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It's barely dawn, freezing breeze were sweeping through the pine forest. A wolf-like creature known to us as a Raeken Coywolf (Canis raekenus) woke up in his makeshift den formed out of moss, fern and vine. According to contemporary scientists, he's a hybrid species between the ancestors of wolves and coyotes. A young male who left his pack recently, he hunted alone in this patch of forest, there's no other coywolves around here, but for the sake of simplicity we will call him Theo.
The canine narrowed his eyes at the frozen forest. He's hungry. But seeing the thick layer of frost outside, he couldn't help but to worry about his next meal.
After all, in this global ice age, finding food itself became quite a challenge.
CUE THE DRAMATIC ORCHESTRA
A LARGE TITLE FORMING ON THE SCREEN
«THEOLITHIC»
The time was almost 12 thousand years ago. The place was the nemeton forest, located on the southern edge of the vast yet retreating Cordilleran Ice Sheet. In modern days, we call it San Francisco. With lowered sea level, the area was quite far away from the sea.
"Howl..."
Theo shook the frost off his pelt, and emerged under a bush. He's ready to hunt now.
Walking through the forest floor, his soft paws kept him quiet when moving, his dark brown fur blended him into the background, his sensitive nose breathed in every scent in the woods.
The nemeton forest was bursting with life, but not all could be Theo's prey. As an example, the rivers flowed through the forest was full of fish, but it's hard to catch them since Joshuah Eels (Electrophorus diazid) ruled the fresh water here. He would be knocked unconscious, if not dead right away, if he accidentally provoked one to unleash it's high voltage electricity. Theo was a cautious wolf, he knew how to choose his prey.
He spotted a Lydian Warbler (Sylvia croesia), which was named because it's fossilized remains once decorated the grand metropolis of Sardis, but decided against hunting it, for the bird had an annoying trait that it would screech on a very large volume that would warn every creature in the forest whenever it thought it's in danger. In short, not worth it.
He soon found his perfect prey, a large chameleon called Coreisaurus (Chamaeleo bryantoi).
Unlike its contemporary counterparts, the prehistoric lizard didn't conceal itself actively. Instead, it was enjoying the warm sunlight on a fallen tree, seemingly had no idea dangers were lurking behind a cluster of fern.
Theo licked his lips. He knew that finding prey was one thing, yet caught one was a completely different other.
Theo slowly lowered his torso, but kept his nose up high for a moment. That was to evaluate the dangers of the hunting. After all, he's barely an adult now, and there were larger and deadlier predators in the forest, who wouldn't resist him as their next meal.
He caught a sniff of a Silver Leopard (Neofelis argentinae), a large cat related to modern-day clouded leopard, but the scent was stale so she wasn't anywhere around here. There also a familiar scent, but it's nothing to worry about. The ground was clear, and now he's safe to hunt.
Captured on the screen was a priceless moment, never had anyone managed to film a Raeken Coywolf hunting, until now. We can see that Theo narrowed his eyes, tilted his head from one side to another, that was to judge the distance between him and his prey.
It seems like it's still a bit too far. Theo quietly took a step forward.
But then...
"Derek!"
With a deafening roar, a huge wolf leapt out of the bush right across from him. He's a Sour Wolf (Canis hale) who lived on the mountain ridge nearby. Because of the sound of his roar, Theo preferred to call him Derek.
"Howl...?" The unexpected appearance of Derek truly surprised Theo.
Then he emitted an angry hiss. That stupid lizard was supposed to be his prey!
Speak of the chameleon, it was alarmed by the loud noise and swiftly jumped off the trunk, successfully escaped the deadly pounce.
"Hrrr..." Theo hissed impatiently. He's smaller than Derek, so getting the prey by force was not an option. Apparently, Derek was too far away when he started his attacks, so the lizard escaped his first hit, but Theo could do nothing but wait.
Just as Derek prepared to attack once again, the chameleon suddenly disappeared.
Yes, it disappeared into thin air, rather than changed its skin colour like modern chameleons. This rare footage we seen here was the first one ever captured by any recording device. Even equipped with modern science, we are still struggling to explain how could Coreisaurus achieve such a magical action.
"Derek?" The wolf was apparently confused.
"Howl—" Theo marched out of the fern bush angrily. Every hair on his back stood up to make him looked larger. His muzzle rearranged into a snarl, showing his displeasure for his foiled hunt.
This was not the first time his hunt was interrupted by Derek, nor the first time he caught Derek stealing his prey. That rogue wolf must stay away from his land, even if he was much smaller, he was determined to chase away the intruder.
"Derek..." Derek noticed Theo as well. It seemed like a bloody fight was coming.
However, something unexpected happened. Derek lowered his head and wagged his tail, seemingly as a gesture of goodwill. Although Derek was significantly larger and stronger than Theo, he had no intentions to start a fight, so to avoid the potential injuries. After all, in this harsh ice age, injuries were no small matters, a critical wound could even be the sign of death.
But is that gesture enough to let Theo know that he's harmless and friendly?
"Howl...!"
"Derek, derek derek derek."
To our astonishment, Theo put away his hostilities as well. He let his hair on his back fell flat again, though his snarl was still present and his half-closed deep cyan eyes won't look at Derek. He then took a small step towards Derek.
"Howl..."
"Derek derek derek."
What a unbelievable sight this is! Two rivaling canines courting each other by rubbing their furs together. And what they were howling sounded suspiciously like a conversation.
"Howl—"
"Derek derek derek! Derek derek derek derek derek derek, derek!"
It seems that some kind of agreements had been reached. After the two canines murmured at each other for a while, they began to move forward. Theo followed Derek's footsteps naturally through the woods, the awkwardness and hostilities between them were nowhere to be seen. The two canines left the denser part of the forest, and gradually traveling towards the open grasslands.
Where a thin line of smoke was rising in the distance.
Yes, humans already appeared in North America, since a thousand years ago or so.
By then, people in America already knew how to use fire, began to form more complex societies and started to domesticate local animals and plants.
But for them, an attacking carnivore could still cause heavy casualties.
Let alone two.
"Cuetlachtli!"
The sound of animals fighting interrupted the silence in the small village.
Before any humans could react, the two canines sneaked into a pen in the village.
Their target was a group of Stiles Fox (Vulpes stilinscidae), a kind of fox partially domesticated to produce their thick dark fur.
Being kept in the enclosed space, the foxes couldn't run away from the attackers, and soon they were caught one by one.
Humans finally gathered around the fence, but they couldn't do anything. That is, until a young man suddenly pointed towards a large cage on the edge of the pen and yelled.
"Tepixqui!"
"Tlatoani!"
That human ran towards the cage, pulled down a lever, and the wooden cage door sprang open.
A gigantic lizard stepped into the enclosure. This was a Kanima (Kanimas whittemorii), an extinct venomous reptilian, closely related to snakes. He emitted a loud hiss, scaring the two canines into a slow retreat. The teeth, claws and tails of Kanimas were all toxic, among them the tail was it's greatest weapon.
"Teotl! Teotl!"
The villagers began to kneel down and kiss the ground the lizard was walking on. It seems to us that they were worshipping the Kanima as a god. Archeological evidence showed us that similar worships existed throughout the world in every major culture and civilization. It is said that this is the very start of animism cults.
The Kanima hissed again, and snapped his tail in the air as an warning. But apparently, the canines were also ready to defend their next meal.
"Derek—"
"Howl—"
The canines leapt forwards to attack. The fight began. Soon, the results were clear.
Although it's thick scales provided nearly impenetrable defence for him, the Kanima could not find any openings to attack the canines, so he soon retreated, leaving the foxes to the predators.
It would be quite a while before people realized that reptilians were not their ideal household pets, only after that did they turned towards felines and canines for cats and dogs respectively.
"Yaoyotl!"
Derek, with two dead foxes in his mouth, escaped the village already. But Theo was hungry, he wanted more food before leaving. That was a fatal mistake.
"Tetlallanuiliztli!"
The villagers reacted swiftly, with most of the path being blocked by angry humans, Theo only had one way to run when he re-emerged out of the pen with five foxes hanging in his mouth.
And then he fell right into a trap. Theo saw some of those traps before, they were concealed by a thin layer of grass and dirt, and they usually had spikes in the bottom to kill any animal falling into one of them. He expected a quick death.
But the bottom of the pit was not spikes, to his great confusion, instead it was a large pile of dried plants with blue and purple flowers. We now know this as aconitum, a not so common wild flower.
"Tlemitl!"
As someone suddenly yelled, several flaming arrows embedded themselves into the dried plants, within seconds the whole pit is engulfed by fire and smoke.
The incident ended with a high pitched scream from Theo.
THE SCREEN GOES DARK AND THEN SLOWLY LIGHTS UP AGAIN
"Mr.Dunbar, glad to see that you're finally awake."
"Huh? What?"
Liam Dunbar opened his eyes and stared at the figure in front of him: his biology teacher
"It's... A dream?"
"Well then, how about hand in your dreams as your assignment this week?"
"I'm sorry." Liam mumbled.
"This is your last warning, Mr.Dunbar." The teacher then returned to the class, "Now, for canines..."
Even without his enhance hearing, he could still someone snickering close to him. He turned his head towards the source, only to find Theo Raeken, winking at him under his glare.
That smirky chimera would be dead before sunset. Liam decided.
CAMERA ZOOMS OUT TO SHOW THE TOWN OF BEACON HILLS
Mankind gradually formed complicated societies since the Neolithic, overcoming various hardships including natural disasters and attacks of carnivores. But for modern-day students, the most vicious of them all is without doubt, schools.