Genre (s): Historical Fiction/Adventure

Written When? Freshmen Year of College

Chapter 1

Khochu

24,716 B.C.E.

"Vika! Vika is having another baby!" The young man's voice swamped through the camp, like a herd of bison stampeding across a snow-covered landscape. He rushed by each tent and banged his fist against the elk skin fabric. "Up! Up! Our ancestors are sending down another member for our tribe!" Dressed in a fur-covered coat, he pulled his hood over his head and tightly gripped his spear in his hands.

The time was early morning, and the Sun was just rising on the horizon. The tribe's village was located in between two, tall mountains. Surrounding it were caves of all shapes and sizes, as well as glaciers. The first snow just fell, so a fluffy, white blanket covered the land.

At the sound of the young man's announcement, humans opened their tents and stepped outside to the beautiful but wintry landscape.

Children grabbed their mothers' arms and let them drag them to the deepest, darkest corner of the camp. A fair number of the tribe was already there when they reached a single tent. Except, that tent was not as exhilarating as the others. It had multiple rips and tears in it. Harsh coughing came from deep within it, which meant the young woman giving birth was sickly.

The man who gave the announcement pushed his way through the crowd of people so he could see the scene better. His long, brown bangs flopped down over his wide forehead, and he nervously sucked on them. Vika and her mate Sasha had always been so sickly that none of their eight previous children survived past the age of one. Some died as young as a week old.

The young man saw Vika. A beautiful twenty-one-year-old, she laid on a fur blanket and clutched her mate's strong hand for comfort.

Sasha, who had a muscular body build and a beard but pale, sickly skin whispered encouragements to her.

The witch doctor, a woman named Aloy, and her assistant worked together to recover the infant from the ancestors. The chief, Chief Yerik, was also in the tent, as well as the shaman, Nora.

Nora held a stone filled full of water in her hands. It was her duty to give the newborn a blessing.

Outside the tent, hunters stood with their spears at the ready and kept an eye out for predators. The last thing they wanted was for a Smilodon to come charging into the camp and make off with the baby. Hyenas were worse. They did not wait to kill their prey in order to start eating them.

Vika's screams echoed throughout the camp, but eventually, they died. She calmed down and smiled when Aloy held a little baby out to her.

Her assistant wrapped the blood-covered child in a blanket and listened as it cried up a storm. Crying was a good sign. It meant the baby could breathe.

As Aloy handed the baby to the young woman, she told her, "It's a boy."

A boy! Vika and Sasha's first boy! The remaining eight children had all been girls. Because of that, Vika and Sasha were isolated from the tribe. All families were required to have at least one boy so he could learn to hunt. If they didn't have one or if the family was sickly, then they weren't treated as well as the other tribe members.

Vika hugged her baby to her chest, where he drank her milk.

Happy for her, Aloy asked the woman, "What would you like to name him?"

"Khochu," Vika answered. "He is my little Khochu."

As she comforted her baby, Nora performed a ritual. She sprinkled dust and snow on the baby and gave him a gift. "My gift for this little one is health. He shall grow to be a strong and valiant man–one who will take us to even greater heights, and one who will not disappoint us. The Spirits will forever watch over him. Our ancestors have gifted us with a beautiful and talented child."

The people watching the phenomenon cheered and clapped for Vika.

Yerik merely crossed his arms and looked away. Nora gave the same gift to the rest of Vika and Sasha's children, but they never prevailed in life. Most likely, Khochu would grow up to be just as sickly as his mom and dad. That was if he even lived past the age of one. As chief, Yerik needed strong and healthy young men to lead the hunts, but his expectations for the infant were slim.

The tribe celebrated Khochu's birth for a good while, but the hunters remained at their posts. They could not help but to feel like something was watching them–something terrifying. Before long, they heard it.

A growl.

As quick as a flash, the men pointed their spears forward.

A few of the youngest men started to shiver with fear. They watched the area where the growl came from. However, that wasn't the only thing they heard.

"Yip! Yip!" The high-pitched yipping told the men one thing. The beast was not alone. It had brought along some hyenas.

Sure enough, a huge figure stepped into the light of the rising Sun. Surrounding it was a group of smaller figures. The smaller figures had gray coats with black spots, while the large figure had a pair of knife-like front teeth and a brown coat that also had spots, except those spots were brown. Two of the tribe's worst predators were directly in front of them: the spotted hyena and the Homotherium, which was a type of saber-toothed cat that was native to Eurasia. The cat was not worrisome to the tribe, though. They were worried about the hyenas.

"Hyenas!" one of the hunters yelled into Vika's tent.

As soon as he yelled that, frightened people scattered.

The second they did, the hyenas broke off from the Homotherium and chased after them. The cat focused on the toughest human in the crowd, while the hyenas focused on the weaker and dying.

Inside Vika's tent, Sasha grabbed his mate's hand and urged her to her feet. If was difficult, though, because she was sore from birth and bleeding. However, the predators would take her baby if she stayed in there, just like her second and third child. The day they were born, predators attacked the camp and made off with them.

While Sasha tried to get his mate to safety, Chief Yerik grabbed his spear and used it as his own weapon for a little bit.

The outside scene was gruesome. The hyenas caught a few of the tribe members and enjoyed a nice early meal while they were still alive.

Pain-filled screams exploded into the atmosphere, but they quickly died down.

Sasha and Vika made it all the way to the most habitable part of the village, but then Vika tripped, and she fell onto her side. That caused her to lose baby Khochu.

"Khochu!" she shouted when she saw another hyena sprint towards him. "No!" She could not lose another child this way! She had to protect him!

Sasha refused to let her. "Vika, please!" he shouted. He grabbed her arm again. "You've got to let him go."

"No!" Vika screamed, while tears streamed down her pale cheeks. Coughing, she hugged her mate.

They waited for the hyena to eat Khochu. They knew they were going to be next. Except, what they saw was the strangest thing ever.

The hyena screeched to a stop in front of the baby. It stared at him, and he stared back with his beautiful, deep brown eyes. The hyena sniffed him. It sniffed the blood on his skin but did not lick its lips, as a sign it was ready for a meal.

Slowly, the little baby lifted his tiny hand and moved it towards the creature's nose.

The hyena spared him. It backed away and dipped its head to the boy. Turning on its heel, it took off at a run. It did not even charge for Vika and Sasha.

Unfortunately, the hyena did not get as lucky as the sickly family. Chief Yerik, after slaughtering the Smilodon, shot it with an arrow.

Crying out, the animal collapsed onto its side.

As soon as it did, Khochu cried out in distress. It was as if he felt what the hyena felt.

Yerik came within reach of the little baby and picked him up. His eyes rolled over to Vika and Sasha.

All three of the humans' eyes widened. Who was the new baby the ancestors sent down to the tribe? Why did the hyena not eat him? Did the two feel some kind of connection when they stared into each other's eyes?

Only one day alive, and Khochu already showed signs of having many different talents. However, would he survive his first year of life, unlike his siblings before him? It was up to the ancestors to make that decision.

Chapter 2

Animal’s Best Friend

24,716 B.C.E.

Khochu survived his first six months with no difficulty at all. So far, he was not struggling as much to stay alive as his parents and long-lost siblings.

By the time he was six months old, Chief Yerik challenged him. He saw what happened his first day alive with the hyena and wanted to test something. Therefore, on one sunny day in the village, he actually visited Vika and Sasha. He almost never did, because he did not really consider them “part of the tribe”, because of their health issues and lack of male children.

Yerik was not alone when he visited the family. He brought a dog with him. It was a puppy, to be exact.

The dog closely resembled both a wolf and a husky. The scientific name for the dog was the Paleolithic dog or “wolf dog”. Scientists believe humans domesticated them as far back as 34,000 years ago.

“What are you doing here, Chief?” Sasha asked from his bed, where he tried to recover from his most recent illness.

“I want to try something,” Yerik answered. His eyes rolled over to six-month-year-old Khochu.

He sat on Vika’s lap. At the sight of the dog, his eyes widened. Brown hairs were starting to grow on his head, and he sucked his brown thumb. That was something new and hopeful. His parents had very pale skin, but his skin was healthy and brown.

Vika pulled him close to her breasts and asked Yerik, “Why do you have that dog?”

“Do you remember that day the saber-toothed cat and hyenas attacked our village?” he questioned. “Well, I saw what happened between Khochu and that hyena. The way they looked at each other was mesmerizing. I just feel like your baby has a natural talent with animals, but there is only one way to know for sure. Therefore, I brought him a friend.” Yerik set the puppy down on the tent’s floor and nodded at baby Khochu.

The look in his eyes was the same exact look he gave the hyena the day of his birth.

Vika saw it, too, and she gently plopped her baby onto the floor.

The pup and boy met eyes. They stared at one another, just like what happened with the hyena.

Khochu cracked a small smile and crawled towards the dog.

Vika, Sasha, and Yerik watched and rubbed their chins as they tried to think.

When Khochu reached the puppy, he pushed himself onto his backside and held out his hand.

The puppy sniffed it and took a step closer to the child. He let him pet him.

Laughing, the baby excitedly shook his legs and batted the ground with his palms.

It wasn’t long until the dog plopped down onto his side, and he let him crawl onto his belly.

Khochu wrapped his arms around his furry neck and pressed his cheek up against him.

“Incredible,” Yerik said, crossing his arms. For the first time ever, he smiled at Vika and Sasha. “This baby has a future.”

Eight years later

24,708 B.C.E.

A crisp, cold breeze washed across the frozen steppe, as a small group of humans made their way towards a herd of grazing bison. With spears at the ready, they waited for the perfect opportunity to ambush them.

To show signs of encouragement, they nodded at one another.

Following close behind the hunters was a young boy. He had deep brown eyes, messy, brown hair, brown skin, a wide forehead, and long fingers. He wore a bow and arrow on his back and was dressed in a fur pelt and furry boots. He stopped at the top of a hill and watched his people charge for the bison.

Soon joining him was a husky, wolf-like dog. He stood next to the boy, also watching the ambush. When the boy was just a baby, he lay on this same exact dog. Indeed, the boy was Khochu, the only surviving child of Vika and Sasha, and the only boy.

The shaman’s gift worked. Khochu grew up to be a healthy, young boy, unlike his mother and father. He did not die at age one. He made it all the way to age eight.

He hoped that one day he would be just like those hunters charging the bison. “Look at them, Kobe,” he told his dog. “One day, I will become a man like them.”

Kobe glanced at him and nodded. Suddenly, his tall ears picked up a screech in the sky, and he tilted back his head.

Khochu noticed he was looking at something and asked, “What do you see?” Then he, too, heard the screech.

Kobe barked and planted his feet. Both boy and dog looked into the sky. What they saw shocked them.

An enormous bird, a Territories to be exact, fell from the sky and went down near a couple glaciers that grew on a large lake.

“Come on!” Khochu yelled at Kobe. They slid down the hill and headed in the direction of the fallen bird. The echoes of humans still fighting the bison mixed in with the wind and their running feet.

Khochu and Kobe knew where they were going. They have been to this glacier lake plenty of times before. It was located a few miles away from the village. Before it froze over, it was a beautiful lake with clear water. Back in the day, early humans loved hunting fish from it. The glaciers surrounding it now had caves carved into them.

Eventually, when Khochu and Kobe reached the lake, they stopped at the top of another hill and looked forward. Sure enough, it was where the bird fell. Sure enough, it was a Teratornis, but not just any Teratornis... It was an Aiolornis incredibilis Teratornis.

The Aiolornis was one of the largest birds of prey that ever zoomed across the Pleistocene skies. It had a wingspan of about sixteen feet and weighed fifty-one pounds. The bird’s bill was huge and powerful. It was a distant relative of the condor.

The Aiolornis Khochu and Kobe found that special day had black wing secondaries, while the rest of its body feathers were brown. Its neck feathers were white. There was a small, black, feathery crest on top of its head, and its claws were black and enormous.

This was the strange thing, though. The Aiolornis thrived in North America, so what was it doing in Russia? This bird was actually Khochu’s first look at life across the Berginian Land Bridge. It proved there was a whole other world to explore, but it still did not answer the question how it wound up so far away from home.

The young boy and his dog were careful, considering the bird was a wild animal. They tiptoed down the hill and jumped into a small pile of snow.

The Aiolornis saw them coming and cringed. She tried to take off but could not lift herself off the ground. The fall must have injured her wing.

Khochu peered back to Kobe and gestured for him to wait. “Stay here, boy. Let me handle this.”

Kobe nodded and sat down, but he cautiously watched his owner.

Khochu set his bow and arrow on the ground and pointed to himself. “Friend,” he told the bird. “I am a friend.” The closer he approached her, he realized how huge she was. “The Spirits guide me,” he continued. “They tell me you are in distress. I am here to help you.”

Seeing the kindness in his eyes, the bird folded back her wings. She adjusted her feet, so she could sit more comfortably.

At the sight of her moving, Kobe thought she was about to attack Khochu. Growling, he sprinted towards the young boy.

“No!” he shouted. Khochu flung his hand, but it accidentally hit the dog in the head.

Whining, he retreated away from him and hid behind a mound of snow.

The violent action also scared the Teratornis. She tried to take off again but merely fell back onto the ground. Annoyed, she huffed.

Khochu, sensing her fear and annoyance, slowly made his way towards her again. “Friend.” Finally, he managed to reach the teratorn’s wing and carefully studied it. It looked like some kind of creature attacked her. Perhaps a cave lion? The wing was bloodied and missing some feathers. “Oh, you poor thing,” Khochu said, getting straight to work. He cleaned the wing, set it, and straightened some feathers.

Throughout the process, Kobe quietly stepped out from behind the snow mound and joined him.

At Khochu’s gentle touch, the teratorn relaxed, and the two started to bond. The boy definitely had a talent with animals. He was like a prehistoric animal whisperer.

After taking care of the bird, he noticed the Sun was setting. That meant it was time to go home, but he did not want to leave his new friend unattended. She was injured. Except, how would he exactly explain her to his parents? Their son goes out for a day to spy on his people and have adventures and returns home with a Teratornis. That did not happen every day.

Wait a minute. Maybe Khochu didn’t have to do that. An idea popped into the boy’s brain, and he glanced at Kobe. “Cave?” he asked.

Understanding him, Kobe nodded. He and Khochu worked together to drag the injured bird back in the direction of the village, but they took another path which took them behind it. The path led to an icy cave that had a cold river running through it. The Sun’s setting rays beat down on the ice and caused it to sparkle. It was a beautiful sight. The cave was Khochu and Kobe’s hideaway.

They escorted the teratorn into the cave and moved her over to the rocky wall. On it were paintings. Each one told a story. Khochu’s tradition was that every sunset, after a fun day of adventure, he painted his whole day out on the cave’s wall so he wouldn’t forget it. Every day, he looked back to the painting from the day before and reminded himself that survival was fun in its own way. Khochu loved to paint. Painting was another talent he possessed, aside from animal domestication.

While the Aiolornis rested her injured wing, Khochu painted a brand-new picture. It showed him and Kobe standing on the hill where they witnessed the hunters charging at the stampede of bison and the bird falling from the sky. Directly under that picture, Khochu painted another one. That image showed him and Kobe helping the condor. Wow. What a day it had been, but it wasn’t over yet.

When he finished his masterpieces, Khochu washed his hands off in the cold river. Sitting in the water was a wooden canoe made out of a tree log. Resting in the log was a flat, wooden stick that he carved himself. It was one of the earliest forms of a paddle. There was one more thing Khochu wanted to do before heading home. Canoe.

He told his new friend to continue resting her wing and that he would be back soon. Then just like that, he climbed into his canoe and picked up the paddle.

Kobe hopped in with him. He never let Khochu canoe by himself.

Khochu took them down the tunnel’s river.

The two friends stared at their reflections in the icy walls.

Kobe, thinking his reflection was another dog, barked at it.

Khochu shushed him when he saw his bark caused a few icicles above their heads to shake. The icicles weren’t the only things they had to worry about, though. Predators were all over the place.

Only ten minutes into the expedition, a huge figure appeared in the shadows of the tunnel’s darkest cave.

Khochu shivered when he saw it and quickly drew his bow and arrow. The figure was not a Smilodon, nor a hyena or lion. It was something else–an Ursus maritumus tyrannus, or, in other words, a “giant polar bear”. It wandered into Khochu and Kobe’s cave while they were out that day, but something about it looked off. The bear did not look friendly. No way would Khochu be able to tame it.

The tyrannus foamed at the mouth and roared. In a split second, it charged for the boy and his dog in the canoe.

Khochu had no choice. He didn’t want to do it, but he had to in order to protect Kobe and his new friend. He let his arrow go. It zoomed across the shallow river and headed straight for the bear’s heart. The closer it approached, the more guilt the little boy felt. Then, he heard them. The ancestors.

They gave him some advice. “To survive, you must kill. There is something wrong with this animal. It is suffering, and you are the only one who can change that. This is the best thing for it.”

Khochu listened. The ancestors were right. To survive was like a game. You either win or lose. He closed his eyes and reached for his heart while he waited. Eventually, the painful, dying roars of the tyrannus exploded into his brain and caused it to ache. They traveled throughout his whole body and caused him to feel the creature’s distress.

Kobe rubbed up against him, to tell him everything was okay, but even that didn’t satisfy the young boy. The nightmare haunted his dreams for as long as he could remember. Khochu just murdered an animal.

Chapter 3

Khochu’s Challenge

Seven years later

24,701 B.C.E.

In all his life, Khochu had never seen such a violent blizzard. He pulled his coat hood over his head and rushed through the snow as fast as he could.

Kobe struggled alongside him, but he moved as slow as a giant ground sloth. Now that he was fifteen years old, he did not move as quickly as he used to.

The friends’ visibility was very low right now. They fought to stay on their feet, but the wind was just so powerful. With every passing second, the blizzard grew worse. What was happening? The Ice Age had never been that treacherous before. Would Khochu and Kobe make it home safely, or would they perish? They would make it home, but just barely. Faintly, the images of Khochu’s village found their way into the frame, and he heard a voice.

His mother. “Khochu!” Vika grabbed her son’s arm with her powerful fingers.

Sasha also made it to the two friends. He picked up old, struggling Kobe and carried him into the village, but he moved fast. The dog was freezing. Khochu was, too.

With her son’s arm still in her grip, Vika followed her mate and held her hand up to her face, to stop snow from pounding it like an avalanche. After a good forty-five-minute trek, they finally made it to their run-down, old tent.

Sasha set Kobe down on his dog bed.

Vika gently pushed Khochu onto his own. “Khochu! My dear Khochu! Where did you go? We were so worried about you! After what happened yesterday–!”

She was not able to finish, because Khochu coughed and wrapped his arms around his body.

Vika reached forward and pulled his furry hood off his head so she could look into his handsome, brown face. She, Sasha, and Chief Yerik considered it a miracle he had survived so long in life.

Khochu made it to his teen years, but he still had his deep brown eyes, messy, brown hair, wide forehead, and long fingers. He stood at least 5’4 in height and had muscular arms, like his father, but he still looked like a boy. He wasn’t a man. Not yet, but he would be one soon.

Forcing a feeble smile, he took his mother’s hand and whispered, “I’m home, Mom.”

Vika helped him pull off his fur coat and put him to bed. She tossed a blanket over him and started a fire to warm up both him and Kobe.

Sasha let the old dog rest next to his son. The bond between them was so great; it was impossible to break it.

Khochu stroked Kobe’s fur for comfort and stared at the ceiling of the tent. He thought about what happened to him those two days he was away from home–something horrible that he never expected to come so soon. It all started early in the morning the day before.

***

He and Kobe were usually the first ones up every day, and they worked together to grab breakfast. Because his parents were so ill, Khochu had to do most of the hunting.

Kobe and Khochu set out to look for food, but they found nothing. Where were all the big mammals: the mammoth, hyena, saber-toothed cat, and even rabbits? They seemed to have disappeared overnight.

Even with Kobe’s sniffer, Khochu could not find food. It got to the point that he had to whistle for Eva, his teratorn friend. Since he saved her seven years ago, she refused to leave his side; she loved him so much. Now, Khochu had two animal friends: a dog and a condor. With the power of teamwork, they hunted for food every single day for Khochu’s parents.

At the sound of his whistle, Eva soared down from the top of an icy tower and landed in front of him and Kobe.

They stared into each other’s eyes.

Without pulling his attention away from the bird, Khochu reached down and pulled some dry grass from the ground. “Food,” he begged Eva. He held the grass out to her bill.

She sniffed it and seemed to nod. Opening her enormous wings, she flapped them and lifted into the sky.

Khochu and Kobe watched her fly away. Both of them hoped that when she returned, she would know where to find food.

When they tried following her, Khochu slipped on some ice. Yelping, he dropped his spear. He reached for it but did not get far. He was not able to save his weapon. It crashed into a rock and snapped into two pieces. If any predators came for him now, he wasn’t armed.

The young man tumbled down the steep hill, hitting the ice repeatedly, and ended up crashing into a bare tree at the base of it. He hit it with so much force that his world went black.

At the sight of him injured, Kobe jumped right into action. He also slid down the hill but stopped at the rock that broke Khochu’s spear. Kobe picked up the two halves of the weapon in his powerful jaw and slid the rest of the way down the hill. When he reached the bottom, he headed straight for the boy. He feared Khochu was seriously injured. He did not stir from where he laid.

Kobe tried to wake him. He whined and licked his face. He even pawed him, but nothing worked. That was not good. Exactly how hard did Khochu hit the tree?

Snow started to fall. It cloaked Khochu and his dog in a white blanket.

Finally, Kobe just plopped down next to Khochu and rested his chin on his arm. He remained patient and waited for him to recover.

Thirty minutes passed, and eventually, Khochu came to. He stirred and slowly opened his eyes.

Feeling his movement, Kobe took his chin off him and slobbered all over his face. His tail started to wag.

“Kobe.” The boy couldn’t help but to smile. He scratched the dog behind his ears, “I’m okay,” but when he sat up, he cringed when he moved his left arm. He banged it up a bit when he fell and grabbed hold of it.

A little bit nervous, Kobe pushed his broken spear to him.

At the sight it, Khochu felt his world shattering, and he picked up each half of the spear. “My spear.” How would he defend himself now? Sure, he had Kobe, but he was old. He did not hunt as well as he used to. What gave the young man a little bit of hope was a familiar screech in the sky. “Eva!” he called.

Sure enough, it was Eva. She landed next to him and Kobe and hopped up and down.

“Did you find something?” Khochu asked her.

Eva did, but it wasn’t exactly food. It was something else, but she still wanted the two to see it.

Kobe urged Khochu to his feet. The two followed the teratorn.

Khochu cradled his arm while he ran, but he stayed strong.

***

Eva took him and Kobe to an open field that had small hills on it, as well as trees. Nestled in front of a few of the hills was another village. That one was bigger than Khochu’s. A fire brewed in front of each tent, and the smoke polluted the atmosphere.

At the sight of the village, Khochu’s eyes widened. “Oh no,” he whispered. Eva led him and Kobe right to a rival tribe.

Khochu’s tribe had a very bad reputation with this one. Chief Yerik and the rival tribe’s chief did not get along. Not after a rumor spread that the rival tribe’s chief murdered a whole family and fed their remains to his people. Unlike Khochu’s tribe, the rival one consisted of cannibals.

Speaking of which, the crack of a stick behind the young man suddenly engulfed the sky.

Kobe’s ears stood straight up. He whirled around in the direction the crack came from.

Khochu breathed heavily and mimicked him. He had a bad feeling.

Eva twirled in circles above him and screeched warning calls.

A large group of the rival tribe’s hunters appeared over a hill behind Khochu, and they held out their spears. All of them had paint and manure on their bodies, and they stared at the young man. Just like Khochu’s people, they were in desperate need of food, but they could not find anything. That caused their cannibal sides to come into play. Khochu was a young, healthy man and the perfect meal for a starving tribe.

The tribe’s chief, Chief Priven, stepped in front of his people and studied him up and down. “The Spirits have blessed us with a young animal,” he announced, and he waved his people forward. “Go!”

Without another word, the hunters yelled and charged for Khochu. They could care less about the dog. They believed the Spirits would give them strength if they ate a strong, healthy animal.

Kobe leaped in front of Khochu and acted as a bodyguard, but the cannibals ran right by him.

A few of them stepped all over the dog and knocked him to the ground.

Khochu took off at a full sprint. Why, in the name of the gods, did Eva lead him right into a trap? He tripped once and fell but quickly leaped to his feet.

The hunters chucked their spears towards him. They barely missed the boy.

Sweat fountained down his face as he ran, and his white, furry coat hood fell behind his neck. He knew what the people wanted to do to him, but no way was he going to let that happen! He was too young to die!

To save his life, Khochu focused on some tall rock structures in front of him. Ravines. As soon as he found himself in between them, he jumped onto one of the walls and started to climb, but since he was still dealing with the arm injury he received when he fell earlier, he struggled a bit.

The cannibals stopped at the bottom of the rock wall and peered up to him.

Six of the strongest climbers hopped onto the wall after him and followed him up the face of it.

Chief Priven was one of the six.

Eva helped her friend. She soared down to the cannibals and flapped her enormous wings in their faces. Two of them slipped and fell to their deaths, but Priven was not one of them.

Khochu’s eyes soon caught a naked tree growing out from the side of the rock face. He noticed that the rock under the tree was cracked and loose. If he was going to survive, then he had to do it. He leaped from the rock face and reached for the tree. His boots hit the rock under it. As soon as they did, the rocks broke and crashed down on the cannibals.

One rock hit Chief Priven in the leg and totally messed it up. There was no way he could climb back up with it in that condition.

His surviving hunters helped him down. They abandoned their meal and headed for the dead tribe members instead.

Khochu guessed they were going to return to their village and pot roast them. Terrified, the teenager climbed into the tree and hugged one of its branches. His injured arm throbbed, and he shivered in the cold. Higher and higher into the tree he went, but the higher he climbed, the looser the branches.

“Kobe!” he cried out, “Eva! Help!” but he didn’t see his friends anywhere. Where were they? Were they okay?

To make matters worse, when Khochu reached one of the highest branches in the tree, it broke under his weight, and he fell down the side of the rock face. His face and arm banged it and left blood stains on the rocks.

They chucked the teenager into an icy tunnel further down and left him alone in the ravine.

When he eventually stopped sliding and landed in an empty, cold room, he was a wreck. He was bleeding from the cheek and mouth, and another bloodstain appeared on his coat sleeve where his injured arm was. Gasping for air, Khochu spat out dirt and blood. What was going on with him that day? First, he and Kobe failed to find food, and then he was chased by some insane cannibals from the other tribe. Now, there he was: hungry, thirsty, and alone in an ice-covered tunnel, with no idea how to get out. Where was his dog when he needed him?

Without Kobe by his side, Khochu did not feel safe at all. His mind returned to the day when he found the giant polar bear in his hideaway seven years ago, and he forced himself to kill. All he could do now was hope there was nothing in the cave out to get him.

As he tried to think about what to do, he gathered some stones and pieces of wood that fell from the tree and made a fire. With it brewing on his bloodied face, he took off his coat and stripped down to just his elk skin shirt, pants, and furry hyena boots. The young man glanced at his injured arm and stuck two of his fingers into the tear in his shirt.

While he was hurting and nervous, he was still Khochu, the only surviving child of Vika and Sasha. He had to stay brave and listen to his ancestors. They always showed him the way.

With that in mind, the young man decided to perform a ritual. He pulled his blood-covered fingers out of the tear in his shirt and rubbed the blood on his cheeks, forehead, and chin. It was the closest thing he had to paint.

When he finished decorating himself in his own blood, Khochu picked up a handful of dirt and crawled to the fire. He sat on his heels and stared at it. The way the flames danced mesmerized him. They looked like young couples dancing under a star-filled sky.

Khochu couldn’t help but to feel like he saw a face in them. “My ancestors,” he begged, and he tossed some of the dirt on the fire. “Show me. Show me what I must do. The Sacred Grounds are empty. There is not enough food for my people. I don’t want us to turn into cannibals, too.”

As soon as he tossed the dirt on the flames, they seemed to explode. A tower of flames and smoke reached for the cave’s ceiling.

Khochu listened for his ancestors’ voices. It took about thirty seconds to a minute, but finally, they dropped down from the Sky and Clouds.

The smoke took on the form of a wolf, and it danced around Khochu’s head.

From there, the wolf split into two more wolves, and they explained to him, “The Sacred Grounds are not empty. In fact, they are far from empty. When you were born, child, what did you see?”

“Light,” he answered. “The first time I saw the Great Circle of Light shine down on the Sacred Grounds, we exchanged feelings of peace with each other. The Circle told me my day would eventually come, but I didn’t know what that meant.” Inhaling a breath of air, he rubbed the blood off his cheeks and mouth and held his hand up to where the Sun hovered. Even though he couldn’t see it, he knew it was there. “The Spirits are trying to tell me something,” Khochu continued, “but what? I don’t understand.” And he didn’t. The Spirits weren’t always clear about what he had to do next.

In a trance-like state, Khochu rose to his feet and approached the wall that the fire’s smoke hugged the hardest. The wall almost looked uncomfortable. Khochu considered that everything in nature had a spirit. He pressed his blood-covered hand up against the wall and guessed, “They are challenging me.”

The smoky forms of wolves came within reach of him. They set their paws up against his hand so the boy could feel his ancestors.

“It is time for your people to cross over to a whole other world,” they elucidated. “The day you met Eva seven years ago was just the start of this awaiting journey. That is why she flew here from so far away. However, in order to succeed on your quest, you must turn your greatest foes into your greatest allies.”

Khochu knew they were referring to the cannibals. He had to find a way to befriend them, like how he befriended animals. Somewhere out in the world was a place where humans belonged–a place where things were better–a place where there was a new tomorrow. He had dreams about that special place all his life, but he never told his parents nor his tribe–only the ancestors.

“The strongest hearts form the strongest bonds,” Khochu concluded. He used his blood to paint something on the wall–a circle of red handprints, in which a few of them cut across the shape’s interior. “I call it teamwork.”

“You are the only one who can do this, child,” he heard his ancestors say in his head. “The time has come for you to start your rite of passage.”

Rite of passage? Did they say rite of passage? But why? Khochu was just fifteen years old. Most young men didn’t have their rite of passage until age seventeen or eighteen. What were his ancestors telling him? Was his rite of passage to lead his tribe and Chief Priven’s to the place that he had dreams about? That was a lot of pressure to put on a fifteen-year-old boy. What happened to just simply cutting himself and becoming blood brothers with another boy in his village? His ancestors did not answer that question. They just scared the poor kid for the rest of the day.

The spirit wolves took their paws off Khochu’s hand and returned to the fire, where the smoke sucked them in and sent them back to the Sky and Clouds.

The fear Khochu felt was insane. How could things turn so awful in just one day? He was excessively young to have his rite of passage.

Returning to the fire, he plopped down on his side and stared into the flames. He thought about what his ancestors told him. A place where humans could truly be happy. A place where things were better. It was somewhere out there. Apparently, Eva was the first clue to the hidden world.

White teeth chattering, Khochu rested his cheek on the backs of his hands and continued to watch the dancing flames in the fire. Normally he wasn’t scared of anything,–he lived in the Ice Age for Pete’s Sake–but the pressure his ancestors put on his shoulders was just too much.

The teenager’s deep brown eyes filled with tears. He quickly turned away from the fire so it would not see him crying. Men did not cry, but Khochu couldn’t help himself. He wanted to feel Kobe’s soft fur next to him. He always comforted him during difficult times.

The boy shivered, not only from fear, but also cold. He grabbed his coat and used it as a blanket. “I can’t do this,” he sobbed, and he rubbed his eyes. “I’m not ready.” Traumatized, the teenager buried his face in his coat and let himself have a long cry.

Chapter 4

“Survival is like a game.”

Khochu cried so much that he ended up tiring himself out, and he fell asleep next to the fire. He dreamt about the place where humans belonged. He felt the warmth and saw a beautiful, shimmering waterfall.

Khochu himself was in the dream. He sat in his canoe and paddled up to the great rushing blanket of water. Holding out his hands, he held them under the water and watched as the water droplets created rainbows.

Eva, his teratorn friend, joined him in his dream. She soared by his head and headed towards the top of the falls.

Down below, Khochu smiled at the sight of her flying gracefully. Outside the dream world, things were about to get interesting.

Khochu stretched out his legs and clenched his fist, as he stayed in the dream world.

In the light of the fire, a shadow appeared on the rocky walls. It looked to be about four times the size of Khochu himself and crept closer to him. As it did so, the shadow started to shrink. The sound of the creature tripping over a rock woke the boy.

Gasping, his first instinct was to grab a rock, and he whipped his head in the direction of the sound. The blood in his mouth and on his cheek was starting to dry up, but a few scars had taken the blood’s place.

Khochu prepared to chuck the stone at the creature, but he stopped himself when it stepped out of the shadows. His jaw dropped, and the rock fell from his hand. “Kobe!”

Kobe stood directly in front of him. His mesmerizing, blue eyes met Khochu’s, and his tail started to wag.

At the same time, the two friends hurried to each other.

“Kobe!” Khochu shouted. He grabbed the dog and pulled him onto the ground. “You’re here! How did you find me?”

Kobe licked his face and pushed his head into his owner’s chest.

“Oh, Kobe. Thank you,” Khochu said.

***

The two friends found a way out of the cave, or at least, Kobe showed his owner where he entered. He moved slowly, so the journey back outside took longer than it should have. Then again, Kobe was 105 in human years. He led his friend to the cave’s exit, but what Khochu found was that the wall had collapsed, and rocks blocked the way to the outside world.

Kobe’s nose twitched. He peered over his shoulder to the young man.

Khochu edged closer to the rocks and asked, “How did you get in? The ceiling collapsed.”

Kobe had his way. He trotted over to a small opening in the wall and slid through it, as if it were a modern dog door. He appeared on the other side and planted his feet in some snow. Above him, clouds rolled in, and the wind started to blow. A storm was coming. Kobe and Khochu had to make it back to the village before they were too late.

The dog peered into the hole he slipped out of and met eyes with Khochu. Unfortunately, the hole was too small for him. If only he was eight years old again. He would have made it at that age, but not as a teenager. Instead, he had to dig his way through to the other side. The first thing he did was kick a few small stones down the wall.

On the other side, Kobe tried to help him.

Khochu tried to push a huge rock aside, but he ended up straining his injured arm. Yelping, he pulled away and grabbed it. “I can’t get out, Kobe. My arm.” All he could do was stick his good arm through the hole, and he held his hand out to Kobe.

The dog grabbed his sleeve and pulled, but within a minute, he had to rest. Panting, he fell onto his side.

“Kobe, no!” Khochu yelled. “Please! You’ve got to hang on!”

The poor dog was just so old.

Khochu could do nothing about the situation he was in. There was no dynamite in his time, so he couldn’t blow up the wall. All he could do was lean up against it, and he watched his frozen breath waft away from him. Icicles formed in his hair, and he shivered. How could his ancestors expect him to handle his rite of passage when the cold and snow overthrew him?

Khochu’s tummy rumbled, and he reached for it. However, that led him to something he would never do.

Kobe crawled back into the cave to comfort him, and he plopped down across from him.

Khochu watched him for a good while and remembered all the good times he had with him. He observed Kobe’s chest, which bounced up and down in a gentle fashion. While he watched his friend, he picked up a stone and made a small dagger. To help him with his creation, he broke off an unnecessary part of his wooden bow. The dagger point was so sharp; he cut himself by merely tapping it.

Kobe, unaware of Khochu’s idea, closed his blue eyes and took a little nap, so he could be well rested when they returned to the village. His nap was the best time for Khochu to follow through with his act of violence.

He finished his dagger and rose to his feet. His mouth watered, and his tummy continued to make noises.

His ancestors’ words echoed in his brain as he slowly approached Kobe: “To survive, you must kill.”

Khochu did not want to kill, but he felt like it was the best thing for Kobe. He lived a long and healthy life. Nevertheless, Khochu’s been with him his entire life. Kobe was the first animal friend he ever had that he remembered. They hunted packs of animals together, swam, played, and never left each other’s sides, but that was back in their earlier days.

The teen’s hands started to sweat, but he held the dagger over the dog’s weak body. “Kobe, I’m so sorry,” he whimpered.

Just before he could follow through with his attack, Kobe whined. He opened his eyes and stared at Khochu. At the sight of the dagger, he pulled his ears back and growled. He knew why his owner was doing this, and sure, he was old, but he was not ready to die. Not yet, at least. He had to make sure Khochu made it home safely first.

For being a natural animal whisperer, the teenager could hear the dog’s thoughts. While he was hungry and needed food, he had to hear what the dog wanted first. With that in mind, the young man sighed and lowered his dagger. Glancing from both it and Kobe, he yelled in frustration and threw it. The dagger flew into the wall and landed next to a rock.

The boy shivered and plopped down on his backside again. He wrapped his arms around his body and tried to warm up. He couldn’t make another fire, because he used up all the wood that broke from the tree on the last one.

Just like Khochu, Kobe could also feel when an animal was in distress. Unlike him, he did not have a fur coat. The dog pushed himself to his feet and slowly approached him. He laid down on Khochu’s lap and rested his head on his arm. If they were going to die, they were going to die together.

Before all could be lost, the two friends were rescued… by Eva. She found an elk carcass while out on her flight and carried it to the cave. Dropping the dead animal, she landed in front of the hole Kobe crawled out of and called to him.

Inside, Kobe and Khochu heard her.

A question mark appeared above Khochu’s head. “Eva?” He cracked a small smile. “Eva!” Struggling to his feet, he picked up his dagger and attached it to the belt on his coat.

He and Kobe sauntered over to the hole.

Kobe crawled back through it. Once outside, he looked up to the teratorn. His blue eyes rolled over to the elk carcass, and he barked a “Thank you” at her.

Eva nodded and rubbed her bill on his side.

They turned to the hole and told Khochu that everything was going to be okay. Finally, they were together again.

The young man’s eyes moved from the elk carcass to the size of the hole in front of him. He repeated the action for a good couple of minutes, and then an idea popped in his brain. “Perfect!”

Kobe and Eva wondered what he meant by that.

“Quickly!” the boy shouted, pointing at the elk. “We need to eat that elk!”

Kobe and Eva wondered why he grew so excited by the idea. It couldn’t just be because he was starving. There was another trick up his sleeve, but what?

Eva pinned the elk’s body down under her foot.

Kobe ripped off one of its legs. With his head, he pushed it into the hole.

“Thank you, Kobe,” Khochu spoke, as he accepted the treat.

He and his friends enjoyed a nice elk for dinner.

Kobe and Eva were messier eaters than Khochu. They violently pulled off body parts and meat and used their claws to rip off smaller pieces.

Kobe growled every time Eva came closer in order to get another helping.

Meanwhile, Khochu just ate his meal in peace. He shivered at the sight of the fighting animals and used the tip of his dagger like a fork. He knew his friends were hungry, but they were never so aggressive when it came to mealtime. Then again, food was extremely scarce.

Shivering again, Khochu said, “This is disgusting,” to himself. He called his friends, but they were making too much noise to listen to him. He ripped the rest of the meat off the elk’s femur and tossed the bone off to the side.

Wrapping his arms around his body, he cuddled up against a rock. His back faced Kobe and Eva, but he could still hear them fighting on the other side. His eyes rolled up to the ceiling. The prehistoric boy held his hand up to it. He did that because he felt a gush of wind, and it created a path from the wall to him.

The Spirits talked to him. They told him to look at the femur he tossed off to the side.

Khochu did and smiled feebly. “You figured out my plan, didn’t you?” he asked his people. “Now, if only Eva and Kobe would stop fighting.” A touch of anger washed through his body, and he yelled at his friends, “Knock it off!”

Eva and Kobe immediately stopped when they heard him. They never liked it when Khochu got angry.

He peeped through the hole to the animals and told them, “Look at you guys. You look like a bunch of wild animals having a wrestling match with a sloth. These are difficult times, and we’re not going to get anywhere if we fight. Look at you two compared to me. You’re free. Me? The Spirits are punishing me, but they say my punishment is over. So, please. Can we get along until I’m out of here? Remember my ancestors’ voices. ‘Survival is like a game. You either win or lose’.”

His words knocked the animals back a step. Khochu was right. They had to focus on getting him out, rather than who got the most food.

Kobe dropped the piece of meat he ripped off the elk and crawled back into the hole so he could assist him. He brought the elk pelt with him.

Khochu needed it. He was freezing.

The dog dug into the dirt and snow, while the boy used the femur bone like a hammer. He chipped away at the ice and rocks and rubbed his sweaty brow. All he had to do was make the hole a little larger. However, only thirty minutes into the job, he wore himself out.

By that time, the storm hit the frozen landscape, and the wind whistled through the wall.

Eva took off and took shelter in another tunnel higher up the ravine. The day was winding down.

Khochu hoped that in the morning, the storm would have passed, and he could make it home safe and sound. He also needed to rest his injured arm. Chipping away at the rocks and ice was not helping. Tossing the femur off to the side, Khochu walked in circles, like a dog, and plopped down. He used his hood as a pillow.

Kobe tossed the elk pelt over the boy’s frozen body and laid down next to him.

As the two tried to fall asleep, Khochu thought about what his ancestors told him. His rite of passage. It was time, but why did he not feel ready? He wondered if the other boys, who had also come of age, felt the same.

***

Not only did the storm hit the ravine, it also hit Khochu’s village.

Pelts danced on clothesline-like strings, while humans quickly took cover. Only two remained: Vika and Sasha. Well, more Vika, Khochu’s mom.

She trekked through the storm, while wearing a mammoth pelt over her body, and searched for her son. Sasha tried to stop her, but Vika kept on going. “Khochu!” she shouted over the howling wind. “Khochu!” Icicles appeared on her long, brown hair, and snowflakes covered her brown eyebrows.

“Vika!” Sasha yelled behind her.

Vika heard him, but she refused to turn back until she found her son. He had been gone excessively long that day. Coughing, the woman pulled her pelt up close and carried on with her journey.

Sasha eventually caught up with her, and he grabbed her shoulder. “Vika, stop.” Vika tried to move on, but he held his arms up to her chest. “Stop!”

At the thought of Khochu out in the horrific storm, Vika started to cry. “No!” she argued. “My boy! My boy is all alone in that!”

Sasha, who continued to hold his arms up to her chest, dragged her onto the ground and gripped her shoulder. “My love,” he said over the wind, and he pointed at the storm, “there is no way we can search for him in this weather. The ancestors will guide him home. They always do.”

“But he has never been gone this long!” Vika cried. “I fear he is hurt! I need to go to him!”

“We can’t. We have to wait until the storm passes. I promise you he is going to come home. After all,–” Sasha peered into his mate’s deep brown eyes and made a gesture with his hand, “he is the next chosen chief.”