Somewhere, further north, a Neolithic tribe of human stock was struggling to simply survive the cold and hunger.

The universe was harsh and completely unhinged.

Deep in a cave, an untold wealth for a tribe, was a shaman.

He was like all the members of the tribe, covered with the skins and furs of elk, buffalo and bear. The bear's head served as a hood and helmet and the rest as a cloak to protect himself from the elements with the thick fur.

The overhanging head also gave it a larger size and an intimidating aura like the one that could be given by the terrible predator of which only the fur and some teeth remained as a collar.

At the bottom of the cave, points of light tinted the walls. As if the cave had been covered in places with crystals or cemented glass reflected in the dark by the firelight.

The cave thus reproduced the sky and different events.

The shaman knew the history of the world by oral transmission. The history came from his father and his father's father until the time of the great extinction, the destruction of the world by the destroyer.

Tau stood up and his wife Rothe arrived with her son and other teenagers who had come of age to perform the ritual to become a recognized adult.

The mothers accompanied their teenagers. There was no distinction between boys and girls, but the mothers raised the children and infants while the father and the warriors went hunting.

And there was also the great hunt, the hunt for big game. Necessary to get through the winter. Without it, there would be losses due to disease and malnutrition, not to mention predators from the megafauna.

He turned to the five teenagers and took a balm of colored paint and smeared the foreheads of the youngsters with a red color, signifying blood but also life.

Then he threw some herbs into the fire. (Good herbs!) and they began to hover and see the creation of their world.

In reality they were in a trance but their minds were guided by the shaman.

He covered the light of the fire with a plate so that the cave would be darker and he took a torch and put it in a base.

Thus, at a certain angle, some stars on the ceiling gave shapes and among these, one could see a circle with people inside. This was the world before.

There were castles and houses of men with big ears, certainly elves.

There were green, black and blue people who held hands and all had bows.

There were also many men with round ears and they were giving their hands to the men with long ears.

Small fat men fought against the big men with big ears.

But all of them joined hands in front of a huge lizard with wings and fire.

There were many lizards and fewer and fewer men. But they prayed to the sky and to their gods.

The gods were slow and deaf.

There were also many men with horns, small ones, big ones and giants with clubs.

Everyone was banging on each other to eat the hairy elephants, fish and dinosaurs.

Big dinosaurs ate the men but they grew in numbers behind walls. Cities.

Then many cities and kings...

Then the Gods were frightened. They were represented by very large figures that laughed and cried or threw lightning...

And they all pointed their fingers to a circle.

The star of destruction.

The ball pierced the gods and 8 heads came out of the ball and each head was biting a god.

The blue ball broke the black ball.

And many figures were lying down, symbol of death.

Then fire

Then ice

Then the Octahedron with an all-seeing eye and a black ray.

The mountain of death.

At the base of the ray, monsters and lots of teeth.

The mountain that devours.

Taboo!

The shaman explained that it was necessary to flee from the black ray and that animals that came into contact with it turned into monsters.

Then he moved the torch to show another scene.

Long-eared men in a forest and with bows are hunting round-eared men and they are in a cave.

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They are also chasing the small round men who are also going into another cave.

Then he showed the cave of the round-eared men: HERE!

The lesson was simple but easy to tell and to pass on.

The dwarves were allies and the wood elves were enemies.

One had to beware of the black rays, the cursed mountain and beware of the carnivorous dinosaurs. Some were bigger than others. They called them the slashers.

And the greatest danger came from the winged lizards.

After the cataclysm there were almost none left, but those who survived were those who took refuge in the deepest caves and still had a usable exit.

Hunger and cold wiped out the rest of the survivors and injured.

It took centuries for the planet to recover.

On the map, there were more men near the sea than in the mountains.

But the tribe was surrounded by enemies and stuck here.

So the young people had no illusions. A hard and difficult life awaited them, but only the number and quality of the warriors could bring an improvement to their daily life.

Then Tau took a stick with a roughly cut glass indicating a point on the vault of the cave,

Depending on the date and season, the point would meet a rock drawing showing bison and men throwing arrows and bison falling off a cliff. The cliff of death!

The great day was approaching and only the elite warriors could participate in the long and dangerous march to the migration point of the buffalo herds.

In preparation for this, the whole tribe worked hard.

Kedra, the youngest son of the chief, probably 13 years old, was equipping himself with horn knives and, like all the others of his age, was preparing assegais and gas pedals to throw farther.

Tau inspected the nets and lures as well as the tips of the spears, their sharpness and strength.

They could not afford any mistakes.

Scented grease with buffalo urine was also prepared so that the human smell would not betray them.

Only an arrow bow was ready and pitch to ignite arrows, assegais or torches was also provided.

Every backpack counted and with the double equipment just in case...

There was also a lot of rope but not enough materials... It was necessary to refill the leather and thus to hunt.

With their almost nomadic way of life, going from cave to cave on a territory as vast as it was devastated, mountainous, cold and windy, life was rough and cut with a knife. Not to mention the dangers that lurked at every moment.

Survival was a challenge.

The next day, straw targets were set at different distances and each warrior had to hit the assigned target from a distance.

Some with an assegai, others with a gas pedal, a bone carved with a notch for an extra trigger.

Others with a large spear and the most dextrous with a throwing axe. And finally, the knife.

Weighted nets were also thrown and tactics and hand signals were organized so as not to make noise, excite the game and ultimately risk destroying a hunt.

Then, a whole ritual was dedicated to the gods of rain, wind and travel and to the goddess Moon and the sun for a good hunt.

Sacrifices were brought to an altar and the smoke and direction sometimes indicated answers that only the shaman and clan leader could interpret.

The shaman was also the healer and collected herbs and plants to cure most infections, well, what was still treatable.

Spiritual magic was weak, but it did exist and taxed strength (Mana). It was used when balms and bandages were insufficient or when there was a deep wound or poisoning. But it was limited to the equivalent of minor healing and cleansing.

In general, a deadly wound remained a deadly wound.

These humans, well, this tribe had lost a lot and the migrations, escapes and crossings of the Jurassic areas had taken a heavy toll on them.

They had reached the point of praying to anything and anyone to get them out of this hell of rock, ice and cold.

Kedra had, like his comrades, passed all the tests, but he was frail, skinny and did not have the Norman armor build of his father. They made fun of him but each individual of the tribe was a treasure and they knew that their survival depended on the cohesion of the group.

Sito, Kedra's best friend, had also passed the tests but Rhot stepped in.

"Tau... our son is not ready! He will be a good Shaman like you, but not a warrior. I beg you, let him stay here!"

Furious, Tau stuck his spear into the ground and pulled their youngest son out of their yurt.

The yurt was a nomadic dwelling where several family members could live and reside with a fire in the center and a skin structure to keep warm and be protected from the weather. This method of construction is ancestral and has remained virtually unchanged for thousands of years.

"Kedra!! Kill! "

Tau roughly gave his son a dagger and pointed to a trapped warthog with long tusks. It was tied to a stake and its legs were untied so that it could attack. It was a wild animal and impossible to domesticate.

The tribe did not have the knowledge or the means to start farming and breeding, especially in such a desolate and cold place.

The monster growled as Kedra approached, armed only with his knife, facing a boar three times his size!

Her suede and fur clothes were no match for the animal's tusks.

The parents and warriors were watching the test and how Kedra would do it.

But he took his net and threw it over the charging beast and it got tangled up and fell.

Kedra jumped on her back and stuck her knife in the carotids and walked away, waiting for the wild pig to die.

Tau cheered, as did the warriors, and his mother spat on the ground, whimpering.

"Kedra. Idiot!"

The mother was a mother. Often gifted with a sense of danger and her instincts never betrayed her.

"Tau, if you go with Kedra, he won't come back! I can feel it, I'm afraid.."

Tau frowned

"Who told you that? Is it the black mountain again?"

She lowered her eyes.

"Leave me alone... Tau."

He remembered Roth lying unconscious, trembling beside animals that had become monsters.

He had pulled her immediately out of the cone of darkness that had hit the area once.

Since then, she had been praying to the mountain, begging to spare her and her tribe from his wrath.

Roth then went into a rage, a rage...

"I have seen the mountain! And if we want to live...we must pay the Djizira!!! "

Tau: "Honey, calm down...they will think you are possessed! possessed by the Destroyer... Get a grip on yourself...And then, we can't afford to pay the tribute! the Jizira as you say! We have made all our offerings to our gods and ancestors. You are not going to provoke their anger!

Roth fell to his knees and wept. "You don't understand anything. There is only the black mountain...your spirits, your gods .... they never answer because they are dead!! you HEAR! THEY ARE DEAD... DEVOURED BY ... BY THE BLACK MOON, And the cone of night... It's his eye!"

Tau: "Shut up! You've been going crazy since..."

Roth: "No... I've opened my eyes and I see spirits as well as you do!"

Tau: "I'm leaving and when I come back if I hear such blasphemies again, I'll choose another wife or concubine..."

Roth broke down in tears and went to hug his child to console himself.

Here, too, beliefs were hard as men.

No one gave gifts, even to the wife.

Kedra loved his mother immensely and secretly respected her belief. But he was angry with himself and also with his father. But life was like that.

And in the middle of the night, the men and hunters left the temporary village to set out on the long hunt, which would last a month to go and a month to return.

The path avoided the forest and entering it meant a death sentence. The elves were uncompromising, but they did not attack the hunters if they stayed on the paths outside.

The only exception was the crossing of a river or access to a spring, because as in the animal kingdom, the source of water was for all. The strongest were the first to be served.