Ember of a New World

by Watson, Tom

  The walking upset Ember’s injured foot slightly and she wished, not for the first time, that she had some White Flowers. The precious flowers grew in fields and open areas throughout the lands. Their leaves could be ground or chewed and then applied to the wounds to cause them to stop bleeding and to heal faster. As legend had it, the flowers prevented the spirits from breathing, the reason they kept the wound open. Ember suspected that the water also prevented spirits from breathing, a good reason to always soak the wounds.

  As Ember stood finally on the crest of the hill, she was able to get a clearer view of the Great River's majesty. The river ran on and through the forest ahead for as far as the eye could see. Ember was merely twenty lengths of a man above the ground, but her perspective from this height revealed a good distance each way. From here, she realized just how far she had already traveled. There were none of the landmarks she was familiar with! The world was truly a large place! After the hike up the shore, Ember also realized just how important paths were to travel. Many men would blaze trails and find routes free of debris and relatively flat to walk. Ember never understood until now just how hard it was to walk around in the wilds. She had stumbled through brush many times and received several tiny cuts from the adventure.

  Ember finally found the tree she had seen from the shore. The fallen tree was very large and looked like it could be the perfect size to make a boat! She ran towards the tree and slapped her hands down upon it. The log gave way, and her hands moved partially into the wood! The tree turned out to be rotten and not usable for any sort of boat.

  “Ahhhhh!!!” she screamed aloud. Ember sat on the rotted trunk and considered the consequences of this revelation. Without a suitable log, she couldn't make a boat. Ember certainly didn't have the skills to fell a tree, and she was still not sure she even knew how to build a quick dugout boat. She would now be forced to walk North West. As best as she could guess, figuring her speed on land, how far she could see, and the stories of traders, she expected that she might make the western lands before the cold came, if she moved fast. This would require taking a break to finish healing her feet and to make some quality footwear, which would in turn require a hide. All of this took time and Ember didn't really even know how far the lands to the west truly were, but she had to try!

  Ember sat on the more solid part of the log considering the ways she might trap and kill a red-deer or perhaps some rabbits when she suddenly noticed a thin line of smoke flowing in a lone and slow path up from the darkest portion of a hill on the other side of the river, east of her current path. The smoke was so faint from this distance that she wouldn't have noticed it had there been any wind or had she not been up so high looking down against a dark background of the forest. Where there was smoke, there was fire, and where there was a small controlled fire, there were men.

  At first Ember was joyful and filled with relief! Here were men with whom she could speak, trade some of her flint for hides, or even learn about the west. With the sudden thought of a quick answer and the need to see people, she burst into a run! Ember ran most of the way, heedless of her feet, towards her camp. She would prepare to meet the men. Based upon the distance of the smoke, the men could end up at the river by the evening or perhaps earlier, if they were fast. As she made her way towards the little camp, she thought of all of the hardship she had faced. She had been nearly killed by the river, eaten by wolves, and came upon a village devastated by evil men from some distant land... and then the realization hit Ember like a branch to the face. She stopped running and dropped low, though pointlessly as the men were much too far to see her.

  What would these men be like? Were they somehow automatically nice just because they seemingly came to her rescue, or had she been so afraid and longing for human kindness that she had forgotten that men could be either good or evil? For that matter, who said they would come to her rescue at all? They might not even come this way, and why would they want to trade with a young woman anyway when they could just take what she had? How could she even stop them? These questions bothered Ember as she made her way more slowly down to the camp. She came to a hard decision after much thought: she would hide the traces of her camp, stowing the poles and reeds where the men would not see but where she could return and reclaim them afterward. She would watch the river that night from nearby and observe these men, should they even arrive.

  Ember spent the rest of the day packing up her poles and reed mats. She hid most of them within another rotten log near the camp. This log was very obviously rotted and she had never considered it of use. The log was filled with dirt and debris from flood waters. To remedy this, one of the stronger poles was inserted into the log, and a large rock was used to beat the pole through the log. Ember used this method to clear out the inside of the log, a tiring job indeed. After what felt like the entire day, and mostly was, Ember had covered her tracks as best as she could. She now sat on the hill top by the fallen tree awaiting the men. Ember placed one of her simple reed mats on the ground and lay upon it with her back against the stump of the tree. As the long evening gave way to night, Ember became increasingly aware of what a friend a warm fire could be. She could hear animals of many types moving through the brush as well as insects dancing the night away, as insects should. Next to her, she had a supply of rocks and a spear.

  Don't worry wolves, I haven't forgotten you, she thought with a sarcastic smile.

  Ember was carefully listening to the sound of a particular set of insects when suddenly they stopped. In fact, all insects had stopped. Ember rolled over and onto her knees. As she looked around, she noticed a large shape, a four legged shape, moving slowly through the night not far from her. Ember's breath came in short low pants as she tried to remain calm and quiet. As soon as she had seen the creature, it had gone. Ember fumbled with her magazine of rocks, finding a large smooth stone, and hurled her missile at the shape in the dark. She heard a growl and frightened snarl, and then the shape ran off into the dark of night. Ember lay still against the tree terrified for a long time before the stress of the encounter overcame her, and she fell asleep. Ember was truly starting to understand why rabbits were so fearful.

  Chapter 6: Humanity

  There are constants of Humanity which rarely vary between society and culture. There will be love and hate, good and bad, and mostly gray and confusion. The moralities of our ancestors are not known in any exacting terms, but it isn't a stretch to assume they were similar to the basic moralities of humanity throughout all of documented history. Humans have struggled through inequalities, differences in beliefs, and for the basic human rights taken for granted by so many in modern times. Ember's people would have had their share of good people, evil people, and every form of personality, just as we do today. Ember is a woman living in a much more wild time than now and will need to be careful of people she meets as a result of this.

  Though it would be wonderful to suppose that women of Neolithic times had some equal status as they may have had much later in the Pictish cultures of ancient Britain or in the Minoan culture of ancient Crete, there generally isn't much evidence for this. The unfortunate reality is that women were probably treated as poorly in Neolithic times as they have been throughout much of recorded history, discounting the several notable exceptions such as those previously listed, until modern times. Luckily, nature has seen fit to arm women with a particularly wiley intuition and an inner strength which can defeat even the strongest foe. In the end, perhaps the only constant of humanity is to live and die, and the only change is time.

  Ember awoke in the early morning with a light sheen of dew over her exposed skin and a crisp wind gently blowing across her face. She had worn her shirt, breechcloth, and skirt to bed just to be safe. For a long time, she just remained still and let the world pass her by. This bliss was shattered with the sudden sound of men. Had she just heard a faint laugh in the distance or had it been a dream? Had the wolf, or whatever it was, been a dream too? Ember stood so fast that she became slight
ly dizzy. Placing a steadying hand against the fallen tree while her heart caught up to her actions, she looked around in every direction for the source of the sound. A sudden movement caught her eye and she turned to see three men walking down the river bank where she had been just the day before. Ember dropped to the ground and looked carefully over the cliff. From this distance, the chance of the men, they looked like tiny specs from this far, seeing her was minimal.

  She kept cautious because she had seen this hill and the rotted log from where the men now stood, so she couldn't be too careful. Ember was surprised that she had even heard them, not only because of their distance from her, but the general fact that hunters generally didn't yell so loudly giving their positions away for all to hear. Given their slightly different clothing, Ember assumed they bore no relation to her tribe. Her heart pounded in her chest, and a growing sense of adventure filled her veins. She was the hunter watching these men walk about without any notion of her presence. This gave an entirely new meaning to what Fire Blossom had called, “man hunting”, her term for the never ending silly lengths the girls of her tribe had taken to attract the attention of a group of hunters who had arrived one day a few seasons back.

  She recalled those happy days with a pang of longing. Ember, Blossom, and another girl named Pine had run about making mischief, giggles all around, for days until one of the hunters had scolded them. She laughed remembering their very negative reaction to the scolding. Ember quickly reached beside herself and scooped up her knife and other belongings. If these men left their makeshift camp and started walking, she might be forced to follow them and abandon her camp. If they were goodly, as she hoped they were, Ember might detect this in their actions.

  For now, she would observe them before making contact. She crawled on her hands and knees away from the edge of the overlook and behind a small scrub bush from where she could more secretly view the intruders. As she watched, a light haired man walked around her camp and examined the surroundings. Ember held her breath. What if he found something she had forgotten? Then these men would be on the alert! Suddenly, Ember started to feel more like a doe than a hunter. She nervously adjusted the feather in the back of her hair.

  After a short time, a larger and dark haired man waved at the other two men, and all three left the area heading North West along the river bank. Ember sat for a moment considering her choices: she had to get to the west before the seasons changed and she would never find a boat-worthy log around this area, she had checked. The river had cut through the land as it moved North West and the banks gave way to high cliffs; actually the cliffs were normal height for the land, the river was below the normal land level. If she clung to the high cliffs while following these men, she could determine their intentions as well as scout for a log. If she found a large enough log, she would abandon the men and create a boat. Abandoning her camp was a painful thought, given the work she had put into it, but she just couldn't let this chance go! People simply did not encounter other people in the wilds without the luck of the Gods. With her decision made, Ember felt another surge of courage.

  I am the hunter now, she laughed.

  Ember walked briskly across the hilltop following the same heading as the men but staying behind them a good distance. As the day rolled on, the stalking became more dull than exciting. Several times she thought they might have seen her but if they had they never altered course. As the day rolled on, Ember continued on her way north by north west, each step becoming more confident as the men walked not far below her, near the bank of the river, laughing and seemingly unaware. More importantly, Ember noted, they were walking the same way she was. Her feet ached from their wounds, but they seemed to be getting a little better. Ember was too wrapped up in following the hunters to notice her feet, anyway. For most of the day, the group followed the river as Ember tagged along. Walking with the men, even though she was technically hiding from them, along the river was not so terrible and it would afford her some company if non-reciprocated, during her slow but steady march towards where the sun set each day. Further, the fire and noise the men created would ward her from animals if she slept relatively close, she guessed.

  Later in the evening, the party had become preoccupied with finding a camp site and had examined several small fields slightly inland from the river. Ember waited until the men had found a suitable spot and preoccupied themselves with the work of preparing for bed. The larger, older, dark haired man with the angry looking expression was obviously the leader. He would yell at the other two, though the younger blonde haired man would occasionally yell back. The youngest was a dark haired man who looked nearly a boy, in age. Ember watched all three of the men for a while until they were fully engrossed in their preparation of a fire. She stood and walked a little farther until she found a large tuft of long grass to bed down in, not so far away, but not in the path the men might walk the next day.

  She would have to wake up earlier than the men or quickly circle around them the next day. The hassle was worth the safety it brought, but soon she would have to make her decision about the men. Her feet were starting to hurt as they hadn't finished healing when she started walking on them again. She needed to obtain leather for boots. Ember slowly fell asleep to the sound of the men joking and laughing in the distance. She couldn't understand them, but she enjoyed the company just the same. That night Ember dreamed she was a rabbit running through a field with a hawk following her from above. She ran and ran, but the hawk was ever present...

  Ember awoke to the sound of a large twig breaking. She sat up straight and turned to see three startled men staring at her. Ember's mind was foggy from having just awoken, and the men were a bit startled to see a young red haired woman pop out of a grassy field in the middle of the wilds! For a short moment, the three dumbfounded men and the young woman stared at each other. Ember realized from their expressions that they had not seen her until she sat up, and probably would have walked past, had she not sat up. She had just given away her location! Ember saw three sets of eyes looking at her in disbelief. What had startled the men was not really the sight of a person as much as the idea that any woman would be out here in the wilds alone! How could a young woman end up so far from a tribe? Most able men wouldn't journey around in the wilds by themselves let alone a young woman.

  Adrenalin flowed down her spine like cold water and rebounded at her fingers and toes flowing back through her as her heart began to beat nearly three times the speed it had been not moments before. Suddenly, Ember was the rabbit from her dream. Her arms and legs tensed as her muscles became taut. Her mouth mumbled a short prayer to the spirits of the wind for the speed she would need...

  For a moment longer the men and Ember stared at each other in shock, then as suddenly as a frightened rabbit Ember scooped up her obsidian knife and bolted. She tore off as fast as she could, hoping the men would not follow. Many of the girls in her tribe would find running a problem as they came of age, but Ember had come of age in a less pronounced manner, and was able to run with her arms pumping as fast as any man.

  Blossom couldn't run this fast... without losing her balance, and I'm sure Kanter finds that amusing, she thought ironically as she dashed.

  Through the reeds and long grass, she ran, fast as a rabbit, bounding over felled branches and rocks. As she ran, she heard the men behind her yelling in some language which sounded a little like her own but with different cadence and enough different words to make normal communication difficult, if at all possible. The only word she heard which was close enough to her own language sounded like, “Wait”. She ran now, as fast as she could over the ground, her bare feet slapping hard against dirt and tangled grass. Ember had never understood, until this moment, the benefit she had received having grown only modestly in the chest, unlike so many other women. She thanked the Gods for that gift as she continued to run, though she would eventually start to ache as other women if she kept this pace for too long.

  I'm not totally flat, she thought.
>
  Down the cliff Ember ran, towards the river. The wet bank would allow her to hide her tracks if the men followed. She might even find them again as they seemed to be going this way. As Ember hit the sandy bank, she slowed to a jog. How had the men found her? No, they had not; she had shown them where she was when she sat up. But why had they even walked that way? It wasn't in line with their path? Perhaps they were hunting small game? She shook her head in disbelief of the odds and continued wondering why they had even ventured her way. It made no sense. Running very fast had bought her much distance from the men, but it also laid a firm set of tracks to follow. What was strange was how much of a lead she had on the men.

  After a while, Ember rounded a low but abrupt hill by the shore which raised at least two lengths of a man above the river bank. Exhausted after running and jogging for as long as she had ever, the cool shade of the rise and a slope to lie against felt like a blessing. Perhaps she would thank some local God for her good fortune. The day had started off hot and promised only more heat. This was not a good day for Ember to run. Besides the heat, her feet were throbbing from pain.

  Ember rested against the rise and removed her hot leather shirt for a moment. Leather was miserable when hot and sweaty. The cool breeze whipped across her damp skin and cooled Ember as millions of years of evolution had resulted. Ember could not help but notice her own body odor. It had become so obvious that even she couldn't ignore it. She longed to take a dip in the refreshing water once her heart calmed to rest.