The Crossing
This is the first installment of what I hope becomes a series. I’d love to know what you think.
The Crossing
Coosa River — 25,000 BCE
Near Childersburg, Alabama
A natural crossing in times past.
The Sturgeon
Trapped in a tidal pool the fish was doomed. Big for a lake sturgeon, bigger than any of the hungry predators that stopped to watch it circle the debris pile. And strong, too strong to die easily.
The fish was not impressed. One slap of the huge tail or a wicked head butt sent even the hungriest predators running for cover.
A lone dire wolf returned to the pool several times a day and watched it circle, waiting on the fish to die.
The dire wolf was standing at the pool’s edge, its sharp eyes looking for weakness when the forest exploded.
A short faced bear came bursting from the underbrush. The wolf ran but turned to see the bear shatter the big fish’s skull.
The bear devoured the fish at the pool’s edge, ignoring the crows as they stole the splatter.
Disappointed, the wolf sulked away, tail between his legs.
The watcher saw it all and was content.
The odd shaped rock on the cliff above the shallows had watched life play itself out many times. Never playing a role in the outcome. Even when it had been deep in the earth and under the rolling sea it was aware of the things shaping the world. Not a conscious being but a presence nevertheless.
Rumors drifted down from the north on the wind. A new animal. Slow and mostly hairless, it should have been easy prey. Yet somehow it persisted. The watcher had seen new species arrive before, countless times across countless ages.
It was curious, nothing more. There was time enough to see how this one fared.