Chapter 237 - The Birth of Death part 12

They came across the Neanderthals the following evening.

They had spent the entire day crossing the ravaged landscape, climbing over toppled trees, trudging through pools of water as black as obsidian. The sky was still heavy and dark, the sun a faintly shining bauble behind an ashy veil. The forest stank of death, of the thousands of mutilated animals that lay scattered in their path, birds mostly, but larger creatures, too. Deer, raccoons, opossums, snakes. They even chanced upon a few of the giants that roamed their prehistoric world. A wooly rhino with a great spear of timber driven through its guts. A saber-toothed cat impaled like an insect on a shattered tree stump. An enormous cave bear, its body torn nearly in two.

They had decided to make camp for the night, and were gathering wood for a fire, when Tulpac gave out a shout. Khronos and the rest of the men ran immediately to see what had alarmed him.

"Ananaki," Tulpac said, pointing at the debris at his feet.

Half-obscured by a mound of shattered vegetation, a Neanderthal male stared up at the sky with milky, sightless eyes. His flesh was swollen and purpled, his lips parted in a grimace of pain. His exposed flesh was covered in cuts, as if he had been caught in a windstorm of blades. Khronos squatted beside the Other to examine the carcass more closely.

"You think he was one of the Ananaki hunting at the edge of our territory?" Tulpac asked.

"Probably."

"I wonder if any of the rest survived," Tulpac muttered, surveying their surroundings.

"It's possible," Khronos said, rising. "We survived, didn't we? We'll post a guard while we sleep tonight, just in case."

It was quick growing dark. There could be any number of Ananaki hiding in the tumbled foliage—though in the silence, Khronos thought, it would be hard for anyone to sneak up on them.

"There's another one over here," Edric called.

All told, they found nearly twenty Neanderthals in the immediate vicinity, all dead. They were men, women, children. Some of them were ripped to pieces. Others looked as if they merely fallen dead, with no signs of injury whatsoever.

"This land belongs to Death now," Khronos's uncle hissed, unnerved by all the corpses. "We should return home while we still can."

Khronos bristled. The column of black smoke they had been journeying toward was only a day's walk away now.

"It's too late to turn back now, Uncle," he said. "We've come to do battle with Death, not race back home at the first sign of our quarry. Find your cock, old man, or have you given it to your woman to wear around her neck like a charm?"

The old man sneered. "You have seduced us with your wild visions, Khronos. Any fool can see that this land is cursed!"

Khronos was tempted to strike the old man, and would have done it if he did not look so much like his father. Despite his annoyance, Khronos was reluctant to raise his hand against the old warrior. He also feared that a violent rebuke would lend credence to the old man's words. The entire party had caught his uncle's fear, like an infectious disease. They looked ready to bolt at any moment.

"The whole world has been cursed with Death since time began," Khronos said evenly. "Now is our chance to kill Death. Won't you be brave for another day, Uncle? Let us hunt and kill Death together, and free the clan from its whims!"

The old man sighed. Despite his anxiety, he was moved by his nephew's eloquence. "Fine, Khronos. I will join you in victory-- or join you in the Land of Warm Days-- but let us not make camp in this valley of death. I won't sleep knowing the ghosts of so many Ananaki are lingering nearby. I've eaten too many of their brothers and sisters."

Their laughter broke the spell of fear that the dead Neanderthals had cast upon their party. They moved on until they found a clearing with no dead Others lying anywhere nearby.

They made fire, filled their bellies. Khronos took the first watch, and then Tulpac relieved him. The leader of the Gray Wolf Clan drifted off staring up at the starless sky, comforted by the snoring and farting and slurry sleep-talk of all the brave warriors who'd accompanied him on his quest.

When he woke the next morning, he found that two more men had deserted.