by Lily Thomas
The women slowly filtered out of the cave, leaving Ezi and Drakk alone for the night. Aiyre expected they’d be back to camp at some point, whether it was tonight or a couple of nights from now. She’d made sure to leave the dried meat behind, in case the couple forgot time and needed something to eat. No one would blame them. This was their time to come together before the gods.
Aiyre felt the drug still racing through her system by the time they reached the village campfire. The orange flames danced in front of her, forming images of wild animals.
“Have you thought more about my proposition?” Girk walked up behind her, his warm hands landing on her shoulders, massaging the tension out of them.
“I have.”
His head dipped to the juncture of her shoulder and neck, he took a deep breath and placed a soft kiss on her exposed skin. “What do you say, Aiyre? Will you join with me?”
“I’m not ready.” It was semi-truthful. She wanted to say yes and start a family, but her heart wasn’t into it as much as her mind was, because she still wasn’t sure they would be the right fit for each other.
Girk let out a heavy sigh as he removed his hands from her shoulders. “Is there any way for me to convince you otherwise?”
Aiyre turned and faced him. “I don’t think so.” The drug pulsing through her system demanded that she initiate something with him, but she couldn’t. She couldn’t give him any false hope for a future joining.
His blonde hair was tousled, and there were several designs painted over his bare chest, and she marveled at the fact that he wasn’t shivering in the night air.
“Don’t think this means I will give up.” A glint of determination entered his dark eyes.
She smiled up at him. “I would be insulted if you didn’t at least try a little longer to win me over.” She wasn’t quite sure why she’d just said that. She was giving him hope, and it was cruel of her, but she did enjoy their friendship.
He smiled back down at her before he left to speak with others in the clan. Aiyre watched his back as he strode through the village. He was everything she should want. He had broad shoulders, plenty of strength to carry the weight of the clan, and he got along with everyone. Girk would make the perfect fit for the leader of their clan.
Naru came to stand beside her. “Don’t worry about it much.” She watched Girk as well as he joked with their clanmates. “You will find the right man in time. It took Bhirk several moons to finally convince me to join with him.” She confided.
“Truly?” Aiyre looked over at her. She’d never heard this before, and it surprised her. Bhirk and Naru had always seemed like they would’ve jumped at the chance to be with each other.
Naru nodded. “I wasn’t sure about being joined with a clan leader. This role comes with so many responsibilities, and they scared me at first.” She turned her soft eyes over to Aiyre, before wrapping an arm around her and drawing her in close to her side.
“It’s not the position that scares me.” Aiyre continued to watch Girk interact with the people around him with ease. “I fear choosing the wrong man.”
“Forget about it for tonight and enjoy the merrymaking. You needn’t give him an answer anytime soon.”
Aiyre smiled. “You’re right.” She wasn’t being asked to choose a man right now. There was plenty of time for her to continue to toy around with the idea of joining with Girk.
Naru released her, and Aiyre quickly joined in on the celebration of the new union.
Once she let herself enjoy the celebration, there was no stopping her. It seemed like they would go on all night long celebrating the joining of two of their clanmates, but eventually, they all found their huts for the night and settled down.
Chapter 2
Screams penetrated her dreams, and Aiyre cracked open her sleepy eyes. The screams still sounding around her full of terror and pain. Aiyre leaped up from where she’d been sleeping and grabbed her hunting spear that rested near her bed of furs.
“What is it?” Naru rose from her sleeping furs blinking away the sleep on her eyes, with Bhirk quickly following suit.
“I don’t know.” Aiyre grabbed her fur gloves and bolted outside only to freeze in her tracks. The overwhelming scent of sabertooth cats assaulted her nose, and they weren’t wild cats. They were from the shifter clan.
Bhirk ran past her, his spear gripped tightly in a hand and joined in the fighting that was going on all around them. Most, if not all, of the shifting sabertooths, had to be attacking their village. Dread filled her stomach. This might very well be their last day alive!
Fear raised its ugly head causing her to want to shrink back into the hut she’d just left.
Aiyre shoved her fear down. She had a task at hand, and there was no place for jitters when she needed to have a firm hold on her emotions. Hoisting her spear, she joined Bhirk in attacking a sabertooth shifter.
They had him backed up against a couple of huts. Bhirk jabbed his spear point from the left, and Aiyre thrust hers from the right. The cat was only able to dodge the first spear, which presented an opening for her spear tip. She thrust the long wooden shaft into his side with all the pent-up resentment she had in her towards the sabertooths.
The spear tip sunk deep into the sabertooth’s flesh, ripping a horrendous roar from the beast as it sunk to the ground. It gave a couple of final twitches and then died, blooding pouring from the wound she’d delivered it. Slowly, the sabertooth faded into a man, who was now scrunched up around his gut, where the spear had pierced him.
Aiyre had no sympathy for the man. It had been their decision to storm the pronghorns, and she would do whatever she had to when it came to defending her people from this unprovoked attack.
“Have Drakk and Ezi come back from their night together in the cave?” She glanced over at Bhirk, her eyes wide in panic as she thought about Ezi in this skirmish.
“Let’s hope they haven’t.” Bhirk tossed over at her, not giving her much hope.
She prayed they’d stayed in the cave instead of coming back to the village. This way, at least someone would survive from their clan because it wasn’t looking like they would come out on top.
Not to mention, she’d hate to see either of them die after only one night together. They deserved to have a lifetime.
Grabbing the hilt of her spear, she placed a foot against the dead man’s side and yanked, dislodging her spear from the dead man lying at her feet.
She and Bhirk moved on to the next saber-tooth, which was stalking a little girl from their clan. Aiyre didn’t even think about it, she leaped onto the sabertooth’s back, distracting the shifter away from the girl.
He bucked under her, trying to dislodge her, but she wasn’t going to let go without a fight, not when a child’s life was in danger. She couldn’t even believe the sabertooth would be so cruel as to stalk a child. It was a child! What harm could she possibly pose to him?!
Bhirk used her distraction to their favor and rammed his spear into the side of the sabertooth’s neck, downing the shifter in one move. He too slowly faded back into a man, the light quickly fading from his brown eyes.
Aiyre unwrapped her arms from around the man’s neck and jumped onto her feet. Glancing up she saw the little girl disappear behind a hut.
“You should leave with the women, Aiyre.” Bhirk grabbed her arm and tried to usher her away from the fighting.
“I’m staying.” She shook his arm off. “We need every hunter available to fight off the sabertooths.” And she knew he couldn’t argue with that.
A pained holler sent chills running down her spine, and when she turned to look behind her, she saw Girk had one of his legs captured in a sabertooth’s mouth of razor-sharp teeth.
Drakk ran up to her. “Run, Aiyre! Follow the other women. Do not stay and fight.” His eyes darted around as he looked around the village. “We won’t win this one!”
“You didn’t stay in the cave for the night?!” Aiyre panicked as she thought about Ezi being in this chaos
and blood. That woman wasn’t a hunter, and she couldn’t help but worry about her friend.
“I couldn’t wait to bring her back to my hut and my furs.” Drakk shook his head, his eyes wild with the fear they all felt. “Now go!” He shoved her, causing her to stumble over her own feet.
Her heart sank knowing Drakk was in the village, but it did give them one more fighter. She just hoped Ezi made it out of the village alive since she wasn’t a skilled hunter and there were too many sabertooths running around to count.
She looked back over at Girk who was still doing his best to dislodge his leg from the mouth of the sabertooth and panic seared through her.
“I will see to him. Run!” And then Drakk and Bhirk ran to assist Girk their spears ready.
One look in Drakk’s eyes had convinced her she’d be no help to them. That man was as fearless as they came, and she knew their odds were terrible when he thought they’d all die. If they were fighting a losing battle here, there was no reason for her to die here.
She hefted her spear and rushed out of the village. Her feet sank into the deep snow, but she attempted to keep up her speed, knowing she’d need distance. She felt like such a traitor by turning tail and running, but she’d only get killed with the rest of the clan’s hunters. Everywhere she looked the sabertooth shifters outnumbered them two to one, maybe even more.
Maybe she could catch up to the rest of the women and help get them to safety, but finding tracks in the dark was too difficult. She was running around blind, and her pronghorn form wouldn’t be much help with the night.
Naru! Did she make it out of the tent?
Aiyre stopped as her heart thundered away in her chest and looked back at the village. The village campfire had been kept burning all night long, and it illuminated the surrounding huts. She watched on as fur huts were toppled over, and it looked like the fighting was almost over. There wouldn’t be time to go back and check on Naru. The sabertooths were sure to spread out and try to find any survivors.
She felt her heart cry out, as she forced her feet to carry her away from the village. Her fur boots dug into the thick snow, as she pushed herself as fast as she could go through all the build-up of snow on the ground.
Aiyre gave up on trying to follow any of the fleeing women and turned in the direction of a nearby hunting cave she knew of in the area. Some of their hunters would use it if they found themselves too far from the village when lousy weather hit or night fell. And none of the sabertooths would know about it unless they tracked her.
Some of the women in the clan knew of it as well, and Aiyre hoped it might end up being a meeting spot for any surviving clanmates. She could only hope, but right now it was the best plan she could come up with when her mind was racing faster than she could process.
A growl ripped through the cold night air, right as she entered the nearby forest of towering pine trees. Twisting around she found herself face to face with a sabertooth shifter.
“There’s no reason for more blood.” She didn’t know why she was talking to a sabertooth, but she was hoping she could find one of them that had a heart beating in their chest.
It raised a paw, preparing to attack her.
She pointed her spear in its direction. “Leave me alone!” She jabbed the point in its direction. On her own, she wasn’t sure she’d be able to defeat the sabertooth, but she wasn’t about to admit that. “I will defend myself.” She jabbed the spear tip towards it again.
Its mouth opened, showing her its massive canines which reached well below its lower jaw. It was close enough to allow its foul breath to wash over her, and she felt her stomach roll in disgust.
The shifter lunged, and Aiyre dodged to the side, forcing herself into a roll. Leaping to her feet, she bolted through the trees hoping to gain some distance before the shifter could collect himself and come after her. She had to leave this shifter in the dust, or she wouldn’t live to see the sunrise in the morning.
But she heard the sabertooth cat following close behind her. Its large paws crunched into the frozen snow, leaving no doubt in her mind that it was gaining on her.
Her breath puffed out in front of her, as she pumped her arms at her sides. The enormous pine trees surrounding her had helped to prevent the ground from being burdened by snow.
A sharp pain clamped down on her left arm, and she swallowed her scream. She couldn’t alert anymore of the sabertooths to her presence. One sabertooth was already one too many for her to handle.
Using her spear point, she twisted around and used it to slice the sabertooth’s face. It let go of its hold on her arm and backed off with a howl of pain, only to come leaping at her once more.
Bracing herself against the ground Aiyre hugged the spear tight and aimed it at the cat’s heart. It tried to avoid the spear but saw her plan too late. The cat crashed down on it.
Her eyes widened as she saw the jaw full of deadly teeth right up in her face. Her eyes met the cat’s piercing gold eyes, and she watched as the light slowly dimmed in its speckled depths. Then its dead weight shifted the spear, allowing the large cat to land on her.
Slowly, it shifted into a man.
Letting out the breath she’d been holding, she shoved him off her with just a little bit of a struggle. Aiyre laid there in the snow for a couple of seconds. She could barely grasp how her life had changed so suddenly. This was the first night she’d used her spear to kill anything other than an animal, and she’d already killed three men. After tonight, her life would never be the same.
Rising on an elbow in the snow she kicked the man’s body with a foot to make sure he was really dead. He made no sound. She pushed herself onto her feet, braced a foot against his chest, grabbed the shaft of the spear with two hands, and yanked her spear out. She grimaced as her injured arm protested, but she fought through the pain.
A wetness built up in her eyes, but she swiped at it with her fur sleeves. Thoughts of her clanmates raced through her head, and now that she was out of the village despair was entering her. She hoped some of them would survive this. She wasn’t sure what she would do on her own. Would it even be possible for her to live on her own during winter?
Her freezing fingertips drew her back to the matter at hand, her survival. Her fur gloves had been lost during the fighting in the village, and she had to get to the hunting cave and retrieve some of the fur-lined gloves they had stashed there before she lost her fingers to the cold winter air.
Turning on a fur boot, she left his body there and rushed to cover the distance between her and the cave, but making sure to take a slightly longer path, doubling back over her same tracks, and trying to confuse her scent in case another sabertooth wandered across her scent. She didn’t need anyone coming after.
As Aiyre approached the fur covered entrance of the cave, hope swelled in her chest like the roar of a waterfall in spring. Would any of the women be in there? Her eager fingers peeled back the fur covering. She popped her head inside and took a look inside. Disappointment settled heavily in her stomach as she found it empty, dark, and cold.
Maybe the women would arrive in their own time. It was early yet. She wasn’t ready to give up hope. She’d escaped, and she hoped that meant others would as well.
Turning to take a look behind her she found the forest quiet. From here, she couldn’t even see the village fire. Images of Girk with his foot caught in a sabertooth’s grip haunted her. She wanted nothing more than to run back and assist her clanmates, assuming they were even still alive.
By now, there was a high probability her clanmates had been finished off, and the only thing she’d see when she got there were sabertooths.
Fingers trembling from the cold and terror vibrating through her, she rushed inside and found some gloves to shove onto her freezing fingers. A fire would be nice, but the smoke and light could attract some unwanted attention. There was distance between her and the attacking sabertooths, but they might search the area, and she wasn’t sure how far they might look for surviv
ors.
Grabbing all of the furs stockpiled in the cave she bundled them all up around her.
Then she took a look at her injured arm in the murky darkness of the cave. She’d lost some blood, but it appeared to be scabbing over from what she could feel in the dark. Now she’d just have to worry about infection, but there was nothing she could do until morning when she could actually see the wound.
Thankfully, as she felt her arm, she only discovered just a couple scrapes on each side of her arm. Her arm had fit perfectly between his sharp canines, and he hadn’t crushed the bone of her forearm.
She grabbed a sharp obsidian knife that had been in the cave and used it to cut a fur into long strips. Then she tightly wrapped the pieces around her forearm to make sure it didn’t start bleeding again.
Shivers ran through her body. Without the warmth from a fire, she might not make it until morning. She’d been hoping a pile of furs would keep her warm enough, but she wasn’t so sure about that now.
Glancing at the dark fire pit, she debated the options inside her mind. The fire might attract some unwanted attention, but she needed to risk it. Even with all these furs at her disposal, she might not stay warm enough on her own.
She could change into her pronghorn form, but even that form would eventually succumb to the penetrating cold that surrounded her. And there was still the possibility she might accidentally shift back into her human form while she slept, and then she could wake up shivering and naked in the cold cave.
Flinging the furs off of her, she rose and grabbed some of the wood stacked against one of the cave walls. The logs clunked against each other as she gathered as many as she could carry. Then she struggled them over to the fire pit at the mouth of the entrance and found some flint in the cave. Striking the stones together, she got a spark to light the tinder. The warmth wrapped around her cold body pushing the cold from the cave and eased her shivering.
