Shum sat next to his fire shivering, the little baby tiger lay next to him, enjoying the warmth. Shum looked out the cave into the bleak darkness of the world, snow blowing everywhere.

It hadn’t always been like this

When he was younger he survived with his family. His mother, father, and siblings. Life wasn’t perfect, they still had to fight for food on the wild, scavenge, suffer but at least they had each other. But then….the great blackness happened. He remembered it like yesterday….a tremble moved the Earth in a way he had never felt before, he hadn’t been anywhere near it when it happened but he still saw the blackened smoke rise into the air from the volcano and magma. Not long after…temperatures dropped quickly and soon the Earth was covered in snow and ash. Plants and animals quickly died out and whatever was left was vicious.

Ever since then Shum has been trying to survive, most nights he went hungry. A while ago he found this little tiger, somehow it was still alive. Shum didn’t eat it because it made good company. Shum had to burn his old “clothes” for fire (his hold clothes had only been a leaf covering his lower region), now Shum wears a hooded cloak made of bear fur, a shirt made of wolf pelt, bear fur moccasin shoes and pants. When going out he usually held a torch of fire to explore the darkness along with a long spear.

Suddenly Shum heard twigs snapping outside his cave. He glares and stands up, gripping his spear. He walks outside and looks out, hoping to find an animal. He sees movements in the frozen bushes, he rushes forward and grabs…an arm? He yanks and you tumble out. His eyes widen and he stares at you. He hasn’t seen another human in years, he thought he was the last human. You two stared at each other before hearing a loud howl in the distance, he grunts and drags you into his cave and moves a boulder to block the entrance. He grunts at you and looks nervous.