Cure for the Bitter Cold

The bitter cold.

Agni didn’t have a word for it. Not yet anyway. He didn’t have any words at all, just the harsh, guttural intonations shared between his tribe that had yet to be given any definitive meaning. But now, Agni was alone. Even if the tribe had developed any words, it wouldn’t have mattered. There was nobody to talk to now.

Agni clutched his chest with one hand, fingers outstretched across his collarbone, almost as if to bury himself under his own skin. With his other hand, he pulled his knees as close as they could; the muscles, strained and fatigued after all that running earlier, began to ache.

He’d seen old trees shed their limbs before, their branches weakened and brittle with age and stress. Maybe that could happen to him.

No amount of animal pelts or foraged fibres could protect against the bitter cold. Even the rocks he lay his back against could scarcely shield him from the fierce winds and saturating rain. The storm was a force of nature, and while there were ways to mitigate it, there was nothing else to do but endure it.

Agni could do little more than close his eyes and wait, not even daring to imagine that he might survive this night.

He’d seen storms like this before, thundering over the plains and ravaging the forests. He had been fortunate to have been born into a larger tribe, one that had accrued enough manpower and resources to finally settle in a valley abundant with natural resources; plenty of stone and lumber to build huts, and plenty of the right kind of wildlife - the ones who eat plants, not flesh.

Agni shuddered. That would be the one thing that could make his situation worse. One of those. They didn’t have a name for them yet either, but in future generations, they would become known as sabretooths.

A bright flash across the swirling night sky made Agni’s eyes shoot open, and the hand that clutched at his chest spasmed, digging into his skin until it hurt. Whatever it was that caused the bright light, he’d missed it, but the stomach-churning boom that followed a few seconds later made his heart feel like it would burst through his ribs and leap into the hand that subconsciously protected it.

Something caught his manic eye, just barely visible amongst the shrubbery. He must’ve noticed it when the bright flash lit everything up, but his brain had taken a few seconds to process.

A cave.

Agni untangled his arms from the rest of himself and staggered over towards it, almost drunk on relief - a shelter from the wind and rain. He might yet live to see the sun rise.

His bare feet and the naked palms of his hands skimmed over the wet stone, being careful not to slip. Rain still poured into the mouth of the cave and covered some parts of the floor, but that was far better than it bucketing down from above, and Agni was more than happy to compromise.

The cave was larger than Agni had anticipated. It seemed as if he was only in a passageway; there must be more ahead. A cool breeze, far gentler than the gale outside and slightly stale, beckoned him further.

Agni delved deeper into the cave system, and before long, he could see a light ahead.

The cave opened into a wide chamber, and in the centre of the cave’s ceiling was a small opening through which the moon shone. Rain poured in from this opening, pooling at a small catchment below. Wood debris had also fallen in, and had been carried by the water to the edges of the catchment, where new life had already begun to sprout. Remarkably, the rest of the cave seemed dry, almost cosy.

If there were ever a time to invent the word ‘serenity’, it would’ve been now.

But then, something stirred.

Agni froze in place. He didn’t even dare turn his head towards the creature he’d spotted in his peripheral vision, but he knew what it was.

Sabertooth.

It was as long as he was tall, and twice as thick with muscle. Sleek fur, mottled brown and grey, covered its entire body but for its long black claws, sharp protruding front teeth and evil yellow eyes.

It raised its head slowly, noticing Agni immediately. For a while it did nothing but stare, but slowly, and in complete and deadly silence, it began to stand up.

The sabretooth’s gaze was still transfixed on Agni, as was his on it. He had to do something, and he had to do it very, very quickly. He knew how fast they could move, quicker than the flash of light he’d seen outside.

There was debris around the water. Driftwood, broken and sharp. It wouldn’t be nearly as effective as the spears his tribe used, but maybe he could find one sharp enough to pierce the animal’s hide, and cause enough pain to scare it away.

The sabretooth was now standing on all four legs, looking directly at him. Those terrifying yellow eyes unblinking, pupils dilated. Malevolent. Hungry.

It was in a position now to strike, and as soon as Agni saw it tense up and lean back onto its haunches ever so slightly, he made his move.

He dived forwards, using every muscle in his body to propel himself forward with reckless abandon, directly into a large tangle of loose wood. His hands scrambled to take a hold of anything thick and solid enough to hold the sabertooth at bay.

Just as he wrapped his hands around a stick as thick as his arm, he heard the sound of padded paws bounding across stone and the throaty, animalistic panting of the sabretooth as it closed in on him.

Claws tore at his legs, drawing blood. He could smell the stench of death and decay coming from the beast’s open mouth as it tried to bite at him barely a few centimetres from his face, held back only by the stick he’d managed to hold out in front of him like a bar.

Both of them seemed surprised that he wasn’t dead yet, but Agni recovered first as his adrenaline took control of him. He swung the stick out, clipping the sabretooth in the throat.

Now with the stick in one hand, with his other, he attempted to push himself off the ground, frantically trying to get a grip on the cave floor.

Instead, he found a fist-sized loose rock, smooth to the touch. Without a second thought, he brought it up to strike the sabretooth in the face. Finding his mark, the beast snarled, and in response it bore down on him as he tried to roll over onto his front and stand up.

A heavy weight crashed into him, sending him tumbling. His knees hit the ground first, and in an attempt to mitigate any damage to his head, he threw his arms out in front of him.

The piece of wood had long been discarded, but curiously enough, he had instinctively kept hold of the rock, and as it impacted against the stone floor, Agni was amazed to see tiny flickering lights leap out and fizzle away.

He’d never seen anything like this before.

He had no idea what to make of it, but knowing he only had seconds before the sabretooth would be upon him again, he smashed the rock against the floor again, if only to see those pretty lights one last time.

The sabretooth hissed, stopping dead in its tracks and regarding him with a boiling anger that masked the unmistakable tinge of fear.

Agni was still. Shouldn’t he be dead? Why wasn’t it coming near him? Was it because of those sparks? A thousand questions shot through his undeveloped brain.

Agni turned over to face the beast and brought the rock down again, harder this time, and even more sparks burst across the ground. The Sabretooth glowered at him, but made no approach.

Agni sensed he had the upper hand. Emboldened, he roared at the sabretooth with whatever strength he could muster, and slammed the rock against the ground with all his might. Sparks shot from the impact and danced across the floor of the cave, some of them coming to rest on a small pile of dried leaves.

It was the first step in a chain reaction that would change the entire course of life on planet Earth.

The effect was small at first. The sparks, rather than dying out, burned brighter than ever, growing fast and glowing hot. It did not stop growing. Soon, leaves and sticks were curling up and disintegrating as the fire grew and grew, engulfing not only the leaves but the nearby piles of debris.

The whole cave was alive with heat and light and panic and bewilderment.

Agni could see as clear as day. Rather than wreathed in the cover of darkness, the walls of the cave came alive with dancing shadows, and all the debris and driftwood in the middle of the space burned as bright and as hot as the sun.

The sabretooth howled in dismay, sprinting for the mouth of the cave. Agni did nothing to stop it; he was transfixed now by this force of nature, unchained and alive.

In the years to come, one could describe it as an effigy.

Agni had no word for the bitter cold, but as he pulled his eyes away from the roaring fire and down the stone that it had erupted from, he knew he didn’t need a word for the bitter cold anymore.

Not now he had the cure for it.