Kaila woke to the sound of snoring. She turned and looked around her, and through the mist she could see the clear water of the small pond from which she and Tijar drank yesterday. It was the source of their lives when they were here, and when they wandered off to forage for food, they knew they could always find their way back to this quiet place. The pond was fed by water from a small stream, which made its way down from the higher mountains, and on this plateau where they were, this tiny area of flat land, the pond was almost still, except where the water entered it from above. At the far end though, a kind of lip at the end of the pond allowed the water to escape, and it ran slightly downhill, away from the pond, until suddenly the land again turned sharply downwards to the next level of flat land further below. Here the water would intertwine with water from many other small waterfalls above, forming a larger fall, and that in turn would meet with even larger ones, so that by the time the water was able to make an uninterrupted descent to the ground far below, it was a truly enormous flowing waterfall. So this small pond that Kaila and Tijar used was more like a reservoir, constantly replenished by fresh water from above. Even though it appeared quite still, the water was always fresh and cool and inviting.

Tijar was still asleep. His snoring, grunting and breathing loudly was something Kaila had put up with for many years, and she knew it was better to have a snoring Tijar than to be alone. At first, when they were young, she would kick him, or slap his ear, and he would grunt even louder, sometimes waking and growling at her to leave him alone. With time she came to realize that nothing she did would change him. In fact, hearing him snore now was a comfort to her, for these were perilous times, and his strength and speed were assets she may need at any moment.

Kaila lay listening to the sounds of the forest. The trickling sound of the water nearby, the many hundreds of different animal and bird sounds, some shrieking, others squawking, even the occasional growling or snarling sound, but these were well off in the distance, and of no real concern. After a little while, Kaila rose and made her way down to the pond, where she splashed some water onto her face. It was cold, invigorating, and just what she needed to wake her completely. The mist was slowly rising, and Kaila knew that today was going to be a clear day. Not too cold. The very cold days and nights which made the water hard had gone away again. But they too always seemed to find their way back to this place.

It was strange that sometimes Kaila and Tijar had to snuggle up together to keep warm, and yet at other times, they would need to seek out shady spots, or even lay in water to stay cool. Keila wondered about how she and Tijar seemed to be hairier in the cold time, and she would sometimes laugh to herself as they hid in the shade, when the scorching sun returned, looking for them so it could take some of their hair away. Maybe it too needed the hair to stay warm in the cold time. They were good at hiding from the sun, but it still managed to get their hair, and Tijar looked so funny when the top of his head went shiny and pink. Somehow though, as the days cooled, their hair would slowly return, and that was good because when they snuggled together, Kaila thought it felt better than just skin.

The biggest concern for Kaila and Tijar in the hot days was that other animals which might be pursuing them would follow their scent more easily by the hair they lost in their travels. It was a dangerous thing to leave hair behind you, but impossible to prevent, so as well as hiding from the sun, they often hid from others who may be following them.

Exactly what may be following them was of course unknown to them. There were many different living things, and Kaila and Tijar knew only that some were threatening, but they could not have named them in any case, for they did not know language. For example, a giant cat-like creature would not invoke a response such as “Danger - Cat!” for there were no such words. In the same way that birds instinctively know that cats are a threat to them, so Kaila and Tijar responded to other living things that were potentially dangerous.

At the same time, there were many creatures that posed no threat at all, and both Kaila and Tijar knew this, so they would either ignore them, or hunt them and eat them.Also, because they were both completely void of self awareness, they could not even identify if another living thing looked like them, for they did not really know what they themselves looked like. Kaila would look at Tijar and see him as he was, but it never occurred to her what she might look like to him.

So it was with all living creatures in these times, and it would be a very long time before any living thing would look at a reflection of itself, as Kaila often did in the pond, and not see a stranger.

Whatever disadvantage this may have been, these were still exciting and wonderful times, wrought with danger, but also with intrigue. Each day was an adventure, for no day would pass without discovering something that had never been seen before. For any living thing it was a minute by minute existence. At any moment, you could be fighting for your life, and you may not win the fight.  

But fear was not something that Kaila or Tijar dwelled upon. They were essentially happy, and as long as they could find food and some form of shelter when needed, life for them was good. They sought shelter mainly from the cold, but not usually from rain. Sometimes, when it rained heavily, they would stand in a clearing and enjoy the fresh water falling upon them. Whenever they heard great claps of thunder, they would yelp with excitement, and would jump up and down, shouting out loudly, as if to show the thunder that they were brave. They were prepared to fight the thunder to the death if it confronted them. But it never did. It always gave up and went slowly away, perhaps looking for other less courageous creatures to torment.

This particular day was likely to be pleasantly cool and still. Tijar had woken, and had made his way to the pond. Kaila now sat on a rock surveying the surrounding area, probably wondering where she would find something to eat. Tijar began splashing about and throwing water all over himself, some of which was landing on Kaila, and she began making sounds of protest, which Tijar ignored.

As Tijar grunted and began loping along on the grass beside the pond, and then turning back in a pacing manner, they knew it was time to start foraging in the nearby forest for food, and they both looked around to assess the best direction to take. A wrong choice here could easily be fatal.

The forest was full of good things to eat. Berries and nuts were plentiful, and to get these often meant climbing trees, which both Kaila and Tijar could do with ease. They were as comfortable in the trees as they were on the ground, and would sometimes play in them or even hunt small animals that lived high up in the branches. They had the ability to quickly move from tree to tree, using a swinging technique that sometimes employed the thinner flexible branches to help propel them through the air. Any error of judgment could easily mean disaster, but their accuracy was truly astonishing, and they never felt at risk of falling.

On the ground, roots and fresh young sprouts of many kinds of vegetables were easily found.

Grubs, some as long as Tijar’s forearm, and almost as thick, could be dug out of the ground, if one could find their burrows. It was possible, and sometimes necessary, to travel long distances while foraging for these types of foods, and this was how they spent most of their days happily together.

Today, they moved slowly upwards, climbing over grassy and often rocky terrain with ease. The mist had completely cleared, and the sky was a perfect blue. Had they been able to reach the very top of this beautiful, rugged mountain, they could have looked around 360 degrees and they would have seen only more mountains. As far as they could have seen, row after row of peaks stood majestically side by side, as though the world was made up of just them, and nothing else, except for the sky and the huge river that would have been visible deep in the next valley, winding its way gracefully towards the end of the earth.

But they would never reach the top, for to do so would be a mammoth expedition taking many days, perhaps weeks, through unfamiliar and dangerous terrain with no assurance of finding water, which they knew was more important than even food. Wandering too far from their safe haven made no sense at all, so they always stayed within a day’s reach of their little pond.

A light breeze had picked up, and this helped to cool their bodies when it touched their perspiration. Later, when the temperature began to drop, they would need to have turned around and be heading downwards, so that they would not sweat as much, and the air would not make them too cold. So after many hours, when they had had their fill, they were ready to return home.

A loud squawking sound from above made Tijar look up, and as he did, a huge creature, flying high above them, squealed and squawked again as it passed under the afternoon sun, heading for the taller trees in the far distance. It was brown, with a white head, and would have been no less than two meters long from beak to tail, with a wing-span of around five meters. Huge talons, at the ends of thick, powerful yellow legs, were curled upwards and tucked under its belly, ready to be lowered as the bird prepared to land high up in the branches of an especially tall tree.

Tijar knew that these particular flying things were of no concern, except if you were smaller, younger or already dead. Then, they would fly down and rip you to pieces with their huge yellow beaks, and consume you so that all that was left would be bones. Even the bones would sometimes be picked up and carried off as if they were some sort of trophy. It was common to see one of these birds smashing the bones of some smaller animal against the branches of trees, so that its bones were scattered on the ground below.

These giant birds could also catch smaller birds mid-flight, snatching them out of the air with their huge, lethal talons, and crushing them with powerful feet before resting in the branches to eat them. In many ways, these flying things were helpful guardians to Tijar and Kaila, because they would streak down and snatch snakes and other dangerous reptiles, even small vicious animals that may have bitten or poisoned an unsuspecting passer-by.

Tijar had seen the beaks of these birds at work, ripping and tearing at meat which was held firmly by huge claws. He had watched as the sharp beaks had punched holes right through the bodies of dead or dying animals. He himself was very proficient with his hands, and his nails were long and strong, and he also had sharp, powerful teeth with which to tear food apart.

Not once though, during his entire lifetime, did he reason that it might be possible to find some piece of rock or hard wood with a shape similar to the great bird’s beak, that he could use as some sort of tool to help him through each day.

Kaila was moving closer now, indicating that she was ready to return to their little clearing before darkness fell. They turned and began making their way down the side of the mountain, and it was so steep that they could virtually run, so that they were able to make good time, and by the time the sun began to touch the horizon, they had already settled in the clearing by the pond where they could safely spend the night.

While darkness marked the end of a day for Kaila and Tijar, it was the beginning for hundreds of other forest creatures. If one could suddenly turn on a huge bright light in the middle of the night, the number of animals caught in it would be surprising. In an area of say one square kilometer, there might be more than twenty thousand living things, excluding insects, which would number in the hundreds of millions, and these would all be foraging or fighting for their own survival.

Life was indeed abundant. It could also be very short. There was little or no apparent order, for no animal in this forest had absolute dominion. For any living thing, it was a matter of chance to stay alive for one more day. These were times when virtually no-one died peacefully in their sleep.

For this reason, it was important for Tijar and Kaila to ensure they were fairly well hidden while they slept, and so they slipped under a wide carpet of foliage into a sort of crevice that was large enough for them both, and was also warm. It also protected them from the rain, because as well as being quite deep, it was carved deeply into the side of a small mound, adjacent to the clearing where the pond was situated.

It was by fortunate accident that they had found it, when Kaila actually fell through the foliage and into the crevice when they were playing. It proved to be perfect as a hideout and a sleeping place, that they now used it a sort of base from which to explore. They could only hope that nothing else that might threaten them would accidentally fall into this secret place. If something did, it would certainly be a shock to everyone concerned. This was not their only secret place though, for they had discovered other crevices, caves and large burrows in their travels, and had marked or remembered them so that they would always have some safe place within a few hours reach, or even less if they had to run.

Today was uneventful, and they settled into their little spot, happy with the day’s work, and snuggled up beside each other to sleep. In just a few minutes, Tijar began to snore.