Chapter 72 - Tundra, 23,000 Years Ago, Earth Spirit Man part 2

I could see, with my vampire's piercing vision, that he was young and strong and pink with blood. He looked about fourteen years old, but in those ancient times that was all but a man. He had round cheeks and shaggy black hair and large, almond-shaped eyes. He came as far as halfway between his group and my position, then peered around in every direction. As I watched, he pushed aside a few layers of clothing and squatted in the grass. I watched his face redden with effort, smelled the sweet stench of his feces, then he grabbed a handful of grass, twisted it into a tuft and cleaned himself. He rose, examined his stool, and then started to return to his clan.

NO!

Thinking to tempt him nearer, I opened my jaws and made a guttural sound.

I saw him stop, his chin jerking over his shoulder in my direction. He stood stock still a moment, listening, his eyes narrowed with suspicion.

I groaned again, and saw his body stiffen with alarm. He turned fully around then and searched for the source of the noise he'd heard. His eyes swept past me, then returned. He leaned forward, squinting, and then took two steps toward me, shading his eyes with his hand.

One of the adult males in the hunting party yelled for him.

He called back to them: "Alaie! Enong Ae!" which meant, in his tongue, "I hear you! I'll be right there!" I did not speak their tongue until later, but that is what the words meant.

Drooling in hunger, I watched as the boy-man approached me slowly.

Yes, come closer, little one, so that I might tear my arm free of this stone and catch hold of you!

He was dressed in heavy outer furs, and beneath, a layer of woven clothes decorated with blue beading. I had never seen clothing made with such complexity, but in that animal state, I had no eye for his fashion, only for the vein throbbing in his thick, tan neck.

He crept closer and closer, then stopped, frustatingly, a good fifty meters away. He examined me with his eyes, looking up and down my form with interest.

"Tepongoi? Ne w'ae?"

You there, what are you?

"Ne q'ae tsebsus?"

Can you speak?

I twisted my torso, trying desperately to pull free. I heard my skin tear from the stones with a fibrous ripping sound, but I couldn't free myself. I couldn't get loose and catch hold of him. Furious, starved, I bared my fangs and hissed at him, and the boy-man jumped back with a horrified expression.

Without another word, he turned and pelted away.