the night passed, another day arrived. cloudeye and his sister sat beside the bonfire while examining the map, they were young, hence their first time working with one, and so they had a hard time pinpointing their position.
the map drawings didn't introduce anything other than stormsong and the forest, the stormsong tribe was positioned to the extreme south-west while the rest detailed the forest with a large blue line zigzagging through the whole map indicating the large river, it also had small bonfires near the river designating the sites the hunters used.
furthermore, there were simple drawings of animals and beasts spread through the map. wolves, bears, crocodiles, jaguars, and even giant mammoths were carefully drawn on their respective location.
"Brother, isn't that the giant mammoth? they're in the same forest?!" hue couldn't keep her calm at the shocking revelation.
"no don't worry, many beasts here have already disappeared, can you see this 'I' shaped mark..." following his pointed finger she could see a figure of a cave bear with an 'I' above its head "this means it disappeared from that region for more than a decade, and the ancient mammoth has a circle above its head, which means this particular species has disappeared from that location for more than a century" he kept pointing at various regions in which several animals with many 'I's above them, which symbolized that they had disappeared for more than five or six decades...
"oh, then there remains only normal beasts like wolves and bears?" a sigh of relief escaped her mouth as she resumed asking.
although normal beasts were strong they paled in comparison to ancient ones, meaning If you are sharp and attentive enough, maybe you wouldn't slay one, but you could at least escape unscathed.
"not quite" cloudeye shook his head before continuing " although the strong ancient beasts like the mammoth do not live here, many fierce ones do" eyeing his sister's confused face he laughed before explaining "take the wolf species for example, the general ones you know are the brown wolf, white wolf, and the silver one which attacked us, although the brown wolf is a normal beast the white-furred one is a fierce beast and a whole level above a normal one..." he kept teaching his sister about the common knowledge of the hunters.
"cloudeye, you are so aware it's scary, haha"they both laughed and chattered inside the illuminated cave's somewhat cold interior.
"wait, you said the brown one is a normal beast and if the white wolf is a fierce beast, then_then the silver one is an ancient..." as if remembering something her eyes opened wide yet she couldn't complete her sentence before her face turned pale from shock.
the ancient hunters had created a system for evaluating the strength of each beast hence came the names "normal", "fierce" and "ancient".
"no, if it was an ancient one neither I nor you would have been capable to live that day" he threw a few sticks inside the fire as he spoke "it scratched your back leaving hardly a flesh wound, it is at most a stronger fierce beast, but even a brown wolf would have been able to do more than that" he scratched his hair pondering before he locked on his sister's gaze" the only explanation I can think of is that it was wounded, if not our outcome would've been worse"
they kept their head down for a while, many things have happened through their lives that they weren't sure how much longer they would continue breathing, the raccoon that they ate only had a few pieces of meat left and so he had to go hunting for the second time, but the hunting season for the stormsong already began, now in addition to the forest's beasts, he must also try avoiding the stormsong's hunters eyes. if the stormsong found a flamefang kid on their hunting ground he would die.
both of them understood it all, they just didn't voice their thoughts so as to not burden the other person. they worried for each other.
"cloudeye, you're so bright, do you have any plan for this situation?" she didn't wait for his answer as she said" I know I'm the older one but keeps depending on you all the time" she had a troubled look on her face as she knew she was holding him down "I don't have any skills unlike you, you were so brilliant that our parents loved you a lot, that's why I loved you too" she didn't cry but cloudeye knew that her tears were in the verge of dropping.
he didn't know how to comfort her, he chose not to as he told her his plan
"We can't stay here for long nor can we survive by ourselves, we must enter a new tribe..." he said
"mhm, but we don't know where we stand and the stormsong won't help, we are enemies after all" she shook her head while rubbing her cheeks.
"hehe, we will enter the stormsong as another tribe's orphans" grinning he told her his grand scheme.
"cloudeye, I don't think we will be able to trick them, if their shaman made a sacred ritual, the truth will show" she refuted him as she shook her head once more.
"a sacred ritual for two dirty orphans? that is madness! hue you only have to trust me, I really thought this over" his eyes glinted as he responded.
"then; what if....."
.
.
.
they kept denying each other but the more he explained the more her doubt cleared away, in the end, her eyes had a glow of hope on them before she accepted, both stood at the cave's entrance, the dark sky made the forest look ghostly as beasts kept howling, few birds kept circling above a bonfire's smoke which floated through the sky indicating the nearest site the brother and sister pair could reach.
"Tomorrow at dawn you will advance to that site, make sure to act exactly the same as I told you" his small hand grasped her own as he pointed with the other toward the fire's smoke.
"ok, let's go back into the cave, it's warmer" she said as she blew hot air from her mouth.
time passed but they did not sleep, they kept thinking of what-if scenario and how to act in each situation accordingly.
the sun slowly materialized as the blue eyes faded, cloudeye stood, he picked up the bone dagger by the bonfire's side and directed it toward a flame pattern on his right side's upper shoulder, he cut the flesh slowly as he cried in pain.
his sister beside him firmly held his hand, her eyes tearful but determined.
almost all the tribes had a tradition where they engraved the mark of their tribe on their children, they engraved it on boys five years of age, and girls ten years of age.
cloudeye obviously had one but hue didn't, she didn't complete her tenth year when the beasts attacked.
after the flame pattern was forcefully erased by his dagger his sister hurriedly bandaged his injured shoulders as blood kept flowing. her eyes were teary, her state looked more rumpled than himself.
"you should go now, its only a flesh wound, I won't be able to accompany you but if you take that route you'll be okay" cloudeye weakly said before chopping two small cuts on her back, blood flowed as he pushed her away.
"Brother, I'll succeed, definitely" she grimaced in pain and declared. she couldn't let her brother's plans and efforts be in vain.