Genesis (Cain and Abel #1)

Chapter Three

As time passed, the cold got worse. Fire became a necessity, and more clothing. Eve had had to take to dragon form one night and fly far, until she had found a bear. She had killed it and taken it back whole, dropping it out of sight. They had made its fur into thick clothing and dried its meat to carry on their backs. But even so, they were cold and hungry.

One morning, Eve collected the handful of tiny wild carrots she had unearthed and carried them back to where Cain and Abel waited. The elder of the two boys was already wide awake, sitting by his younger brother and watching over him with all the zeal of a mother. Eve couldn't help but smile despite the worry gnawing in her gut.

They were so thin, she thought as she knelt beside him and carefully divided her haul into two piles. Despite the fact that she knew he was suffering from the cold and hunger, Abel smiled at her. She hugged him.

"You should eat too," Abel pointed out, his voice bordering on accusatory.

"Oh, I ate my share when I found them." Eve hoped the lie didn't sound too contrived. She busied herself rousing Cain. "Go on and eat your breakfast. This valley is just a pocket; it doesn't go anywhere."

Cain's waking and her firm command forestalled argument. Abel did as he was told, then made sure his brother did the same. The meager meal was gone all too soon, vanished into bellies that could have done with a good deal more. Eve's observations of human kind led her to believe that young boys ate voraciously to fuel their growth. With no food, her sons seemed not to be growing much.

That realization drove her thoughts to darker places, but she didn't let that show on her face. She told the boys it was time to go, and they slowly ascended the icy wall of the glacier and set off across the blinding, snow-dusted surface. It cut up their feet even through their bear-skin boots, and the sun reflecting off the surface made their eyes smart, but there was no other way to move across the world. She just hoped they were going in the right direction-towards the parts of the world that Amos had yet to touch. If those parts even existed anymore.

That night found them on the glacier, with no sheltered valley to protect them from the night winds that turned their skin to ice. As the sun was setting, it was Cain who broke the despairing spiral of her thoughts.

"We sh-should keep walking." He tried hard to keep his teeth from chattering, but even in the dim lighting, Eve could see the faint bluish tint to his lips. He was right. Activity would generate a little warmth, warmth that would save their lives. If they chose to sleep out here in the open, they would not wake up.

And so they walked on.

***

By the time a year had passed, Cain and Abel were dying. The troupe had run into only a few animals, and the brothers were wasting away. They looked to her as their leader, but she had her own doubts about their quest. Eve struggled to find a direction for their journey. She was following Jaco and Iris's pleas to go south, but a little seed had been planted in her mind when she'd spoken to Amos that last time. Eden. The word haunted her.

Resting against an ancient tree while the boys ran off in the meadow before her, Eve tried to recall her hazy memories of Eden. Being over 10,000 years old, she had a lot of history to remember, and stretching back to her childhood was a struggle. Earlier in the battle of the ages, Amos had tried to erase her memory. He had not succeeded completely, but considerable damage had been done.

Sighing deeply, Eve watched the glowing orange orb of the sun drift into the horizon. The sun was older than she, she remembered; older than Eden. And while there was the sun, there was hope.

Suddenly, some images came into her mind: curling up next to her mother, feeling the vibrations of her future brother kicking from inside her mother's womb. Feasts of fruit and vegetables served at dinner around big fires. Elders telling tales of their youth-wild, adventurous stories that all the young dragons swore they would top. A handsome face smiling at her while they flew high above Eden, observing their fellow dragons below.