Dawn (In the Beginning)

Tree of Knowledge

The clan leader made his way back to the camp, his mind turning the events over and over as he trudged over the desert sands. The idea that he, a male, could be responsible for bringing children to life was foreign and exciting to him. His thoughts usually were filled with hunting food, mating, and the safety of his fellow clan members. Anything to do with children, their birth, upbringing, and care was left exclusively to the females. Usually the son of a clan leader’s mate stepped into place as leader of a clan when a new one was needed and most clan leaders did train that child for the task, but it wasn't unheard of for the leader to choose a different child than the son of his mate to train instead.

Sometimes leadership was challenged and clan leaders had to fight for their position. He himself had fought off a particularly aggressive and disobedient male at one point. When he had beat some respect into the younger male, his authority had been reinforced and he hadn't been challenged again. His plan had been to train the son of Nala to take leadership when she had one, but now her son had been born weak and small. Maybe she would have another, healthier, stronger son, but even he knew that most females rarely gave birth to strong children once giving birth to weak ones. He had heard of females of other clans birthing one weak child after another, having to live through the destruction of her offspring over and over. His own clan, the largest in the area as far as they knew, had rarely needed to kill a baby due to sickness or weakness. He felt pride in the strength and numbers of his group.

When he reached the encampment, he was instantly questioned as to the whereabouts of his mate. He briefly explained that she had birthed her child early and it had been killed. He said she had been ashamed and sorrowful and had gone to her mother's clan for comfort. His explanation seemed to satisfy the others.

He rested in his own shelter, but found it nearly impossible to sleep. He turned over and over in his mind the implications of males taking partial responsibility for giving children life. The more he thought about it, the more he wanted it to be so. Everything would change. Children would belong to both men and women. He was surprised and pleased with the amount of pride that seemed to come from the idea. 

Then he thought about the mate he had taken before Nala. She had a son. Was that son also his son? He had paid little attention to the boy and found he could hardly even call up a memory of what the child looked like.

It was evening, but most members of the clan were still awake and he got up and lumbered out of his shelter, looking around. There were still individual fires going at many of the clan member’s shelters and he headed in the direction of the male who had taken the female he had cast away when he'd found Nala and brought her back. Some males took more than one mate, but he had only wanted Nala when he took her and he thought it would be a waste of a good female to keep the other one to himself when he had no desire to mate with her any more. She was a very desirable female and another male had taken her quite eagerly when it was known that she no longer belonged to the clan leader. Before Nala, she had been the most desirable female in their clan.

He came to the shelter where she now lived with her new mate and found her there, sitting with her son. He stopped in front of the two and stared down at the young boy. He was only about three season cycles old, if he remembered correctly. The female looked up at him. Her name was Hera. He couldn't remember the boy's name, try as he might. So he asked.

"Daman," she replied, looking suspicious. She would be wondering why the clan leader was suddenly showing interest in her son. Of course, word travelled fast and she had most likely heard of Nala's failure to birth a sturdy child. 

Suddenly she stood up and looked the clan leader up and down curiously. She looked again at her son and then snatched him up and shoved him toward Corbin eagerly. She was indicating that she would be pleased to have him trained to take the leader's place when the time came for replacement.