The Strangers

It was my first hunt with my clan and we were going after a large herd of reindeer. My clan and I had not eaten in several moons. Our stomachs hungered for just a bit of meat, anything to stop the pain that we felt. We had our spears held at the ready.

My father turned to me and smiled, “This is your test of manhood, Tesuque. If you successfully take down a reindeer, the Cave Bear Spirits will be pleased.”

I turned to my father and saw the pride in his eyes. I wanted so badly to be a man. I had survived fourteen winters, which almost all of my other siblings had failed to do. I had only one other sibling that had survived that long, my sister. Her name was Sekuia. She had moved in with another Neanderthal clan, but had died along with her child two winters ago. My mother had suffered and had fallen ill and perished. I missed her dearly, as I did my sister.

My father turned to the other hunters, one of which was also fourteen winters old. He was also trying to achieve manhood. He was my good friend, Gretu. “Men, attention please! We are to ONLY assist the boys in the kill. Understand?”

“Yes Tasinowa, we understand.”

The men began their advance on the herd, staying hidden in the trees. Gretu and I were to wait until they cornered two of the animals , than we were to come in for the kill. I had already chosen the animal I wished to kill. He was a huge buck, obviously the leader of the herd.

As soon as I saw my father give the signal to attack, I heard a strange whooshing sound, and a reindeer fell to its knees, dead. My father pulled back, frightened. Soon after the first reindeer fell, three others were brought to their knees, dead, including the large buck I had picked out. All the men began to run, including my father.

But I did not run. I stayed behind to see what had beaten me to my manhood.

“What are you doing, Tesuque?” Gretu asked.

“I want to see what killed that buck,” I said, fear evident in my voice.

“Whatever it was, it’s probably going to come back for it. Leave it, Tesuque. Your father couldn't take it if you died, too.”

He knew that would work; his smug face gave him away. But he was right; I couldn't do that to my father. I got up to go home, but this time, it was Gretu who stopped to watch the dead reindeer. I turned to see strange new animals, studying the carcasses. They looked like us, but were much different. They were slimmer, but not like they were starving. They were lankier, were as my clan and I were stockier. Their legs and arms were longer than ours as well.

They knelt beside the dead deer, tearing off large chunks. They had all but cleaned the bones of two of the deer of meat when they stopped cleaning the carcasses. They stood, arms heaped with meat and walked into the trees.

Gretu and I waited until we were sure they would not come back, than emerged from the trees.

“Get one of the deer, I’ll get the other. We can take them back to the clan, and claim our manhood,” Gretu said, but I wasn't listening.

I knelt by the carcass of the buck, which had not been stripped of meat. Next to it lay a spear. It was an odd looking spear, not like our spears. Ours were made with thick, sturdy branches, which had sharpened rock heads on them. This one was made with a slim, long stick that would bend without breaking. It had a sharp head made of deer antler. It appeared to be much sharper and lighter then our rock spear heads.

“What are you looking at?” Gretu asked, walking over to me. “Those weird looking things could come back any minute for the rest of their meat. We don’t want them to see us taking it.”

“Alright, I’m coming,” I hollered at him. “But I’m bringing this spear with me. Maybe I can make one like it.”

“Okay, whatever, let’s go!”

I picked up the buck by his hind feet, jabbing the spear into its neck for safe keeping. Gretu had already disappeared into the forest. I jogged forward to catch up with him, anxious to show my father what I had found.

*~*~*~*

My father was pleased with our success with the deer. Even though we had not killed the deer, he thought that the Cave Bear Spirits were so pleased with our courage that they left the carcasses for us to bring back for meat. Gretu and I both gained our manhood.

Along with our manhood, we also gained wives. We were to choose our wives from a select group of girls. Gretu choose his wife first. He choose Zimacha, a girl he had always admired. When it was my turn to choose, the girls immediately perked up. They knew whoever I chose would be the most powerful woman in the clan, for I was the chief’s son, which would make me the chief one day.

I looked all of them over, but I knew who I wanted when I left for the hunt. Her name was Yamolda. She and I had been friends since childhood and made a pact to get married when I reached manhood. She was a winter younger than me, but neither of us cared. I took her hand and pulled her from the line of women. The others looked at their feet, crestfallen that they had not been chosen as the future chief’s wife. Yamolda smiled broadly at me, as we followed Gretu and Zimacha to the wedding ceremony.

*~*~*~*

Yamolda and I sighed, falling back to the ground. Hopefully in three seasons, we would have a child of our own. As Yamolda fell asleep in my arms, I looked to the strange creature’s spear propped against the wall.

Are those strange creatures a danger to us? If they could kill deer that swiftly, I wondered how much of a chance I had against them.

Footsteps brought me out of my thoughts. “Tesuque, you up?” Gretu asked.

“Yes. Why?”

“I was just thinking about those weird looking animals. You know the ones that killed the deer?”

“Yes, I was thinking about them too.”

“Yes, well, I was wondering, what if they come looking for us because we took their meat.”

“I don’t know what would happen, Gretu. I really couldn't tell you. But one thing is for sure, I will make sure that my wife is safe.”

“I will do the same. I don’t want her to get hurt because of me.”

“Me too, Gretu. Me too.”

*~*~*~*

It was a few suns after my manhood ceremony and wedding. I had made two of the odd looking spears, which worked well in killing reindeer. My father was proud of me.

We had just returned from a hunt and were cooking the meat when the strange creatures arrived.

Yamolda sat next to me, snuggling close to me as I cooked our share of meat. Gretu and Zimacha were on my other side, cooking their share of food over the small fire. I was the first one to hear the voices. As they got closer, others heard them too. They appeared at the mouth of our cave. There were six of them; menacing looks were painted on their faces.

My father stood. “Why have you come here?” He said, trying to sound brave. “You are not welcome here.”

“We don’t care if we are welcome,” the stranger in the front sneered. He turned to his comrades. “Kill the men, take the girls.” As he finished speaking, the largest one jumped on my father, and began beating him with his fists. The other four advanced, grabbing our largest men and throwing them to the ground, beating them. They fought as hard as they could, but were no match for the strangers’ weird spears and flying darts. The first stranger advanced on Zimacha, who was our most attractive woman by far. He grabbed her face in his hands roughly. “You will be mine,” he snarled.

Gretu stood and punched the stranger hard with his fist. The strange man fell, stunned.

Gretu grabbed Zimacha by the hand and pulled her to her feet. “We have to run!” he cried over the commotion. They raced out of the cave.

“Come on, Tesuque! We have to go!” Yamolda screamed, grabbing my hand.

“I have to help my father,” I said, turning to where they were beating him. “I’m all he has left.”

The man who had tried to take Zimacha stood and looked me in the eye. “We saw you steal our meat. That was our first kill in a moon. We want our meat, so we came here to take what was ours, even if it means killing you pathetic creatures and eating you instead.”

“Come on! Do you want to get killed?” Yamolda said, dragging me out of the cave. I didn't fight her. I was dazed; it was all I could do to put one foot in front of the other.

Yamolda and I traveled a little over a mile when we caught up to Gretu and Zimacha. They were seated on the ground, panting. Yamolda took a seat next to Zimacha and I sat next to Gretu.

“What are we going to do?” Zimacha said to Gretu.

“I don’t know, sweetheart. We’ll figure something out.”

“I’m tired,” Yamolda sighed, lying down on the ground.

“I think we should all rest for the night. We can go back to the cave in the morning and see how much damage was done,” I said, falling back into the light, fluffy snow.

*~*~*~*

We were stunned to see our cave in the morning. All of the men had been killed, their body’s had been stripped of the meat. The younger girls, those fewer than 5 winters, were also dead. All of the women fewer than 20 winters old were gone as well. Yamolda knelt by her mother, who lay beaten to death on the floor of the cave, and began weeping. Zimacha found her brother, also dead.

Gretu and I wandered to the back of the cave. We were shocked at what we found. We found seven more of our clan dead. But what shocked us was the three that we found alive. One of them was Gretu’s sister. She had one of the weird darts in her neck. He knelt beside her and pulled the dart from her neck. Than he began to hug her to him, until she finally went limp in his arms. He wept softly.

Another one of them was my father’s sister. She, too, was near death. She died shortly after we found her.

The last one was my father. He was battered and beaten. He lay on the floor, vomiting and coughing, as had the other two. He was so ill. I knew immediately that he would die soon, as had the others.

I knelt by my father.

“I’m glad you were able to escape unharmed,” my father said, smiling weakly.

“Father, don’t talk. You’re very sick. Talking will make it worse.”

“I don’t care. I know I’m dying,” he scoffed, which sent him into a coughing fit.

“Father, please.”

“Get away from here, before you catch this too. You have to live on to carry on our way of life.”

“I will Father. You can trust me.”

“Good. You know I love you more than anything, don’t you?”

“Yes, Father. I do.”

He smiled at me. Then, his hand went limp. He was dead.

*~*~*~*

We just finished burying the last of the clan when Gretu got sick. He started coughing and vomiting. He fell to the ground in pain. Zimacha gasped and ran to him.

“He will die, like the others,” I said to her. “And if you touch him, you will die too.”

“We won’t die. We were stronger than them. We can make it,” Zimacha cried.

“You and I both know what will happen. You and I both watched the strongest man in our tribe, my father, your chief, die of this sickness. You can’t possibly think that you, a young female, and Gretu, a foolish male, will live if my father could not.”

“I won’t leave him!” she screamed at me. “I won’t!”

“Well, I’m not going to stick around and wait to die,” I said to her. I saw the pain in her eyes as I turned to leave. “Come, Yamolda, let’s go.” I grabbed her hand, and we walked into the frozen forest.

*~*~*~*

A moon after we had left Gretu and Zimacha to die, we returned to bury their bodies. We vowed that this would be the last time we set foot near this place. For a while, we searched for another clan to join, but found none. It felt like we were the only Neanderthals left.

Our son was born six moons later, in a cave about three miles away from where our entire family was murdered. We named him Tasinowa, after my father. However, he was born weak, and died a few suns later. Yamolda was crushed. She sat in my arms and wept until the sun set in the west. I tried to comfort her, but she was in consolable.

She died a moon afterward, so sore was her heart over the lose of our son that she could not bear to go on.

I walk these forests alone now. I still search for ones like me. But, I also search for the strangers, so that they may end my life as well.