A gentle breeze blew in out of the north, carrying a touch of cold, warning that despite summer’s warm hold over the valley winter was not far off. Winter was never further off then the huge ice sheet that perched at the northern end of the valley, just visible if one stood on one of the taller hills. In a couple eons those massive glaciers would slowly grind their ponderous way south, flattening the valley and the rest of the area into open plains. But to the girl standing on the hillside, the wall of ice looked as eternal and unmoving as the stone cliffs which together with the glacier formed the boundaries of her world.
She was a tall girl of 18 summers, slender shoulders and hips, but with long legs. She wore a dress of tanned animal hides, stitched simply, but not without skill in the form of a long tube, stretching from her firm round breasts down to just below her knees. A single leather strap across one shoulder held it up. Down below, her feet were protected by hide wraps as well. Both dress and shoes were decorated here and there with small beads and ornaments carved from wood and bone.
The girl had in her hands a small basket woven from plant fiber in which she was busy gathering useful and edible plants that grew across the hilltops around the edges of the valley. That one had tasty roots, that one plentiful seeds. This one, when crushed, would yield a bright pigment which the tribe’s shaman would use to paint images of animals and spirits on the rocks and cave walls to bring the hunters good fortune.
When a stubborn clump refused to come loose from the ground, she cut them with a small knife, chipped from a hand sized chunk of smooth, black stone. She steered clear of a cluster of mushrooms, recognizing them as poisonous. As a girl, she’d learned all this watching her mother and the other tribeswomen gathering much as she did now.
Besides the useful plants, the girl couldn’t help but gather a bunch of the flowers that brightened the hillside. Till they wilted, they would brighten up the camp and provide a pleasant smell. She kept an especially watchful eye for the pretty blue ones, her favorite. They had been in bloom when she was born and thus had been named for them.
“Aaayooo!!!” Another girl called up from further down the hillside. Blue Blossom looked down. It was a girl about her age, Singing Bird. She waved up, signalling to Blue Blossom that she had picked her stretch of hillside bare of useful plants and was ready to move on. Blue Blossom waved back, grabbing up her basket. It was a rule of life in the valley that one never strayed too far from the village alone.
Besides the normal dangers of falling in the rough crags and ravines between the hills or turning an ankle on loose stone, there were predators to be feared. The large, tusked mammoths were only possible to bring down with all of the tribe’s hunters working together, pushing them towards a pit or into a narrow gorge where rocks could be hurled down in relative safety. Otherwise, to approach one of those beasts was to invite being run down, trampled underfoot or gored on their long tusks.
Small, though no less dangerous were the big, solitary cats with their curbed fangs, always ready to leap out from ambush, finishing off their victim before they could scream. Or the packs of wolves, working together to surround and harry their prey. Lately, the tribe had taken to leaving out scraps and bones from the hunt each night to appease the wolves and keep them from coming into the camp itself. Then there were other predators, ones who walked on two legs…
Singing Bird’s scream gave Blue Blossom some warning of what was happening. As the young woman hurried to catch up with her companion, she saw the other girl beset by a pair of large, strange men with dark hair almost as thick and tangled as the furs they wore. The furs were augmented with bones in a strange design, clearly intended to frightened as much as protect the wearers.
One held Singing Bird with one harm across her chest, seeming uneffected by the frightened girl’s struggling. His other hand held a wooden club with a stone striking head, tied on with leather cord. He lifted it up and showed it to his captive, threateningly. At this, she gave up resisting, which allowed the second man to get to work, grabbing her hands, placing them together and looping leather cord around her wrists to bind them together.
Blue Blossom had shrunk back from the sight and now started to try and slip away. There was no way she could save her friend from two brutes like that; she’d only end up captured alongside her, but if she could get back to the village and get help, there might still be a chance they could rescue Singing Bird before she was stolen away for good.
Unfortunately, that was not to be. Blue Blossom had only taken a couple steps down the hill when she was spotted. The raider with the club gave a loud cry, pointing it at her. In that instant, another man Blue Blossom hadn’t seen, emerged from a cluster of trees and came straight for her, a stone axe in his hand. The young woman gave a cry of fright, turning to flee, but in her terror she stumbled over the uneven ground, dropping her basket and spilling its contents. She didn’t get very far before her pursuer was on top of her.
Desperate, Blue Blossom recoiled, raising a hand in a vain attempt to ward off the man standing over her, axe raised. She closed her eyes, convinced the next thing she would feel would be the sharp bite of the stone axe and that would be it for her. But instead, seeing her give up, the man merely tucked his axe into the fur belt around his middle, to free up both hands. He reached down to grab the cowering girl, lifting her up and over one shoulder. As the captive girl kicked and struggled, her captor trotted easily back to where his companions held Singing Bird.
By this time, she had had her feet tied together with leather cord like her hands. Another strap of the same material, but a bit thicker, had been wrapped round her head once or twice, pulled tightly between her teeth to make it impossible to scream for help.
In short order, Blue Blossom got the same treatment. While her initial captor held her in place, and another kept a grip on their first captive, the third man grabbed Blue Blossom’s hands and crossed them, lashing the cord around in a swift action. He bent down and quickly did the same with her ankles.
Once she had been rendered as helpless as she’d ever been in her life, the group set off, two of the raiders carrying the bound, frightened girls over a shoulder each. Periodically, they would trade burdens, letting one rest while the other two carried their prisoners.
As they went, the raiders chatted with one another in a light, happy tone. Their dialect was quite strange to Blue Blossom, though she caught about every other word albeit with odd pronunciations. She got enough to get the gist of what they were saying at least. It seemed they were quite pleased with their catch, that being the two girls, if a bit disappointed there were only two, meaning one of the men would have to go without for now.
Understanding sank in for Blue Blossom. Long ago, so long even the oldest of the tribe only remembered it from stories passed down from their elders, before the valley had been closed off, their tribe had been in contact with others in the nearby regions, trading food and tools and other useful things, but also exchanging young people as mates. The shamans said it was good, to keep the tribe’s blood strong and clear. Those who did not were cursed by the spirits and their blood became stagnant and weak.
There was one tribe who, for ancient crimes so heinous they were not spoken of had made enemies of all their neighbors so that none would trade with them to provide mates. To keep their blood from turning stagnate, they had no choice but to steal mates from the other tribes, sneaking in and carrying off one or two of the tribe’s women. Now this was happening to her and Singing Bird.
The raiders and their captives followed a winding game trail into one of the many cuts in the side of the valley. It ended, Blue Blossom knew, in a dead end. Or rather, it had until recently.
A jumble of stones, boulders and broken vegetation marked where a recent storm had dislodged part of the cliff face, creating a steep, treacherous but passable path in and out of the valley. In time, perhaps, another storm would bring down another rock slide and cut it off again, but it was here now and available to let the raiders get out, dragging their captives away from the valley that had, till then, been their entire world. From her position, slung over one man’s shoulder, looking backwards, Blue Blossom watched the valley disappear from sight and wondered if she would ever see it again.
The party kept moving through the rest of the day, making better time now they were on firmer ground. Blue Blossom wondered what was happening back at the camp, back home. Surely their disappearance had been noticed and people were starting to worry. Perhaps they might even have searched and found the spot of the attack and worked out what had happened to the missing girls.
But with night falling fast, would they have the time to track them to the crevasse? Would they be able to find it at all in the fading light? By tomorrow, surely there would be a rescue party coming after them, but that day’s delay might be too much and doom the two of them.
When it became too dark to continue any further, the men found a spot to make camp where they would be hidden from sight, both from predators and people. The two bound girls were unceremoniously dumped to one side and left to squirm in their bonds while the men sat down a few feet away. From a leather sack, one of the men took out some strips of dried meat and broke them up. Each took some and began the long process of chewing the dry, tough food.
When they had had their fill, one of them brought some over to the girls. He untied the leather straps in their mouths, which was an immense relief. The rough material had cut painfully into the sides of their mouths., Blue Blossom hoped he would also untie their wrists and ankles, but was disappointed. Instead, the man knelt over the prone captives, feeding them bits of the dried meat.
There were a thousand questions Blue Blossom wanted to ask their abductors, chief among them what they intended to do with her and Singing Bird, but every time she spoke up, the man would interrupt her with a word and a gesture she took to be an order to be quiet, and he’d give another piece of dried meat which would occupy her mouth for a couple of minutes.
After the fourth or fifth repetition of this, though, he seemed to get annoyed. In addition to the word and gesture, he picked up the leather strap that had been used to gag her and gestured with it towards her face. The implication was clear: keep quiet or the gag would be put on her again. Given the choice, Blue Blossom decided it was best to keep quiet. The rest of the meal passed in silence.
When it was finished, the two were dragged, still bound hand and foot, over to a small spot the other who men had cleared. While the third man was feeding their captives, these two had carefully cleared away any rocks or sticks and piling up leaves to make a relatively soft spot to bed down for the night. Which they did, the captives in the center, the men on either side, pressed close up for warmth and so they would wake if the girls tried to run off in the night.
Which seemed, to Blue Blossom an even scarier prospect then being carried off by these strange men. She wished for a fire, to keep them warm as the night’s chill set in, and to keep away predators. Plus there was the slim chance the smoke or glow of the flames might be spotted by a rescue party.
But no such luck. The raiders had no fire with them and had no means of making one. Her own tribe didn’t either. They’d gathered a fire from when a bolt of lightning had started a small brushfire many seasons ago and been careful not to let it go out. It was said some distant tribes knew secret ways to make fire, with sticks or with strange rocks, but to Blue Blossom such a thing sounded far fetched.
So she lay, taking what warmth she could from Singing Bird on one side, and one of their captors on the other side and hoped there were no wolves or Sabertooths nearby. Or if there were one of the raiders awoke in time and their clubs and axes would be enough to protect the helpless bound girls. Unsurprisingly, it was a fitful, troubled sleep she had that night, but the next thing she knew it was morning, the first rays of the sun peeking over the horizon.
The men were already up and roused their captives with grunts and kicks. Evidently, carrying the two girls they day before had tired the raiders out, even with one of them resting, so today they took a different approach. The leather cords on the captives’ feet were undone and they were pulled upright. From a pouch, a raider produced a long coil of rough rope woven from grass fibers. One end of this was tied in a loop around Blue Blossom’s neck while the other end was secured the same way to Singing Bird, leaving a couple of feet of slack dangling between them.
The man grabbed this in the middle and pulled sharply, jerking the captives forward. As he turned and set out once more, they had no choice but to follow after him. The other two raiders fell in behind the shambling girls.
All through the day Blue Blossom kept a look out everywhere they went, hoping to see a rescue party coming after them, but everywhere she was disappointed. Perhaps they were still catching up, or perhaps they hadn’t even found the narrow pass out of the valley. She considered screaming for help, they could be nearby, out of sight but not earshot, but she discounted the thought. Unless she was sure rescue was nearby, all that would do would make their captors angry and likely get her another day with the awful leather gag strapped between her teeth, something she wasn’t sure she could take. So she tramped along silently, keeping a hopeful watch out until night fell on the second day of their captivity.
As the girls once more had their ankles hobbled to keep them from escaping during the night, Blue Blossom took stock of things. Despite their two captives slowing them considerably, the raiding party had still covered miles and miles of territory, all of it strange to their prisoners and thus would be equally unknown to any potential rescuers. As she settled down for another night of fitful sleep, Blue Blossom began to despair of being rescued. The next morning, they arrives at the raider’s camp...
Blue Blossom’s first sight of her new home was not a comforting one. It was nestled in a short, but deep cut into the side of a tall hill, the steep sides leaving only one way in or out. Evening was quickly falling when they arrived and the dark encampment was lit with the reddish glow of a bonfire in the center and smaller, flickering torches on the perimeter.
At the front of the camp was a palisade of sorts, sharpened stakes warning off visitors as much as the numerous skulls and bones decorating it: mastadons, sabertooths, wolves, even human skulls grinning grimly from the tops of stakes. But if the captives thought that was the worst sight awaiting them what they saw on the other side of the palisade quickly proved them wrong.
Just inside the camp stood several arched frames fashioned from mammoth tusks lashed together with leather cord. Hanging inside two of the frames were a pair of naked young women, girls really. Their reddish hair marked them as coming from another, distant tribe from Blue Blossoms or their captors’.
Their arms and legs had been stretched out and tied to the frames leaving them spread-eagled, their toes scant inches above the ground. They groaned, unable to speak through the tight leather straps pulled cruelly tight between their teeth but the sound they made suggested they were begging, pleasing with the men for some mercy. If so, they were ignored by the raiders.
“They no work. They try run away.” The raider holding the new captives’ lead told them in their tongue, pointing to the two captives suspended on the frames. “Night...two nights there...teach not run away. Teach obey.” The implications of his word were all to clear to Blue Blossom. The price for trying to escape their abductors was to end up here like these two poor creatures. Night was falling fast and with it the air grew colder and colder. She shivered at the thought of being left out, naked and exposed, all through the night. After such an ordeal, she was quite sure she would have no choice but to submit.
Satisfied their newest captives had gotten the intended lesson, the men resumed their walk, dragging the two to the center of the camp where the bonfire they had seen coming in was. The rest of the tribe, about three or four score, were gathered around the fire, in the middle of a meal. Of this number, there seemed to be two distinct groups. The first, and larger, belonged to the same group as the raiders and were reclined on animal skins eating and talking. The second, much smaller group, maybe a dozen or half that again, were a mixed bunch from different tribes. They were busy serving the first group, cooking food at the fire and bringing it before them. Blue Blossom noted all of this group were female and many had their hands and feet hobbled with rope or cord.
This group also did not join in the cheer the rest of the tribe gave, seeing the returned raiders step into the light, dragging the bound spoils of their hunt behind them. Many of the tribes people jumped to their feet and rushed over, some to question their kin about their journey, far more to examine the two frightened girls they had brought back with them. With her hands still tied behind her back, Blue Blossom found it impossible to ward off the inquisitive hands that poked and prodded her from all sides.
Meanwhile, the three raiders had knelt down by the fire with an older man Blue Blossom took to be the tribe’s chief or shaman. He murmured something in a low voice, throwing a handful of carved bones onto an animal skin. It was only when one of the three raiders jumped up with a gleeful shout and hurried over to the crowd where he took Singing Bird with one hand, Blue Blossom realized what they were doing: throwing lots to determine which of the raiders would claim the captured girls. The raider who had just won Singing Bird untied the rope lead from around her neck and dragged her off. Blue Blossom gave a quiet moan of fright watching as her friend was dragged away.
Nearby, the bones were picked up again and after another murmur, thrown once more. One of the raiders gave a howl of disappointment, the other a triumphant shout. It was evident which man Blue Blossom now belonged to. Eagerly, he ran over and grabbed the rope at her neck, gathering the loose end up in his hand to keep her from pulling away. With a sharp tug, he dragged her onward, through the crowd and towards another part of the camp.
The dark forms of tents were barely visible in the moonlight. Muffled sounds slipped from one: Singing Bird was sobbing, mixed with the heavy grunting of the raider. Blue Blossom whimpered herself, as she was dragged to the next empty tent and pulled through the flap. No sooner had she entered then the raider sezied her bodily and threw her down onto soft pile of skins. There was no gentleness in his movements as he pushed his prize down so she lay on her back beneath him.
The man’s hands fumbled at the hem of her dress, pulling it up her squirming body. Underneath, she was completely naked, bared before him. In the darkness, she heard his breath, quick and eager with anticipation as his hands went to her body, roughly pawing at her breasts, her belly, moving further down to between her legs…
Blue Blossom tensed, praying what happened next would be quick. Her captor seemed to agree. After the minimum of foreplay, he fumbled with his own furs, pulling them off until he was naked as well. The young woman threw her head back, fighting back tears as he moved in to claim her...