Lucy was lying face down in the soft mud. She couldn't breathe and it was cold, but she hadn't the strength to move. She decided to wait a few moments in hopes that her strength would return and she could rise and continue to run. She had tripped on a root, she thought, and now was just too tired to do anything about it, except rest and worry as her lungs began to cry for air.
She had been running because they were chasing her and she knew that, if she were caught, they would kill her. She was fast and in the beginning she had little difficulty staying ahead. But then she came to the swampy area and she thought she would find a place to hide. But instead the mud had spattered up and caught in her body hair and she became heavier. Their tribe was a particularly hairy one. Of course it varied from individual to individual, but she had thick black hair all over. Some had bare faces or breasts and some tribes had very thin hair and even wore animal skins. She didn't care for the idea, but she could see that it had a flexibility that body hair lacked.
It got harder and harder to carry the load of mud which continued to stick to her body.
They hated her because she had convinced the other women of the tribe that the only proper way for sexual intercourse to occur would be if the male asked and was granted the favor by the female. The females liked this idea very much and quickly agreed to unite in the demand of the elders that a taboo be established and that violation of the taboo be dealt with harshly. They were tired of hiding all the time to avoid attracting some male's attention and then when they were caught having to lie still, under their stinking sweaty bodies while they got what they wanted. And then, like as not, having to put up with months of being tired and sick and then having to endure torture to bring forth another of them. And then being stuck for years with child care. The whole thing was a part of life that Lucy felt could and should be dispensed with. It could be so nice. Submitting when one wanted to and then having a child one wanted.
The elders hadn't liked it but the women disrupted their home lives while they considered it to such an extent, by failing to prepare food and sleeping separately, that they decided they had to acquiesce. Of course they knew the younger males would complain bitterly, but they thought that with the elders and the females against them, they would eventually concede defeat. It was the first time they had thought of the notion of a rule with punishment for transgression. A novel idea, and one that might be useful in the future. There were many problems that might be dealt with in this manner.
Things had not gone well from the beginning. The young males retreated from camp and were gone for days at a time. She supposed that they had been plotting this revenge. The only times some of them were seen was when they abducted a woman, and then the elders had to organize a posse and go out and capture them and bring them back for punishment.
The punishment hadn't been very harsh: a day or two of hauling water for cooking or washing, but it had been humiliating.
And then she had seen them coming and she knew they were coming for her. It was their expressions. Grim, tight-lipped, they felt their lives had been altered for the worse and what was their God-given right had been taken away by a taboo, a rule, an unimpressive idea, of no substance, just a thought, not something that could change reality. But it had done exactly that, and some had gained and some had lost and the losers were determined to revert to what had been before.
The idiots. The past could not be regained. It was gone forever. The females had got something of great value and they would hold on tenaciously. It would not be lost again.
She ran. They chased. Now, she was exhausted. She was bleeding from a wound in her leg. One of the males had tried to bring her down with an arrow.
She began to reflect on how she had happened to think of the taboo concept. It had just come to her. But, her grandfather had taught her about trying to compel her mind along pathways of her choosing. He had told her that his great-grandparents had lived in trees and their tribe had done so for as long as anyone could remember. But, then one day, a new animal had arrived in their wood. It had been a climbing cat and its method of hunting was to climb trees and wait in ambush for one of her ancestors to come along.
Soon they noticed that survival was no longer assured. It became harder to find a mate. Finally, a leader arose and led them out of the trees and on a trek to another wood, where they began their earth dwelling lives. They had had to invent a whole new life. Nothing they did before was of use on the ground, and the ground was a more dangerous place, but offering many alternative strategies for survival. When threatened too severely, they migrated. As long as they were dominant, they used guards, and eventually discovered weapons. They had discovered that some among them could use directed mental activity to find ideas with which to attack problems.
So, she had not been surprised, when the idea came. Her life slowly drained away and she found it not unpleasant, restful, and...what did it really matter?
She drifted into unconsciousness.
Slowly, the years went by and the climate changed, the swamp dried up and the mud around Lucy changed to rock.
The End