For a long time we would simply refer to eachother as "human" but as our numbers increased, it would create communication problems.
I had come up with names for the different creatures in our world. The smaller ones that did not eat others, I had called "maum". The long, slithering ones, I had called "beo". The large, thick-skinned ones I called "arub". The fast, four-legged ones were "uam", the flying ones I called "jamn" and the big, crawling ones were called "lensel".
I decided then that each of the humans should have unique names so they too could be differentiated. I called my self Armun. My companion, we named Arbella. We named our oldest human Bansel and the youngest Dinna.
Bansel was finally learning to walk on his feet, although he fell a lot. He had also learned some words now.
He was yearning more and more for the outside, and had to be watched any moment. As pleased as I was with his growth, he was continuously causing me more anxiety. I didn't want him outside, where he could get hurt. He could be struck down by an anim and we could lose him. However, I could tell that our home was becoming cramped, now that we had three humans walking around. Perhaps I could alleviate his curiosity by expanding it.
I built a new wall, further away, and when it was done I tore down the previous one, and the room was now significantly larger. I built a roof, allowing a couple of openings between the skins so the light could come through.
Arbella suggested that we covered the walls with skin, so that the bones weren't visible. She also covered the ground under us with skins from uams, which were dark grey, rather than the red lensel skin that I had crafted the room with. At first I didn't see the point, but it occured to me after that it looked quite nice, and the skin under the feet felt more pleasant than the hard ground surface.
We would continue to improve our methods. I made our water storage larger, and washed the inside of the skin thoroughly so that it didn't mix blood into the water.
We sharpened our bone weapons against eachother, making them much sharper. We also learned the skill of throwing them rather than fighting with them in close combat.
I gave Bansel an unsharpened bone and began to teach him how to fight an anim. He was very excited to try this.
Time would go by, until one day, I was attending Dinna while Arbella was hunting, and I was celebrating that she had learned to crawl for the first time. Foolishly I was distracted, and failed to pay attention to Bansel, and only soon after did I realise that he was not in the home. I was horrified and immediately ran out, yelling his name. I came to the nearest crossroad, and couldn't figure which way he went, so I went back and used the stairs to climb to the top of the wall, where I would search for him from above. Only then I heard a cry. I ran the fastest that I had ran in my life, almost falling down from the ledge, until I saw him struggling against a beo, which already had sunk it's teeth into his small body. I leapt from the wall, not feeling the pain in my legs from the fall, and stomped the beast to death with brutality until I was certain that it had no remaint of life. Then I pried it's jaw open and carried Bansel home with fast steps, but not so fast that it could agitate his wounds too much. He had an expression of agony, and blood covered his stomach. I brought him home and laid him on a skin, looking at the wound.
Me and Arbella had both sustained wounds during the time we had been here. They would usually close after some time, if you laid still for a while. But I was still unbearably anxious. I hadn't seen an injury this bad before. I wished I could do something for him, but there was no option other than just sit there by his side.
"Feels bad..." he said several times in a pained voice, which hurt me deeply each time.
"Not go outside." I said, angrily. "Bansel not go outside."
He looked even more upset. I felt bad.
"Sorry." I said. It was a word we had made, but seldom used. I had created it after once when me and Arbella were angry at eachother.
"What?" Bansel did not understand this word.
"Armun not say words, that make you sad. Do that bad. Sorry."
Bansel thought this over. Then said; "Bansel not go outside. Sorry."
I smiled at him, but it was fake. I was still afraid for his life beyond what I could bear.
Dinna was next to me, but didn't understand what was happening. Arbella came home and was horrified by what she saw. She demanded an explanation and I gave it to her. She was angry at me for much time after. I didn't blame her.
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