SWITCHBACK - THE CHANGELING STORY: Chapter One

This is a rough draft of a fictional origination story of a sci-fi/fantasy/cop-drama show, Grimm on NBC. I have not watched every episode due to the sporadic airing of the program. The episodes are available online but I am vexed with a slow Internet connection. I enjoy the show’s story line though it is degraded by gratuitous violence. A chapter of this brief novella will be posted every other day.

This is my first attempt at creative fictional writing, merely a preliminary plotline sketch so please be kind…

SWITCHBACK - THE CHANGELING STORY: Chapter One

CHAPTER ONE
In the way back long–ago, there was a community of bipedal homids. They traversed the land mostly by walking on two feet instead of leaping from tree to tree. They belonged to the same species that developed into Homo sapiens or modern day humans. Family-clan groups were the core of their community. They resided in a thickly forested jungle area laced with expanding patches of savannah plains. The clans seasonally migrated with other animals to obtain food, water, and shelter. Encounters between clans were rarely neutral. Positive would involve trade, sharing of information, and genetic material. Negative could result in theft, physical harm or death.

Life was a struggle. Almost half the offspring died before puberty. Adults frequently expired due to accident, illness, conflict, or were killed by other animals. Living until the old age of twenty was a rarity. The seasons would cycle from too much rain, abundance, extended dryness, and then return to the deluge of monsoon. The rhythm of existence was harsh but despite the challenges, the population gradually grew. Disputes between clans and animals increased as the land’s resources were stretched to feed more mouths.

The homid’s territory was large, but one range of high hills was off limits to all clans. Occasionally, the mountains beyond the hills would belch black smoke and glow orange at night. Bitter evil ash would occasionally fall from the sky when the wind would blow from the north. However, scarcity forced one clan to break taboo and forge a path through the hills. A few years later, some members of the pioneering clan returned with a tale of profuse resources. The pressures of overpopulation had amplified during their absence. The pioneers convinced several desperately hungry clans to join them in the unexploited territory.

Traversing the trail proved to be perilous. Food and water were not always available, rockslides were common, and predators would attack the vulnerable trekkers. Many people died during the journey deeper into the mountains. A rockslide in a narrow gorge crushed and injured many of the travelers. There was no turning back because immovable boulders blocked their return path. The only way was forward and clan members wearily marched northward.

Entering a beautiful terra firma rewarded their arduous journey. The high plain was at a greater elevation but not high enough to frost during the cool months. How could this land be considered taboo? Like other animals, the homids moved with the season seeking a safe area to procure nutrition, water, shelter, and raise their young. They journeyed in their family-groups throughout the new region. They grew accustomed to the rumble of minor earthquakes and infrequent eruptions of the neighboring volcanoes. The groups would annually converge in a deep valley located on the eastern edge of the plain to wait out the driest part of the seasonal cycle.

The valley was a large gorge formed by violent earthquake long before the homids arrived. The walls were steep on all sides except for one entrance on its south wall. The passageway was treacherous; the slender footpath sometimes claimed the life of one or more band members when they moved up or down its terrain. The dangerous journey was worth the blood. The valley was lush with food and few predators while the plain above baked in the dry sun. The clan was mostly vegetarian and would occasionally eat small insects, fish, or other animals to supplement their diet. Several small streams fell from the cliff walls and coalesced into a traversable river in the valley. A spring-fed stream dribbled out from the west wall and drained into a small lake in the lowest level of the valley before it trickled through a winding gap to the sea. The cleft was too constricted for even a child to pass. The homids would migrate out of the valley after the monsoon season refreshed the food sources in the expansive plain above the valley. Thus, our story begins.

NEXT CHAPTER TO BE PUBLISHED SOON.
© 2013 Ima B. Musing