In a dusty mud hut lying down was a young raggedy looking child. The floor was full of animal skins laid on top of old dried leaves. The hut was quite small only about four of five meters in width with a circle foundation. From the open entry way, soft wind blew in pushing in new dust accumulating at the bottom of the walls with the old dust.
With dirt suddenly blowing onto his face mao opened his eyes and wiped the dirt out of his mouth. Staring at the thatched roof blankly, mao thought about how he got here. Only a week ago he was on vacation in Turkey with his family but the next thing he knew he was a kid in some kind of tribal group.
Getting up, mao picked up the animal hide he had slept on, rolled it up and set it in a wood box in the corner of the hut. It wouldn't do if it got full of dirt before sleeping on it again he thought.
Mao walked to the hut entrance and exited into the morning sun. looking around, it seemed most of his fellow cavemen were already out and about. The tribe was located around a low hill with quite a large base probably spanning three or four kilometers in diameter. On one side of the hill a few hundred meters from the bottom was huge lake.
All around mao could hear the sounds of stones hitting and men grunting. Today was the day the hunting team left, and all the tribesmen who were going out could be seen preparing. his next door neighbor "Ta" was hitting a stone axe in a precise manner, sharpening it. "morning kid" said Ta looking up at him. Mao simply nodded to him as a greeting, he wasn't very familiar with anybody in the tribe yet but this neighbor had at least helped him out earlier on when he had just woken up in the tribe.
It had to be said his situation was quite strange, from what the others said when he woke up some kind of celestial phenomenon had shined on his hut. Even the shaman who would rarely descend from the hill to the lower "poorer" part of the tribe had come.
Opening his eyes and seing a wrinkly old half naked dude with a beast claw necklace and stone earrings observing him from 2 cm away had been quite the shock.
From what he could gather the boy, who's place he took, had been orphaned the month before. His parents didn't come home from a hunt, some kind of freak accident involving a 10 meter tall bear vicious beast apparently. The boy had always been quite weak and when both his parents didn't come back he hadn't been able to pull himself together, falling severely ill.
The neighbors and tribesmen who were part of his parents hunting team had sent food over and tried to help the boy but to no avail. In a tribe like this the orphans were indeed cared for but not overly so. Although unusual this was still a savage tribe after all and useless people would not be very cared for.
Walking around the huts, mao made his way to the small stream near the base of the hill. This stream opened up into the big lake on one side and on the other continued into the ancient forest behind the tribes land. This forest is the hunting ground for the tribe, teeming with extremely vicious monsters and animals that only trained totem warriors could hunt.
Looking at his reflection in the clear stream water Mao's young face could be seen. with short black hair angled brown eyes he indeed looked quite ordinary. "Of course i had to be reborn with a crooked nose as well".
Mao splashed some water on his face then continued walking downstream zigzagging through the huts that bordered the stream. Along the way a lot of people looked at him with inquisitive eyes.
It couldn't be helped he thought. "I too would look strangely if someone was suddenly brought back from a half dead state with Golden orange light from the heavens illuminating their hut in the middle of the night".
Finally arriving at the lake mao crouched down and peered into the water. Even from a small distance away he could see fish swimming about merrily. from the moment he first saw them he wanted to catch some. In the tribe no one knew how to fish. F
For food the the totem warriors would hunt beasts in the ancient forest and forage for fruits. Food was not abundant by any means and people at the bottom of the hill would often be hungry but it was enough for survival.
But mao wanted more. Since he wasn't a totem Warrior he couldn't go hunting in the forest, only the tribesmen who had awakened totem power could hold up against vicious beasts living within.
Unfortunately mao was only 13 years old and would only be allowed to awaken next year, this was what Ta had told him. In the tribe all young men and women aged 14 would go to the ancestral obelisk at the top of the hill before winter to awaken. Ta had told him there was a chance higher chance of failure before the age of 14 which is why for generations children would wait until then to awaken.
Mao hadn't been able to get all the details from the awakening ceremony but apparently it involved vicious beast blood and had a certain chance of failure.
Mao stood up and mao walked back to his hut. Outside his hut against the wall was a long straight wood stick with a thin vine rope attached near the end. This is what mao had been working on since the day before. He went over to the hut next door and approached Ta who was still sharpening his axe. " Have you finished that stone hook i asked if you could make ?"
With a grunt Ta paused his work and threw over a small item. It was the hook mao had asked him if he could make the day before. "Thank you" Ta didn't look up from his work, only answering with another grunt.
Thinking about it, the language the tribe people spoke was indeed quite foreign and strange but when mao first woke up he could directly speak it, as if he had learned it from a young age.
Back at his hut mao attached the stone hook to the end of the vine rope. looking at it now, it all seemed oversized. Mao wasn't sure any fish would bite a hook the size of a spoon. The rope also was a problem, the only thing he could find had been this finger large vine rope.
Finally after assembling the fishing rod, mao picked up a stick he had found with descent floating capabilities and tied it to the rope an arms length from the hook. He hoped this would work as a floater.
Looking up at the sky it was still morning so mao ate a fruit and headed back out to the lake, this time gathering even more glances with his strange long stick contraption resting over his shoulder.
"Hey look he's doing something weird again !" Ke a boy around the same age yelled as he rushed over with a small group of kids.