"30,000 years ago, the Neanderthals died out." "Climate change, a drop in the birth rate, disease, and the appearance of homo sapiens on their vast territory were among the causes." "Ao The Last Neanderthal" "Northern Siberia 30,000 years ago I am Ao." "I live where no-one ever comes, on earth frozen solid as a rock where the cold never ends." "Boorh, my friend." "We've known each other since we saw the plain in flower 11 times." "It was a long journey back, but we bring a lot of meat to soothe my people from the cold which carries off souls." "Life returns." "Snow fell 9 times since I dreamed of hearing a baby's cries echoing in my cave." "My clan will survive." "Little one, you hold in your sleep the future of my people." "May Nature give you life-giving force." "The beast has returned." "It has taken another life from us." "I will hunt the beast with all my strength." "Nea has been born." "I must protect her." "May my childhood necklace keep your breath alive." "Boorh knows the beast." "It already took half of his sight." "Beast, you gave me your life." "My people will no longer be afraid." "May your soul find the land of animals." "Boorh..." "May your spirit light the great plain of the dead." "Man is evil, more terrible than the beast." "You are evil, long face!" "Who restrains my hand?" "My heart refuses to take another's life." "A man's life." "Nea, the breath of my life..." "Your breath... now flies through the icy plains." "My clan no longer exists." "Southern Europe 25 years earlier" "Oa, my brother," "Oa, my blood." "We were born the same day, of the same mother." "The dead man is different." "He looks like those our elders saw on their travels." "Nothing is like us: the body, even the clothes." "There were many hunters in our camp." "And the women bore many children." "But a sickness had entered our cave." "Several of us had died." "Our father was the chief, respected by all, but his strength was abandoning him." "The great heat had returned 4 times, and many of the tribe had died of the same sickness." "Fewer in number, our clans exchanged weapons, food, and children." "That day, the heart which united us was cut in two and stopped beating." "Nea... little girl that Nature gave me, you are in my body." "You gave Oa back to me." "For you, I want to go back to my birth place to find my lost brother, my other half." "Hooked beak, you're still here." "I know you." "I came through here on the long walk." "Northern Europe" "Big horned animals..." "We'd follow you for a long time on hunts." "Your meat gives our minds your bodies' strength." "The men with painted faces are scared of me." "I don't know them." "As a young chief, I saw these slender silhouettes on the hilltops, but never so close." "A man and a woman who look like them, prisoners like me." "The woman is with child." "Am I a monster?" "Like those beasts which only come out at night." "Why do they reject me?" "I'm only different to them." "Who are you, painted face, to take life?" "You think you're stronger than Nature, but you're less than a beast!" "I know nothing as cruel." "Oa!" "Oa, my brother!" "I spit on their faces which spew blood!" "I am one with Nature." "The trees are my light, the animals guide me, the earth speaks to me." "I've never seen a face like his." "He's ugly, he frightens me." "His words are foreign to me." "What does he want with Wama, my baby?" "Nea..." "My daughter..." "Nature gives me back what it took." "Wama, the fruit of my womb, forget this creature that looks at us." "You're a monster!" "You took my life away!" "I'll find you!" "The red is coming out." "As with my people before me, as with my father, the sickness is here." "Little one..." "Nea, you're mine." "Wama, you're mine." "You're not like him." "The violence of Aguk's men yielded to the creature's power," "but what will he do to me?" "I found Nea." "I will find Oa." "We walk as long as the sun lights our steps." "I know not where to or why." "He is only interested in the life-giving liquid in my breast." "For several suns, I've suffered from the strange sickness." "I must go on." "Oa is waiting for me." "The tree with twisted fingers..." "I've been here before." "It's the first time he's said my name." "My camp!" "Each hunting season, I came here until the day Aguk and his warriors attacked us." "They killed many of my people." "Few got away." "For several nights, the spirit of evil has tortured his body." "Over the course of time, as we live together, what used to seem unbearably strange, is more and more familiar to me." "Sickness still shakes Ao's soul, but day after day, his body eliminates it." "Above all, he wants to live." "Who are you, woman?" "Your powers are strange." "The magic herbs which sting my nose have cured me." "I must find my childhood clan and give them this strength." "May fire carry away the souls of Aguk's warriors!" "Ao is now ready to know the other world." "Aki is like Nature." "She shares." "I don't see what Ao sees." "I don't understand what Ao says, but now I can hear his heart." "Wama and Aki will go with you." "On the long journey which leads us to Oa, we learn to communicate." "Aki starts to understand my words, and I hers." "The fish feed us for awhile, then meat becomes scarce." "Central Europe" "So, we eat fruit and roots." "The birds of death..." "They are always there when there's meat." "A cave with two gaping holes..." "The long-toothed animals came here to die." "There are the remains of a camp." "Ao knows these huts." "They were made by the men with scary faces." "Who disturbed the dead on their journey?" "Who wants to stop their souls returning to Nature?" "Ao hasn't eaten," "Ao hasn't slept." "I don't know this side to him." "Ao wanted to unite his body with mine, but he's too different to me." "The old man isn't like us." "He's like Ao." "Nea's heart beats in my body." "Nea, you are not Wama." "You live elsewhere, where man is not afraid of the unknown." "The old fool is right." "Where are we from?" "Who are we?" "Oa, only you perhaps know the answer." "Ao made an impression on them." "Where is he?" "I miss his presence." "Ao's heart is good." "He talks to Nature." "Wama will be his daughter." "The forest has been eaten by tongues of fire." "But the souls of the trees talk to me." "Soon I will find Oa." "Laughing animal, may your strength continue to roam the plains and forests." "Southern Europe" "The journey is over." "Oa, Ao's brother, is alive." "Ao is now the last of his people." "4 years later" "We never wanted to live with the other men in another clan." "We're happy to be here together to watch Nea growing up in Ao's arms." "Nea, life is here." "My blood flows in her veins." "The disappearance of the Neanderthal is a mystery." "Homo sapiens is the last known human species still alive on our planet..." "For how long?"