Seven years later
In all his life, Khochu had never seen a blizzard that violent. He pulled his coat hood over his head and rushed through the snow as fast as he could.
Kobe struggled alongside him, but moved like a giant ground sloth.
The friends 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? They would, but just barely.
Faintly, the images of Khochu's village found their way into the frame, and Khochu heard a voice.
"Khochu!" Vika grabbed her son's arm with her powerful fingers.
Sasha also reached 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 minutes, they finally reached their run-down, old tent.
Sasha set Kobe on his dog bed, and Vika gently pushed Khochu onto his own. "Khochu! My dear Khochu! Where did you go? We were so worried! After what happened yesterday—!"
She was not able to finish because Khochu coughed and wrapped his arms around him.
Vika reached forward and pulled his hood off his head so she could look into his face. She, Sasha, and Chief Yerik considered it a miracle that he had survived so long. Khochu made it to his teen years, but still had his deep brown eyes, messy, brown hair, wide forehead, and long fingers.
Forcing a feeble smile, he took his mother's hand and whispered, "I'm home, Mom."
Vika helped him pull off his coat. She tossed a blanket over him and started a fire to warm up both him and Kobe.
Sasha let the old dog rest beside his son.
Khochu stroked Kobe's fur and stared at the tent's ceiling. He thought about what happened to him those two days he was away from home: something that he never expected to come so soon.
And it all started early yesterday morning.
***
Khochu and Kobe were usually the first ones up every day, and they worked together to grab breakfast. Because his parents were so ill, Khochu did most of the hunting.
Kobe and Khochu set out to look for food, but found nothing. Where were 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 whistled for Eva, his teratorn friend. Since he saved her seven years ago, she refused to leave him—she loved him so much.
At the sound of his whistle, Eva soared down from the top of an icy tower and landed before him and Kobe.
They stared into each other's eyes for a bit.
Then, without pulling his attention away from the bird, Khochu reached down and pulled some dry grass from the ground. "Food," he begged Eva, holding the grass out to her bill.
She sniffed it and seemed to nod. Opening her enormous wings, she lifted into the sky.
Khochu and Kobe watched her fly away, hoping that when she returned, she would know where to find food.
When they tried to follow her, though, Khochu slipped on the ice. Yelping, he dropped his spear. He reached for it, but did not get far. His weapon crashed into a rock and snapped in two.
Khochu tumbled down the steep hill, hitting the ice repeatedly, and crashed into a bare tree at its base. He hit it so hard that his world went black.
At the sight of him, Kobe 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 for the boy. He did not stir from where he lay.
Kobe whined and licked his face. He even pawed him, but nothing worked. Snow started to fall, and it cloaked Khochu and his dog in a white blanket.
Finally, Kobe plopped down beside Khochu and rested his chin on his arm. He remained patient and waited for him to recover.
Thirty minutes passed, and eventually, Khochu stirred and slowly opened his eyes.
Feeling his movement, Kobe took his chin off him and slobbered all over his face, tail wagging.
"Kobe." The boy couldn't help but smile and scratched the dog behind his ears. "I'm okay." Regardless, when he sat, he cringed when he moved his left arm and grabbed it.
A bit nervous, Kobe pushed his broken spear to him.
At the sight of it, Khochu's world shattered, 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 Khochu a little hope was a familiar screech in the sky. "Eva!" he called. Sure enough, it was Eva.
She landed beside him and Kobe and hopped up and down.
"Did you find something?" Khochu asked.
Still impatient, Eva nodded and blew snow up with her wings.
Kobe urged Khochu to his feet, and the two followed the teratorn.
Khochu cradled his arm while he ran, but stayed strong. He was Khochu, a strong, healthy, young man.
***
Eva took Khochu and Kobe to an open field with small hills and trees. Nestled before a few of the hills was another village, bigger than Khochu's. A fire brewed before each tent, and smoke polluted the atmosphere.
At the sight of the village, Khochu's eyes widened, and he whispered, "Oh no." Eva had led him and Kobe to a rival tribe.
Khochu's tribe had a 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.
Speaking of which, the crack of a stick behind Khochu 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 and screeched warning calls.
A large group of the rival tribe's hunters appeared over a hill behind Khochu, holding out their spears. All of them had paint and manure on their bodies, and they stared at Khochu.
The tribe's chief, Priven, stepped before his people and studied him. "The Spirits have blessed us with a young animal," he announced, waving his people forward. "Go!"
Without another word, the hunters yelled and charged for Khochu.
Kobe leaped before him 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 into a trap? He tripped once and fell, but quickly hopped to his feet.
The hunters chucked their spears, and they barely missed the boy.
Sweat fountained down his face, and his white, furry 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 tall rock structures before him: ravines. As soon as he found himself 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, he struggled a bit.
The cannibals stopped at the bottom of the rock wall and peered up at him.
Six of the strongest climbers hopped onto the wall after Khochu and followed him up the face of it. Chief Priven was one of the six.
Eva 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, he had to do this. 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.
That's it, head for them, Khochu thought. He guessed the cannibals would return to their village and roast them over a pot.
Khochu climbed into the tree and hugged a branch. 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!" Khochu cried out. "Eva! Help!" However, he didn't see his friends anywhere. Where were they? Were they okay?
When Khochu reached one of the highest branches, it broke under his weight, and he fell down the side of the rock face. His face and arm hit it, leaving blood stains on the wall.
Khochu was chucked into an icy tunnel further down. When he eventually stopped sliding and landed in an empty, cold room, he bled from the cheek and mouth. Another bloodstain appeared on his coat sleeve.
Gasping for air, Khochu spat out dirt and blood. What was going on with him? First, he and Kobe failed to find food, and then he was chased by 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 near him, Khochu did not feel safe. His mind returned to the day when he found the giant polar bear in his hideaway and forced himself to kill.
While he tried to think about what to do, Khochu gathered some stones and pieces of wood that had fallen from the tree and made a fire. With the light shimmering on his bloodied face, he took off his coat and stripped down to his elk-skin shirt, pants, and furry hyena boots.
Khochu glanced at his injured arm and stuck two 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, Khochu pulled his blood-covered fingers out of the tear 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 feel like he saw a face in them. "My ancestors," he begged, tossing 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, and a tower of flames and smoke reached for the cave's ceiling.
Khochu listened for his ancestors. It took about thirty seconds, but they finally dropped from the Sky and Clouds.
The smoke took on the form of a wolf and danced around Khochu. It 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. The Circle told me my day would eventually come, but I didn't know what that meant." Inhaling, he rubbed the blood off his cheek 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, 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 pressed his blood-covered hand against the wall and guessed, "They are challenging me."
The smoky forms of wolves approached him, setting their paws 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, 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, as he had befriended animals. Somewhere in the world was a place where humans belonged, a place where things were better... a place where there was a new tomorrow. He'd had dreams about it, but never told his parents or his tribe—only the ancestors.
"The strongest hearts form the strongest bonds," Khochu concluded, painting 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," said the ancestors. "The time has come for you to start your rite of passage."
Rite of passage? But why? Khochu was just fifteen. Most young men didn't have their rite of passage until age seventeen or eighteen. What were his ancestors telling him: his rite of passage was to lead his tribe and Chief Priven's to the place he dreamt about? What happened to simply cutting himself and becoming blood brothers with another boy in his village? His ancestors did not answer that question.
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 for 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. Normally, he wasn't scared of anything, but the pressure his ancestors put on him was just too much. His deep brown eyes filled with tears, and he turned away from the fire so they wouldn't see him crying. Men did not cry, but Khochu couldn't help himself. He wanted to feel Kobe's soft fur beside him. He always comforted him during difficult times.
Khochu shivered, not only from fear, but also from the cold. He grabbed his coat and used it as a blanket. "I can't do this," he sobbed, rubbing his eyes. "I'm not ready." From there, he buried his face in his coat and let himself have a long cry.