Mammoths

The heavens burned red with the return of day, it’s heralding Bright Disc crept up over the edge of the world, shooing away the darkness of night. Birds began their song to welcome the morning, the leaves on trees pricked up, and a herd of mammoths rustled from their slumber underneath them. The air was pleasant and sweet, morning dew had formed on their tufted fur, and it was, for the herd, another pleasant day like any other. That is, until the stones began to hit them, along with sharpened sticks. Surprised and drowsy, the mammoths stamped and trumpeted and fled in every direction. An aging and infirm male, who was identified by an upward inflected rumble he had made since birth, and which the herd mimicked when referring to him, could not move from harm’s way quickly enough and was toppled by a jagged stone that struck him above the left eye. Trumpeting and rumbling in a vain attempt to scare off the attackers, he lurched forward and fell to the ground.

Crazed hooting followed, and as the rest of the mammoths retreated to a safe distance, fourteen upright apes converged on their fallen uncle, Upward Rumble, and tore at him savagely with flaked stone tools. He trumpeted again, in anguish, and let out one last upward rumble as he died. The upright apes went to work rending his flesh, munching on bits and screeching to each other as they worked. They butchered off his right flank which had landed facing up, and most of his hind legs. They skinned as much of Upward Rumble as they could carry, and broke off his right tusk, and as quickly as they had came they scurried off back to the forest, hooting all the while.

The mammoths regrouped and prepared to charge back at the apes, but their attackers were already retreating with their bounty. The herd lumbered over to the remains of Upward Rumble, all the while rumbling to each other with that distinct upward inflection, tinged now with sadness. Whimpering, the matriarch, who was referred to by an abrupt, yet respectful bleat, nudged him softly with her head. She sulked back while two others attempted to lift Upward Rumble unsuccessfully with their tusks. The youngest among them began crying and circling the body, and after a few moments of grieving trumpeting, the whole herd fell silent for hours.

Next to the remains of Upward Rumble they began to scratch at the earth with their front legs and tusks — some young even grasped stones in their trunks to try to help. Two of their strongest members pushed the corpse into the shallow grave they’d dug, and everyone began to cover the body with leaves and twigs and dirt and stones. They trumpeted again loudly, and stood staring at the mound they’d built until the Bright Disc had finished its voyage above them, and the sky burned red once more, and the night had returned. No one among them had eaten all day and, tired and hungry and wracked with mourning, the herd began to fall asleep one by one.

The next day started much as the previous, Bright Disc above, birds singing, fresh breeze blowing, but the mammoths were sullen. Abrupt Bleat bleated abruptly, and the rest of the herd knew that meant it was time to trundle on. They didn’t move swiftly, the murder of Upward Rumble still fresh in their minds, but they didn’t stop until the night again had come. She was leading the herd toward the Bright Disc’s nightly repose, toward the open veldt. Upright apes stayed near the forests and rocky hills during the Long Days, and would be sated from their raid on her herd for at least three more days. In that time, Abrupt Bleat and her herd would be well out of the range of the apes’ hunting parties, and safe from future attacks.