[Co-written by @spiritofcamelot​ and @azure7539arts​]
Q is awful at hunting. And that’s fine. He is valued for his smarts. One of the things he creates is new pigments for paint. This is used both for clothes and for painting the walls of their cave.
Bond gets his knack for hunting after discovering that he rather likes sharp things (because sharp things are useful). It takes a while, but eventually, he sort of realizes that searching for sharp objects all the time once the older ones grow blunt is time consuming. And it takes another while for him to figure out that he can sharpen his clutter of random rocks and bones to finer points than anything he can find out in nature. This is when he starts to become really good at hunting (or, at least, he can deliver more damage than previously now.)
Em is an elder of the tribe. She rules with a long walking (or whacking) stick always in her grasp. She is small but fierce, her sharp teeth easily tearing the meat the hunters brought back. Despite her age and gender, she is in charge of the hunters and often advises them when the water will fall from the sky and they should stay home or when the hunting is good. It’s uncanny, but she always seems to know which watering hole the largest animals will be at.
Eve is the occasional trouble-maker (not that Em approves, but at least she’s not half as bad as Bond) because she doesn’t like to conform and has no intention to do so any time in the future. Sometimes, she’s with Q, watching and sometimes helping him with the pigment finding and mixing. Other times, she’ll help out wherever she can—picking food and gather and hunting. It’s the hunting that used to get her into trouble, but after one particularly vicious fight with some foolish male (which she didn’t start, mind) and her subsequent victory, they don’t tend to bother her anymore.
Boothroyd was injured when he was a younger hunter. He walks with a limp. But like Q, he is good at improvising things so he has a crutch that helps him walk without as much pain. He spends a lot of his time carefully sharpening tools, the methodical shick, shick of the stone providing a backdrop to the stories he tells the kids. Q helps him by making shadows with his hands on the cave walls to help tell the stories.
Tanner mostly doesn’t like hunting. He can do it, and he’s methodical enough that he can achieve his objective well, but that doesn’t necessarily mean that he likes doing it. What he likes is to just help Em out with organizing hunting parties (who gets to be on it, and who needs more rest), gathering parties (where they should be picking fruits up next), and how best to migrate to a better location once the surrounding areas have stopped providing them with sufficient materials. Q, Eve, and he work well together because he appreciates Eve’s mischief, Q’s creativity, and their sense of humor combined. (Bond thinks he’s not really part of the group, but Tanner knows better, considering that Bond is, more likely than not, around whenever he’s home resting after a hunt.)
Generally, their tribe gets along well, and other tribes leave them alone. But there is always one dissenter. Silva has always bickered with everyone, and finally he goes and joins the Janus tribe instead. The one tribe that hunts them. But Em reminds everyone that they were better and fear would not destroy them.
Bond, to his credit, keeps calm and doesn’t give into the tension and cause trouble (Em and Tanner keeping a close eye on him may or may not have helped matters), but worse comes to worst when his hunting party is attacked one day, and Ronson (one of the younger tribesmen who has started out just a while back) is badly injured. They manage to ward off the enemies, but by the time they bring Ronson back to the tribe for some help (any help), it’s already too late. It’s only now that the idea for revenge really takes root and grips itself around Bond’s mind.
