“When Survival Created the First Friendship Between Man and Beast”

This story takes us back about 20,000 years from today, to a time when humans lived in small tribes. In the story, we see ancient European people who lived in tribal groups and hunted together. We are introduced to the leader of this tribe, whose name is Ergen.
A few months later, winter is about to arrive, so Ergen goes out hunting with the people of his tribe to gather food for the cold season. In front of them is a very large herd of wild bison. Everyone crawls closer to the bison. Ergen, being the leader of the tribe, waits for the right moment and signals the attack, and everyone rushes toward the bison.
To escape the hunters, the bison start running in the opposite direction, and one by one many of them fall into a ravine. However, one bison survives and, in anger, charges toward Ergen’s son, Noyan. Noyan has come on a hunt for the first time and does not know how to protect himself.
Ergen tells his son to move out of the way, but Noyan gets scared and starts running. The wild bison quickly approaches Noyan, lifts him onto its horns, and runs toward the ravine. Seeing this, Ergen throws his spear at the bison to save his son. The spear hits the bison, but despite being injured, it does not let go of Noyan and instead throws him toward the edge of the ravine.
From here, the story goes into a flashback, one week earlier, where we see the tribe preparing for the hunt. They are making different kinds of sharp weapons from stones. This was not just preparation; new people who wanted to join the hunt had to make such stone weapons. Whoever made the sharpest and most pointed weapon was selected for the hunt. In this competition, Ergen’s son Noyan also succeeds.
That night, Noyan’s mother tells Ergen not to take Noyan on the hunt with him, saying that he is still a child. She says that she loves him very much and does not want to lose him. Ergen replies that winter is coming and at this time of the year everyone goes hunting. If they do not hunt, they will die of hunger during the winter, and Noyan must prove that he is his son.
The next morning, all the people of the tribe leave for the hunt. Noyan’s mother feels anxious that something might happen to her son, but Ergen reassures her and says not to worry, nothing will happen to Noyan. Then they all set off on the hunt.
After going some distance, they encounter another tribe that, like them, has also gone out hunting to gather food for the winter. After traveling a long distance, they reach a stone structure that was built by their ancestors. This journey is very dangerous, and many of their elders had lost their lives during it, which is why they built this stone structure in their memory.
Moving forward, they spot a wild boar, which they injure with a spear. Ergen tells his son Noyan to kill it, but Noyan has never hunted before. He panics and is unable to kill the boar. Ergen then snatches the stone dagger from his hand, kills the boar, and says:
“I never thought you would turn out to be so cowardly. Only the strong survive here — this is the law of the jungle.”
At night, while they are eating their hunt, strange sounds are suddenly heard. Ergen tells everyone to stay alert. At that moment, a lion appears and carries away one of the boys. The next morning, they make a small grave in memory of that boy and continue their journey.
Despite walking many miles, they do not find any more prey. After walking the entire day, they decide to spend the night in a cave. There, Ergen makes star-shaped tattoos on Noyan’s hand and tells him that these stars will appear in the night sky, and if he follows them, he will find his way back home. In reality, this is a map, so that if someone gets lost during the hunt, they can find their way back home.

After morning comes, they once again set out in search of prey. Soon, they see the footprints of wild bison, which makes everyone very happy. They begin hunting the bison, and this is the very moment when a wild bison throws Noyan down from the mountain.
The story returns to the present, where it is shown that when Noyan is thrown off the cliff, he falls downward but manages to grab a stone wedged between the rocks and hangs there. Ergen quickly reaches the edge and says to his son,
“Do not lose hope, I will save you.”
At that very moment, the stone Noyan is holding onto breaks. Noyan crashes against the rocks and falls down into a narrow passage formed between the cliffs. Ergen wants to go down to save his son, but the people of the tribe stop him. They say that there is no way down anymore, that his son is no longer part of this world. They tell Ergen that they do not want to lose him, that he is their leader, and that it is his responsibility to protect them and lead them back home.
But Ergen refuses to listen to anyone. He spends the entire night sitting at the edge of the cliff, calling out to his son. Eventually, he is forced to accept that his son is no longer alive. The next morning, when Noyan does not return, his companions build a small stone grave in his memory and leave with their hunt, heading back toward the tribe.
Some time after they leave, a vulture comes and sits on top of Noyan and begins pecking at him. Before it can eat him, Noyan opens his eyes. He throws the vulture away and calls out to his father, but there is no response. That is when he realizes that everyone has left and that there is no one left to help him.
He does not lose courage and tries to climb the cliff, but he cannot go very high. Below him lies a very deep ravine. Perhaps fate wanted to give him another chance to live. Soon, heavy rain begins to fall, and due to the rain, the ravine slowly starts turning into a river.
Noyan understands that if he wants to survive, he must jump down. When the water becomes deep enough, he jumps. As soon as he hits the water, he loses consciousness.
The next day, when he regains consciousness, he finds himself in a different place. Despite falling from such a height, he has survived, but the bone in his leg is twisted. He ties his broken leg with pieces of wood so that he can walk, and then returns to the cliff from where he fell.
When he reaches there and sees that a stone grave has been built for him, he begins to cry. He realizes that his father Ergen and the people of the tribe had accepted that Noyan was dead. At that moment, he hears strange sounds nearby. To protect himself from danger, he climbs a tree and spends the entire night on a dry tree.
The next morning, when he goes to drink water, he sees a pack of wolves moving rapidly toward him. Some of the wolves attack him. Noyan runs toward a tree, but one wolf grabs his leg. Noyan strikes it with his knife, injuring the wolf and causing it to fall back. Noyan immediately climbs the tree.
The wolves wait below him all night. When morning comes, all the wolves leave, except the injured one. Noyan makes a spear and goes to kill the wolf, but he feels pity for it and changes his mind.
He first ties the wolf’s mouth, then lifts it and carries it to the same cave where he had stayed earlier. The next morning, he searches for herbs, grinds them, and applies them to his own leg. During this time, he notices that the wolf has loosened the rope around its mouth. At first, he becomes frightened, but then calmly gives it water to drink.
Noyan tells the wolf that he will not harm it and that he wants to save its life. The wolf drinks the water and understands that Noyan is not a threat. Noyan applies herbs to the wolf’s wound as well and feeds it the same insects that he eats himself. Slowly, a bond begins to form between the two.
(… and in this way, the story continues …)
In the end, after enduring many hardships, Noyan finally reaches his tribe. His parents burst into tears of happiness upon seeing him alive. Everyone had believed that he was dead. Before losing consciousness, Noyan tells his father to save Alpha.
When he opens his eyes, he finds himself at home. His parents, the people of the tribe, and Alpha are all beside him. Then they discover that Alpha has given birth to pups. This means Alpha was a female wolf, and despite being pregnant, she had stayed with Noyan throughout the entire journey.
Finally, it is shown that after a few weeks, Alpha’s pups have grown. This marks the beginning of a new era, where humans started forming friendships with animals. After many trials, Noyan had finally reached home, and now Alpha and her children were with him as well.
With this, the story comes to an end.

“In a world where survival is everything, how far would you go to protect those you love?”