Mondo's Clan

Introduction: Dawn of time Chapter 1

I am Mondo when my story began I was 16 years old. My Father was killed by a cave bear 5 years earlier and my Mother was claimed by Grog.... Grog hates me The men are gathering for a hunt, we are traveling to a summer camp and need to have meat for the trek. Grog kicks me because he says I am too slow..... soon , very soon I will challenge him. He says my big feet make me clumsy. The men are ready to hunt and the Head man Tondor calls us to move out Lateen has spotted a herd of Bison not to far from our camp. We will trail them and set up an ambush. Tondor tells Grog and I to move ahead on the right while Lateen and Gorbus does the same to the left I ease behind a rock with my spear in hand when something startles the herd and they began running towards me. I hear a grunt and look over my shoulder and see Grog swinging his club at my head. My movement caused the blow to be a stunning blow instead of killing me it knocked me unconscious and I fell in to the stampede. Luckily there was a dead tree that had fallen and lay in their path and my lifeless body rolled under its branches I opened my eyes, my head hurt and I could hardly see. I try to stand but could not. I check and I still had my water skin. I took a drink and poured some over my head. Slowly very slowly I began to come to my senses. Grog tried to kill me before I could challenged him. Grog was about 5' tall and weighed about 200 lbs. I on the other hand stood at 6' and weighed about the same but where Grog was fat mine was muscle. One day I will take him down, maybe today when I get back to camp I found my spear and using it as a staff I made my way back to camp. Before I made it to the camp area I realized something was very wrong, no smoke, as I rounded the boulder that marked the entrance to the box canyon where the camp had been for months. Before me was a barren area no huts no people... I was alone... I collapsed to the ground The Clan probably thought I was dead , Grog would have told them that I got caught in the stampede. That was when I also realized that I did not know how ong I was out, as weak as I felt it could have been days. I knew where there were some berry vines near by and I went to them that at least gave me a bit of nourishment. After I had eaten my fill of the berries I made my way back to where the stampede had occurred. I followed in the Bison's wake. I don't know what I was expecting but ... where else was I to go, I had been following for hours when Bison's wake. I don't know what I was expecting but ... where else was I to go, I had been following for hours when I noticed a carcass. As I drew near I could see a spear sticking out of the Bison's belly. It must have eluded the Clan and died slowly. I took my flint knife and began the process of skinning it. Before I was half done I decided to build a fire to keep predators away. I gathered wood and pulled out my fire stones struck them together and directed the sparks to the tinder and in moments I had my fire I fed it larger pieces of wood till I had a raging fire I cut off some of the meat and placed it on a stone near the fire. Just by accident, a few years ago a hunk of meat was dropped into the coals of our fire. Some time later my Father noticed the tantalizing smell from the cooking meat he raked it out, brushed it off and took a bite. We each tried a piece of the cooked meat and now often meat he raked it out, brushed it off and took a bite. We each tried a piece of the cooked meat and now often cooked our meat. I stood up from placing the meat and went back to the skinning of the bison There was a stream near by so I decided to just stay right where I was. I made Racks and hung pieces of meat to smoke and to dry. I staked out the Bison skin and began to scrape the hide and tan it I stayed there for a week and ate my fill and although I heard predators almost every night my fire seemed to keep them at bay. I found some small trees with straight trunks about an inch to an inch and a half in diameter. I cut two about eight feet long then I cut smaller ones to make a spread of about three foot. These I tied to the longer poles to make a travois. I cut a lot of thin strips from the Bison skin for this and more to tie the skin and and the meat to the travois