The First Jumper (first draft version)

The First Jumper 35: The Mammoth

That was the longest and coldest winter in living memory.  Before they came to the end of it, they had repelled attacks from little bears and cave bears, from dire wolves and cave lions.  They had run out of food, and run out of wood.  Little Bear had helped them find food the one time, and everyone expected he would find it for them easily the second time, when the food ran out in mid-winter, but they searched for two entire days, without Little Bear finding anything other than a family of mammoths.

Only Cave Bear even had a memory of a mammoth hunt, and that had involved fifty men, five of whom had died.  He had been a boy at a time, old enough to carry extra spears, but no more.

He talked about the massive beasts, twice the size of a mastodon, and smarter, more cooperative, and nearly relentless in pursuit of an enemy.  "To wound a mammoth is to die," Cave Bear put it.

After two days, Little Bear looked around at his people, and realized they were starving.  It was six months into the winter, and the temperatures had not started to rise yet.

It had, so far, been a very good time for the tribe, despite the weather.  Two boys had come of age, giving the tribe two more warriors.  Half a dozen babies had been born, and four had survived.  Being in a relatively warm cave with plenty of food also meant that nearly every woman who wasn't nursing was pregnant.  Neither Willow or Blueberry was, but no one really expected them to be, yet.

The problem was that they were now out of food, and there was nothing out there but the few mammoths.

As Little Bear was getting to know his body, his Tarshen background was helping him understand more and more about how his body worked.  Lately, he had been able to tell that there was something missing.  He did not know what it was, but he needed something to keep his body healthy, and he wasn't getting it.  Thinking was getting to be hard.

He shook his head, and stood.  "We will kill a mammoth," he said.  He walked off to view the few remaining spearheads in his supplies, while the rest of the tribe murmured behind him.

There was one spearhead that was several times the size of any of the others.  Little Bear did not know any of the mysteries of making spearheads, but he had learned how to tie them onto the shafts.  Pomegranate had showed him that.  Spearheads generally picked their size, and the shaft size was fit to the spearhead, not the other way around.

He did not know why Bison would make such a large spearhead.  It was too big to fit on any spear, unless the warrior was three times Little Bear's height.

Little Bear had had a thought, hearing Cave Bear talking about how the mammoth had reared, then come down, swung its trunk, and then charged, trampling men underfoot.  He had seen mastodon rearing on their hind legs to reach browse off the trees.

Gerleesh's long legs reached far over her head, and allowed her to step very high, and reach up with her legs.  The mastodon which had run at him did so on legs that were more like the trunks of trees.  They could rear up on their hind legs, but they could not step over a barrier.  Given their size, he was confident that mammoths would not be able to jump more than a few inches.

It took two days for Little Bear to complete his mammoth killer.  During that time, the tribe got hungrier and hungrier.  Little Bear went out one time with Tiger, and brought back four rabbits.  That was enough for one good meal for the tribe.

Eating the rabbit, Little Bear noticed that his body was getting healthier again.  Something the rabbits were eating was in their meat, and it made him more able to concentrate.  He resolved to give that more thought, as soon as they were finished with the mammoth hunt.

They found the family of mammoths not far from where they had been before.  As with the mastodon, it was a pair and a juvenile.  This time, they didn't want to go after the calf.  If they attacked the cow, they would be attacked by the huge bull.  If they attacked the calf, they would have to deal with both parents, who would each be more dangerous than both mastodon.