Time's Connections

Born: Unknown.

Her life began in a cave.

Mankind hadn't even developed mud huts yet, and had probably not long ago discovered fire. It was several thousand years B.C., so far away that even her soul couldn't remember the exact time. Of course, she couldn't remember her birth. But she remembered each of her children's.

The clan had whispered things about her in their language of grunts and groans. Starlight had three children, three little girls, each with her blonde hair and green eyes. She named them after her favourite things - Dewdrop, Sunshine and Moonstone. But that was the exact problem. Three children, when most women couldn't survive having two. The clan started to think that she was a demon in disguise, and she was spreading her spawn onto the people. Of course, it was buffalo shit. By the end of her life, she had decided that she just had a strong spirit. Maybe she had been blessed as a baby. Maybe she was just strong for a human. Or maybe she was just lucky.

The cave woman had five main events in her life - three of them being the births of her children; the fourth being the time she killed a man; and the fifth being the death of her beloved brother.

Her children were the most important thing to her. But their story started off as a different matter. Starlight was pretty, to say the least. Her fair hair and unusual pale-green eyes were desirable by many men, inside the clan and out. And you must remember, this was very early in human development. So of course, when a man saw Starlight and desired her, he merely rolled on top of her and helped himself. The poor girl couldn't defend herself against grown men who spent their days hunting. And so, three times this happened to the unfortunate girl, and nine months later each time, another child was born with green eyes and blond hair.

When she was pregnant with her first child, Dewdrop, she was terrified. She didn't want this thing growing inside her, and she didn't want to give birth to it. What if she died? She couldn't count how many women and girls she had watched die slowly, sometimes slowly. The worst was one of her closest friends. She had gotten pregnant with a man that she loved, and was expecting her first child.

Throughout the labour, Starlight had held Sky-Cloud's hand and listened to her screams of agony. The labour had lasted two days and one night before Starlight gazed on the blood soaked baby. It was a boy. He had dark hair, like her friend, and the blond had almost cried in happiness. She tried to hand the baby to his mother, but Sky-Cloud's eyes were shut. A day later, she still hadn't woken. She had died. Her beautiful baby boy died two months later.

So how would Starlight's pregnancy turn out? Would she go through all that pain just to die at the end, and not even be able to give her child the gift of life? She felt that dread all through the nine months she was pregnant with her baby.

The labour was every bit as painful as Sky-Cloud's had seemed. The tribe women were beside her, holding her hand and letting her scream as her baby was born. The biggest shock came when her baby was born in just seven hours. And she was still alive. She celebrated by eating extra when she got the chance.

The first time she held that precious child, the blonde let herself cry a little. That baby was hers, and hers alone. No one could take the tiny blonde away from her mother. And she didn't let anyone come near her baby, who she named Dewdrop as she woke the next morning, unless she knew that they weren't going to harm her or take her away.

A repeat of these events occurred with her next two children. Sunshine was born at noon, on a bright, cloudless day. Moonstone was born in the middle of the night, underneath a full moon. They were the most precious things she had.

She cared for those children with everything that made her Starlight. Every minute of every day was spent feeding them, cooking for them, making them a comfy bed of animal skins, and the most important, making sure no men came near them.

When the youngest child was just a year old, a fourth man tried to rape Starlight as she was bathing. Starlight decided that she didn't want anymore children, because she didn't want to risk dying in childbirth and leaving four children behind. She tried to stop the man, but he wouldn't listen to her.

She hit the man's bare chest and squirmed, trying to hurt him enough to get him away from her. He paid no attention to her struggles and clawed at her, leaving three deep gashes just above her left breast.

Starlight screamed and dug her own fingers into the ground in an attempt to pull herself away. Her hands closed around a rock twice the size of a first. Instincts took over. Before she knew what she was doing, she hit the man on the head, once. Hard. He fell over backwards and held his head, groaning. A wave of anger took over her whole body, and her arm lashed out again. The rock struck the man again in the same spot. He gave a chilling scream. She hit him again. And again. And again. She couldn't stop. Inflicting pain and death on this man was addictive, and she was hooked for life.

Soon the man was laying on the ground with a pool of blood around his head. It had stopped flowing half an hour ago. Starlight was covered in blood. Her own blood from the gashes had run over her body and dried. The man's blood covered her in small splatters. Her breathing was heavy and ragged with small sobs as she lay on her back by the body. She cried, the guilt hitting her and punishing her for what she had done. She cried for her children, not knowing what their fate would be as well as her own.

Eventually, she made her way back to the cave where her clan lived. She explained what happened in a series of grunts and snarls, then made it clear that she wouldn't tolerate any man who tried to do that to her again. The clan was left in near silence as warriors went to collect the body and bury it. Starlight was left with her children.

The next disaster happened only a few days later. Her brother, Flint, was a hunter. After her incident of killing the man, she had asked Flint to train her to be a hunter too, so she could provide for her children if they were banished after all. He showed her what he knew, and to the woman's delight, she was a natural at it. She went hunting with the men of her tribe three times a day to collect food, and she usually ended up bringing home the most meat. Her slender, athletic figure made it easy for her to hide while stalking her prey, and her natural strength was built to enhance her performance as she hunted.

A saber-tooth tiger was spotted not far from the cave. At this news, Flint and Starlight's ears picked up. Their father had been killed by that species many years ago, and Flint was always boasting of how he would kill it. No sooner had the information been delivered, Flint was running out of the cave with a spear. Starlight screamed after him, but it was no use - either he didn't hear, or didn't want to hear. Kissing her children briefly, she ran after her brother with a similar weapon in her hands.

He was hard to follow. Flint had hunted for many years and had much more speed and experience than Starlight. He knew how to turn corners so sharp that she slipped and fell while he kept running. He knew how to push branches of trees out of his face and into Starlight's, giving her scratches on her face and arms that matched the three scars above her left breast. He knew how to leap across rivers like the tiger he was hunting, while Starlight had to splash and paddle her way through. Pretty soon, he was gone from her sight.

Luckily for her, his trail was easy enough to follow. The force of his speed left deep, foot shaped dents in the mud that was easier to follow than a trail of blood. She called his name, desperate to get him home. She promised him fine meat and exotic fruits if he would turn around. She wailed that she didn't want to see him end up like their father. She shouted furiously at him, calling him stupid and pig headed.

A scream stopped her in her tracks. It was filled with agony, like she'd never heard before. Not when a hunter had had to have his leg cut off after a scratch swelled up. Not when a woman in labour bled until the whole cave was washed with red as she and her baby died. It sounded- oh, she couldn't even begin to describe it.

But she knew the voice. She'd know it anywhere. The voice that had lulled her to sleep for years after her mother had died in childbirth. The voice that had promised her food day after day. The voice that belonged to the man who had taken care of her through her pregnancy when the father of each child hadn't wanted to.

Flint.

She found speed in her legs despite the ache that threatened to stop her. In fact, she didn't even notice the pain. It was like she was riding on the back of an eagle, swift and straight to her brother. Starlight didn't feel the air leave her chest, or the strain that her developing muscles were being subjected to. She only had one thought on her mind.

Flint.

There were thorns building around her. They scratched at her, trying to pull her away. At first, she thought they were being cruel, trying to stop her reaching her brother. Later, she realised that maybe they were trying to stop her reaching the sight. She pushed them away with haste and such force that several embedded themselves into her hands. She didn't let it stop her. She wouldn't let it stop her. Then she saw a shape, with her blond hair. She knew that beneath the closed lids, his eyes were a gleaming blue.

FLINT!

She knelt beside him, to assess the damage. The girl instantly felt sick. His chest, torso and legs were covered in claw marks. They seemed deep as they oozed crimson blood. She noticed he was laying in his own blood. So much blood. Could someone bleed that much? It was bad.

His eyes opened slowly, giving her with that beautiful colour blue that had been her favourite colour since she was born. A short laugh escaped his mouth as Starlight watched her tears drip onto his chest. Flint gave her hand a soft pat before he closed his eyes again, not saying anything.

He was dead.

She was too late.

Starlight fell into a state of rage. She picked up her dead brother's spear and ran. Her feet splattered in the blood pool as she did, leaving a fine trail of the red liquid. She found a herd of buffalo grazing and threw her spear. It stuck in the side of a medium sized animal and the buffalo went down. The rest scattered and ran as Starlight came closer. She shrieked a battle cry that was heard by the hunters who were searching for her.

When they found her, the buffalo carcass had been torn to pieces by her rage.

The men ended up taking her home, two holding her arms and literally dragging her through the mud and grass. Her legs got covered in scratches that matched the ones the thorns had gifted her with. Some thorns were still stuck in her palms.

Her brother was buried that night in the back of the cave. Starlight wept with her children, unable to fall asleep. She developed a pattern of not sleeping that was later called insomnia.

A few years later, Starlight was hunting. She was about to step forward and grab her prey when the pig scampered away. A scowled harnessed her face and made her look even more frightening than usual. Since Flint's death, her eyes had become dead and dull, and she never smiled. An emotionless look was always painted on her features, as if she were still watching her brother's funeral. It made the tribe wary of her, if not a little bit afraid. Her hunting skills had grown.

But that didn't explain why her dinner had ran away when she hadn't made a sound. She stepped forward, out of the brush, looking around for the source of fear that had driven away the pig. She froze when she saw the creature.

Its fur was sleek and a light brown colour. The muscles beneath its fur bulged like they had been shoved in with no order. Its paws were huge, and pulling its body towards her. It was lean, obviously build specifically for hunting.

A saber-tooth tiger.

She ran. What else could she do? She ran through the bushes and turned sharp corners like her brother had when he had been running from her those few years ago. She had learnt to leap over streams like a cat, but unfortunately the tiger could do the same. It gained on her too quickly. It was too fast for her to outrun.

She knew the exact moment when she knew she was going to die. She ran around a tree and felt its paws on her back. Its claws came first, digging into her shoulders. She let out a scream, knowing no one would hear her, as the soft pads of the paws came pressing around the claws. She went down.

In her struggles to escape, she managed to get onto her back instead of moving away. The tiger ripped at her chest and dug its teeth into her stomach. The pain was- well, she couldn't even describe it. Just one word went through her mind. Hurt. She was literally being ripped apart by an animal. Was there anything more painful?

The sound of hunters was at first a blessing. They would save her. They would help. The tiger backed off and stopped cutting her skin, thankfully. It felt like a dream. Everything started going hazy around the edge of her vision. And black. There was a lot of black.

Her eyes darted around, trying to find the hunters who had saved her. They were in a small crowd, around the bottom of her feet. She wondered why they didn't help her up. Weren't they going to take her to a healer? Or was a healer coming to her?

Something in her brain put two and two together. A healer wasn't coming. She couldn't be healed. Starlight couldn't be fixed.

She wondered how bad it was. Was there a pool of blood around her like there had been with Flint? Did she have as many wounds as he did? Less? Was she bleeding as much as he did? Had she already lasted longer than him? So many questions flitted through her mind, and it scared her.

Now she understood why he smiled when he died. The hunters looked so scared. She imagined seeing her children looking like that. She'd have to smile for them. Anything to lessen the awful blow of death.

She felt her breath hitch. How long had she been laying here? Minutes? Days? It was taking too long to die. The girl let a laugh slip as she wished for something to do. Then she had an idea. Something she hadn't done for years, something that her brother himself had said was the most wonderful thing in the world on more than one occasion.

She sang.

Tales of lost warriors were ignited in her voice, along with stories of love and loss and family and survival. She sang every song she knew, every song Flint had taught her. Different stories flooded from her mouth, about stars and forests and secret lakes, running and hiking and pretty flowers, animals and rare herbs and weapons. An infinite amount of wonderful adventures.

She wasn't sure when she began to cry. A sharp pain had started to build in her throat as she sang, and by the time she closed her eyes, it had brought floods of tears down her face. The hunters had already left. That was okay. She wanted to be alone.

Her voice cracked painfully. She gasped and struggled to breathe. This was it. This is when she would die. She tried to call out for her-

Age: Twenty three years[/i[