The shining amber and the great tree at the hill top

 It’s been 8 years since I reincarnated on this world.

Recalling the biology lessons at high school, my species is a intermediary between Homo Habilis and Homo Erectus, much closer to Homo Erectus (but with a lot of hair) than Homo Habilis. I call it Proto-Erectus. {#1}

I live in a society with around 20 individuals. We are pretty much wild animals, only knowing how to chip stone to make it sharper. Our language isn’t developed either. Most of our communication is non-verbal with lots of gesture. But we have names, somehow.

My name is Owawi. It’s a strange name, but that’s because our language isn’t developed. I don’t know if it’s because of our undeveloped vocal chords or if it’s caused by a limitation of our mouth movement. As a result, our language only has 4 vowels ( A – I – O – U) and 3 consonants ( H – Y – W).

I tried reproducing other sounds of the alphabet. It resulted on me biting my own lips to bleeding point when trying to reproduce the F, M and P sounds, the R sound being impossible to pronounce, and D and L consonants make me sound like I’m yucking.

If I try hard, I can reproduce the B, T and Z consonants, but when I uttered those sounds, people looked at me weird.

That said, we only really use verbal language to call each other by our names, and beside that, we use the word WAWAWAWA to warn of danger approaching our nest, and the current leader/alpha can summon the tribe by shouting the word YOYOYO.

It’s been half a year since I was allowed to explore alone around those forests. Sometimes I go alone and sometimes I go with my friends.

Today I’m going with my friend Ayu. She is a cute girl that is tall and slim, has a long hair, and a playful but caring personality.

Today we are climbing the forest highland to look for some fruit. After looking around, we found some mango-like fruit on tall branches on a tree.

We looked into each other face and immediately started climbing the tree, racing to the top while teasing each other with monkey sounds.

After climbing the tree (I won the race by the way), I helped her reach the base of a branch near the top of the tree, then we rested while hugged together before catching some fruit.

Hugging Ayu feels comfy. It’s like hugging a big fluffy animal or stuffed toy. Even though we are both naked (as always, since we don’t wear clothes) it doesn’t come off as weird. I was having something like a “life could be dream” moment. {#2}

Even on my original world, things like cats, dogs and monkeys almost never wore clothes, and people touched and hugged them all the time.

That’s how it feels to touch someone from my group. I don’t know why though.

Maybe it’s because of the hair all around the body, maybe it’s because I’m a human in my mind, maybe it’s because we are innocent beings that doesn’t have the malice of smarter humans.

Then I got to see the view of the whole highlands from the top of the tree.

The view was breathtaking. It was sunset. The scenery consisted in a lot of trees going down in a gentle slope.

The trees were big and their leaves were reflecting a bright green color that seems like shining, while some others displayed purple-colored leaves.

The trunk of those trees were covered by vines that shone on different tons of green, cyan and blue.

Lots of different birds were nesting above those trees. Parrots, Hornbills, Crowned Cranes, and lots of different colored and flashy songbirds.

Monkeys (as non-ape monkeys), lemurs and tarsiers were swinging around on the branches. On the ground near those trees we see some weird bushes that has lot of different-colored leaves on a single plant.

A bit more down and we can see some grassland extending all the way to a cliff, and near the grassland towards the forest we see some amazing flowerbeds providing a multicolored spectacle.

Beyond the cliff we see a big valley with a savanna covered on a bright red grass, with some trees scattered around.

A herd of huge animals can be seen traversing the savanna in a distance. I vaguely remember those, the largest terrestrial mammal to ever walk those lands.  Above those savannas, some stones with crystal formations on the bottom were floating around.  {#3}

Looking behind, we see the slope going taller with a lot more trees, colorful vines, bird nests and more monkeys, and then we see the biggest tree on the top of the hill.

That tree was tall and had a very thick, veiny-looking trunk. On the top of the trunk, extensive branches reaching far wide, covered with bright green leaves and flowers blooming. Right on the middle of the trunk, a big, shining, blue amber glows brightly atop the hill.

I was hugging Ayu while looking at the scenery when she shook off my head. Then I remembered that it was time to gather the fruit.

After gathering the fruit and going down the tree, I tell Ayu that I’m going to explore a bit more before going, and she should go ahead. Since our language isn’t advanced, I use gestures with monkey noises to convey it.

[YOU – GO – BACK – TAKE – FRUITS – ME – LOOK – AROUND] (Owawi, while gesticulating)

[NO – ME – GO – WITH – YOU – TOO – EARLY] (Ayu, responds while complaining)

[GETTING – DARK – DANGER – YOU – GO – BACK – ME – RETURNING – SOON ] (Owawi)

After a while she agrees to go back. After wandering the forest for around 20 minutes, I see the hill with the big tree on the top.

The Blue Amber was shining brightly. It looked so beautiful. I mean, I know it’s just a rock, but something about it draws me in, it’s like I’m feeling hypnotized by the stone. I approach it, until I get closer to about 10 meters of the tree. Then, someone comes in while shouting my name.

It was my mother, Waya, shouting my name while seeming angry. Then, she started to forcefully drag me back.

[YOU – GO – BACK – HILL – DANGER] (Waya, gesticulating while making angry monkey noises)

[ME – CATCH – STONE – GO – BACK – QUICK] (Owawi)

I gesticulate that I was going to catch the amber, when a loud roar shakes the very core of my being, so loud that it can paralyze any living being with the sheer terror of imagining what kind of monster can make that kind of noise. All monkeys around react in a mix of fear and agitation, while the birds around all fly away.

Then a large saber-tooth tiger leaped on that hill. It was glaring intensely at me. It was as roughly 5 meters long, and had a sturdy and stocky build, with more of a bear-looking body. It had a dark yellow fur with green stripes on it’s back. While it moves with a very firm stride, it didn’t seem very agile, and it didn’t look like it was keen on advancing on me. It seem more concerned about securing it’s territory. {#4}

My mother rushed to me, and grabbed my hand and while shouting frenetically, urged me to get back. The tiger didn’t chase after us.

When arriving home, my mother was shouting at me with gestures that resemble some big predator rushing at it’s prey. I think she is warning me to never get close to that tree again, since it’s that tiger territory.

I never got so close to danger since reincarnating. I guess I need to be more careful while exploring around, as we can die very easily in this wild world if we make a mistake.

Footnotes:

#1 – The average look of this Proto-Erectus is just like this photo, but with more hair on the body. https://fineartamerica.com/featured/1-homo-erectus-science-picture-co.html

#2 - Life could be dream : https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=K552CHagc2c

#3 - The big animal on the savanna - https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Paraceratherium

#4 – Sabertooth - https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Smilodon

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