66 Million Years BC: the Chicxulub meteor misses Earth. It does not trigger a climate-destabilising dust cloud, and the extremity of subsequent ice ages is therefore blunted. The era’s megafauna migrate, survive and evolve, while new animals—such as primates—emerge.
Last moon I was declared a man. Tonight is my first hunt. To leave The Settlement led by FearNothing, to protect my BrotherMen and SisterMen—I’ve longed for such honour. My heart bump-bump-bumps.
No moon or cloud above. On these nights we can almost believe we own this world. We don’t creep or cower, we walk tall.
Prickling stars sprinkle just enough light for we four hunters to find our way. GreatBeasts roam the night, but rarely. If they come we feel their thundering approach through our bare feet and burrow or cloak ourselves, glad to be small.
KindHeart holds a hand up—we stop. His thinspear lashes and he holds aloft a scorpion wriggle-wriggling against the stars. I hide my sadness for the small things we kill. They remind me of us.
We do not hunt by day. Sunlight belongs to the TwoLegs and, worse, WingedBeasts. Once a shadow falls across you, it’s too late. Cruel claws snatch you into the sky.
That’s how father met his foreversleep. Before we built The Settlement, before walls and roofs.
I look back, taking comfort from the red glow of home far behind. The FireWalls came to SheWhoSeesTomorrow in a dream. Other men had tried to build settlements in the long-ago. They also wanted to live unafraid, outside the caves, to build something better. Like us they made walls of mud, stone, and tree, but all were smashed by GreatBeasts. Only our Firewalls and SpearTowers keep GreatBeasts back.
We enter the rocky ridges now. FearNothing drops to all fours, and we follow his lead. We creep slow-slow, testing each handhold. To grab loose rock and make noise would mean foreversleep for all. FearNothing points to a black mouth in the rock. A cave, like that I was born in.
FearNothing reaches the crest and looks down. He beckons for me. My heart fills with such happiness it almost squeezes the fear out.
Four TwoLegs sleep in a valley between ridges. Lying down, they are not fearsome. Their tiny forearms are funny and their sleep-breaths whistle loud enough that FearNothing whispers.
“Don’t fear, Fastfoot. Today, you see only. Do not do, only learn.”
I am sad but also relieved.
From the ridge, I watch my three BrotherMen creep towards the sleeping beasts. Something flaps and screams above—I stifle a cry. Only a NightBird. I must toughen my heart like my BrotherMen.
When they stop, I know they’ve found eggs. A thinspear rises, then down, and with a soft crick-crack a shell is pierced. For a moment I can’t breathe, terrified a TwoLegs will wake.
My BrotherMen work carefully. I watch and learn. TwoLegs lay few eggs. SheWhoSeesTomorrow says this scarcity is our opportunity. If we kill them all before birth, one day we’ll live free of them.
Then I see it. A sleek shape prowling the opposite ridge, smaller than a TwoLegs but bigger than my BrotherMen. A StripedKiller, orange fur visible even in lowlight. It moves slowly-slowly towards my BrotherMen. They are too busy egg-killing and watching the TwoLegs to see.
Bump-bump bump-bump bump-bump.
As taught, I whistle like a NightBird. One BrotherMan rises and looks my way. I wave a hand towards the creeping StripedKiller. He turns and sees.
The still night explodes.
My BrotherMan hisses words at the others but the StripedKiller sprints for my BrotherMen. Its snarling wakes the TwoLegs. Their tails thrash and the land shakes.
My BrotherMen run towards me—fearful white eyes in starlight. KindHeart loses his footing and the StripedKiller is upon him, but two vast jaws snap across its muscular back. We scramble away from the StripedKiller’s yowling agony and the screech-screech of the TwoLegs.
I reach the cave first, throwing myself inside. Two BrotherMen follow, but the cave is narrow. I wriggle-wriggle back to make room and see QuickThought’s dark shape against the stars— then a vast head blots the sky and we hear QuickThought’s bones crunching and his bubbling screams and then nothing.
The TwoLegs sniffs at us, pokes its great snout towards us, but we wriggle-wriggle backwards. We retreat into our smallness for a long time, my heart bump-bump bump-bumping. Finally the TwoLegs leaves and I see the stars again, but faint. The sky is bluing. Day.
“We stay until night,” FearNothing says. Those are the only words spoken. QuickThought would have said something funny, but without him nothing is funny.
The sun floods the steppes with brutal light. I creep to the cavemouth and see The Settlement’s smoke in the distance, calming me. We are all tired-tired and, somehow, sleep.
I wake from dreams of smashed bones, torn flesh, pouring blood. Briefly, I think I still dream—I am wet. But it’s not blood. It’s water, trickling.
I scramble to the cavemouth—the skies are black-streaked.
The hard rains have come, a whole moon early. SheWhoSeesTomorrow did not see this.
Three TwoLegs are already halfway across the plain, approaching The Settlement. I hear a screech above, see the black shadow of a WingedBeast.
My BrotherMen and SisterMen must already know their doom, as soon as the fires hissed out in the rain. There are not enough fighting men, The Settlement is too new. Itt needs all of us, especially FearNothing. Without us, they won’t be enough to hold back the TwoLegs with greatspears, while the others escape into the caves.
I see it all in the eye inside my mind. TwoLegs smashing down our flimsy walls, WingedBeasts smelling spilled blood and swooping down past the SpearTowers. Destruction, death, screaming, the end of all.
SheWhoSeesTomorrow is a fool and so are we for believing there could ever be freedom for small creatures like us. Here, cowering in caves, this is where we belong. This is where we will always belong.