A child growing up in this world would have learned, from his earliest years, the sounds of the animals nearby, the smell of smoke from the hearth, the texture of the mammoth-bone shelters that kept the cold at bay.

He would have seen adults work ivory and bone into tools and ornaments.

He would have seen the hunters return and the community organize itself around the business of processing a kill.

He would have known the specific quality of light that comes during the short Siberian summer and the deep darkness of the winter months.

He would have known cold.

He would have known hunger.