A DOOMED LOVE

Winter, 55,000 Years Ago

“Long ago,” Hmmka explained to her friend Umkah, “two families asked to move into this small community. It was nice; as you know, it was near a small river. My family and Darnay’s had known and disliked one another for many sun cycles. So when Darnay’s family found this settlement and were welcomed in, they tried hard to prevent us coming in after them.”

“If we were refused entry, why are we here now?” Umkah asked. She had only lived for ten sun cycles, and Hmmka had thirteen. Hmmka thought Umkah was not very smart, but the two of them were friends because Umkah looked up to Hmmka.

“It is because our chief persuaded the chief of this tribe with a very nice image of a god, one that turned out to look like one of the Owl People’s gods.”

“How do you know all this?” Umkah asked. “You are so smart!”

“I have been educated by my father. He learned this from his father, and he from his father.”

Unkah wanted to know more. “Why do Darnay’s family dislike us?”

Hmmka smiled, and said, “Long ago, both families lived in caves in the hills to the west, and there was an incident between two of the younger men that led to a great battle. The man on Darnay’s people’s side was killed, and their people would not forget this.”

“And they still hate us?” the girl wondered. She frowned, and took Hmmka’s hands in hers in a gesture of comfort. The girl’s hands were soft, almost as soft as Hmmka’s own, but it felt good to her to have this expression of love from her friend. She smiled, but they were interrupted before she could resume her history.

“Come, little Umkah,” her mother called. The girl left after hugging Hmmka, and Hmmka returned to her own task of cleaning the pottery her mother had used to make their morning meal. Thinking about Darnay, she dropped a lovely dish her mother had made, one inscribed with pictures of herself and her brothers.

“Pay attention, Hmmka,” her mother scolded. “That bowl will now need to be replaced. Are you ready to make it?”

Hmmka quickly apologized, and tried to be very careful with the rest of the bowls, but soon was thinking about nothing but her beloved. Then she tripped over the wolf puppy her little brother had adopted, and was scolded yet again by her mother.

“Will you watch where you’re going?” she demanded.

But thinking once again about her lover Darnay, and seeing his face in her mind, she prayed to her personal god that he might be at her door right now.

But when she peeked out, he was not there.

***

A little later, Hmmka and Umkah went on with their conversation. Umkah was avid to learn more about the real history of their tribe. She gazed adoringly at her friend, and said, “And then you and Darnay were born.”

“Yes,” Hmmka said. “Darnay was born to the Owl People after many sun cycles, and I was born soon after. Both our families were shocked when we started walking out together.”

“They were not happy that you and Darnay fell in love?”

This brought a memory to Hmmka of when Darnay had told her of his feelings about her. She had been very surprised because he was not normally so open about his emotions. She had been unable to prevent a wide grin growing on her dark face, and had leaned toward him to offer her lips for a now-loving kiss. She had already known that she loved Darnay, but had feared that his feelings for her were not so intense. Their families still disliked one another, and Hmmka had been well aware that neither family would be happy if they wished to mate.

“Both our families were furious,” she admitted. “Both families abhorred the idea that we might mate. ‘You are not of the same kind,’ my mother kept yelling at me. But it does not matter to us. When you fall in love with someone, little Umkah, you love them because of who they are, not what they look like.”

“Yes.” Umkah nodded her agreement. “I believe that is true. I hope someday I shall find someone who will love me as Darnay loves you.”

Hmmka ‘s body, like Umkah’s, was short and stocky, and her face was wide, with a large nose. But despite that, Hmmka was quite pretty. She had lovely long black hair, very dark brown eyes, and a sweet smile that seemed to light up her face.

“You are beautiful, Hmmka,” her friend pointed out. “Even if you don’t look like the other girls in the tribe, I think you are prettier than they are.”

“Thank you, Umkah. I think you are pretty, as well.”

“Oh, no, Hmmka. You are the prettiest girl among our people. But Darnay is so odd,” she went on. “He’s much more slender than our people, and so very tall. His nose is very narrow and he has an indentation in his chin! None of our people have that.”

“You are right, little Umkah. His hair is lighter than ours, too, and his eyes are blue. He is so beautiful, is he not?”

Umkah nodded doubtfully, but Hmmka didn’t really see her doubt. Recalling how happy she had felt when Darnay had declared his love for her, she went on. “And he is very smart, you know. He knows so very much about everything! About animals, about the gods, and the skies above. He has ideas I have never heard before.”

“But I have never seen him cry, Hmmka,” Umkah pointed out. “And he does not laugh very much, either. Not like you. I love your laugh!”

Both Hmmka’s and Darnay’s people made and used a good variety of tools. They controlled fire, and wore clothing their artisans made, and they were skilled hunters of large animals. But their interests tended to be different.

Darnay’s people enjoyed making pictures of their prey on the nearby cave walls before they went off to hunt, while Hmmka’s people seemed to live to gossip, though they too hunted. Both peoples also ate plant foods, and sometimes created ornamental objects like the image Hmmka’s people had bribed the Owl People’s chief with.

In fact, Hmmka herself made such images with other women of her people. She had recently finished a small image of her own personal goddess, and intended to demand that her father make a shelf for their hut that she might display the image on.

***

Soon after Hmmka’s and Umkah’s discussion, and Umkah had gone back to her own hut, a small group of strangers approached the Owl People’s settlement. Though it was difficult to understand their speech, the chief finally worked out that they were searching for Hmmka’s people. The chief told the strangers where they might find them, and before long the strangers had forced their way into Hmmka’s hut. All of Hmmka’s family were there, and the strangers began to yell and shout at them.

Hmmka’s father pushed his way to the front of the family and demanded to know what these strangers wished of them. The leading stranger, who called himself Rrrga, shouted, “We know you are the people who killed my grandfather! We have searched for you ever since you ran away, and now we have found you and we will kill you!”

Hmmka’s father, called Dnnpa, objected. “We killed no one,” he cried. “We did not run away from where we lived before. We have lived quietly in this settlement for many cycles, and none of our people have ever met your people. Is that not right?” he asked his people.

The others all yelled their agreement, but Rrrga ignored them. “We will kill the people who killed our grandfather!” he shouted, and advanced on Dnnpa with his axe held high overhead.

What are they saying? Hmmka wondered to herself, terrified for her father and for her people. Why do they want to kill us? It is true we have never harmed them!

The rest of the strangers also advanced, all with axes of their own, and quickly, despite the screams and cries of the others, felled Hmmka’s people. When an axe sideswiped Hmmka, she too fell, shocked and amazed that such a thing could happen to her, and to her family. The thought of Darnay went through her mind, and saw how he would grieve at her death. Then she fell to the floor of the hut and knew no more.

One or two of the strangers were killed by Hmmka’s family, but that did not stop the rest from swinging their axes all round, until none of Hmmka’s people were still standing.

Then the strangers turned and marched triumphantly out of the hut and scurried away, singing as they vanished into the distance.

***

It soon turned out that Hmmka’s neighbors had heard what they thought were screams, curses, and war cries, though no one wished to interfere. Each one told the others it was not any of their business.

Later, when the strangers had run off, one of the chief’s guards looked into the hut of Hmmka’s people and found all of her family and a few of the strangers lying, apparently dead, on the floor.

At the time when he and Hmmka had agreed the day before, Darnay came to collect Hmmka for a picnic they had planned. He found the family dead. Looking around at the devastation before him, he was stunned.

“What has happened?” he demanded of the guard, shocked at the scene.

“Strangers came and killed them all,” the guard told him, seemingly unfazed at the ravages before them.

Darnay looked for and found Hmmka’s body lying beside the door of the hut. What! Is she dead? he asked himself.

“She is dead!” he exclaimed. “Oh!” he wailed, despite the guard’s disapproval. He could not believe what he was seeing. “Oh, gods, please! It cannot be true! Hmmka cannot be dead!”

He paced around the hut, trying hard to avoid stepping on the bodies, and continued to wail. “Oh, Hmmka, my love! I cannot go on without you! What am I to do!?”

Leaving the hut, he began to walk aimlessly, and paced all round the settlement, unable to answer anyone’s questions. He walked and wept, walked and wept, for what seemed like hours. Then he knew what he must do.

Returning to Hmmka’s hut, he stood over her body and drew his knife. He stabbed himself in the stomach, fell to lie beside her, and quickly bled to death.

***

When Hmmka awakened a little while later, having only been knocked unconscious by her family’s enemy, she rose and gazed at all of her people and the strangers lying dead all around her. No one had yet come to drag them away to the dead house.

Then she turned and found her beloved Darnay lying beside her, dead as well. How is he here? Was he also killed in the fight with the strangers? But how could that be?

She became distraught and angry, and after wailing and shouting curses at her gods, she drew her own knife and plunged it into her breast, killing herself.