Jawbone

         The sunlight was dazzling. As always, the heat of the summer was drenching the sweat. However, two people who were separated from the tribe were fighting in the cave. In a strange dress which was made of deer's skin, the dust in her hair, a woman who perhaps had not been in the water for months, slammed someone like her but shorter against the walls of the cave. The cause of their fight will remain unsolved for a long time. The short one would be around 20 years old. She shouted at her, almost like a monkey. After all, short one was thrown to the ground and rescued from the stone walls of the cave. However, tall one stood up and gripped her with a sharp glance. Her wild eyes pierced the man from with in. She started to scream and weep. It was as if she was trying to tell something to her opponent. Short one moved her dirty, tangled hairs away from her face. Believe me, I wouldn't be surprised if I see any insect in that hair. Finally, their long pause is over by taller one pushing her. As soon as she hit the ground she made helpless face expression. The fear expressed in her face did not bother the tall one. The tall woman sat squeezing the other one's arms with her knees. She took the rock that was hanging from her belt, if you could call it a belt, it was simply a rope around her waist. The young woman who was laying on the ground started shaking her head and crying. She realized that if she couldn't save herself now, she would feel endless torture. After all, the tall woman raised her arms and hit her very hard. The young woman's loud shouting turned into weak wheezing. She hit her second time. Third...Fourth...Fifth... After the last hit, her head fell lifelessly. The tall one stopped with her arm in the air because she realized the screaming stopped. She looked at her, shouted a few times as if she tried to call for her. Then she shook the broken part of her skull. She touched the red liquid that was dripping from the corpse with her dirty finger and licked it. She carefully watched the red fluid flow rapidly. After realizing nothing new happens she got up and took a bite out of the flesh. She was eating with bitterness and greed, it caused choking. That made her cough a few times, later she continued eating in the same manner...The white moon was hanging in the sky. The ground of the cave was covered in dust and dried red liquid. Suddenly a grey wolf walked into the cave, it sniffed the woman. Then it took a big bite out of her flesh. The next day the cave was full of flies. As the days passed the area which fight had taken the place only had bones and insides of the defeated side. The years passed and there was nothing except the bones. There was a tribe that passed next to the Azykh cave. They were taking some bones playing with it, then they hang them to their belts. One of them took the jaw bone. He looked at it attentively and threw it far away...
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-What is this? And where does it from?- He said while pointing his index finger at the picture.

-Sir, it is the lower jawbone of a nearly 20-year-old woman. It was found in the Azykh Cave in Azerbaijan.

-Very well, I didn't know that archaic humans were living in Azerbaijan. 

-According to the research, they were living there for a long time.

- I will visit there after a week, I have new thoughts about that country now. Okay, you can go now.-He said and took a pen.

-Sir, do you ever wonder how all these bones came to our time. Or what did the people who these bones belong to, had to experience?- he said and looked at the man who was writing something. Silence filled the room. The only thing that could be heard was the pen quickly moving on the paper.

- Sorry? Did you say something?

- No, nothing... I didn't say anything.

   Translator: Ilaha Guliyeva                    Writer: Alishly Chinara