Chapter 1.13 - We Were Here

 

Auru and Strong Elk dropped the white, bloody tusk in the dirst in front of Eshana’s bare feet. The lines on the crone’s face did not move. Only her eyes, vibrating, suggested any motion to the woman at all...until she looked up at Auru and said, “Then, it is done.”

Auru’s chest, painted dry with the blood of the mammoth, heaved and fell. Quietly, the caveman nodded his head. “It was a difficult hunt,” he said, while Billy looked alongside him, quietly. “But not for the reasons you’d think.”

Eshana slowly turned her head towards Strong Elk, whose face was once again hard and impassive. “No,” she said. “I am well aware. You have done well.” Her eyes flickered towards Billy. “All of you.”

That, more than anything, hit Billy deeply, and for a moment he was afraid he might start crying again. Instead, Billy lowered his head in deep respect.

While Billy couldn’t remember a time in his life where he’d stared death directly in the face, and felt he was entitled to a bit of congratulations, Eshana’s nonchalance suggested she wasn’t about to throw a hero’s banquet. “I suspect there’s no point in sending out a party to collect the flesh, bones, and skins,” the old woman said, while Kido graciously helped her onto her feet. “If the poor wretch was tainted by spirits, it could well poison the meat. Better to leave the beast where it fell, with its people.” With solemn respect, the eldress looked to the icons on the altar. “The gods are pleased. Even the wind is different. It feels right again.”

Surprising Billy, it was Strong Elk who spoke up in Auru’s favor. “Eldress of the Bull Clan,” he started, “Auru has fulfilled your request. As Chieftain of the Elk Clan, I give him my blessing as eternal brother. Will you give him yours?"

Billy felt time stop (not literally). He held his breath.

It was the first time he heard Eshana laugh. It was young. Melodic. Happy. “Obviously,” she huffed. Without assistance of Kido or her walking stick, the old woman grasped Auru’s hands in her own. “Auru. You are now one of us,” she said. “Welcome home.”

 

Once Auru had finally worn himself out from his unbridled joy at being accepted into the clan (which included many tight hugs Billy thought would break him in half each time) he took Billy and Strong Elk to the edge of the village, for some privacy.

Strong Elk had been distant since the mammoth fall. Billy couldn’t imagine what thoughts played through his head. Maybe now he would find peace.

The broad chested, long haired man placed his hand warmly on Billy’s shoulder. It was an unexpected gesture, coming from the brute, but Billy accepted it.

“This is where I bid you farewell, Billy,” Strong Elk said.

Confused, Billy glanced between the two hunky cavemen. “What do you mean? I thought you two—” Billy cut himself off, and then intertwined his index fingers into a knot.

Strong Elk turned his face to the side, probably to hide the tinge of redness spreading across his chiselled face. “Auru, I expect a visit to my cave every now and then,” he said. His firm tone could not disguise his intentions, however. “You know. Only if you want to.”

Auru smugly folded his hands over his chest. “Auru will consider.”

“Because, you know, even though I have my very capable and voluptuous wives…a male mate now and then could be nice.”

“Auru will consider,” Auru repeated, with a laugh.

The vein in Strong Elk’s forehead pulsed in anger, but only once. The proud hunter tossed back his regal mane and addressed the twenty-first-century gym bunny. “I would say, ‘take care of him’, but I know you are about to embark on a journey.”

What does this oversized protein shake know that I don’t? Billy thought, angrily—that is, until he felt a subtle warmth against his throat. Was the chain lock getting warmer, or was it just him?

“I know these things,” Strong Elk said. “Billy, you are no hunter.”

“Gee, thanks.”

“But I now believe you have the potential to become one.” The chieftain smiled, pounding his fist to his chest and then raising it, a gesture he repeated for Auru. “Someday.”

Strong Elk too his leave, stepping forward into the bush. Billy’s eyes savored the last few peeks at the big man’s loincloth, a ‘suggesting’ swaying in the breeze. Man, I hate to see him go, but I love watching him leave.

A light, but firm ‘pay attention’ tap on Billy’s head told the unwitting himbo to turn his attention back to his friend. Auru looked down at him. “Billy, let’s go back to my cave. I want to show you something.”

The shot of adrenaline and emotional overload from the past day’s events had left Billy fatigued. He looked to the white smoke from the village fire pit. “You don’t want to stay in the village and party with your new family?”

Auru shrugged. “I can return here later,” he said, bearing a wide smile. Then, he stepped forward, pushing his bulky body onto Billy’s. Belly felt his warmth at once. Thank goodness he’d also washed the mammoth blood off his chest. “Besides, all this time I’ve been the one mating with you.”

Billy blushed. He scratched his head, unable to make eye contact. “Well, yeah. We’ve had some fun.”

“It’s time Auru returned the favor.”

Billy squinted. “I don’t…” Then, he looked down, watching Auru’s loincloth lift upward by the force of his own erection. “Ohhhhh!"

 

The fire lit warmth of Auru’s cave was almost a nostalgic site for Billy. He remembered the first time he’d entered it, cold, uncertain, and somewhat shy.

Auru grunted and got down on all fours, eagerly stripping off his animal skins, and exposing himself for Billy. He growled softly, and turned his head backwards as if to ask Billy, ‘What are you waiting for?’

It didn’t take Billy long to find himself overcome with animalistic desire. He put all notions of formality aside and got on his knees, crawling over to Auru. Willed by animalistic lust, he buried his face in Auru’s big, caveman butt, taking in his natural pheromones. The gesture made his big-bodied friend shiver.

After a healthy application of one of gelatinous, pulpy gourds (that Billy knew he was going to miss) the twenty first century man stuck his fingers inside the muscle man. Auru groaned and shook, like a giant disturbed in its slumber, but made no indication that Billy was to remove himself. In fact, Billy found that Auru was already ‘ready’. His hole practically tugged on Billy’s digits, as if willing him to go further in.

Billy surrendered to his urged. After peppering Auru’s backsides and broad, muscular back with kisses, he pressed the tip of his cock against the big man and entered.

“Oh, ffffuck,” Billy groaned, as tight warmth enveloped his mass. Auru growled. Billy returned the vocalization, adjusting himself deep into Auru’s insides.

“Feel good,” Auru grunted. “Rut me, Billy. Mate with me.”

It had been ages since Billy had topped, but it was like riding a bicycle…or a caveman, in this instance. “Fuck yeah,” he said, before speech left his brain entirely. Filled with a masculine power, Billy slid in and out, thrusting deep, pulling back, and diving in harder.

Billy was shocked to hear the next roar was from himself. “RAGH!” He grabbed Auru’s hips and began increasing his thrust, becoming depraved and hungry in his mating. Auru’s guttural cries of pleasure would have been a bit too ‘much’ in any other scenario, but in this primal rutting session, they were fitting. Billy was happy to match them.

Auru, it seemed, was suited to bottoming—but perhaps a bit unaccustomed. It wasn’t long before the caveman nearly wolf-howled and spurted his seed against the stone floor, with an ejaculation so voluminous and intense that Billy could hear it.

That, plus Auru’s sphincter muscles contracting against Billy’s cock, was enough to bring Billy over the edge. Billy roared and he released, an orgasm both emotionally and physically intense. It took everything out Billy (literally). Fatigued, and still deep inside Auru, he fell forward onto his back, pressing his face against his sweaty-slicked skin.

Eventually, Billy did pull out, and found himself entangled in Auru’s arms, trading deep, hungry kisses, both men fully aware that their time together was about to run its course. Or, at the very least, Billy was. The heart-shaped locket’s warmth had only intensified. It was impossible to tell if it was some sort of ‘magic’ influence, or not, but Billy knew this signified that he had fulfilled Eros’s goal and was set to move on to another time, another place, and another hunk.

Not that Billy could ever see himself making a real life with Auru, and not because he didn’t like him!

After a week of running around near-naked, the sensation of modern fabric slipping over Billy’s legs was almost alien. He felt severely overdressed in the shirt, jock, and shorts the villagers had cleaned for him.

Billy adjusted his hat and looked over at Auru. “Not alone anymore, eh, cave-stud? You got a whole village who loves you now. Which is….more than I can say for me.”

Auru smiled. “Your tribe will love you too,” he said affectionately. “You just need to find them now. Billy, what you have done for me…I cannot put into words. So…” Auru motioned back towards the cavern. “Come.”

Billy sensed—no, he knew—that he was now on borrowed time. Still, he followed behind, hoping to savor each second with his new, best ‘mate’ (in every meaning of the word).

Inside the cave, speckled with art of Auru’s world, the hunter dipped his hands into a clay container of red liquid. Billy identified it as ochre.

Auru pointed to the cave wall—at the single red handprint burned into the stone wall. “Auru was here.”

Billy allowed Auru to smear his palm with red paint, and then let the caveman guide his own hand to the wall, where he pressed down next to the larger imprint. For Billy, it felt ceremonial, spiritual, profound. He was almost moved to tears. He pulled his hand back and admired the fresh print, next to its older companion.

Auru wiped his own hand on a ‘towel’ of moss and instructed Billy to do the same. Still, their palms were stained. When he was done, Auru pointed between the wall and Billy.

“You…were here,” he said softly. “Billy, my mate. Billy, my friend. Give this. Remember Auru.”

Billy was so completely lost in Auru’s gentle stare that he didn’t understand Auru had meant to give him something until he looked down at his dry palm and saw the fragment of bone, likely from the lion that had tried to eat Billy upon his arrival to the stone age. Etched into the white was the crude, but easily identified shape of a bull, or aurochs.

It occurred to Billy that taking anything from the past might not be a great idea…but since when had bad choices ever stopped him? Billy gratefully accepted the totem, swinging his arms around Auru, unable to connect them across his broad back.

“I won’t forget you,” Billy said. He regarded again the painted cavern, and the red handprints. “Nobody will forget you.”

Somehow, peering into Auru’s wise face, he knew that the caveman understood him perfectly.

Just as Billy placed Auru’s gift into the safety of his backpack (he couldn’t wait to chow into a power bar after trying to force down that lion meat), his ears perked up at an intrusive noise that seemed to be coming not from the cave entrance, but all around him.

“Do you hear that?” Billy asked Auru, but all the colors began to blend, and soon Billy was swallowed whole by the sound of shouting and clanging metal…

Next Era!

 

Chapter 1.12 - The Graveyard

 

The next day, Auru roused Billy (without arousing Billy) before dawn. The sexual endurance test from the night before had exhausted Billy well into unconsciousness, miraculously dodging any restless anxiety from hunting a massive, wild animal.

Billy decided, if he could take two enormous beasts in one go, then what was another? All in all, he was much more confident by the time he followed Auru and Strong Elk out into the tundra. Then again, confidence had been his undoing before…

The fiendish mammoth’s territory was well known to Strong Elk. Now, Billy knew very little about ancient pachyderms (he was a historian, not a palaeontologist) but he assumed they were migratory creatures. Thunder-That-Walks, however, was said to be a solitary wanderer who kept to a territory all to his own. That was unusual.

The hunters travelled, from the open, chilly tundra, to the shadow of the towering valleys. By mid-morning, Billy noted a drastic change in the landscape. The scenery transitioned from the soggy, brown, green of the prehistoric plains to a charred, ashy, gravely situation that reminded Billy of a grim landscape from one his dark fantasy video games. Gray, ominous cliffs rose at either side of the hunters, and a hollow wind whistled through the crevasse, ushering in an eerie atmosphere over the shadowy passage.

Billy’s anxiety returned, nearly on queue. Up until this point, he’d kept quiet, not wanting to throw the hunters off their game. By the time his eyes passed over the skeletal remains of a creature he could not possibly recognize, embedded deep in the cliff, Billy felt a lump form in his throat.

Also, something stunk.

“Something stinks,” Billy said, pinching his nose. “And it’s not me.”

Strong Elk, indifferent to the ominous energy seeping from the cracks and craigs, acknowledged Billy’s complaint. “We are near the  hot place,” he said. “A wound in the ground. The blood of the land boils.”

It took Billy a few moments to try and piece Strong Elk’s poetic vaguery together, but he didn’t need to wonder for very long. A steamy mist embraced him and the other hunters. The stench rose, as did the temperature. Soon, Billy, Auru, and Strong Elk were surrounded by glowing, red pools in the earth.

Lava roiled, crusting over black at its edges. Even at a ‘safe’ distance, Billy—who was more fascinated than afraid—found the heat nearly unbearable. The volcanic breach flowed in a fiery river around the hunting party, keeping Billy mindful of where he stepped. He felt the heat from the hot earth though his sneakers. He couldn’t imagine how Strong Elk and Auru could bear it.

This really is like going into the boss’s lair! Billy thought.

An accurate assessment. For when the curtain of volcanic fog lifted, the dark silhouettes in the distance grew more distinct. What Billy had mistaken for jagged rocks were the jagged remains of mammoths.

The three hunters stepped into the clearing within the forest of bones. White tusks grew out of the earth, and the dark hollows of skulls stared deep into Billy’s soul. Even though it was physically hot and humid, Billy suddenly felt quite cold.

“It’s a graveyard,” Billy absently muttered to himself. But it wasn’t as if Auru and Strong Elk would have ever heard that term before, so he added, “A place for the dead.”

Strong Elk acknowledged Billy, with cold, serious eyes. The hunter then took a few steps forward to examine a pile of muddy matter on the ground. “Droppings. This must be the lair of Thunder-That-Walks.”

The proverbial belly of the beast, in other words. With all the heat, smoke, and bones, it didn’t look dissimilar from the covers of old, heavy metal albums vinyls used by Billy’s dad to line his office.

Billy was hesitant to step forward, but he decided if he didn’t summon any bravery now, he was less likely to be prepared for when they eventually encountered this walking nightmare. “Why would he come to a place like this?” Billy asked the group.

Auru had been unusually quiet up until this point, content to take everything in and process it slowly. “Mammoths are creatures of instinct and routine,” Auru said. He did not elaborate. Instead, he approached Billy. “Billy, this place isn’t far from where my old clan once kept their village. Until that day, there were no rivers of fire here.”

Billy thought about saying something consoling, but he didn’t get the chance. All at once, there was a great shaking in the earth. The bones around them began rattling like horrific, hollow chimes. “Guys, I think we’re standing on a volcano,” Billy said over the rumble.

Strong Elk’s hair whipped with his head, towards a divide of bones—a tunnel of rib cages—in the distance. “No,” he said. “It’s him.”

And then, the world exploded. Not with a rush of lava, but shards of bone and strewn earth. Something the size of a truck, with the same velocity, crashed through the growth of rib cages and tusks, storming out into the open. A foul reek of ammonia and musty fur hit Billy in a violent waft, almost overpowering the sulphuric stench of the unearthed magma.

Fittingly, a very primal area of Billy’s brain activated, or perhaps it was genetic memory, dormant for thousands and thousands of years, now reawaken. Adrenaline, terror, and an alien sense of wonder gripped Billy, frozen in the face of something impossible.

Billy had seen pictures and render of mammoths before, and the genuine article was mostly like those known recreations. But there was no way to replicate the realistic details of the beast’s muddy, matted fur, or hunched over shape, or the forest of spear tips and broken pieces of wood—remnants of the doomed hunting expedition—embedded in the monster’s flesh. As horrible as it was for Billy to behold Thunder-That-Walks, it was the awe that stuck Billy to the spot.

Then, the creature’s strangely shaped head turned towards the visitor from the future. True to Elk’s stories, its left eye was a nearly solid, burning red, matching the geothermal landscape of its territory. That single look was like a frozen claw digging its nails into Billy’s chest. Thankfully, he was far too much in shock to scream.

Even as the sound of a hundred infernal trumpets bellowing from below the earth threatened to shattered Billy’s ear drums. Thunder-That-Walks roared. Then, it charged.

Billy ran, quite literally, for his life—not that there was much room for him to run. Everything was rock and bone or burning fissures in the landscape, belching noxious gas. It was probably the closet approximation to hell that Billy had ever encountered, coupled with the raging, giant demon about to squash him flat. The terrible odor from beast and landscape stifled Billy’s desperate gasps.

Coughing and sputtering, Billy turned his head towards Auru and Strong Elk’s general direction (the smog made it hard to tell). “You said you wanted a distraction!” Billy gasped. “HELP!”

A sharp screech from behind tore through Billy’s ears. He felt the mammoth’s breath on his back, and everything went slow and drawn out. Billy knew he was on the precipice of death.

But when he turned to stare his doom in the face, he suddenly understood why the beast had screamed. Strong Elk, with all his muscles gleaming in the hellish light, bared his teeth and withdrew his spear from the creature’s flank, in a spray of blood. Amid all his wild fury, his matted hair whipping around his ravenous face, his eyes fell softly on Billy as if to say, ‘good job’.

Billy’s ‘job’ had mostly been running and screaming. While humanity’s best evolutionary trait was their sheer endurance over time, the smog and the adrenaline were making it hard for Billy to move. He tried looking for Auru, but both the ash and the mammoth blocked out his view of the hunter.

A human roar, this time, cut through the darkness. Strong Elk leapt with his spear gripped firmly in his hands, ready to deal a vengeful blow to Thunder-That-Walks. Strong Elk was fast, but unfortunately, the demonic mammoth was faster. With a sewing of its head and its trunk, it slammed into Strong Elk with a violent force, throwing the giant man straight through the hollow orbital of a mammoth skull. His prolonged moan was the only indication her was still alive.

If a beast like this could toss Strong Elk like a rag doll, then Billy feared there was no means in this era of bringing down he beast. Once again, the angry monster turned towards Billy, who, incidentally, was now fenced in between two bones, with nowhere to run.

“HOOOOO!”

It wasn’t the mammoth making that loud, obnoxious noise. Billy looked to his right and deduced the large outline of Auru’s body. The hunter, far from being subtle, was jumping up and down and waving his hands.

“Hey, ugly!” Auru shouted.

Billy’s heart sunk into the fiery earth. He was doomed. “Auru, I’m supposed to be the distraction!” he squeaked. What does he expect to do, bear hug something that size?

Just as Thunder-That-Walks was ready to spear Billy straight through the gut with his tusks, the mammoth decided Auru was much more of a threat (or more annoying) and veered to the right, slapping Billy with a cloud of hot dust that left the young stud coughing and sputtering on the hot earth (but still very much alive). With eyes watering, Billy looked up in horror as the giant closed in on his friend. Auru was seconds away from becoming a caveman kebab.

Billy had only known Auru for about a week, but it felt like longer. Across the eons, he’d made a friend and lover, and now Billy felt that man was about to sacrifice himself for the biggest dumbass in all huma history. Head dizzy, and lungs likely charred black with the poisonous smog, Billy forced himself onto his wobbly feet and used all his breath to scream out Auru’s name, in the hopes it would either force him to come to his senses or turn Thunder-That-Walk’s attention back on him.

Time slowed and the mammoth speeded. Then, in quite possibly the most well-timed and calculated swerve Billy had ever seen, Auru threw himself to the side, out of the mammoth’s path, revealing the jagged, knife-sharp bone sticking out of the earth that had been hiding behind Auru.

The mammoth’s momentum was far too great for it to catch itself. The beast threw itself into the tall, sharp bone. A spray of blood turned the white remnants red. This was accompanied by a death ‘trumpet’ that Billy could not couple to a modern equivalent—only something out of a nightmare.

Impaled on the bone, the beast slunk awkwardly to the side. Auru rose, determined, knife in hand, but as soon as he laid eyes on the fallen creature, he knew there was no need. He’d already dealt the killing blow.

With Billy focusing mostly on not passing out face first in a puddle of hot lava, there was nothing more he could do than watch events unfold. The giant stumbled backwards. It paused, still. For several seconds, all Billy heard was a melancholic wind passing through the hollow bones. Thunder-That-Walks fell forward, without much fanfare or impact, slumping onto its side.

Strong Elk’s groans and stirring managed to snap Billy out his stupefaction. Cautious, he met eyes with Auru, covered in sweat, ash, and a warpaint of mammoth blood. The caveman slowly nodded.

Under normal circumstances Billy would have kept his distance from the fallen animal. Violence and death made him squeamish. But these circumstances were far from normal, and he was far from the man he was a week ago. Billy stepped forward, along with Strong Elk, and went to the crumpled mass of fur.

Gently, Auru held his hand out and placed his palm to the mammoth’s face. The creature breathed, slow and laborious, with every rise and fall of its stomach prolonging in duration. Only a red ribbon of blood from beneath its bulk told Billy the story. Otherwise, its mortal wound was well concealed.

Auru’s bright eyes reflected the embers and ash, falling like snow upon the trio of hunters turned mourners. The caveman glanced around, quietly assessing the grim landscape, before he spoke. “This place,” Auru started. “The same explosion that killed my village. I think it killed his tribe too.” He looked down at Thunder-That-Walks.

The bone that speared the mammoth through the chest may as well have speared Billy. A pain struck his heart, an anguish he had not felt since his last breakup.

In the hot air, in the middle of the mammoth cemetery, Billy knelt at the beast’s side. “No wonder he was so mad,” he mumbled. Next to him, Strong Elk—stone faced and inscrutable as always—appraised the situation with solemn respect.

Auru grunted. “No,” he said softly. “Alone.”

Billy’s hands reached out and touched history. Warm, coarse fur threaded through fingertips. The last of something. A solitary beast that would not go unwitnessed.

Something inside Billy, something that he had both held back and refused to face, finally shattered and broke. He wept, openly and freely, for all lonely monsters.

NEXT CHAPTER