Here it is, chapter 6

Quite a short chapter and one that I'm kind of proud of.

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Tales of the Eternals Chapter 6: Ice Age

Snow drifted slowly through the frigid air. Vast white rolling hills stretch into the distance covered in tall pine trees underneath thinly clouded pale blue sky. In a thicket of leafless bushes, a small slim figure with a round pale face covered in freckles and dressed in a long blue cloak covering yellow and blue robes wades its way through the thick fallen snow like a splash of paint against a white canvas. Following him is a sturdy little animal with long fur, a long face with a small horn on its snout, trotting happily after Altallo while snuffling along the ground looking for exposed foliage.
Altallo and the creature approach a large snow covered rock on a small hill. Altallo presses a hand to the rock and an archway appears. Both he and the creature walk through the archway.
It was cold inside the flight deck. Shern'aath was pacing and shivering, covered in a blue cloak similar to Altallo's, but with an extended cover for his tail. He flinches as the door opens and a gust of cold air enters the ship

“You know you could stay in the plant room or one of the animal chambers,” Altallo says, taking off his own cloak and folding it. “You look really cold.”
“I'm not leaving you out of my sight,” the raptor responds in a thick voice “What if something bad happens to you?”
“There's nothing out there that's going to harm me,” Altallo says, leading the small woolly creature towards the plant room, which was mercifully warm in comparison to the flight deck. “Well there was that huge thing with fangs that tried to rip me apart, but I got out without a scratch!”

Shern'aath makes a noise of exasperation but makes no argument. The animal room which was once full of dinosaurs had changed. Instead of a vast space there is a wide corridor with more rooms concealed behind sliding doors. Each door is elaborately decorated with a small plaque with a symbol engraved onto it. Altallo leads the woolly creature to a door with green wavy lines embossed on it. Beyond the door is a huge chamber with a high clear ceiling. The floor is covered in earth and grass. Huge trees dominate the scene; a mixture of pines, ash, maple, elm and oak. Nearby is a lake and a small waterfall. In stark contrast to the barren snow outside, it is warm here and the trees and flowers are in full bloom and birds sing. The little woolly creature bounds away and starts grazing.

“I think I shall go out again,” says Altallo donning his blue cloak again. “Just one more time before it gets dark.”
“Just be careful,” Shern'aath says sternly “I don't want to see you getting mauled.”
Altallo smiled and then exited the ship.

The sun hung low over the snowy hills and clouds had started to grow in the sky. Taking a deep breath of cold air, Altallo sets off down the hill.
Reaching the foot of the hill, he hears a branch snap and then strange cries. Ducking behind a tree he peers around its trunk. A deer was running across the snowy plane, pursued by two lumpy looking figures. They hold spears and are tightly wrapped in animal furs. Compared to the fleet deer, these figures were rather duck-footed in the deep snow. One of them hurls its spear towards the deer, but misses; the spear hitting a tree. The other figure starts scolding the other figure, cuffing it and speaking in a strange language to Altallo, but from its voice, he guessed the figure was female. The other started retaliating in a male voice and pointing angrily behind the female figure.
Altallo watches intrigued. With a glance back to ship, he steps from his cover and walks up to the figures who are still arguing.
As he approaches the male figure takes off his hood. His face was flat, with a broad nose and dark eyes. He has a tangled beard and wild dark brown hair. His annoyed expression vanishes when he sees Altallo and he gapes. The female figure also takes off her hood. She had a heavy face and her red hair was just as wild as the man's and she too looked at Altallo as though she had never seen anything like him before.

“Hello there,” says Altallo happily, feeling nervous and suddenly aware of how strange he looked, his brightly coloured clothes contrasting with their brown furs. “What are your names?”

The pair jump back from Altallo. To them his speech is grunts and roars. The woman raises her spear when Altallo raises his hands in a sign of peace. The man pulls out a stone knife and throws...

Inside the ship, Shern'aath re-enters the flight deck after a visit to the plant room to warm up. Looking out of the window he spots two creatures standing over Altallo. He rushes up and presses his face on the window; Altallo was lying in the snow face down and unmoving. The bigger of the creatures grabs Altallo's arms and starts dragging him away, the other following.
Shern'aath makes to follow, but then remembers the cold. He darts into the cryogenic room and starts rummaging in a cupboard built into the ship's walls, pulling out more blue cloaks and scarves. Snatching up his spear, he walks back to the flight deck, bundled up from head to toe in blue cloth, save for a slit for his eyes. Taking a deep breath, he opens the ship's doors and steps out.
He wades through the snow to where Altallo had lain; now deserted save for a glint of gold. Pushing aside some snow Shern'aath finds Altallo's headdress. He places it in a nearby thicket and then starts sniffing the ground. Soon he finds Altallo's scent and the smells of the other creatures; wood-smoke and oils.
Shern'aath follows the trail until he notices a pool of gold coloured liquid on the ground. Puzzled he dips a finger into it and holds it up to his tongue, tasting it.
“Blood!” he whispers to himself, recoiling and wondering how injured Altallo must be.
A series of footprints and speckles of gold blood trails off into the distance. Light is fading fast as the sun sets behind a hill; the snow sparkling red in its glow.
Shern'aath starts following the prints and occasional blood away from the wooded hill and across an icy plane.

Night falls when Shern'aath approaches the base of a huge mountainside, bringing more snow with it. Soon he can't see the trail of prints through the falling snow. Just as he is about to retrace his steps he hears a growl and the trickle of loose stones. Looking up, he catches sight of a beast haunched above him on a rocky outcrop, its eyes glinting in the dim light. Shern'aath raises his spear defensively and barks at the creature. It leaps down in front of him, and he could see it more clearly now; huge and covered in thick fur, with large paws, a vast head with long fangs in its mouth and whiskers. It crept closer and closer, Shern'aath could hear a deep throated rumble coming from the beast. Shern'aath gulps and backs away.
The beast lunges at Shern'aath, almost knocking the raptor off his feet with one of its giant paws. Shern'aath thrusts his spear and the beast gives an angry roar. Without thinking, Shern'aath starts yelling and raising his arms to make himself look bigger.
The beast roars but slowly slinks away into the shadows.

Shern'aath collapses onto his knees and rubs his throat, feeling exhausted as the falling snow disappears. As he is about to stand up, the snow around him suddenly glows green. He blinks, not quite believing his eyes, then he looks up. In the sky lights were dancing amongst the stars. It was a beautiful thing; shades of green and red moving like waves on the ocean.
The light illuminates the trails left by the hunters and Altallo. Not quite believing his luck, Shern'aath smiles weakly then hurries up the hill towards the mouth of a huge cave with a long tunnel leading downwards. Within he sees a flickering light.

Inside the cave the hunters drag the barely conscious Altallo in and deposit him against a stone close to tunnel leading outside. The cave walls are covered with intricate paintings of animals and figures with spears and knives. In the centre is a fire, around which are grouped other people of varying species; eagles, wolves and more of the smooth skinned creatures that look like Altallo. The two who brought Altallo begin talking to the rest of the tribe. Altallo stirs weakly, and opens his eyes slowly. In the dim light he could see a blurred figure moving close by him. He tries standing, to escape this strange place, but the pain in his limbs and head makes even a tiny movement unbearable. He winces and shuts his eyes as a hand touches his temple, but the hand is soft and moves slowly and gentle.
Altallo opens his eyes again. A woman was stooped beside him. She looks young, with long straggly unkempt brown hair and a pallid face. She brings some furs and drapes them over Altallo, keeping him warm and then presses a wooden bowl of water to his lips.

An eagle comes running up to the woman and pushes her away from Altallo, saying something urgently to her, while a wolf points a spear at Altallo's face; the other cave inhabitants staring, afraid to go closer. Unbeknown to any of them, Altallo had scanned the woman and could now understand them.

“You must be careful, this is a strange thing that could hunt you!” hisses the eagle
“Look at it,” the woman replies defiantly, “It has a face like us, hands like us. You never know it could even speak like us!”
“No it can't, it snarled at us like a cave bear.” says the male hunter
“It could be from another tribe,” the wolf growls, “Come to steal our food or fire.”

Nearby, Shern'aath edges his way along the tunnel, keeping to the shadows. Eventually he can see the full cave and quickly spots Altallo, a spear at his throat held by a furry creature who was growling at him.

“Where do you come from yellow one?” the wolf asks.

Shern'aath admired Altallo's courage; the little Eternal pushed aside the spear and sat up, looking directly into the wolf's yellow eyes.

“My home is close by. If you could just take me there, I will leave you alone and never harm you.” he says, voice cracked.
“It does talk!” the eagle cries out “Don't trust it.”
“I need to get back to my ship!” Altallo says desperately, “Its my home.”

The woman steps in front of Altallo, pushing back the wolf and eagle.
“He is ill, lets help him.”

The hunter who had brought Altallo snorts and pushes her out of the way.
“You're too forgiving. We let this thing go and he'll come back with his whole tribe!”

The others at the back of the cave murmur in agreement. The other hunter, bolstered by this continues.
“We will end his life and leave him in the next blizzard for the lions to eat.” she says, glaring at Altallo.

There was another noise of ascent and the female hunter takes out her flint knife and starts towards the cowering Eternal. The whole cave reeked of fear and the smell of mammals, making Shern'aath grimace.
With the loudest roar he could muster, Shern'aath jumps, spear levelled at the hunter, who drops her knife in surprise.
“Get back!” he snarls at the people, who could only hear a throaty growl, but backed away.

Shern'aath moves to Altallo, who reaches out a hand to the raptor. Pity welled up inside Shern'aath, Altallo looked terrible; his face was pained and he looked feverish. The raptor grasps Altallo's hand and helps him up, all while keeping his eyes and spear on the others. He slings Altallo's arm over his shoulder and drags him out of the cave, Altallo managing to keep step with the raptor.

In the snow, Shern'aath feels relieved to find the aurora still above, showing the tracks back to the ship.
“Not far, Altallo.” he whispers to the Eternal, but Altallo seemed to have lost consciousness again and slumps against Shern'aath.
The raptor picks Altallo up and balances him on his back, holding a leg in his free hand and awkwardly hobbles on.

His good luck runs out soon and Shern'aath finds himself in a blizzard. Snow races in front of him, buffeting him and the world turns into a blur of white. He felt Altallo clinging to him and forged on through the howling wind. Soon something huge looms in front of him and Shern'aath jumps, almost unbalancing himself; but it is just a tree. Sighing in relief Shern'aath recognises the wooded hill and could just make out the shape of the ship disguised as a boulder.
He is about to walk towards it when, with a sicking THWACK noise, a spear hits the tree, missing his head by inches, looking back he sees the spots of orange light and voices.
Fear gripping him, Shern'aath wobbles as fast as he could to the boulder, nearly dragging Altallo along. Reaching the ship he grabs one of Altallo's hands and presses it to the boulder; opening the turquoise archway. Once inside, warmth flooded through Shern'aath, he had not realised just how cold it was. Taking off most of his blue coverings, he helps Altallo to cryogenic room and lies him down in a sleeping area set in a wall; a basin shaped object full of soft material. Altallo opens his eyes and looks up at Shern'aath.
“Thank you m-my friend,” he mumbles, his face was red from the stinging snow “You saved my life.”
“You'd do the same for me,” Shern'aath says softly “Is there anything I can get to help you recover?”
“Just warmth and rest.” Altallo whispers, and he closes his eyes and starts sleeping. Shern'aath covers him with some of his discarded blue cloth and leaves for the flight deck.
Out of one of the observation glass he sees the hunters grouped in front of the ship, making him freeze even though he knew they couldn't see him. The wolf was sniffing intently at the boulder.

“They were here! The trail ends here.” he snarls
“You lost them!” the eagle says exasperated, “You wolves are so lazy and arrogant you know.”
“You try smelling through all this beaky and then we'll see where we end up, probably right up a mammoth's-”

“Stop this,” the man snaps “The point is they're gone. Come on lets get back to the cave.”

They move off still nipping at each other, all except one. The young woman looks at the boulder for a solid minute before bending down and putting something in front of the ship and then walks away; the falling snow swallowing her up.
Puzzled by this Shern'aath reopens the ship and quickly snatches the thing up before the cold reaches him. The thing is a small skin bag with a thread tying it up. Opening the bag Shern'aath finds a collection of small objects made of ivory and bone fashioned into animal and human shapes. Shern'aath glances back in the direction that the woman had left, questions racing through his mind.