong my friend. Just a boar!" Pace repeated. "But it is so much more!"

"I'll tell you what it is–"

"Enough. Both of you," Callan doused another lamp. "Get up Boyd. We rally outside in five."

Daybreak barely danced on the horizon.  Pace was fully dressed in his hunting vest, adorned with his canteen, compass, and rifle.  One by one the others joined him outside the tents.

Their hunting party was one out of a hundred different companies that camped along the river. Charters, freelancers, private parties –there was strength in numbers. This particular troop consisted of five men, including Pace.  Goodwin and Fray were the youngest, hardly having reached twenty.  The two brothers came from Edinburg and were traipsing their way through South Africa on summer holiday.  Boyd was a last minute tag-along. He was a wealthy landowner from Inverness and was looking to purchase land in the colony.  Their leader, Callan, was an ex-militia captain with a chip on his shoulder.

"Listen up. Gather around. Fray, don't dawdle!" Callan called across the grass.

An aging map was sprawled across a wooden table between two tents. Callan stood with both fists clenching the tableside.

"We ought to branch out, head in a new direction today. Boyd, where did you say you found a trail?"

"Here and here," Boyd said, pointing to the map. "It branched off at the fork just there."

"Very well. We shall split our party, then. Pace, you will–"

"I will head out here," Pace said, poking his finger at an isolated spot on the map. "I believe I will find what I am looking for there."

"I thought you were looking for boar?" Goodwin interjected.

"Aye, boar. I will go here, alone. Can't have you lot messing up my chances." Pace insisted. "This is the spot." 

"Meddling with your chances. Are you daft? I haven't seen you catch a single–"

"Very well, Pace. As you contend," sighed Callan. "We will follow the river a kilometer and you will branch off here–"

"Splitting into three? In this terrain?" Fray interrupted. "Are you sodding mad?"

"Oi, Pace is getting greedy, covetous of all the boar.  Wants to himself, he does." Goodwin narrowed his eyes.

"Does he? Hasn't had any luck yet, has he?  No, I think I'll take my chances elsewhere." Boyd laughed. "Stay far enough away to catch my own luck."

"Oh, I'll have my luck today! It is in my gut. The heavens told me where to be today, they did." Pace believed his words.

"Oh, the heavens told you? Had a dream, did you?" Fray laughed over his words.

"Enough. Enough. We will go our own way and rendezvous there, then, yes?" Callan finished.

He nodded to the wooded strip one kilometer west of the riverbank. The lot agreed set out into the dawn.

The sun beat down mercilessly upon the African landscape. At high noon, after fruitless hours of hunting, the party converged at the rendezvous point, again empty-handed.

Callan arrived first with Boyd. The two brothers reached them shortly after. They made camp beside the river, inthe shade of the tree canopy.  A beachplane passed overhead, cutting into the blue sky. Another hour or so passed andstill there was no Pace. Soon after, they branched out again in search of their party's missing member.