Evolution

Even though primates like Noth were much smarter than rodents like the ailu, his kind could not compete.

It wasn’t just the plesiadapids that were becoming rare in North America. It was no coincidence that Noth’s kind had been pushed up into this marginal polar forest. In the future Noth’s line would migrate further, passing over the roof of the world to Europe and thence to Asia and Africa, adapting and reshaping as they went. But in North America the rodent victory would, within another few million years, be complete. A new ecology would arise, populated by gophers, squirrels, pack rats, marmots, field mice, and chipmunks. There would be no primates in North America: none at all, not for another fifty-one million years, not until human hunters, very distant descendants of the notharctus, came walking over the Bering Strait from Asia.

When the rodent was done feeding, Noth crept cautiously out of his hiding place. With his agile hands he sought out the scraps of kernel the ailu had dropped, and crammed them into his mouth without shame.

For a few hours a day the southern sky still grew bright. But the sun made its cycles beneath the horizon now. Almost all of the lakes were frozen over, and the trees were laden with frost, some of it gleaming in thick lacy shards where mist had frozen out on spiderwebs. The notharctus’ movements through the trees and over the silent forest floor were sluggish and dull. But it didn’t matter; the forest could offer them little more food this autumn.

There came a last clear day, when layers of red-tinged cloud stacked up against a violet southern sky, and the purple-green aurora rolled like a vast curtain over the stars.

The notharctus hurried to the ground and began to dig in places where the soil had been kept unfrozen by layers of leaves or under the roots of trees. Tonight would be the hardest frost of the winter so far, and they all knew it was time to get under cover. So the primates dug, building burrows in which Purga would have felt comfortable. It was as if the brief interval in the trees had been nothing but a dream of freedom.

In the deepest dark, Noth pushed his way through tu

Gently Noth sniffed his sister. She was already dormant, curled tightly up with her tail wrapped around her, close to the belly of Big. She had grown during their months with Biggest’s troop, but Right would always be small, always retain traces of the runt who had been bullied by her now-dead twin. Still her winter fur seemed sleek, healthy, and free of knots and dirt, and her tail was fat with the store that should sustain her through the winter.

Noth felt a kind of satisfaction. Given their dreadful start to the summer, they had both beaten the survival odds better than expected. With no pups of his own, this was still the only kin Noth had — his entire genetic future depended on Right — but for now there was nothing more he could do for her.

In darkness, immersed in the scents and subtle noises of his kind, Noth snuggled as close as he could to his sister. He shut his eyes, and was soon asleep.

Briefly he dreamed, of fragments of summer light, of long shadows, of his mother’s fall from the trees. And then, as his body shut down, his mind dissolved.

IV

The sun’s rays, almost horizontal, shone like searchlights into the forest. Above the slowly melting ponds a chill mist hovered, shining in elaborate pink-gray swirls, pointlessly beautiful. From the gaunt tree trunks immense black shadows stretched north. But the first leaves were budding on the bare branches, tiny green plates hanging almost vertically to catch the sun’s light. The leaves were already at work: The days of spring and summer were so short that these hardy vegetable servants had to gather every droplet of light they could.

It was just a glimpse, a dawn that would last no more than a few minutes. But it was the first time for several months that the disk of the sun had shown.

The forest was quiet. The great herbivorous migrants were still hundreds of kilometers to the south; it was weeks yet before they would come back, seeking their summer feeding grounds, and even the birds had yet to arrive. But Noth was already awake, already out, working.

Fresh from his burrow he was gaunt, his tail flaccid and drained of fat. His fur, ragged and stained yellow by urine, hung around him in a cloud, lit up by the sun, making him look twice his true size. There was still little fodder to be had in the trees, so he had to scurry over the littered, frosty ground. After the winter’s chill, it was as if nobody had ever lived here, and everywhere he moved he marked rocks and tree trunks with his musk.

All around him, in grim competition, the males of the troop were foraging. They were all adults: Even those born less than a year ago were approaching their full size, while relative veterans like the Emperor himself, approaching his third birthday, moved more stiffly than last year. After their winter of starving sleep, all of them looked sick, and the lingering cold bit hard through their loose fur and into their fat-deprived bodies.

There were risks in moving around so early. In the burrows, the females still slept, consuming the last of their winter stores. The predators were already active — and as food was still scarce, early-bird primates made a tempting target. If one of the males did find an unexpected cache of food he was quickly surrounded by snapping, jealous rivals, making the empty forest echo to their hoots and yips.

But Noth had no choice but to risk the cold. The days of breeding were approaching, a time of ferocious competition for the males. Noth’s body knew that the sooner it laid down a store of strength and energy for the battles to come, the better chance he would have of finding a mate. He had to accept the risks.

Navigating with a blurred recollection of the landscape map he had built up last season, Noth made his way to the largest of the nearby lakes.

The lake was still mostly frozen, covered by a lid of gray ice littered with loose, hard-grained snow. A pair of ducklike birds, early immigrants, padded over the ice, pecking hopefully at its surface. Beneath the gray Noth could see the chill blue of older ice, a lens of deep-frozen material that had failed to melt through last summer, and would likewise fail to melt this year.

Close to the water’s edge he passed a gray-white bundle. It was a mesonychid. Like the Arctic fox of later times, it endured the winter above ground. But in a sudden cold spell during the winter this meso had become lost in a blizzard, and, succumbing to exposure, had died, here at the shore of the lake. Its body had quickly frozen, and for now appeared perfectly preserved. But as it thawed the bacteria and insects had begun feasting: Noth could detect the sweet stench of decay. Saliva spurted into his mouth. The half-frozen meat would be good, and maggots were a salty treat. But his thirst outweighed his hunger.

Near the lake’s shallow, muddy shore the ice was thin and cracked, and Noth could smell dank open water. The water was greenish, already full of life, and littered by grayish chunks of old ice cover. Noth dipped his muzzle into the water and drank, straining out the worst of the mucous slime between his teeth.

He could see that the open water bulged with clusters of small clear gray spheres: the spawn of the lake’s amphibian inhabitants, laid down as early as possible. And closer by, in the shallows at his feet, Noth made out tiny wriggling black forms: the first tadpoles. He ran his hands through the water, letting the slime cling to his palms, and crammed the slippery harvest into his mouth.