It's been a long time now, where I've been hunting, and building my wall. I started a second wall, that didn't cross the entire passage. I covered the opening with a skin, so that I could enter and leave the room I had created.
It took a while to make it, but I felt happy doing so, now that I finally had a task to finish. Once the wall has been built, I look up. I'm still not protected from the birds...
Then I collect skins and bones and create stacks, one taller than the next, until I've invented stairs, that let me easily climb up onto the wall.
Finally, I place bones across the passage, and skins on top of them.
I've now built a room, with a roof as well. It's slightly dark inside, but it's safe. I've grown fond of this place... it is a Home.
As I continue surviving, I eat the creatures, and I find a plant as well from which the fruits can be eaten. I figure out how I can bring water with me home. I take a skin and stick a bone through it, which keeps it in a shape that can hold water.
Now I've become proficient at hunting, and I feel that I have made the best of my circumstances.
But now I can't find more to do. I've discovered quite far but I haven't found anything new, it's just more of the same mazes and creatures.
I find myself lying in my room a lot of the time, restless. It feels meaningless once again. And there's another deep unhappiness in me that I can't define.
Then, after much time... I'm just out hunting, when I see something new.
In the middle of the passage, there is someone... who looks just like me. A person with four limbs, two eyes, a nose and a mouth... slightly shorter than myself. I haven't seen my own face, but I can count all the same features.
I walk towards her. She steps back, and looks frightened. She is just as confused as I was, when I first arrived.
I raise my hands slowly, trying to communicate that I won't hurt her.
After a moment, she raises her hands too, and I touch mine to hers. It seems she understands.
I get a pleasant feeling, and the unhappiness seems to fade away. I'm finally not alone.
She seems to trust me, and I lead her back towards my home.
On the way, however, one of the slithering animals spot us. It darts towards her. The other human is frightened, but I step in the way and quickly strike it with the bone. It is soon dead.
She looks at it, confused by the circumstances. I decide to show her the meaning. I bring her with me through the maze, and eventually I find an animal eating the meat of another animal. I show it to her, pointing to the animal and then making a gesture of putting it in my mouth. It seems strange to her, but she understands somewhat.
I bring her back to my home.
Over the following days, I teach her to hunt and survive. I'm increasingly happier with her companionship. It gives me a new sense of purpose. She has grown more used to the world now. As we spend time together, however, I long to communicate with her more deeply. I figure out that I can make different sounds with my mouth, and begin to come up with specific sounds for objects. The first thing I come up with is a name for creatures, since I would like to be able to warn her when we are outside.
"Anim." I say, pointing to one of the small, harmless creatures outside. She's doesn't immediately understand what I'm trying to do. I decide to come up with another word. "Wall." I say and point at the wall. She seems to understand that I'm communicating somehow.
"Anim?" she says, pointing at the creature again.
"Anim." I say.
She seems to want to create words as well. We come up with a word for ourselves: "Human". And for the room we live in, we call it "Home". For the colours above us, we say "Sky".
From here we start making many words, for agreeing and disagreeing we made "Yes" and "No" and we made "Eat" and "Drink", and "Hunt", and "Bad" and "Good". Soon we could have simple conversations.
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