Windfork Secrets

First Chapter

1.8000 years ago; in an area now called west-central Wyoming He was breathless. So was his family. They sat there amongst the pines, panting and gasping. He figured they were safe for a few moments at least. For the first time all morning, the Hairless Ones could not be heard clattering through the woods behind them, their strange, high-pitched voices calling and chattering as they came. Maybe they had finally lost them. Resting his huge bone club against a rock, he sat down by his woman, tenderly gathering her slight frame under his bulging, hair-covered arm. She was life to him. She and the three little ones that sat on the nearby rocks. They sat there now, panting rapidly and staring with terrified eyes into his. "Why do they chase us?" they thought to him. "Why do they hate us?" "We are different," he answered. "They don't like that. Maybe they want to eat us." He gave a gruff chuckle at this thought. The woman smiled weakly up at him. "Why don't they eat the beasts like we do?" the youngest asked, a small girl. He smiled down at her, taking her tenderly under his other arm. "They think that we are beasts, little one. They just don't know." She screwed her chubby little face into a defiant expression. "I'm no beast!" she thought, stomping her fur- covered foot into the dust. Chuckling quietly, he put his nose to hers and grunted mischievously, "You are more beast than the she-bear!" he thought to her. She playfully swatted at him as he blocked her tiny blow. The woman smiled at them both. "Shall we climb?" she grunted to him. They both looked up at the rocky slope before them. It was bare of trees and full of huge boulders and so precipitous that it was nearly a cliff. Down its expanse the water splashed and tumbled like a playful ribbon. "Yes, we shall," he replied. "Up the face, near where the water falls most steeply. Behind the water there is an opening. I have seen it in the Hot Times when water is not flowing. We can escape. They'll never find us. Later, when it's safe, we'll show the others as well." Suddenly there came a cry. It was the older girl. Frantically she pointed. At the same instant, there was a sharp crack. A fist-sized rock bounced off the tree trunk near the woman's head. The Hairless Ones had returned. He sprang to his feet. So did the others. Another large rock bounced high off a nearby boulder, making a loud pop. The little one screamed. High-pitched yells and grunts could be heard close by. "Climb!" he ordered. "Climb!" The other four were off, quick as cats, scampering up the bouldered slope. He snatched up the bone-club and followed on their heels. More rocks whistled around his ears and crackled off the nearby trees. They may be too close, he thought. They may be able to catch us before we can climb high enough. He sprang upon the boulders at the base of the slope. The others were already climbing. Just a little further. We'll be safe....

Suddenly from above he heard a scream. It was the woman, he knew. As he looked up he saw her, crouched over a figure. It was the small one. She was lying over a boulder, red blood spattering the white granite. She was not moving. He glanced below. There were Hairless Ones in sight now, gathering like vultures at the base of the slope and hurling rocks and unintelligible cries to those above. An indescribable fury seized him. Letting out a loud and frenzied howl, he turned back. Half running, half tumbling, he dashed for the Hairless Ones, brandishing his prodigious club. One threw a rock straight and true, but he parried it easily with the club. So did another, but he ducked and it flew harmless. And then he was upon them. With a mighty swing his club smashed the skull of the nearest one, and a backhanded swipe snapped the neck of another. One tried to leap upon him with a stone, but he was too quick. The Hairless One fell haplessly to the ground and the big bone crushed his back. He swatted away another missile coming straight for his head, then charged the thrower, hammering him into senselessness. With the carnage of their compatriots lying all around, the rest skittered off, back into the thick trees. He turned and climbed again, his huge, hair-covered feet snatching onto the boulders and pulling him up the slope like a mountain lion. He came to the red-splashed rock where he'd seen the little one sprawled. At least she wasn't there, he thought. They must all be safe by now. He heard high-pitched chattering behind. It was Them again. And this time, they were trying to climb. A rock cracked off a boulder near him. Glancing around, he spotted a throwing rock of his own. It was mostly covered with blood. He knew whose blood. With another howl he hurled it down. The nearest Hairless One tumbled soundlessly down as it crushed his face.