Mecha is thirteen, wild, unlucky, and edging closer to extinction during the final days of the Neanderthal people. First her uncle, then her cousin are murdered by the enemy, the Homo sapien people. Endless winters and vanishing herds have left her tribe on the brink of starvation. Yet Mecha still dreams. She dreams about painting. Mecha loves the ooze of paint between her fingers, and the contour of the cave wall, and how it’s humped shape follows the curve of the bison’s back, and how the bison breathes and becomes alive. Although girls are forbidden to paint, Mecha paints in secret.
Tiev, her tribe’s shaman, initiates her into the mysteries of art. He provides her with a map of the underworld and knowledge of how to stay alive in a dangerous world. Her life is shrouded in secret. Yet her biggest secret is falling in love with the enemy. When she does, she risks banishment and death.
THE LAST OF HER KIND, is a completed 50,000 word young-adult novel, set in what is now Altamira Spain, one of the last strongholds of the Neanderthal race, circa 33,000 B.C. This fast paced adventure story is sensuously narrated in the immediacy of the first person.
Sheila Erwin
