Born of the Sun (chap. 1)

Born of the Sun

Chapter 1

A hot and empty wind blew over the savannah, marking trails in the long
grasses of the one and nameless land.

The same wind had flicked at the towering sand dunes far to the north,
scoured dry mountain rocks with dust and whitened the tips of waves on
the sea. Now it was lazily wandering south, teasing and twisting the
long grasses into brief, excited flurries. It passed over a slender
brown creature with its head in the grass feeding and its thin legs
slightly splayed. The animal raised its delicate head and sniffed the
air suspiciously, eying the surroundings with a mistrust born of
experience. Its tail flicked in irritation at something it and darted
off through the tall grass in sudden graceful bounds.

The sun sat high in the sky, beating down on the plains with invisible
fists. Creatures roaming the savannah escaped the punishment of the
mid-day sun however they could. Beetles buried themselves into loose
earth and lizards skittered from rock to rock, tap-dancing a manic
rhythm into the dry ground. Occasional pools were bordered by a
seething grey mass of bodies clamouring to get to the hot, muddy water
at the centre. This ring was in turn circled by predators moving with
liquid subtlety, picking off the sick and the vulnerable. The predators
worked together, separating prey from the group, preventing return and
moving in for the kill. The breeze ruffled the dirty beige fur of one
of the hunters and it momently ceased its stalking to toss its head
from side to side and swish its tail in the humming air. White teeth
interrupted the line of its black and corrugated lips, which twitched
in anticipation as it moved with relentless and silent steps towards
its target. Mm ragha.

In the distance, a large tree provided a rare oasis of shade in the
flatlands. Its broad branches bathed the bare earth and rocks below in
a musty darkness. In the shade, dark shapes moved.

They had been there since the early morning when the kill was dragged
into the shade. Now it lay, its white bones exposed and with a black
skin that buzzed and took fleetingly to the air when approached before
swarming back to the carcass to continue gorging itself. The air was
heavy and they lay still now, overcome by lethargy brought on by the
heat and full stomachs. They moved about in the morning and afternoon,
their almost upright stance sparing the majority of their bodies the
assault of the sun, only the head and shoulders taking the heat
directly. Sometimes they hunted, more often they wandered the area
around the tree that was serving as home for the time being, searching
for discarded meat.

The dark and dusty earth under the tree was disturbed here and there by
the arthritic fingers of roots breaking the surface. In between were
scattered the bare bones and branches of previous meals, each stripped
of everything that could be used. Ranged here and there among the
detritus were the scattered and hairy shapes of the group, sleeping now
or engaged in some task of daily life.

A boy squatted between the bare thighs of his mother where she sat with
her back pressed up against the twisted trunk of the tree. She was
running her fingers through his tangled hair, pulling out grass, mud
and stones that he had picked up during the excitement of the morning.
It had been some time since they had last hunted and he had been too
young to understand what was going on and certainly too young to hold
one of the large bones they raised, double handed, above their heads
when surrounding the beast. But today he had gone with the men and now
his mind was racing - hunting again. He waited silently with them in
the wet grass in the dark before the day began. He moved with them step
by step, slower than the movement of the sun above them as they
followed the ambling group of animals as they ate and watched and
flicked their tails. In the shade of the tree, he squirmed under the
fingers of his mother as he thought about it. He was a man, squatting
with them, breathing with them, and pissing with them downwind of the
creatures. He laughed under his breath with them when someone stumbled
or farted. He tensed every muscle in his body, as he felt the man next
to him do, when they thought they had been seen. He chewed grass with
them.

When they finally ran it took him by surprise but he kept up, loping
through the long grasses towards the one they had gently persuaded away
from the rest of the animals. His legs kicked in the dust in front of
his mother as he thought about it. It was shocking how quickly the
circle formed, and how easy it was to press in amongst them as they
formed the ring, shouting in excitement and anticipation as they
jostled and pulled and pushed and struck. Shocking how changed everyone
was. The bone was heavy in his hands. He had never seen a beast move
like that. Never seen a man move like that.

It was an mm koko that they had brought down, one of the slender
creatures that wandered the savannah in herds. It had seemed to be
slightly lame as they were tracking it but when the attack came it was
both bigger and stronger than they had thought and took a long time to
fall.

His mother tugged at a stone that was tangled in the matted and dry
bloodied hair of his shoulder but it wouldn't come loose. She hissed
through her teeth and tugged at the stone again. He yelped and
struggled out from between her thighs into the sun and stood squinting
back at her where she sat, idly, in the shade. She looked down at her
wet fingers and rubbed the blood between her hands until it was
gone.

'Ta Pi!' She called his name. He stayed out in the glare, squinting
back at her. 'Ta Pi.' Giving up, she raised a hand to her forehead and
scratched her scalp and behind one of her ears where a trickle of sweat
was irritating her. Beside her Ta Ji, a small, jittery man, was leaning
back against the trunk of the tree, his legs thrust out straight in
front of him. He was staring up into the sparse canopy of the tree and
tugging at thin strands of root that stuck out of the powdery earth on
either side of him. His mouth moved rhythmically as if he were chewing
something. She thumped him lightly on his arm, dragging him away from
whatever scene he was running through his mind and he turned his
fragile head to look at her.

'Ssa ssa?' she said, gesturing to the hair on his back, asking if he
wanted to be groomed.

He grunted and turned his back to her so she could run her skilled,
mother's fingers through the black hair, looking for tangles and twigs
and stones or whatever else he may have picked up during the
morning.

A few arm lengths away, one of the women, Ta Mu, was fingering the
smooth, exposed bones of the kill and waving away the swarm of flies.
She tugged at a sinew string that was attached to one of the leg bones,
still half covered in short, coarse hair. She gripped it between thumb
and forefinger and pulled it to one side to expose more of the almost
shiny bone. Bending at the waist, her sensitive lips ran along the
smooth bone, teeth occasionally nipping a scrap of flesh. On the other
side of the carcass Ta Osk banged the ground with the flat of his hand
to get her attention and she looked up over the skewed leg that she
held in her hands, eyebrows raised to the maximum over her prominent
forehead. He gestured roughly to the carcass and said, 'Khakha ta ,'
meaning that she should clean the bones so they could be used. His lips
drew back over widely spaced yellowing teeth as he spoke.

She dropped the leg and it fell awkwardly towards her in a feeble and
belated kick from the fallen creature. She pushed it aside impatiently
and glared at the man, but he had already turned away and was
concentrating on some tangle in the thick black hair of his stomach.
Phshing though her lips, she put one foot against the body of the
carcass and began to pull and twist the wrecked leg away from its
moorings. Once the joint had been popped and cracked apart the job was
easy. By grabbing the top of the leg and pulling it towards her she was
able to peel the exposed bone away from the majority of the tissues and
fibres surrounding it. With the sticky and tattered thighbone in her
lap, she reached behind her for one of the flat shards of stone that
they used for khakha and put the sharp edge against the top of the
bone. With a long stroke away from her body along the length of it she
scraped away folded bundles of sticky tissue, which she wiped off the
stone and threw to one side before starting again. Before long she had
cleaned the bone and left it in the sun to dry. The animal had been big
and the bone would make a good club for the next time they went
hunting. By the next day it would be ready to use. Smooth and
dry.

Returning to the shade, she flopped onto her back and flung one arm
over her face, breath rasping against the soft and nearly hairless skin
underneath. It wasn't long before her toes were twitching gently and
her left leg was kicking fitfully against some imagined threat or
playmate.

The flatlands settled into midday silence and the grasses waved and
danced in defiance of the sun. Under the tree, sleep took hold of the
group and the shadow moved.

Ta Ko, lying spread-eagled on the edge of the shade, twitched and
fuffed as the sunlight found his eyes and woke him up. He moaned,
heaved his huge body upright, and stretched his arms awkwardly above
his head. He spat onto the dust between his legs, which turned dark
brown and bubbled, and looked around him. Getting on to his haunches,
he patted the sleeping figure next to him across the buttocks until he
turned over and squinted up against the light.

Ta Ko made two deep tutting noises with his tongue and gestured over
his shoulder towards the stream that fed the pool in the
savannah.

"Aa," responded the other man and sat up, wiping dust away from his
mouth.

The pair of them got to their feet and stooped over to the pile of
assorted tools that the group carried with them. From among the heap of
bones they pulled out two round skulls. The jaw bones had been pulled
off and the base of the skull, where the spine had been attached, had
been broken in and the edges smoothed. They each looped fingers through
the eye sockets and headed out into the sun towards the stream. They
had only gone a few dozen paces when a voice called out after
them.

"Ta Ko! Ta Ro!"

They both turned around and, shielding their eyes against the slanting
sun, saw a woman, Ta Zho, standing on the edge of the shade make a
twisting gesture in the air with one hand that asked them where they
were going.

"Pa shishi!" Shouted back the larger male, indicating the river. She
waved back and loped out into the sun after them. They waited for her
to reach them then turned back towards the stream. It was only a five
minute walk to the stream, which was one of the main reasons that Ta Um
had chosen the tree as a place where they could stay. Ta Ko had seen
the tree in the distance and brought it to her attention. She took the
group to stand under it while the younger members ran in different
directions to see what was in the area. With the news of the river and
the pool so close to the shade under the old tree, she sat down and
with a gesture of one arm, told everyone else to do the same. This was
a good place. They would stay. No one knew, or ever questioned, what
life would be like without Ta Um because she remembered things no one
else did.

The wind had picked up with the onset of evening and they each caught
smells drifting from beyond the borders of their daily life as they
tugged their sleepy legs through the stiff grass. It was a long time
since they were last on the move and they were all starting to get
sluggish and easily tired. The sun sat low and pregnant in the sky and
cast warm shadows on the plain. Ta Zho had pulled ahead and reached the
crumbling riverbank first. The two men, watching from a short distance
behind, saw her put her hands to her head and turn round to call them.
"Ta Ko! Ta Ro!" She was making wild beckoning gestures in the air and
the men broke into a creaky run to see what was wrong.

The three of them stared down into the scrubby riverbed. There were
stones and broken sticks visible poking out of the sluggish brown water
that hadn't been there in the morning. The image of everyone kneeling
down and dipping their lips easily into the clear rushing water of the
stream weighed heavily in each of their minds. Ta Zho could almost feel
the cold water splashing up into her eyes. That had been when they had
first come to this place. The water level had been dropping slowly for
the last few days. Shaking her head, Ta Zho took the two empty skulls,
lay flat on her stomach and reached down with one to the level of the
trickling water and held it up to the small ripple at the mouth of a
gap between two rocks. When it was full, she carefully passed it up to
waiting hands and it was laid down to settle. The same was done with
the second skull and they sat back to wait for a few minutes before
gently drinking the clear top layer of water that hovered over the red
swirling mist at the bottom. When they had all had enough water they
shook out the skulls and turned to head back towards the tree and the
group.

Ta Um dropped her head and stared at the ground between her folded
knees when Ta Ko told her the news. She was quiet for a long time
before she looked up at him again, squinting against the red dregs of
sunset.

"Kra?" She asked. (Completely dry?)

Ta Ko clapped his hands together and shook his head. (Empty.)

Ta Um dropped her head forward into her large hands and stayed
motionless for a long time. Ta Ko stood still and watched, his arms
hanging limply by his sides, waiting for what he knew must happen.
Eventually, she raised her head and looked at him, confirming that it
was time. Without taking her eyes off his she took a deep breath, her
tiny ribcage expanding to its full, and called out to the group. "Ta
Ta! Ta Ta!"

(Everyone!)