Chapter 4

Waking up on his fourth day was an effort for Leon; he was exhausted from everything that had happened the previous day. But he had to get up, he needed food. He dressed, put on his knife, grabbed his spear and went outside.

Outside, the sun was rising into the sky and a slight breeze was blowing into the canyon, refreshing Leon. Standing at the mouth of his canyon, he looked around, trying to decide where he should try for some food. The hunters yesterday had come from the south, so that seemed like the best place to start. He started walking south.

He entered the trees and continued his journey. He had no idea how big this set of trees was, but logic said that it wasn't so big that it took more then a day's travel to pass through it. It didn't.

Just before midday, Leon suddenly stepped into the sun and was presented with the vista of open space. As far as he could see, there wasn't a tree for almost 5 miles in any direction, besides those behind him.

And the plain in between, was filled with different groups of various animals. From where he stood, Leon could clearly see groups of Elk, horses and what might have been Bison in the distance. All he had to do now was kill one of them.

Standing at the edge of the forest as he called it now, he thought about how he should go about getting some food. He already knew he wasn't going to kill any of the babies; they would grow into the food for next time. He also couldn't carry a full grown buck, so he couldn't kill one of them. That left only the elk that were in between; those that were born the year before.

Looking through the elk, he caught sight of a young buck, just developing antlers. Perfect. He looked around to see if anyone else was around or if the smilodon was around. Seeing nothing, he grasped he is spear, drew back his arm, sighted and threw the spear; aiming for the buck's chest.

The spear flew straight and true, but the buck moved at the last second and the spear penetrated its neck instead of its chest. It dropped to the ground and the rest of the elk bolted as Leon ran to claim his kill.

Looking over his kill, he pulled out his spear and examined the buck. He lifted the neck and allowed the rest of the blood to drain out of the wound in its neck before he hoisted up and slung it over his shoulders. With his spear in hand, he started for home.

As he walked through the trees and back into the sun, he saw that the herd of horses he had seen the previous day was standing around the entrance to his canyon. Figuring that they would scatter when he approached, he just continued to walk; except they didn't scatter.

Leon walked straight through the herd and the horses didn't even bat an eye or make a move. This didn't make sense to Leon so he turned and walked through the herd again, still nothing. Returning through the herd for the third time, Leon wondered if the horses could tell that he wasn't a threat to them. Something inside Leon seemed to agree and knowledge came to him that the horses were partially empathic, they could sense the intent of a person or animal.

Leon shrugged his shoulders and walked on to his cave. He dropped the elk to the ground, knelt and drew his knife. The next thing he knew was that the skin from the elk was hung up on a frame made from some of the wood he intend to use for a fire, the meat was chopped up into meal sized portions and the guts and intestines were no where to be seen.

This puzzled Leon greatly as he couldn't remember doing it, but he must have as time had passed and his knife and hands were covered in blood. Accepting that he had done the processing of the elk, he took the meat into the cave and thought about starting a fire to eat.

As he was ferrying the meat, he noticed that the horses were still grazing around the canyon entrance. Deciding to try something, Leon walked down to the herd and slowly moved into it. None of the horses moved, not even when he went up and stared at one of the mares. The stallion snorted but continued with his grazing.

He spent some time just being around them before he returned to his cave and cooked some of the elk, savouring his first meal in 4 days. He went to sleep that night deep in thought about what he should do next.