Christopher Golde

          Chapter two
      The Neanderthal

God said, “Let there be light and there was light,” And he saw that the light was good; and he then separated the light from the darkness.”             Genesis 1 :  The Beginning

Date:        35,000 years previous                                       Location:  Nubia

 
Jung sat looking out over his world of desert and bush as Sol the ‘Sun God’ lowered towards the horizon. It was dangerous for him to be out at this time, even if he was the biggest and strongest of his tribe. When Sol would fall from the sky, the Trig would begin to hunt.

He sighed, putting his hands up to support his chin and rested his scarred elbows on his muscular knees. He almost didn’t care about the setting sol; he just needed time alone, time away from his tribe; time to think. Neanderthal life was simple enough; he shouldn’t have all that much to think about. He really didn’t know what he would think about; he just knew there was something he needed to understand. Maybe it was his dreams.

Jung would spend most of his days in the scrubland hunting with the men of his tribe. Although he was probably the best hunter of them all, he was considered by the others as a freak because of his deformities. They would rarely speak to him except during the hunt when they would be forced to communicate. During their rest periods, he would sit alone, and although they would not stop him from getting his fair share of food from the catch, they would take the best cuts for themselves and make him wait till last.

He knew that in one-on-one combat he could beat anyone of them, but he was only one, and they were many. While the others would chatter and trade stories of their kills and fights, he would be left to contemplate his surroundings. Over the years he had felt there was no choice but to accept his position in the tribe. He had become quiet and self-reflective, not a common trait in Neanderthals.

His deformities were physical and had been with him since birth. Where the others were broad and stooped, he was slim, tall and stood straight. Where they had large heads with protruding brows, he had a smaller head, with flat face and eyes that were tighter and more closed. Where they were dark and hairy, his skin was fair and almost hairless. Where they all had brown eyes, they were green.

As a child, he had grown up and lived with a family. They had accepted and loved him as they did all the other of their offspring, deformities and all. These days he was alone, the sole survivor of his clan. Over the last few seasons, since he had reached his hunting age, each member of his family had disappeared or perished, some even suspiciously. With the unlikely prospect of ever finding a partner, it seemed to Jung that his family lineage would almost certainly end with him.

He had no friends or allies in the tribe, but there was one he was interested in; a female. She was different, she was beautiful, she would at least acknowledge him when they would meet; unlike the others. He wanted to learn more about her, but the family kept her away from him at night. He knew it was because he was a freak.

As he sat looking out over the desert lands, his thoughts wandered back to his recent problems. Lately, his sleep had been interrupted with strange dreams of people and places his simple mind was struggling to cope with.

In these visions, he had seen fields that were completely black and white, with strange mountains that had sharp edges towering into the sky and slopes that shone as bright as Sol. Across the black and white fields, and between the shining mountains, marched massive tribes wearing skins so different to anything he had ever seen before. Many of them carried strange, odd-shaped spears and square black rocks. The animals of his dreams, somehow, herded between the shining mountains at great speeds, yet seemed to have no legs, and although most were much larger than the creatures in his real world, they moved with incredible smoothness and agility.

To his amazement, the people would climb onto the backs of these animals, or sacrifice themselves by being swallowed completely whole. He had tried to draw pictures in the caves of the things he had seen in these dreams, but the others had become scared and had then chastised him even more.

As he sat pondering all of this, something triggered a warning in his small but alert brain and he immediately refocused his attention to his surroundings. His acute hunting instincts picked up noise from behind him; something in the bushes had moved. The sound was so slight and distant, it would have been imperceptible to any normal Neanderthal.

Jung knew it was likely to be a Trig hunting him for its dinner. The Trig were giant cats and probably the Neanderthals most feared enemy. Normally, a hunter would at least have his club, or spear, for protection, but Jung had been careless and had left his back at the caves. He stood slowly and turned to face the bush. As if accepting the biped’s awareness, the cat moved into the open from its hiding place.

It took two long strides towards him then crouched in an attack position.  Jung could see the huge talons protruding from the bushy fur of its giant feet and noticed long streams of saliva dripping from its bared, sabre like teeth. The creature was obviously hungry and Jung knew it would not hesitate for long before attacking him.

Face to face with this killer, the Neanderthal considered quickly his two options. If he were to stand and fight it would mean almost certain death. If he was to turn and dive off the edge of the mountain he would possibly be killed by the fall and at any rate, injured, he would be an even easier kill for the huge cat. Either way, his prospects did not look encouraging.

Being the sort of man he was, Jung decided to stand and fight. He had faced killers before and survived, so at least he knew it was possible.

Jung lowered himself also into a crouch position as he knew the beast was preparing to launch its attack. His strategy was to hopefully pre-empt the first movement of the giant feline predator. It would be a split-second decision and that first move would mean life or death for him.

His only hope was to dive at the last millisecond in the opposite direction to the cat’s first move, hoping to then grab its throat as it passed him and swing onto its back. He was not sure what he would do from there, but at least he would live a little longer.

The gentle breeze of the evening desert seemed to become still and he heard not one sound from the surrounding bush, as the whole world seemed to pause in a sentiment of his impending death.

The two mortal enemies steadied themselves. A long line of sticky saliva dripped from the cat’s long razor-sharp tooth towards the desert dust as if in slow motion. Jung felt his own beads of sweat slowly rolling the length of his face, gathering at the edge of his jaw.

What happened in the next moment made Jung think that he might be dreaming the whole attack? Impossibly, the cat suddenly seemed to fly backwards as if blown by the wind. As the feline got back to its feet, recovering to a defensive stance, it raised its right paw, clawed aggressively at the air and screamed.

            Once again, it flew backwards away from Jung and this time instead of turning back towards the Neanderthal, it obviously decided enough was enough and retreated towards the bush it had appeared from.

Jung, still in the crouching position and ready for attack, was totally bewildered by the cats retreat and momentarily forgot that he probably should be taking this opportunity to run for his life.

Off to his right, and near a bush that was closer to the killer cat than him, a dark smoke swirled in the still evening air. As the shadow of the swirling gas grew higher and higher, Jung began to make out the form of a giant creature and immediately shifted all his attention away from the bush the cat had retreated to, and now focused on this new, even more, terrifying threat.

The massive dark figure, now almost completely formed, turned slowly towards Jung and although he knew he should be now running for his life, he stood still, frozen to the spot. Strangely, he wasn’t afraid. His mind seemed paralyzed and it felt to him as if somehow, he had fallen into one of his own strange dreams.

As the figure became more defined, he could see that in fact, it was a definition that the creature lacked. It just seemed to be black, absorbing its surroundings. Jung felt very strange, all through his body and mind he could feel a sensation of warmth consuming him as if somehow the creature was absorbing him. Energy seemed to be pouring into him, and for the first time in a long time, he felt joy and happiness. 

As the creature moved towards the Neanderthal and finally stood directly in front of him, he began to see images in his mind similar to those in his dreams. For a long time, the immense dark figure and the Neanderthal stood face to face. Jung was transfixed; he seemed dazed and oblivious to his surroundings, and the creature did nothing but gradually increase the intensity of its darkness.

Images and emotions flooded Jung’s unused brain, filling it with the knowledge that would take the primitive man a lifetime to completely understand.

When finally, the dark figure began to fade, Jung smiled, turned without even a single thought to question what had just happened to him, and walked confidently back towards his caves.

When the others saw him enter from the outside darkness, they were terrified. Not only for the fact that Jung had been outside in the dark world, where only evil spirits would dare to venture, but also they sensed now there was something very different about the one they called ‘the freak’. They all cowered in their sleeping areas and said nothing to him; all he could hear as he walked past them was the murmuring of their chatter.

Jung knew they talked about him. He knew they could sense something different in the way he moved. The deformed Neanderthal strode confidently towards his own sleeping area, but first, he knew there was something he must do. He walked straight up to the woman he most admired, who sat as usual with her family. They said nothing to him but shuffled about nervously, and one, the woman’s mother, held her daughter's arm as if to offer restraint.

Jung came up to her confidently and grabbed her by the other arm, as he knew was his right. She did not resist and the old woman soon released her grip on the other arm. Half dragging and half carrying her, the dominant male took his prize to his sleeping skins and laid her down before jumping on top of her and filling her with his seed. All the others watched, shocked by his new confidence. What had happened to this timid, strange male to make him so different, so powerful?

From that night onward, things in the tribe changed dramatically. The next day, Jung took on the leader of the tribe and convincingly defeated him. Over the next seasons, with Jung’s leadership, the tribe dominated the region and soon grew to ten times its size. They even began to live outside the caves and travel confidently in the darkness. Jung’s new family also grew rapidly and eventually, when Jung became too old to maintain his dominant role, the eldest son took over the leadership of the tribe.

The second generation from Jung soon became widely accepted throughout the land as royalty and respect among all the tribes verged on worship. The new generations also took on many of Jung’s deformities and soon, a new, much more powerful and successful species, evolved from his seed, and the seed of his offspring.

Many thousands of years passed until eventually, a firstborn son to the royal line would bear the name David and with his kingdom, the name of Jung would finally be forgotten forever.

From the shadows, the dark figure watched with satisfaction and waited, patiently.