In any case, the problem was that she hadn’t fulfilled her part of the plan. She consoled herself, thinking the boy had fallen asleep, and maybe Umma could escape from him when Ator arrived, without him waking up, something that would be happening at that very moment. But she was wrong: as she suspected, Tabal wasn’t sound asleep, and he felt the steps of someone approaching. Recognizing the one-eyed man immediately by his way of walking, his figure was faintly illuminated by the fire, projecting a ghostly shadow on the wall.

“What are you doing here?” he asked, standing up, with a hint of threat.

Ator was surprised not to see Kara there and not find her laying with the boy. He quickly suspected betrayal, but quickly dismissed the idea. Probably, the young man had ‘finished’ quickly, and she couldn’t keep ‘entertaining’ him, so she preferred to leave and not witness the scene.

“Get out!” demanded Tabal.

For a moment, Ator considered killing the boy. Despite having only one eye, the warrior was superior in combat to him, although in the dimness of the cave, he was at a disadvantage against a teenager in the prime of his visual faculties. Still, he didn’t give up on what he had come to do.

“You, be quiet. This has nothing to do with you,” he flanked him and approached Umma, who was starting to get up.

“I vouch for her; you know that,” the boy stood between the two.

“Step aside,” he muttered firmly, but Tabal didn’t move.

“No, Ator, you can’t touch her! Leave!” he shouted.

“Your shouting won’t help. The sound doesn’t reach where the others are.”

“Leave!” he repeated, extending an arm and pointing towards the exit.

But at that moment, Ator lunged at him, twisted his extended arm, kneed him in the stomach, and then forcefully threw him to the back of the cave, where he hit hard.

Tabal was out of commission, and Ator pounced on Umma, proceeding to rip off her loincloth and removing his own. Umma, who initially intended to let it happen, fought back and began screaming, but Ator covered her mouth with his strong hand. Then he hit the girl and forced her to lie on the ground. But when he was about to get the girl, he received a strong blow to the head. Tabal, although affected by the stomach pain and twisted arm, had enough strength to turn around and strike him from behind with one of his spears. The one-eyed man complained seriously about the blow and got up to engage with the boy, but as he did, he felt dizzy. The blow had been strong, and he stumbled, tripping, and then fell back to the ground.

Umma got up and covered herself, then asked Tabal:

“Is he dead?”

“No. Just stunned,” he managed to say, panting.

“What happened here?” Kara asked, just arriving. Umma looked at her and gestured with her head, turning it from side to side, as if indicating that things had now changed. That’s when she noticed Ator on the ground.

“We must escape before he wakes up,” said Tabal, addressing the girl.

“Escape?”

“Yes. You and me.”

The boy had been thinking about the idea of escaping for a while. He was certainly in love with Umma and couldn’t bear to see her die during the full moon. With Ator’s attack, he finally made up his mind.

“No, Tabal!” intervened Kara. “You can’t escape!”

“Why not?”

“Because Unnum is dead. Ator killed him, and now he is the chief.”

“Unnum is dead?”

Kara nodded.

“More reason to leave. Ator will kill both of us.”

Unauthorized duplication: this tale has been taken without consent. Report sightings.

“No, Tabal. If Umma were his wife...”

“His wife? Whose?”

“Ator’s. Being the chief, and if Umma is no longer a virgin, Ulla wouldn’t have a reason to sacrifice her, and...”

“I don’t want to be the wife of the one-eyed man!” the girl jumped, moving closer to the boy.

“Umma! You have no choice!” warned Kara, using her own language, the Kuru’s one.

“Let’s go now!” urged the boy, heading towards the exit.

“Wait, Tabal,” Kara stood in his way. “Where will you go?”

Kara knew that the chances of survival for two isolated individuals in the steppe, in those inhospitable places, and worse, being pursued, were practically nil. Only under the protection of a tribe could one survive, and barely at that.

“I don’t know where we’ll go. What I do know is that tomorrow is the full moon, and Ulla will execute her at dusk. And she’ll do it, whoever the chief is.”

“What if you’re the chief?”

“Me?”

It was clear that the second plan had also failed. Tabal was in love with Umma, and only over his dead body would he consent to Ator becoming her husband, which was the only way to prevent her death. What was worse, Umma also seemed to be in love with the boy. Two kids playing at being adults in a world surrounded by beasts, quite literally. So, Kara quickly thought and devised a third plan.

“Yes, you, the chief. Why not? There’s a more sensible way to end all of this, Tabal. Unnum is dead, but now you have to do the same with Ator,” she said, looking towards the man still on the ground. “If you kill him, you could be the chief, and Umma would be saved.”

“No,” he replied. “Even if I did, the others wouldn’t accept me as such.”

“Yes, they would! They are rough men, but they are used to obeying. With Unnum dead and knowing that you killed Ator, all it would take is a few shouts and a few orders, and they would obey without question. I’ve seen it countless times, Tabal!”

“And what about Ulla? Would she obey too?”

“I’ll take care of that witch. Don’t worry about her.”

The boy pondered the decision for a moment and picked up his weapons from the ground. Kara insisted,

“It’s now or never!”

“Then it will be never,” he replied, looking towards the one-eyed man, who was starting to revive. “I have never killed a man in cold blood, and this won’t be the first time.”

“But he tried to kill you!”

“No,” he replied calmly. “He just wanted to get me away from Umma. Besides,” he concluded, “I don’t want to be part of this tribe anymore, not even as a chief. I stayed with them out of loyalty to Unnum, but now that he’s gone... nothing holds me back. Let’s go!” He grabbed the girl’s hand, and she followed him without hesitation.

“Wait, Tabal,” Kara blocked their way again. “How will you survive out there?”

“I’m an expert hunter and know how to set traps. We’ll survive. Let’s go!”

The woman turned her head from side to side, but it was futile. She could see determination in a man’s eyes, and she couldn’t do anything to hold them back. Finally, Tabal headed towards a side of the cave she didn’t know, and they left through it. The couple embarked on their escape and disappeared into the distance, blending in with the night wind.

Kara remained a few more moments at the entrance of that secret exit and finally turned back to the cave. When she entered, Ator was starting to sit up, though very clumsily, and she considered whether she should kill him herself at that moment with her bone knife. Why hadn’t Tabal thrust his spear into him instead of just hitting him with it? She wondered. Certainly, he had the right to kill anyone who approached Umma. Was it because of a lack of courage?

No, certainly not, she answered herself. The bravery he showed with the aurochs ruled out that he was a coward. Certainly, that boy was special. He wasn’t like the other men! At his age, many had already killed several and even had children with multiple women. He was special, undoubtedly, just as Umma was, whom she had now lost. A tear escaped from her eyes, and she wondered what would become of them now. Two people couldn’t survive for long without the protection of a tribe.

That thought made her abandon the idea of killing Ator, remembering her other children. After Unnum, Ator was the strongest and most capable man in the tribe, and his leadership was necessary for survival. Something that Umma and Tabal probably wouldn’t achieve. Knowing how to set traps wouldn’t help if there were no prey. In that territory, only a few large mammals migrated north, fleeing the drought. Hunting them was a titanic effort that involved all the members of the tribe, and two isolated teenagers couldn’t survive for long on the scarce berries they could collect. Fruits already dried up after so many months without rain.

Finally, Ator sat up, lying back down on the ground with his hands over his face. She couldn’t see him well in the dim light, but he surely had a large lump on his head.

“Come on, Ator, sleep,” she leaned in, covering him with one of her hides. It was necessary for him not to sound the alarm so that the kids could escape. “Tomorrow you’ll feel better.”