Hunted Gatherers

PART I

ONE

Another freezing night rips through the landscape of Britain leaving nearly everything in ruin. A thick cover of sleet was laid the day before while now a thick cover of snow builds its way over top. Most of the ground underneath is ripped and cracks with hidden mounds everywhere. Lately it seems that the morning frost has been imbedded in the constant storms that have rippled the area. These lands are become tougher to farm especially considering how slash-and-burn activities are halted from many months of morning frost that permeates the wielded tuffs and clay that soil the lands further inland. It has become harder to grow and gather food within the winter months more and more as time elapses.

Many of the trees growing nuts like acorns and walnuts are in a state of hibernation. Large patches and stretches of trees lay trapped in walls of snow making it hard to walk through while collecting. Most of the cattle and sheep livestock have gone searching for whatever green pastures they could find considering that most of the British farming relies on grass as a source of protein. Much of the smaller livestock such as chicken and hens have died even though they require a much smaller amount of protein to survive.

It is impossible to keep some of the animals from forcing their way in to the shelter. The shelters aren’t very strong being made of foliage built over branches supported by a central post. The shelters are set within the patches of trees that gap their way along the frozen pasture. Inside the shelter Ray and the others are trying to keep warm. It’s tough now days to keep warm at any time. One could never have enough elk and cow hides coated with wool to keep from getting frost bitten when living in this area. Nobody can become accustomed to the cultural ecology found in this area at the present time.

Many of the walls are blanketed as well keeping away the immensely frigid airs that penetrate their way inside. Almost every animal caught has a use for its fur. If the hide isn’t large enough for a tarp or clothes, the females make simple pouches to carry their belongings. Ray continues to roll over and over lying within the many coats of blanketed hides that fill the room. He is medium in height and has legs that are heavier set. He walks in a lower stance almost like he’s hunched over. His facial features are unlike that of a mongoloid ethnically. His face is tucked under the brain case somewhat. His eyebrows are bigger than most people when deliberating on how’s there’s no brow ridge. His bluish colored eyes have only been inherited within the last ten thousand years. In whatever way he isn’t Homo Hiedelbergensis or Homo Neanderthalensis. With the definite point to the tops of his ear lobes, some may believe so. Most wouldn’t even mentally analyze him as an Anatomical Homo Sapiens. He is a later assemblage of Paleolithic People who made their way to this separate land mass through Continental Drift.

The chance to leave the European area was made possible by previously occurring ice ages. Thinking about daily tasks is completely impossible during the current weather conditions. Their lives are very sedentary because lately they have been fixed within this confined location. There isn’t much milk to be had and extra rations of food are very short. They are so dependent on the subsistence surpluses that finally they realize they have barely enough to survive.

Their sources of fresh berries, acorns, and cereal grains have nearly run out entirely. They have been exclusively sequestered from other areas only to find themselves isolated and set apart. Searching for subsistent fauna is wholly a waste of time. In desperation after waking in the dawning hour Ray shrills, “How much cereal grains are left?”

Rachael reaches over and takes a hold of her bag. She’s of course the youngest in the bunch. Her face is more flatly formed even though she’s only four and half years old. Her eyes brows are more rounded. Her hair is longer covering her back side past her nuchal torus and shoulders. Truthfully we could probably say she has an occipital bun realizing her and her mother look more like the direct ancestral link to Homo Antecessor or Homo Heidelbergensis. She sets the bag on her lap and begins to open it. She looks inside replying, “There’s only a little left.”

She continues holding the bag open as she reaches inside for a small grasp of the hand. Hilda, Rachael’s mother, quickly stretches over taking the bag away from her, “Don’t take too much, we have to conserve everything.”

Hilda is more or less an older version of Rachael. The fact of the matter is that she is a little on the short side. She has a directly positioned posture and strong stance when performing tasks. Her hair is longer than everyone else in the group and even other groups. Her eyebrows are a little bigger than usual with no brow ridge. She seems to wear more animal’s hides than everyone when it comes to keeping warm all of the time. And if she can survive the mortality of birth which is usually uncommon then maybe she can survive her adolescence and live an adult life.

Rachael gets an angry look on her face. She hasn’t had much to eat lately. Growing in pains of hunger she answers, “I’m hungry.”

Hilda realizes they have been living a life of scarcity. Lately they have been rationing their food every day. More and more they end up eating less and less. Everyday all of them have been living on only a few berries in the morning for breakfast along with a few cereal grains for lunch time. At dinner time they have reduced their consumption to only a few nuts. Most of the time they suck on ice to wet their taste for thirst. There are no domesticated cows left to graze upon. Frozen water is all that remains. Hilda takes a hold of the conversation by adding, “Wait a little while so that we all can eat at the same time.”

Rachael complains, “I don’t want to wait.”

She sits up moving towards Hilda sitting down next to her. Jon takes some animal skins and looks for more scrapings. Jon is perhaps the shortest member of the group. His facial features are more prognathic; more refined and reduced as far as shape is concerned. He has smoother features within his nasal area and his face isn’t nearly as rough as everyone else. His eye brows are smaller with a more rounded face. In fact he has an autopomorphy compared to the others. His chin is even smaller making him slightly different than the others. And his hair is fairly shorter than the rest of the tribe. He likes to wear his furs with short sleeves for easier hunting. His genetic relatives drifted at a later time. Most of the animal skins he has were found from animals that were already killed and scavenged by other animals. Around him are a few disarticulated bones which have been cleaned. Some of the bones already have marks from the predators that had previously hunted them. It’s hard to hunt all day without coming across scavenged remains in this bewildered frozen wasteland. As Jon looks through some of the animal hides he thinks to himself, “I don’t know how much longer I can handle myself living on small rations of scrap meat and berries. The only thing to catch is something already killed. I was lucky to even find this carcass with its head sticking out of the snow. If this weather persists any longer there won’t be anything left to feed on.”

Lara starts trembling in the cold air flowing through her furs. She is fairly skinnier than the other females and obviously has a genetic trait of red hair inherited from the dominant michondrial DNA of the same gene found in Anatomical Modern Humans. If this was false then she would have to have inherited it from a Neanderthal. Maybe this is why she tends to stand out from the others slightly in appearance as well. Immediately she rolls over and starts breathing heavy. Jon stops thinking about what he’s doing and says, “What’s wrong with her”?

Hilda taps her on the back a few times replying, “I think she’s having an anxiety attack.”

Rachael grows weary with a weird look on her face asking, “What’s an anxiety attack.”

Ray begins to lay back in a relaxed manner as he thinks up an explanation. Then he calmly interrupts them by adding, “Something we get when we’re cold and nervous.”

“Or sometimes it comes from a bad dream,” he adds momentarily.

Lara slowly catches her breath while sitting up saying, “This isn’t an anxiety attack.”

Jon gets back to his work with the scrapings while responding, “Then what would you call it?"

Lara moves onto a more complex speech with the way she thinks the others view her. She’s always nervous with lots of tensions from being confined to the inside of a small dwelling. Thinking about the long past few months she says, “I‘m kind of scared for some reason.”

Ray remains within his calmness as he answers, “What’s there to be afraid of?"

Lara grasps another breath by imploring, “I’m scared because we can't stay here, we must flee or perish.”

“And why’s that?” Rachael asks.

“If we don't free ourselves from here we won't survive as a people,” Lara declares back.

Jon barely holds his laughing back. He has been accustomed to living in the cold for quite some time now. Every night seems to become colder and colder, and the days have become darker and darker. However lately there has been a break in the dark stormy cloud cover which has ragged violently on for some time now. Trying to picture the kind of place Lara has in mind Jon asks, “Where can we flee to that's better than here?”

Rachael answers back aloud saying, “Yah.”

Lara begins to describe the place she pictures in her mind’s eye, “I see a place where there are mountains with many natural shelters we can live in. There are also greener valleys with more food for the gathering that we need to survive.”

Rachael gets excited about this place that seems like a paradise, “Sounds like paradise.”

Jon answers her back while looking impatiently at his task at hand, “Yah right, there’s no such place.”

He looks back to his scrapings like they were the last pieces of scrap on earth. Both of his knees are crouched in an upward position as he holds his scraps between them. He almost acts as though he’s guarding them with his life. Even during the seasonal parts of the year he eats as fast as he can before anybody else gets the chance to even get a start on theirs.

There are other tents in the area forming a small banded commune. Many of them rely on their own rations for survival. There are times when members of the commune group will share of their prosperity. However in these rough times of cold misfortune many members are ready to begin their search for the lands of the unknown. Footsteps illuminate the outside quietness that fills the air. As they approach closer someone enters inside the tent. Kay enters bringing in the outside breezes with her. She’s taller than most and really has to lean over to make an entrance. She is superficially darker in complexion than the other women of the group. Her skin has been less affected by the ultraviolet rays piercing down in the summer months. When talking about the “Skin she’s in” we could say that her variation in skin color is caused by small genetic differences. These differences could be related to where the country of her origin came from. Her Great Grandparents are most likely related to descendants of Homo sapiens from Africa. Her hair is dark black and long and parts to one side. Her hair in front comes over her bangs and has a curl to them. Quickly she closes the blanketed furs quivering and then pulls her fur like scarf from up and around her face as she says, “We have run out of food completely and have decided to leave,” as she wipes the snow away from her wavy eyes.

“I am tired of starving all of the time,” she proceeds exasperating.

Ray wonders about where they will go, “You can’t go!”

Kay tries to persuade them by adding, "Hether and Mycroft have left already.”

Trying to convince them even further to leave this desecrated life style she asserts, “And they aren’t coming back.”

Hilda gets anxious to move on herself by beginning to gather her bag of belongings along with some extra clothes and garments. While taking a hand about her things she asks, “When did they leave?”

Kay looks around at them in the dark dreary warmth of light, “Just a few moments ago."

Kay begins to retrace her steps back out the opening of the tent declaring to everybody in a bolder voice, “Tana, Christopher, and I are leaving as soon as I get back to the tent. Some of the other families have left earlier as well.”

Jon throws away his scraps like they were worn out clothes saying. “I’m coming along.”

Jon grabs his fur coat and starts to put it on. Then he grabs his belongings along with some of Rachael’s while he says, “I’m not staying around here any longer.”

Jon takes a hold of Rachael’s hand leaving behind Kay’s departure outside. With the other hand he takes a hold of his well-crafted spear he had worked on so diligently for the past few nights. Many of the shavings he split directly in to the fire as they all gathered around so gadfly. Many of the stones he has gathered have been too hard to flake or maybe they have been too cold to split apart. It has been so cold at night even by the fire that he has found it hard to strike even the slightest bulb of percussion to flute any spear tips. Sometimes he just sits there staring in to the fire while holding them thinking. Many of times he falls asleep. Hilda then follows thirdly as she stops for a moment to make sure the others are coming as well, “I hope your coming.” she says desperately.

Lara begins to put on another fur coat. Then she immediately musters together her things ready to follow behind Hilda and the rest of them as she answers, “We are coming, hold your cows.”

Hilda leaves the home like adobe answering, “What cows!”

Ray begins to dress up for the occasion also. He clasps his bags making his way behind Lara. Lara wastes no time at making an exit. In fact she nearly closes the blankets to the outside in his face. Getting slapped in the face by the blanket, Ray shrills, “Where’s the way out?”

TWO

Once on the outside, the tracks from the others are clearly visible in the layer of snow covering the landscape. They lead over a small embankment of snow before the other neighborly tent next to theirs. There are many small embankments surrounding the area. They continue walking ahead as fast as they can catch up to the others. Small blizzards pound and blow past them. All they can do is cover their faces from the freezing gusts. Lara starts to walk faster approaching the crest of a small mound, “I can’t believe we’re doing this.”

Ray steps behind carefully watching every step of the way, he says, “Doing what?”

“Leaving this place for who knows where!” Lara answers back.

Ray steps in front while forging ahead through some frozen branches, “It’ll be alright, anything is better than staying here with barely any food.”

Turning around slightly towards her he adds, “Besides maybe we’ll find that so called paradise you are talking about.”

“Maybe after thousands of miles finding our way in to the unknown”, she says as they both make their way behind the others in to the neighboring tent.

Ray enters as Lara struggles to be last. Kay sits there all packed and ready to leave shrilling, “We won’t be traveling in to the unknown if we can find Hether and Mycroft’s tracks.”

Ray gathers his atlatl he has artistically formed to be an accurate spear thrower. His atlatl is the newest hunting technology he has ever longed taking along. He hopes his atlatl will increase the length of his arms so he can have a more powerful and accurate throw. Many of his spears are so narrow and thin. Most of the wood they find is water saturated and split from freezing temperatures. However he has tried so hard to cut away the rotted wood that ripples away at the bark of every branch he finds. Some of them seem to break away easier than others. Others are extremely brittle and just fall apart in places, although occasionally he finds a branch that is large enough for the taking of his handy craftsmanship. Lastly he gathers a handful of smaller branches he’ll use on the way to extract the inner roots later known as "Indian Gum" for something to chew on.

Tana jumps up and begins to head out saying, “I can’t wait any longer, I’m going to try and catch up with them,” as she starts making her way outside. Tana has reddish hair too. She is a little heavier set with much bigger bones to her self-osteology. Her hide clothes she wears takes more room in her bags. She manages her way while Christopher begins to budge.

Christopher gets up after saying, “So am I. Let’s go and catch up to them before they get to far away.” Christopher is a pudgy looking fellow with a medium size build. His hair is on the curly side, although it is very long in length. His face has cheeks that are smudged over from side to side. He even seems to lack a chin or mental eminence at all. For some reason he is more pugilistic than the others. Always starting fights with his companions. He begins to follow Tana outside quickly while gasping, “Wait up!”

Hilda and Rachael sit there patiently before getting ready to motivate themselves. Hilda takes Rachael by the hand uttering, “Let's go, but you have to stay close to me."

Rachael lets go of her hand, “I will.”

Jon continues to grab a few more flint stones lying next to the camp fire in the center of the tent. There are a few projectile points and bladed flints lying there as well. After grabbing what he possibly could he gets up and exits his way from the shelter. Rachael begins to walk the other way a little bit, “I forgot something.”

Hilda grabs her by the arm and says, “Nothing's left, I have everything."

“Come on lets go,” she says after letting go of her arm. They both start to walk again through the piles of loose snow blowing around them.

Up a head Kay finds a few tracks leading through some trees lying in front of them. Some of the trees lie to the rear of the patch and aren’t clearly visible. Many of them can barely be seen. She stops and looks at the distance in front of her informing the others, “There are tracks over here!”

Tana stops behind her looking in to the trees lying further away. She starts to follow the vanishing tracks babbling, “The tracks lead trailing in to the trees over there.”

Jon and Christopher make their way after her. In some areas the tracks are deeper than in other places making it harder to walk. Christopher gets stuck in a small snow bank next to the footprints. Jon stops to give him a hand pulling him out. Jon pulls on his arm seeming agitated saying, “Watch your step.”

Christopher makes his way out after a slight struggle responding, “It’s hard to walk in this weather.”

Ray continues to walk over the old tracks watching every step closely. He slows down as Christopher catches his balance after a moment. Ray stops for a second saying, “Just follow the tracks so we can catch up to them both.”

Christopher gets a firming hand on his bags before walking again quibbling, “We’ll be alright.”

Hilda walks past them with Rachael saying, “What’s the hold up?”

Lara proceeds strutting her way after the others, “You all take too long.”

They resume heading in the direction of their traces that are provided by the trees. This journey is already beginning to exhaust everyone. They have been very accustomed to the life they once had before living by grazing smaller crops along with gathering whatever they could find. Now they are taking a chance at risking their lives on a journey in to the unknown. As they drift further in that direction Jon notices how they seem to be more in line lately. Jon moves stepping through the surface of a few trees where the traces step upward a couple of feet. Jon passes through shrilling, “I can see both of their tracks now leading side by side.”

They each take a turn crossing between the trees. Two of the trees are split blocking the way to the tracks. Hilda gives Rachael a hand lifting her up so she can reach the next step. She trips slightly dragging her left foot over some roots sparsely covered by snow. She stumbles before reaching her hand over to a nearby leafless branch stiffly hanging next to her side. She pulls herself up saying, “I’m alright.”

She takes a better hold of her bag grabbing it very tightly so it doesn’t slip again. One of the branches rips through her sleeve as she pulls away. Rachael responds, “Darn it.”

Hilda reaches over freeing the branch the rest of the way, “Are you alright, your sleeve’s ripped?”

Lara staggers back slightly giving Rachael a slight of hand as she remains quiet. She lays her hand on her shoulder balking, “Come on, you have to be careful.”

Kay takes a couple of steps offering to help with Rachael’s bag. Kay interrupts trying to help, “Let me carry that for you," she says.

Tana gets int o the conversation by adding, “You have two bags to carry already.”

Kay reaches for the bag anyway. After all they aren’t originally an egalitarian group of people anyways. Most of them are accustomed to taking more than they need. Growing more than they need to grow and can prepare to eat. They really never move from place to place very often. Kay sways the baggage to her other shoulder saying, “It’ll be alright.”

Immediately Christopher steals the sheepskin bag from the both of them. Christopher says as he snatches it quickly from them, “Let me carry it, before any of you get loaded down.”

Hilda steps her way between the two trees once everyone clears the way. She says as she tramples a foot or two, “Let’s get a move on.”

Ray is ahead of the group looking at the tracks in the snow. He starts to head out once again. Guiding the way in the right direction Ray jibbers, “This way.”

They walk for a while as the tracks meander around the bend of a snow bank. The area they enter has branches sticking out of the snow all over the place. Ray tries to continue by being very careful where he steps. Lara follows behind him tightly as she clasps a bad step. Suddenly she lands face first in to the snow. She screams loudly, “Oops.”

When she looks up from having her face in the snow there’s a sheep head looking straight at her eye to eye. She quickly pushes away while taking a deep breath yelling, “Oh my God.”

Ray grabs her by the arm and pulls her away nearly pulling her arm out of place.

Lara gets up as fast as she pushes herself up from the loose snow. She manages to get back onto her knees and stands up very fast like. She readies herself by grasping a tighter clutch onto her belongings.

Jon steps over taking a closer look, “What’s that?”

Ray helps Lara back on her feet saying, “It’s a sheep’s head!”

Kay kneels down besides it as she removes some snow from over the sheep’s eyelids. She pulls her hand back responding, “What happened to it, look at its eyes?”

Rachael interrupts the conversation by adding, “The sheep must have died.”

Kay removes some snow from behind the sheep’s head until finally the sheep’s back is completely exposed. She gets up in an orderly fashion instructing, “It must have run in to a snow bank.”

Ray lets go of Lara’s shoulder and shrugs his back pack in a firm position, “Well let’s make sure we never run in to any.”

Tana steps behind Lara and Ray like she’s in a hurry to get a move on. She walks ahead of them a few feet concluding, “Let’s hope they didn’t run in to any!”

Hilda motivates herself and Rachael in to following the frozen tracks again. She moves forward saying, “If they did, we’ll catch up really fast and see their heads poking out.”

Jon and Christopher begin to follow Tana. Jon moves ahead slightly faster than the rest of them. He holds his spear upwards making sure he doesn’t poke anybody in the rear or in the back. I guess that’s something he has learned over and over from experience. He’s sure Tana wouldn’t be too happy to be the first hunt of the day even if it was by accident. Jon jargons as he takes the lead over the others “Let me lead the way!”

Finally they all started to disembark and make their way once again in a timely fashion. They all continued trailing along with the tracks as many different atmospheres of cloud coverage illuminated the skies. The sky was thick with dark patches formed by snow plundering cells that moved overhead. They exited the patches of trees as they entered a frozen stream that glistened with clear streaks curving their way along a patchy grove a grass.

There were no more trees following the river that stretched the other way along a small hillside. Jon and Christopher were the first to reach the edge of the stream as some of the tracks disappeared. Jon stops before drifting further in to the frozen bed. Jon kneels down looking for any signs declaring, “The tracks stop here.”

Christopher catches a few feet onto the river bed carefully bushing, “There tracks have to start up again elsewhere.”

Ray approaches from behind stepping over to one side. He gazes over towards the other side of the river blurting, “Let’s try over there.”

Tana looks over their shoulder realizing how risky it is to walk over the river saying, “We need to be careful.”

Jon takes the initiative and risks himself, “Let me go first.”

Christopher steps behind him slowly watching every step “Go slowly.”

Jon extends the way by striding slowly ahead. Everyone follows in a single file fashion. There are some frozen branches reaching out from one of the banks as it stretches its way over to one side. Hilda holds onto Rachael’s shoulder as she initiates her first step onto the frozen river bed. Rachael slips again with her left foot. She quickly reaches over and pulls herself back up again saying, “It’s slippery.”

Hilda slowly walks behind her, “Don’t misplace your steps!”

They all presume their direction to the other side. Jon reaches the other side while he begins to search for any more tracks. He looks around saying swiftly, “I don’t see anything.”

Christopher walks along the snowy bank in the other direction, “I’ll look over here.”

Jon gleams over diametrically away from the bank. He looks all of the way around the edge of the snowy banks. Once they all reach the other side of the river’s edge they all span out looking. None of the tracks can be found. Ray follows the edge of the bank up river. He says as he drifts away from the others, “Let’s head in this direction.”

THREE

Everybody follows as the river winds around a narrow curve. After taking a few more steps ahead Ray notices some more tracks leading along another patch of trees. Ray says to the others, “There’s some more tracks.”

Christopher hurries ahead of the others in a faster manner. Passing the others up he says, “Let’s see where they lead!”

Jon walks behind Christopher in a faster pace wondering how long the trail goes on in to the trees. Jon shrills, “Let’s see how far the tracks go!”

Hilda and Rachael begin to slow down. Rachael gets a cramp in her leg as she slows down a little. Rachael pulls on Hilda’s arm saying, “My leg hurts.”

Hilda drags her feet across the side of the river.

“I can’t walk anymore,” Rachael complains.

Tana slows down giving her a hand along the way imploring, “Don’t worry I’m tired too!”

Ray and Lara take a look back at the others. Ray blurts out while turning back the other way, “Don’t let this be our final stand.”

Continuing to get in to his pace of walking Ray blots, “We still have a long ways to go yet.”

Kay brings her head out of a dreary leaning position she’s been scampering with for some time now. She takes another turn of the shoulders quelling, “We’ve been walking for a long time now!”

Hilda continues walking in front of Kay very slowly. Hilda turns back to her replying, “Yes, we have.”

Kay enters in to a real low about the whole entire trip. She starts to regret the whole entire journey. She says to Hilda, “Are you sure we should be doing this!”

“I’m getting pretty tired,” she continues saying.

Hilda answers back saying, “I’m getting pretty tired too, but if we stop we’ll never catch up to the others.”

Kay shrugs her shoulders as her bags begin to slip away from the heavy weight they contain. Kay replies to Hilda saying, “My shoulders are what really hurt.”

Hilda comes back with a comment replying, “My shoulders hurt too.”

She stops for a moment as she lets one of the bags fall down the snowed over ground. Seeming slightly agitated Hilda says, “I need to switch shoulders, this bag is too heavy on this side.”

She sets the other bag down as well. Quickly she reverses them and stands back to her feet swaying them over towards her neck. Rachael stands there immensely with patience while they both continue on again.

Tana looks back to them as frost blows from her frozen breath, “What’s taking so long?”

Rachael answers back to Tana saying, “Her shoulders hurt from carrying everything.”

Tana exerts some major influence as she tips her sack of belongings in to a more comfortable position. Tana tells them, “I know this is tiring and we haven’t even gone too far. We haven’t traveled a full days worth yet.”

Tana turns backs towards the direction Ray and Lara are walking saying, “I wonder if we’ll ever catch up to them. I should have told them to wait.”

Kay enters back in to the conversation by adding, “It’s too late now, even though I’d rather be back burning a fire just to keep myself feeling warm.”

Hilda starts to walk a little ways over to the side of them twiddling, “Don’t worry! We’ve tried leaving many times before but it's just too cold”

Tana responds to the subject of moving by blurting, “We left many times, but we never went this far away except when we went to the cliffs to go fishing.”

“Well this time we are going far away. And hopefully further then the fishing spot. And I don’t think we’ll be coming back,” Hilda retorts saying.

Tana reaches for a beaded necklace made from smooth river stones she had found, “Who would want to?” She says with a frown.

Ray and Lara extend their stride as a small herd of elk scurry there past the flat breezy plain. Jon speeds past Christopher as fast as he can muster trying to cut them off from the side. Quickly they begin to slow down noticing his approach. Many of them stand there frozen in awe and confusion while Jon persistently catches ground on them. It almost looks like they are blinded by the thick cloud of frozen mist that lingers forming a thick fog of clouds. Stiffness grabs their bones standing there turning their heads before deciding to dart off in to the clearly stretched distance.

The only thing in Jon’s mind is the hunger pains that sweep through his stomach and chest. Most of them are so piercing that he can only race ahead of the others in hope that he might luck out and make a kill. He realizes how he doesn’t want to die staring down the agony of his last meal. The rations of an erratic food supply have not only gone so far short, they have given him a yearning to push himself forward with much force and power of a raging bull. He aims his spear chucker with the balance required to make a steady throw. Then he runs with his arm raised and swung back in position as he lets out with a thunder like roar.

Many of the elk of the archaic period dart off in different directions like wild cattle causing him a slight moment of confusion. Although he had his sights set on the closest elk before it scuttled behind the others. The elk picks up a continuance of speed as Jon rips a forward lunging throw in that direction. The iced wind ripples around the narrowest part of the spear. The elk shifts direction at the last moment. His weapons of death never faced a fatal miss as before. Christopher waves him down trying to catch up. Jon’s spear strikes in to the soft loose snow to the hindmost part of the prehistoric elk herd.

Christopher hurries to catch up saying, “You threw short.”

Jon slows down slightly before reaching repossession of his long spear chuck. Jon wisps tiredly, “I know, they were too far away.”

Slowing down completely before he pulls his spear out of the ground he quills, “If they wouldn’t have spotted me right away I might have had the chance.”

Christopher slackens his pace at the last second. He plods behind Jon as he adds, “Better chance next time!”

Jon turns around to see where the others are at. He says, “Maybe.” Disappointed with the turn out Jon says, “That elk would have fed us for a week.”

Ray finally nears them saying, “That was pretty close.” Ray and Lara take the lead of the group heading back in the other direction as they veer off to the other side. Ray quivers blotting, “We must catch up to the others!”

Lara takes a look to the dimming sky realizing how dark it will become in a few hours if they don’t pick up the tempo. She looks back shrilling, “It will be dark in a few hours, and we must pick up the pace.”

Ray persists with the move on. Because he knows that once they stop to rest it will only be harder to muster the energy to persevere further. Ray takes a glance back to see everybody following along. The pace is steady as the coldness creeps in to his bones. He realizes he needs to motivate everyone by giving them something positive to hear. Nevertheless he effectuates to himself how the coastline isn’t too afar off. With his only desire of perpetuating everyone to go the extra distance Ray deliberates, “The shoreline isn’t too much further.”

Christopher remembers being to the shore fishing some time ago. He hasn’t forgotten the cliffs that surround their world either. He has scouted this area many times over and over during the spring and summer time. However he hasn’t ventured off too far during the coldest winters. Bringing the subject back to mind Christopher mentions, “What about the cliffs?”

Ray figures most of the coast will have plenty of areas frozen over where they can make their way down to the shoreline. Ray answers back saying, “There should be plenty of snow to help us find a way down.”

Hilda is more concerned about finding the others and so is Tana. Hilda makes a response by shrilling, “What about the others?”

Tana interrupts by adding, “Where could they have gone, are there any more tracks?”

Jon notices some overturned stones leading up a slight meadow where some of the snow has melted away. Jon begins to inform the others by implying, “Here’s some overturned stones.”

They all resume their distance as Christopher thinks about one of the fishing spots they visited on the beach. Christopher implores the others by saying, “I bet they headed for this beach over here that we fished at a few summers ago.”

Kay keeps her quietness to herself. She drags herself along with the others faintly saying, “Maybe, that was the last time we had a summer.”

Lara thinks Christopher is right. It’s the best place to try and catch something. There’s more than fish at the shore, there’s lots of shellfish and birds. Most of the prey found here is less vicious than back at home. In some areas there are even seals which can make for an easy catch. Lara replies to Christopher saying, “I think you’re right, it’s the safest place to catch some fish or gather some shellfish.”

They continue to walk for many more miles as they begin to make their way to the shorelines of the wielded cliffs. Rachael is walking by herself now and doing pretty good altogether. She has a longing for glaring around to the sides of them and as well glancing back to Kay who is pacing behind. Rachael looks over to her left noticing some type of furry looking garment sticking out from some snow layered with grass. Rachael gets a tingle of excitement up and down her spine as she asks, “What’s that?”

She pulls on Hilda’s shirt as quickly as she can say, “I see something.”

Everybody stops immediately to see what she’s talking about. Hilda takes a tighter grip of her hand as she glimpses over to something lying there quiet and still. Tana stops turning her head to look back responding, “It looks like someone’s clothes.”

Tana gets closer to the unknown object looking down to see what’s there. She notices some hair covered in snow partially. Instantly she can tell it’s a person by how the body lays there lumped over in the patch of snowy grass. Tana informs the others by declaring, “I think it’s a person.”

Rachael leans in to her mother with both arms around her saying, “Are they alright?”

Christopher moves in a little closer for a better bird’s eye of a view. He kneels down next to her glimpsing over the individual’s shoulders. Slowly he begins to pull her hair away and over to one side. Quickly he recognizes what sex the person happens to be that he’s looking at. He pulls her hair back as he quills, “It’s a woman!”

Ray begins to tower over her asking, “Does she have a pulse?”

Christopher reaches for her left arm which is covered in less snow. He holds her palms out while pinching the vessels of her wrists. He proceeds with the search of a pulse with no prevail.

Ray figures that her arms are probably frozen considering the fact that it seems like she’s barely breathing. Quickly he tells Christopher, “Check her throat for a beat.”

Christopher checks her throat with the index and second finger. Immediately he notices there’s a slight pulse. Informing the others of how she’s still alive Christopher says, “There’s a slight thump.”

Hilda drops her bags and opens one of them looking for one of her fur blankets she had recently made before the trip. She pulls it out as quickly as she can express, “Let’s wrap her up around in this blanket I made before we left home.”

Christopher takes one end of the blanket stretching it out right next to her. Then he opens another end exposing the width of the fur blanket as he and Hilda laid it besides her. Tana drops her bags in order to give her a hand lifting her inside. Tana lifts her hips saying, “She’s not very heavy.”

Christopher places himself directly over her shoulders so he can lift the upper part of her body onto the blanket. Waiting there patiently he says, “Jon why don’t you try and lift her feet.”

Jon walks a few steps down towards her legs and kneels downward slightly. Jon gets as ready as he can say, “I’m ready.”

Christopher takes a strong hold of her shoulders while Jon takes an easier grip of her ankles. Christopher in an anxious tone says, “We have to lift her together.”

Tana takes a hold of her hips declaring, “Be very careful.”

Together they quickly lift the woman on to the blanket as her back sticks to a chunky sliver of ice from beneath her. Tana sets her thighs down at the same time as the others.

Then she pulls a small chunk of hardened snow away from her backside. Christopher rolls her head over to an upwards position exposing the other side of her neck. He notices a small tattoo written in black dye. Christopher tells everyone what he sees, “There is a small tattoo written on her neck!”

Jon answers back immediately, “Are you sure?”

Ray gets a curious intention to know what is written on her neck. Becoming more anxious he asks Christopher, “What does it say?”

Christopher tries to read it although it’s written in a curvy kind of hand writing. Being unsure what it is he replies, “It looks like a name.”

Ray answers back as quickly as he can say, “Well, what’s her name then.”

Christopher takes another look at it replying, “I think it says Shantelle.”

Their first impression of her was that she is stranded and came from nowhere. She has a thin slender build with small hands. She has long dark colored hair which seems to cover her face rather a lot. All her finger nails are longer than the average bear. The color of her eyes is unknown because her eyes seem to be nearly frozen shut. Her nose is smaller, although her cheeks have a bulge to them.

Kay hears Christopher thinking that’s a very pretty name. She’s also rarely met anyone else of that name. Kay pronounces to the others, “That’s a very pretty name, what are we going to do with her?”

Christopher realizes that she isn’t too heavy. Jon figures the same thing. They both decide to carry her. Jon tells them, “We could carry her.”

Christopher finishes wrapping her head and neck area up some more from the cold air adding, “We aren’t too far now, I could carry her.”

Jon begins to get up moving over towards his bags. He figures the least he could do is absorb some of the weight for him. Jon reaches for his bags saying, “I’ll carry your bags for you until you get tired, and then we’ll switch.”

Christopher picks her arms up and maneuvers her over his shoulders. Ray and Lara begin to lead the way once again along the path to the shoreline beneath the cliffs. Ray moves along further saying, “I’ll lead the way.”

Lara follows behind Ray as Christopher takes his first couple of steps staggering somewhat. Tana puts a hand onto his left shoulder elusively asking, “Are you alright?”

Christopher gets a stronger stance with his right foot as he takes a step ahead momentarily. He answers back to Tana shrilling, “I have her.”

Rachael all of a sudden seems to bring out her little spoiled brat attitude with a much ramped rampage. Being intensely bratty and offensive Rachael inquiries “You barely have her; she seems to be too heavy for you.”

Immediately without any hesitation Hilda knocks her fur bag in to her slightly scolding her replying, “Of course she’s heavy, do you want to carry her?”

Rachael answers back knowing how she’s right responding, “No not really, I’m too small.”

Hilda takes the chance now to explain to Rachael how leaving home is an opportunity to run in to others. Hilda theoretically says, “This is what happens when you leave home.”

Rachael answers back to her mother gibbering, “What?”

Hilda continues to explain to her saying, “You encounter others.”

Rachael then goes on to add, “We haven’t even gone too far.”

Hilda explains to her that they will be going far and that they won’t be returning. Going further with the conversation Hilda gluts, “We haven’t gone too far yet, but in a day or so we will have gone some distance.”

Handing Rachael one of the bags to carry Hilda blurts, “This is a time when we need to become more integrally a part of the group.”

“We need to help one another and trust one another,” she says as Rachael takes the bag off of her hands.

They maintain their course to the cliffs while Christopher begins to get tired. Christopher sets Shantelle down as she begins to waken. She rolls and murmurs a few times all wrapped up in the fur blanket. Christopher informs the others, “She’s waking up!”

Jon stops as quickly as he can try to uncover the blanket from around her face. Tana approaches a little closer, “See if she’s alright!”

Jon pulls the blanket away as she sort of rolls her eyes back slightly in to her forehead.

Then he covers her face back up again shrilling, “She looks like she’s still quite out of it.”

He begins to pick her up again saying, “I’ll carry her this time.”

After he positions her over his shoulders Christopher reaches for the bags, “I’ll carry our things.”

This is their chance to actually become an egalitarian group of individuals who can show dedication when displaying social equality for others. They didn’t leave home to become dissidents who were rebel enough to venture away from home and never run in to others. They all realized they eventually would encounter other people on their way.

Christopher finally feels relieved from carrying their new found stranger Shantelle. He was getting much depleted of energy after a while. Thanking Jon for the switch of shoulders Christopher blurts, “Thanks Jon! I was totally sapped massively.”

Jon staggers a few steps from behind Christopher relaying as he takes a tougher stance, “I see what you mean.”

They continued walking as a group before Shantelle could spawn herself to the gender of their affection. She seemed to possess a strangeness and mysterious personality to them. They walked on wondering if she was simply a drifter. The thought of whether she was lost pondered through their head? And why was she lying out there all alone? Either way they proceeded their way without really giving a lot of thought about it. All Christopher and Jon could think of is making their way to the beach for plenty of fishing. Hopefully there would be plenty of others to mingle with. After a while they reached the White Cliffs of Dover. Many of the cliffs were merely mulled over with layers of snow making their easy descent below.

FOUR

Once they had made their way to the meandering drop offs of the white cliffs a frozen pathway curved its way down along a rigid rock face. Most of the surface was formed by hardened ice that was very wet and slippery. As they extended their way further downwards to the shoreline something startles Christopher as he turns and nearly slips trying to catch his foot. Jon stops directly behind him trying to maintain his stance. Jon says while standing as still as he can, “Be careful!”

Christopher pulls his foot back informing the others, “Its slippery right here so be careful."

Tana walks slowly behind him nearly holding on to whatever she can afraid of slipping and falling.

Hilda takes a gleaming look down the smooth streaks of snow that have packed their way over time. She notices the others at a distance down along the frozen shoreline. She musters telling everyone, “I can see a group of people.”

A stream of smoke darkened the camp. Ray gets a hungry craving as he looks to the camp, “I smell fish cooking.”

Kay deliberates on the matter while trying to speed up the pace, “So do I.”

They continue their way down the glib narrow path as something jumps out and startles them.

“Boo!” Hether yelps as she jumps out from a frozen slab of ice perking its way down the white cliffs.

Christopher jumps to one side frightened as he staggers in steps faster to the bottom crescent leading to the snowy banks below. Jon falls over dropping Shantelle which affrights and awakens her. She immediately rolls over and fights her way out of the fur blanket that was so carefully wrapped around her. Then she throws the blanket off of herself as she stands up and runs away down the slope in the direction of the shoreline. Jon manages to get up on his feet and stands up. Christopher expresses himself by angrily saying, “You scared the light of day out of us.”

Hether watches Shantelle run away as Jon starts to chase her, but directly perceives the situation and stops. Hether kind of quills to the others, “Whose that?”

Christopher answers back describing the situation, “A stranger we picked up.”

Hether begins to laughs out loud. She realizes how scared and repulsive she is running away from them. Hether retorts saying, “She looks scared, let me go talk to her.”

Hether starts to chase after her in order to try and calm her down. After a few hundred feet Shantelle trips and falls in the snow again. Hether continues chasing after Shantelle as she catches up to her.

Approaching her with a fast sprint Hether blurts in lower tone, “Don’t be afraid.” Quickly Hether slows down and kneels a few feet from Shantelle holding her right hand out for her in a peaceful manner. Scooting towards her slowly Hether twiddles, “We’re only trying to help you.”

Kneeling further, Hether reaches her hand closer to Shantelle’s hand which is firmly frozen in the snow holding her up. Shantelle slowly pushes her hand away leaning back to her other hand as she manages to sit up slightly. Hether stands there motionless trying to win her trust over before she tries to make another run for it. Hether eases her hand back a little and leans back all crouched downwards saying, “What’s your name?”

Shantelle sits there quietly just looking at Hether like she’s a stranger from another world. She leans up placing her hands in to her lap to keep them warm. Hether begins to get a little restless sitting there confiding with her trust. Anxious to move this situation further Hether twitters, “Come on, it’s not like I’m pulling your tail.”

Hether turns her rear around pointing it towards her in a sexy fashion declaring; “Besides we really don’t have tails anymore to pull on.”

“So what do you say,” as she gives another reach of her slighted hand to take a hold of.

Shantelle gives Hether a more serious and trusted look. She leans up reaching for her hand as she contorts, “I’m Shantelle.”

Hether stands up pulling Shantelle to her feet. Shantelle asks her, “What’s your name?”

Hether shakes her hand before letting go with the warmness of her affection, “I’m Hether.”

Hether puts her hand upon her shoulder in an attempt to win over her complete confidence. Hether then says, “Come let me introduce you to the others.”

Shantelle looks around in to the near distance noticing a group of people camped out around a bunch of bags stacked up for shelter. Christopher and Jon begin to approach Shantelle and Hether as they walk towards camp together. Hether introduces Shantelle to Jon and Christopher saying. “I suppose you already know Jon the one who carried you here, and his friend is Christopher.”

Shantelle gets a very dazed and confused look on her face. After all she has never met these people before and has no idea who they really are. Shantelle goes on to say, “No we have never met.”

Christopher walks besides them saying, “It’s kind of hard to meet us when you’re passed out.”

Jon gets in to the conversation by getting in to how lucky she really is to have them save her in the first place. Jon quills to Shantelle saying, “Besides we could have left you there freezing.”

Scooting his bag further onto his shoulder Jon adds, “Not to mention how heavy you are.”

Ray figures they should give her a better warm welcoming than that. He catches up to them shrilling, “Now come on, that’s no way to treat a lady.”

Hether sort of laughs realizing how right he is about treating her as an outcast. Hether quickly introduces her to the rest of the group as they get within a few yards of camp. She says, “Anyhow that’s Ray and Lara.”

Hether looks back at the rest of them as they drag themselves further, “That’s Tana, Kay, Hilda, and the little one is Rachael.”

Shantelle takes a look around at all of them saying, “Hello.”

They step in to camp as Hether takes Ray and Lara’s bags from them throwing them next to hers. Shantelle stops and looks around at the other group of people sitting around a hole in the ice. Hether introduces her further to the others by fore wording their names saying, “That’s Christian and this is his campsite, and that's his friend Mycroft.”

Shantelle puts her hand up a little making a friendly wave of an introduction. Everybody sits down trying to make themselves as warm as possible within these harsh and extreme conditions. Mycroft throws another splintering piece of wood in to the fire in order to cook the fish they caught. He looks at Shantelle wondering where she came from and how she fits in to the group. With a frosted breath Mycroft asks her, “So where are you from?”

Shantelle gets a more serious look on her face. She closes her eyes for a few moments thinking of her last moments she can remember. Opening her eyes again and staring everybody down she says, “I am from the north.”

Christian gets curious with the idea of whether she was alone when she came down from the north. It looks like she may have been running from something or someone. With a desired impulse to make conversation Christian asks, “Were you alone?”

This question seems to pull a slight tear from her eyes even though it changed in to ice with the stillness of her upper cheek. Trying to create a story Shantelle replies, “No, I was with my friend Rosalind, we split up when the northerners took our village ravaging for whatever food they could muster. Many of our people were killed, although I and Rosalind managed to barely get away.”

Shantelle sits down before she goes on further with her story. She sits next to the bags lying there in the snow. She begins her conversation again by disclosing, “We somehow were separated in the trees when a blizzard of snow swooped over us in a patch of trees.”

Rachael decides to say something to her as she drops her fur bags and sits down. In an earnest voice Rachael says, “I thought you were a rampant.”

Shantelle starts to laugh at how smart this little girl must be using such slang. Shantelle answers back saying, “You mean a runaway.”

Shantelle reaches in her pocket slowly, “No, I’m not a runaway I guess you could say.”

As she pulls out a feather quill mounted to a leather strap, “As long as I have this feather I can find the way to peace and reunite with my friend.”

Tana reaches to her bag feeling for her luckiest charm she can think of right now, “And how can a feather do that?”

Shantelle holds the plume of the feather quill out in front of her exposing its bright colors, “This feather is a symbol of my friendship with my friend and as long as I possess it will show me the way.”

She relaxes her hand almost like she’s in a dreamy state allowing the feather to point the way. She points the feather saying, “The feather points northwest to a great crossing where many animals have led the way for many generations. And people have made their way to another world other from our own.”

Ray catches a sign of relief realizing maybe she’s some sort of spiritual journey scout. He accepts her visions saying, “That sounds like where we’re going!”

Lara wraps a blanket around herself to keep from getting too cold. As she leans back against her belongings she recalls, “I had a dream of a place that was very far away and many people had died trying to get there.”

Shantelle decides that this is a good time to give them all thanks for finding and saving her. She figures she probably would have died already if it wasn’t for them. Thanking them all for a blessed welcome Shantelle responds to them all by saying, “If it wasn’t for all of you I probably would have died already.”

Christian takes a stone knife and cuts away a sliver of fish cooking in the fire. He takes a bite talking with his mouth full, “Are you hungry?”

Shantelle answers back as quickly as she can to get something to eat, “I’m starving. I haven’t eaten in days. My stomach feels so empty inside. I could eat anything right now.”

Christian takes another swift cut with the serrated notches of his stone bladed knife. But this time he cuts a bigger piece of meat out from a cod sizzling in the fire. Cod is an ocean fish that has whitish meat inside. As soon as he hands it to her she eats it immediately. Christian takes another slice and hands it to her as well. Hether realizes just how hungry she must be after being stranded and alone for who knows how long, “Slow down girl, you don’t have to eat that fast.”

Shantelle has had lots of varieties of fish to eat, although the taste was rather excellent. She finishes up the first piece asking, “What kind of fish is this?”

Mycroft continues holding string made from fabric which is tied to a stone fishing hook. He wobbles his fishing line around and says, “That is cod.”

Shantelle takes another bite of the other piece as fast as she possibly can considering how delicious it tastes. She reaches for another piece from Christian exuberating, “What is cod?”