Chapter 3: Totem of Dark Circles
When the sun rose, the moisture in the forest condensed into a thick white mist, blanketing the landscape in a milky haze. The morning wind could not disperse the fog, but it roused countless birds from their slumber.
Chen Jian, who had slept uncomfortably on the slate all night, was woken by his sister, Yu Qian'er.
Fortunately, the bonfire had warmed the stones; otherwise, he truly would not have been able to bear it.
In primitive society, there was no need to wash one's face and hands, which saved time, but a trip to relieve oneself was still necessary.
The tribe's few tame wolves wandered near those who went into the woods, their definition of "food" apparently quite different from that of their wild ancestors.
With no paper, Chen Jian couldn't quite bring himself to use soil. Luckily, it was spring, and leaves were abundant.
Back in the cave, the old grandmother had already distributed the day's food. The adult men each received a large portion of mutton, while the women ate tubers.
After the meal, more than twenty adult men prepared to hunt, equipping themselves with tools like stone axes and spears. The women, in turn, readied themselves for the day's gathering.
Everything was for survival—the driving force behind humanity's struggle to conquer nature.
His cousin, Wolf Skin, mentioned that he had seen a large herd of deer by a distant river a few days ago, so that became today's objective.
Before the men set off, the old grandmother sprinkled a little ash from the bonfire on each of them, perhaps as a form of primitive prayer.
Chen Jian's mother tied a polished beast tooth to a piece of bark and hung it around his neck, telling him to be wary of wild animals.
These people were all blood relatives, but the tribe had nearly reached the limit its territory could support. If the population continued to grow without new methods of acquiring food, the tribe would soon have to split.
Chen Jian slung the simple longbow he had made over his back, gathered his feathered arrows, and followed the group of cousins and uncles out of the cave.
The air was thick with the smell of decaying leaves mixed with the intoxicating scent of pine resin. Woodpeckers drummed against the trees, and a cuckoo's call sounded like a child crying for its aunt, occasionally startling a few hares into bolting across their path.
At the foot of the mountain lay an open, hilly meadow where weeds grew half as tall as a man. A simple path had been trodden through them.
His cousin Wolf Skin stared at the bow on Chen Jian's back and finally couldn't resist asking, "Jian, what is that thing you're carrying?"
The other cousins and uncles turned their heads, equally curious about what the object was for. If it was some kind of good-luck charm, it seemed a bit large.
Chen Jian tried to explain, but no one understood. The words for "bow" and "arrow" didn't exist in their language, making a clear explanation impossible.
The sound of their conversation rustled the grass, and in the distance, two fat, strange-looking birds cooed and flapped their wings.
Chen Jian made a shushing gesture to the others and quietly crept into the grass.
The two plump birds weren't particularly frightened by his approach; they simply maintained a safe distance, moving away slowly.
Chen Jian knew there must be a nest nearby. Ground-nesting birds like these wouldn't flee immediately upon seeing an enemy. Instead, they would try to lure the predator away. It was a reproductive instinct, meant to protect the chicks in the nest.
Looking at the two strange birds, Chen Jian felt a wave of disorientation.
*Where am I now?*
These birds were definitely not chickens. They were bloated, larger than any chicken he knew, with wings that seemed to have degenerated. They couldn't fly, but they could run incredibly fast, making a trembling sound as they moved.
His cousins and uncles watched Chen Jian and laughed heartily. These birds were notoriously difficult to catch; once they started running, it was impossible to keep up. Usually, the women would simply shoo them away to search for eggs in the nearby grass. Catching one was almost unheard of.
"This is Jian's first hunt," one of his uncles remarked. "He'll soon learn that it's not so easy."
He didn't stop the boy's curious attempt. On the contrary, he waited to see the look of annoyance on Chen Jian's face. It was a rite of passage every tribal hunter had to experience, a lesson that taught them the reality of the hunt.
But Chen Jian's actions were not what his relatives expected. He tiptoed to a spot about ten meters from the birds.
To a creature that had never seen a bow and arrow, this was still a safe distance. Intent on protecting its young in the grass, the bird kept shaking its vestigial wings in a provocative display, ready to bolt if he got any closer.
"Time to die, you two roast chickens," Chen Jian muttered to himself with a grin.
Because the crude arrow lacked a nocking groove, he had to hook the bowstring with his thumb, pressing the arrow's shaft against it. He drew the string on the right side of the bow and quickly released his fingers.
*Thrum...*
The simple wooden arrow flew across the ten-meter distance and struck one of the fat birds squarely. The bird shrieked, flapped its wings frantically, and collapsed to the ground.
The other one took off with astonishing speed, its legs a blur as it practically flew across the grass, far too fast for anyone to catch.
"Roar!"
A cry of shock erupted from his relatives behind him. It was completely beyond their comprehension. How could a piece of wood bent like the moon make a stick fly through the air and kill one of those swift-footed birds?
They immediately crowded around. His cousin Wolf Skin tremblingly reached out to touch the crude longbow, then snatched his hand back as if shocked by electricity, muttering something under his breath.
He didn't understand what it was and was perhaps afraid of offending whatever spirit resided within it, fearing the wooden arrow might pierce his own heart and give him the same fate as the bird.
An uncle ran forward, picked up the large, dead bird, and held it high, careful not to touch the feathered shaft still embedded in it.
It was the first catch of the day's hunt, which was always a good omen.
"Jian!"
"Jian!"
With their limited language, they could only chant his name to express their joy. Regardless of how it happened, the tribe had another hunter capable of hunting alone.
The men surrounded Chen Jian, asking him to explain how this astonishing event had occurred.
"Bow! Arrow!"
Chen Jian held up the weapon in his hand, giving it the name he knew from a later era, pronouncing the words carefully. The tribesmen repeated the words, their tongues struggling with the unfamiliar sounds before they finally got them right.
Wolf Skin pointed at the bow and arrow, asking where the idea came from, and Chen Jian gave an explanation perfectly suited to this primitive era.
"In a dream, a voice told me I could catch prey this way."
"Who told you?" the men asked, deeply curious. At this stage, they had no concept of gods as such, only a subconscious feeling that a power existed beyond nature. They had not yet formed a primitive religion.
Chen Jian didn't answer right away, thinking carefully. If the tribe were to expand in the future, the words he spoke today could hold great significance.
So, he described, "In the dream, the creature looked like a bear, but its body was black and white, and it ate a kind of long, green stalk. It taught me how to make this, and when I woke up, it was gone..."
"Black and white? A bear that eats stalks?"
Everyone was astonished. They had never seen such a creature; the bears they knew were gray or brown.
Although they had never seen it, the sight of the dead bird inspired in them an immediate and inexplicable reverence for this strange bear.
This had to be a gift to their tribe. It must have been an ancestor, or some guardian spirit, who had taken the form of that bear after death. The ancestors were protecting them.
Seeing their earnest and almost pious discussions, Chen Jian couldn't help but smile inwardly.
If his tribe did grow, its totem would probably end up being a panda.
It would be a simple thing to draw—just a piece of charcoal on white bark, and it would be perfectly lifelike.
Only...
In the future, if they encountered a tribal alliance whose totem was a dragon made of antlers, a snake's body, fish scales, and a bird's claws, and his own tribe merged into it to form a new culture... how would his tribe's totem be incorporated?
A dragon with two dark circles around its eyes? Or a chubby dragon with scales of black and white?