I am in no way a historian or an expert in anything that's written in this chapter, so if something isn't accurate, correct me kindly in the comments please. This chapter was inspired by an episode of Bones I watched a while ago (Season 8, Episode 13).
There was once a family of three, oh so many years ago. Twenty-five thousand years ago, to be exact. The family were forgotten by their people; forbidden, a disgrace. They were outcasts , no matter how hard they fought to keep honor. Even banished, they loved each other and made do with what they had. Why were they outcasts, you wonder? It so happened that a Neanderthal man and a Homo sapien female had fallen in love and were expecting a child. One of the first and only of its kind ever created.
The Neanderthal man was tall. His shoulders broad and powerful, radiating strength to predators. Needed characteristics in order to survive. His hair was brown, long and curly, resembling his burly beard. Strong masculine features and prominent brow ridges appeared. His face contoured yet round, with thicker bones then most humans today.
The Homo sapien woman was gentle. A warm, loving embrace had she and elegant features. Her wide smile and petite figure only justified her characteristics more. Motherly. Kind yet showcasing she wasn't just a trophy wife. She was tough and would fight for her family. The mother's eyes were hazel and her hair the color of honey and chocolate.
A warm autumn morning, it was a day like any other at the bottom of the mountains they called home. The adorable baby girl of three years, slept underneath the cool shades of the animal skinned shelter. The mother crushed acorns she had collected earlier by the burning flames, grinding them into a paste with stones. The father had come back from a hunt, carrying a rabbit big enough for a days worth of food. Little did they know things would rapidly change.
From afar, a Homo sapien man boomed with fury. Before the woman had left the tribe to be with another, they had been arranged to be married. The man fumed with jealousy. How dare the Neanderthal of all people disrespect his tribe? How dare the woman abandon her tribe for many years, the tribe who raised her, to be with him? It was outrageous.
The interloper charged, his spear soaring through the air, impaling the father through his ribs. He collapsed to the ground, groaning loudly. Blood spewed everywhere. The man advanced forward towards the woman, ready to lash when she struck him with the grinding stones. His left arm was now fractured and fragile. With the pain surging, he retaliated back however not before his free arm punched forward with all his might. The mother's cry was heart wrenching, filled with agony. The powerful blow had broken her jaw and crushed her larynx. The woman lay by the hearth, gasping for air yet none could reach her lungs.
To reclaim justice upon his family, the neanderthal man worked the strength to arise from his pool of blood, a stone hatchet in his hand. With one strike, he sliced the interloper's head in half, killing him instantly. Tears in his eyes, the father thought of his daughter. She would be left alone with no one to fight for her. He fell to the ground in sobs and hugged the fallen mother close to him as they both drifted away from reality. The father bled out from his spearing in a matter of minutes, the mother dying soon after of suffocation.
The little girl awoke from her nap later, to find her parents cold and pale. Not fully grasping the content, she threw a fit. She wailed, stomped, patted their shoulders but nothing worked. They would not awaken. She finished with a frustrated huff. A perfectly good rabbit was uncooked next to the fireplace, now nothing more than ashes. She didn't know how to care for herself. In search of something edible, she came across a berry bush near her hut and happily started to munch. The berries were sour and grotesque causing her to rapidly spit them out. Desperate, she tried to handle creepy crawlies yet they always escaped the chubby toddlers fingers. Thinking that her parents would awaken soon, she returned to the shelter and slumbered.
No one dared feed the girl. She wasn't to be tampered with. She wasn't accepted amongst either tribes, after all, no matter what age she was. Her desperate cries for a sliver of meat or the tiniest meal were long forgotten and ignored amongst the howls of wild canine. Soon, her cries were muted. The precious toddler had no more strength to cry much less do anything, rather then wait her upcoming doom.
Withered to the bones with starvation, plump lips chapped and soft skin dried like a prune, the young girl knew her time was short. However alas, she had one last mission to conquer. Her chubby arms grasped at the dirt, attempting to pull on roots and the soil to launch her forward. Once out of the hut's dark shadows, the sun boiled down on her yet she was stubborn and determined. What seemed like an eternity of torment under the radiating heat, she could finally reclaim peace. For the beautiful baby girl had been reunited within the embrace of her long gone parents, and they would lay together forever.