Clarity's Doom (Ancient Origins Book 1) (19 page)

Clarity was watching him soundlessly except for an explosion of breath when he thundered into her once last time. Careful of his weight he lowered to press against the length of her. She was shuddering. When he released her arms, she pulled them to her chest and closed her eyes.

“Clarity, are you all right?”

“Now I see how you can kill dinosaurs.” The words were a mere whisper. She relaxed completely and Doom knew she slept.

Darkness was falling; shadow light lost their illumination to the farthest tenebrous cracks of their shelter until dusk was no more. The storm continued to rage to match Doom’s mood. They were safe, more importantly Clarity was safe. Nary a hybrid would survive if one so much as glanced in her direction. Safe in his arms it was doubtful one would dare. Doom had no idea there was power in love. For a moment, he understood there was power in hate, and that was what consumed the hybrids.

The thought of the hybrids made them much more dangerous when Doom put the reasoning together. An emotion so strong, so powerful and power filled he knew once the battle began only one side would be left standing. Doom had a village to protect. He led innocents to the slaughter to keep his people safe. No more. Safety was now on his terms. The hybrids were going to die. A shiver ran through Doom’s body. He cuddled Clarity closer.

I will prove victorious not because of the power of hate but because of love.

A small smile curved his lips and he was grateful.
One day,
he swore,
there will be laughter.

****

When Clarity roused, she was trapped in Doom’s arms. His weight was welcome and she settled her back further into his chest. When she twisted to gaze at his sleeping face, she saw he was smiling. Wiggling, she pressed against his erection and wondered what he was thinking of.

Sex with me, no doubt.

The storm was finished but only miniscule cracks of sunlight braved their way into the shelter playing peek-a-boo with the dark. Some vines had broken free of the rocks. Clarity wished the sun would rise, she was anxious to find the wild children. She had so many questions. She wondered how they learned to kill the hybrids. More importantly who showed them? Did a human survive the slaughter and collect wayward children?

The idea held merit. One she wanted to explore. Doom shifted and drew her closer. Clarity groaned and he stiffened. With a gentle hand he rolled her underneath him. They had slept naked. The fire died out, but she was warm. An exquisite kiss fell upon her lips. He then rested his forehead against hers.

“Damn,” he mumbled when he turned his head.

Clarity turned her head to gaze in the same direction. The sun had risen inches higher, enough for her to make out the chicken-sized dinosaurs bobbing and weaving outside their shelter. Their quick little innocuous actions of scratching the dirt and dipping their heads as though to peck the ground was deceptive, those claws of theirs could rip a human’s flesh, as well as their razor sharp teeth beneath their beaks. The buggers were taking quick glances at her. Doom rose and yanked on his pants. A few would be no trouble but by the amount of feet she saw there were a dozen at least.

“Can you get another fire started?” he asked.

“Sure.” Clarity scrambled into her own clothes and grabbed his tinder kit and her lighter. She soon had a larger blaze while flames licked twigs, old leaves, and broken pieces of root.

Doom opened a sack at his side and took a bowl from his pack. He dumped the floury contents from the sack into a bowl and from a bladder poured water. From the pack he removed a stained thick hide, rounded in the shape of a pan. From another hide-covered bladder, he squeezed out a blob of semi-melted fat onto the hide. The sides of the pan were little more than an inch high molded to stay in place.

Taking a few rocks to set under the rounded pan Doom moved heated ashes just below the stones making certain the hide wasn’t directly on any flame. The fat heated quickly and sizzled across the pan as he tilted it back and forth to even the contents. Doom handed the floury paste to Clarity along with a wooden spoon.

“Drop the batter in to form patties. Use the tongs and turn them, don’t let them burn.”

Clarity did as he said. “Caveman bannock,” she mumbled.

“Stay here.”

Doom took his knife and axe from his rope belt. Clarity peered out and eyes wide watched him in action. There were decidedly more of the critters than she first assumed. The small dinosaurs must have figured their number would give them an easy meal, not so. Without a sound Doom hacked through the neck of one leaping squawker, and it squawked no more. The same fate befell ten more before the bird-like creatures realized their number was sadly diminished.

Using his knife he gutted three of the small birds moving quickly. Guts, feet, and heads went flying in his zealous hurry. Clarity covered her mouth to cut off a scream. The smell of blood attracted a larger dinosaur. Doom grabbed a few sticks, three of the dead dinosaurs he gutted and crashed back into the shelter, rolling under the sheet of heavy moss. He was smiling.

“Do you see what’s out there?” her whisper was high pitched. A monster dinosaur was lurking.

“Relax. That old character doesn’t want to tangle with me. He’ll grab the ones I killed and be happy. He and I have an understanding; he leaves me alone and I don’t break a leg.”

As Clarity watched the old dinosaur, she did see it limping. The beast tossed one after the other dead dinosaurs into his mouth and seemed content as it chewed. Clarity scooted as far back as she could into the shelter when he dipped his huge head and peered at her with a large eye, its head cocked. Doom was spitting the three small dinosaurs he caught. He turned the patties she made in the pan. Clarity sat back watching as the dinosaur head tried to poke its way into the cave. Inches from Doom were razor sharp teeth. The moss draped the creature’s grey head giving it the appearance of hair, comical horror. Doom crouched preparing food as though man’s best friend waited for a scrap.

The dinosaur huffed, ruffling Doom’s pants. “Go on, these are mine,” Doom called. He whacked the tip of the dinosaur nose with the wooden spoon. Clarity knew her eyes were round as saucers at the exchange.

The beast let out a low pleading growl making Doom groan. He lifted a small dough patty from the pan, blew on it, and pitched it out the door through a narrow opening by the dinosaur’s head. The dinosaur shifted back and sniffed the bread. Using its tongue he curled it into his mouth. After a while the dinosaur ambled off and Doom handed Clarity a piece of meat, charbroiled on the outside pink in the middle with the bread.

“You’re supposed to thoroughly cook chicken,” Clarity said.

“Maybe so but this is a dinosaur.”

True.

She took a tentative taste. It didn’t taste like chicken. It was a bit gamey, but good. Doom had eaten a whole dinosaur before her piece was gone. He handed her more, then he gave her his water bag. The bladder of some largish animal was wrapped in a hide to keep it from leaking.

“Can I ask you something?”

“Sure.” Doom munched giving her his undivided attention.

“Your people have a wonderful way with food. But how do you make cheese? I’ve been thinking on it since I saw it, ate it, you must get milk from somewhere.”

“Every other spring there is herd of mammals that would have been hunted to extinction unless we interfered to keep them safe. They are water and land animals. They are covered in long fur and underneath is a heavy layer of blubber. They live far north, but the females come here when the snow has barely melted to give birth to their naked babies. The males I guess desert them. They make the trek in herds. Unprotected when giving birth or heavy with pregnancy, they’re easy targets. A gentle animal. Large. I haven’t seen any kind of defense. My guess is they were close to extinction.

“Other animals know the creature is vulnerable. The babies are helpless, their mothers exhausted from the journey and giving birth. The young don’t develop legs or flippers to move them across the land to the water for three days. During that time the fiercely protective, yet defenseless mothers won’t leave their young even if it means their death. My people harvest their milk. They have tons. It literally spills from them. When the beasts found out we wanted the milk and not their babies or them, they allowed our approach. In return we guard them until the babies are ready to make a return trip.”

“You harvest milk?”

“Sure why not? Don’t humans?”

“Well, yes but…”

There really was no point in continuing. She wondered if Doom and his people had been told about cows and goats. From his Cheshire gaze she imagined he had. A beast almost hunted to extinction until help from another with a means to an end stepped in. Considering it was a win-win situation, they all benefitted. The idea also explained the tasty butter. Clarity accepted another piece of meat and more bannock. The warm roll was roundish and delicious, cooked in the fat. Doom ate no more until she was finished and full. He then polished off the remains.

Doom stood, though slouched under the stalactites, and stomped out the fire. “Now that the storm has stopped this isn’t as safe. We need to get moving. Raptors are rare in this area; the hybrids hunt them to give the humans a chance at survival until the sacrifices. There are other dinosaurs as dangerous, but not as cunning. The raptors are smart, they know to stay away, but two humans alone is a tempting target.”

When he looked her over, she knew he meant
she
was the tempting target. Clarity rose and took Doom’s hand. As her eyes adjusted to the light, she paused. A movement to her right made her turn. There was a young man in the distance. She couldn’t tell his age from where she stood. He wore very little. His wiry limbs were thin but his chin was set in a defiant way. Clarity bet there was strength to the child-man. He appeared human and alone. His stance led her to believe he was either born here to humans on this planet, or had been here a long time.

She whispered quietly to Doom and bid him to look in the direction she was gazing. Doom turned. The male vanished. Clarity blinked thinking her eyes were playing tricks but he was gone. There was no puff of smoke, no black hole. He simply disappeared.

“Well, that was odd,” she said.

“What’s odd is seeing a wild child and others after all this time.” Doom’s look was thoughtful. “I never in all this time knew they existed. Or how long they’ve been here. They must be terrified.”

The man-child hadn’t looked terrified to Clarity; he seemed pissed.

“You said humans weren’t allowed to leave the village and yet here I am. Maybe the boy was curious. Could he be from another village?”

“Not a chance.”

“I wonder who he is and how long he’s been out here,” Clarity mused.

“From the glimpse I got, he looked maybe mid-teens. It’s the younger children I’m more concerned with. We should start with them. If that kid is that fast, we’ll never get him. Who knows how long he’s been out here, he could be dangerous. Especially if he’s survived with dinosaurs.”

Clarity agreed, though as Doom walked away, she stood a moment longer hoping to catch a glimpse of the young man. Reluctantly, she turned and headed after Doom. The scenery never ceased to amaze her. Supersized foliage and large, ripe berries. It wasn’t the size, but the sheer amount in single areas. Enough to feed Doom’s village for a month. An entire bush the length of a football field was dotted in red.

As they walked past the bush heading in a different direction, Clarity reached her hand out to grab a few in a single swoop. It took only three to fill her palm. She munched on them enjoying their flavor. Mushrooms larger than life were enchanting. There were differences she imagined. If this planet never suffered the ravages of Mother Nature nor the vicious assault from the sky, things would have progressed differently.

Open fields in the distance from their elevated mountain perch showed Clarity where they collected grains of varying kinds. Long fields stretched with oversized elk and mega reindeer. Their numbers were small, including a group of mismatched massive buffalo twice the size of ones on Earth. The buffalo might have been all males, she wasn’t sure, but the reindeer had young. Their racks stretched so long it was hard to tell where one antler started and another began.

The high grass reached the underbellies of the beasts. In the far corners, she noted a slinking motion and Clarity wondered if dinosaurs were hunting in a pack. She soon found out when a sabre-toothed tiger lunged onto a full-grown reindeer, sinking its over-a-foot-long fangs deep into the animal’s throat. Blood spurted soaking the cat’s face and throat. Mass panic ensued.

“They do hunt in packs,” she whispered. “I wonder if they’re female or male or both.”

Smaller cats hung back, younger in appearance, learning the trade. Five large cats targeted the same animal. The next attack was to a leg where it was hamstrung. Each cat went after a different artery and backed off, watching and waiting while the deer bled out. The majestic animal wobbled in no time, the ground soaking up the red offering. When it finally fell, Clarity let out a breath she didn’t know she’d been holding. Her heart was pounding in her ears at the savagery. It was hard to believe a bigger threat was the hybrids.

She gazed up at Doom. “How on earth do you survive here?”

Doom grinned. “We also hunt in packs.”

Clarity recalled a few of the furs she had seen; many were the same as the large cats below. As she turned, she stifled a scream. A massive sabre was no more than fifteen feet from them, head low, hackles raised. Doom lifted his spear.

“Do you really want to mess with me?”

Rage replaced Doom’s cocky grin as he clutched his weapon tight. His defiant stance was rock solid as he stood feet braced. Clarity swallowed hard, if she were the cat she’d turn tail, literally, and run. The cat roared and leapt away. The expression on Doom’s face would have made her run, too. Her leather shoe booties would be half way to China before her legs would think to move, he was
that
scary.