In a time so long ago, in a world that was much different than it was today, the Land was also different. In this age there were two continents on this world, two huge land masses that were close enough to each other that a strong swimmer could, possibly, make the journey. They were sisters, these large continents, and they sat in the middle of a planet covered in water, they were the only large stretches of land on this world. There were hundreds of small islands, as well as a dozen midsized islands, none of which were large enough to call continents. The water between them was happy, it flowed freely between the sisters, many marine animals, along with a few mammals, called this sea home. Mostly small and medium sized animals lived in this sea, during specific times each year, pods of killer whales swam through the waters that separated the sisters. These whales culled any weak animals from the ecosystem. The only predators that called this sea home were small sharks, this sea was t
By the time the mouse found the meat that was left laying by Kaya’s head the ants had been to work on it for over an hour, whoever left this for Kaya had done so too early in the night. When the mouse got to the opening left under the cart it stopped and cleaned its paws, whiskers twitched, eyes and nose alert for danger, and its ears pricked at every little sound. It sat there for a few moments judging the situation, the smell of the meat made its little mouth drool, it finally relented and went silently to the pile of meat. A few brave ants stayed and tried to free one last piece before they left while the rest of the ants vanished among the grass under the cart. The mouse enjoyed every bit of the meat, it was a bit spicy for its palate but that was no matter, bite by bite the mouse chewed.The fox was not far behind the mouse, he didn’t know the rodent was there but there was food, that he could smell. Even if the mouse was there it would run from the fox, if not the fox would eat
The boys went back to helping Erek with the setup, Erek was nearly done before the two came back from ogling the girls. Kaya sat on her cart with the baby, she will unhook the horses when Erek was done setting up the tent poles, they had each fallen into roles without any of them realizing that they had. Talia was the healer and that would not change, she also helped with the baby and foraged for food. Rollins was the expert and had the final say on the food they ate from the Land, as well as being the navigator and a successful hunter. Erek continued his subdued manner, he was a great help with lifting and carrying things, he was learning everyday but kept most of his thoughts to himself. The boys, Gorman, and Lorne were passable hunters but they lacked the self-discipline to be good hunters, they were young and acted like they were children sometimes.Erek walked over to Kaya after he was finished with the tent poles, the boys were stretching the buffalo hides over the poles as he p
Kaya’s group was not having an easy time traveling but they were in much better shape than the caravan was. Rollins was a supreme navigator, she had them on the best path possible to reach the river. When they reached the river they would still have to travel up its length to reach the place where the buffalo crossed. The mountain loomed ever closer each day, it cast its shadow on them until the sun rose above its peaks, then the rays warmed the group and gave them the inspiration they needed to continue. It was mid-day when they reached the Domea river. The sun was shining through a sky that was dappled with big fluffy white clouds, the clouds cast there shadows on the ground when the sun was behind them.They heard the river before they could see it, it was a loud, fast, and wide river. No one knew how much water flowed through it each day, what they did know was that it could bring you life or grant you death, the choice was yours. At the bank of the river, they stopped to absorb i
The morale was low, people were suffering from sore feet, twisted ankles, even broken bones were not uncommon on the road. The attitude of the people was shifting, the helping people they once were slowly turned into selfishness, the sharing with neighbors, the caring for others way of life they had all lived was dying. The people who walked were the most upset, they had to sleep on the ground, some with little to no shelter to speak of, they saw the big carts of the leadership and were envious and jealous of their position. The tempers of the travelers flared up more often now as well, fights over pieces of land to sleep on, shoving matches over food, and yelling at one another were increasing among the travelers. Tensions ran high every day, every day there were new injuries or equipment failures, predators killed livestock. The horses they relied on struggled under increasing burdens. The caravan was a time bomb and Rognvald was its short fuse.None of the people in the caravan kne
Kaya’s shirt drooped open; it exposed some more of her chest to Rollins as the baby rooted for a nipple. “Talia.” Called Kaya, Talia was sitting in the back of the cart, “I think the baby is hungry.”“Ok Kaya, lemme climb up to the front where you are.” Said Talia, Gorman was dying to say something but the rebuke from Kaya moments ago had his lips closed firmly.“No need Talia, I think we are going to stop up here. This looks like a good place to rest doesn’t it Rollins?” “It does.” Was Rollins reply.The spot was shaded by a stand of trees that formed a natural archway. The grass was tall and blew in the breeze, the trees were willows and there branches drooped onto the ground, gently swaying with the grass. The smell of the water from the river was refreshing, the sound the river made was audible from a hundred meters or more. The sun was moving closer to the western horizon, it was getting close to dusk. The group stopped in the stand of trees, they used some fallen branches to ma
They didn’t speak to each other, Rognvald and Lilly, they said things like hello and goodnight, but they did not talk to each other anymore. Oren was doing things to small animals that he caught daily, he broke their legs, or plucked feathers, and delighted in the animals painful cries. Lilly and Claudia have seen this behavior and they both tried to talk to Rognvald about it, he seemed unmoved by his sons twisted actions. Oren was growing as well, it has been known that some children can experience growth spurts over the summer months, Oren was in the middle of one of those spurts. He enjoyed the pain he felt in his body, his bones ached fiercely from the quick growth, he didn’t complain about it once but the suffering showed in his eyes, along with a growing madness. Claudia missed her life back in Ondu, she would give up her brother in a heartbeat to go back there, but she was stuck in this frickin cart, with her frickin brother. She had trouble occupying her mind, there was alway
Something was happening to his mind, he is losing it, thought Oscar. Oscar left Rognvald sitting with a mug of beer in the front of his wagon. Oscar would send a hunter across but first he would send out scouts to see if there was a better, safer, place to cross. Oscar was a lot of things, but a fool his mother did not raise. Gorman was an asshole but he didn’t know that he was, he never put two and two together, he thought that the women he tried to talk to weren’t into him for some odd reason. He was tall, attractive, and competent, his mother always said so. It confounded him each time a woman walked away from him or paid him no attention. His mouth and attitude may have turned them off. Gorman was upfront about his needs, he wanted to take all of the beautiful women to bed and couldn’t understand his lack of success. He would tell them how beautiful they were, how they smelled nice, he often complimented something the women did; cooking, bead work, things like that. If they didn’