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[indent][sup][color=black][b]Day 1, Week 1, Cycle 1: Heidevolk Awakening
Springtime, 21 C°, Sunny[/b][/color][/sup][/indent]

It is imperative to the social training of any young Volk to play with their peers and elders to foster a sense of community within the troop, and to help the young understand social cues that are of the utmost importance when it comes to survival in the wild. The troop had parked themselves atop a ridge, overlooking the heath fields of a great plain filled with rolling hills, which colored purple at the end of every summer, as if they had been painted by some celestial being with large swaths of heath, but were grass-colored at this time. At the edge of this ridge the young were playing, chasing each other around on all fours, despite the fact that the Volk had long since developed the ability to walk straight. It seemed that the thought had simply not crossed them until then to actually permanently make use of this ability. As the young Volk played together, the elders were busy picking berries from the midst of the many plants in the area, and preoccupied themselves with eating them right away. The thought of creating vessels to carry extra berries had never occurred to these primitive creatures.

One of the elder Volk, with six large set of curved horns, suddenly looked up and surveyed the field in front of them -- in the distance, a singular large oak tree stood atop a hill that rolled gently, but was by all means one of the larger hills in the area. It seemed as if perhaps one of the same celestial beings that had colored the hills purple had also placed this hill here, perhaps with the tree included. But, it seemed that the Volk did not realize this, or perhaps simply did not see the beauty in it. To the left of the tree, [i]far, far[/i] in the distance was an ocean, an area that the Volk had until then never even considered exploring. There had never been any need. And to the right, where the heathfields ended, there was the forest, a place that the Volk [i]had[/i] explored, and a place which they preferred to use for shelter in the cold winter months. 

But the elder Volk did not seem interested in these two features either. Rather, the Volk lifted one of his hands as he stood up straight, righting himself in the face of the majestic view that was laid bare in front of him. His hand moved higher and higher until it covered the sun, and the Volk was standing up straight. ... contemplation seemed to follow, but the area remained eerily quiet except for the quiet chittering of the young Volk, who were still running around chasing each other, one of them having grabbed a stick with which it threatened to beat the other. 

Until suddenly, [b]“... HUH,”[/b] the old Volk that had inspected his own hand released a guttural sound, confused with the prospect of the apparent realization that he was now in control of his movements - no, that he could [i]decide[/i] his own movements, no longer governed by primal instincts that drove him to survive and nothing more. [b]“HUH,”[/b] he spoke again, raising another hand to where he held the other, before looking around. Slowly but surely, the rest of the troop caught on, and began inspecting themselves. The children, which had previously been running on all fours, slowly but surely stood up and righted themselves like the old Volk had. Their eyes were fixed on the old one, before they themselves began to inspect their own hands, moving around as if they had been possessed by some spirit. And if anyone with a spark of intelligence had seen these creatures dancing around in the heath, they might have wondered what kind of savage, primitive creatures these were, and why they were dancing for no reason; but to the Volk, this feeling of control over not just the body but also the self had given their life a whole new meaning.

In fact, the fact that they could now ascribe a certain meaning to their life was proof in and of itself of their sudden on-brought intelligence.

Their eyes turned to the large tree in the middle of the heath fields, a tree that had previously been entirely irrelevant to the Volk because it produced neither food nor shelter, two stimuli that would've previously pushed the Volk's limited brain functions to the edge. Instead, the tree just seemed to attract them as they became aware of its beauty. The question was whether or not the Volk were aware of the implications of their new thoughts, but it seemed that the Volk were far too stimulated by literally everything around them to care. Something as simple as the touch of a long piece of grass was enough to give young Volk pause, as the sensation of touch was something they knew, but also something that they had never experienced so vividly as they were experiencing it now.

The troop drew closer and closer to the tree, being stalled only by their young continuing to dance around -- on two legs this time -- while experimenting with their new acute awareness of their senses. A good few steps away from the large oak tree was a small pond, filled with the water of a stream that came from the forest nearby. The stream seemed to carry mist with it, and for the first time the Volk seemed to be aware of it, several drops of mist and morning dew giving their face a wet feel. And for the first time, the Volk felt inclined to wipe it off with their hands. 

In the small pond, there were bubbles, and yet again, the sudden realization that bubbles equated aquatic life seemed to thrill the Volk, who were grunting among themselves in attempts to convey meaning. It was clear that these primitives had only ever communicated through rough grunts and body language in their time as animals, and so communication became a bit of a struggle. Within seconds, one of the Volk had grabbed a long stick, and began using it as a club to beat the water in an attempt to scare out whatever animals were lurking beneath. And so came the advent of [i]primitive tools.[/i] Their application, although relatively clever for primitives that had been animals not even ten minutes ago, still needed some adjustment, but what could one truly expect from these savages?

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By the time nightfall had arrived, the troop had made a camp -- if one could call it that -- consisting of large wooden sticks foraged from the forest put into the ground so that it could support more sticks, upon which dirt and mud would be placed to make the structure somewhat resistant against the elements. The shelters looked crude and uncomfortable, but the Volk seemed very impressed with themselves. How could they not be -- this morning, the end result of their day would have been to fall asleep in the heath fields without a shelter, so the very fact that they had conjured up the idea of even building a shelter was groundbreaking to them. 

And it seemed that the splashing around with the makeshift club in the water had also resulted in at least one dead fish -- a very small one. And, although the eldest Volk had somehow managed to create fire by rubbing sticks together as part of his experimentation of using 'tools,' the concept of cooking the fish had not entered their mind yet. Unfortunately for the fish, he was bitten in the neck while still alive, though his suffering ended soon after. The fish was passed along the circle of Volk sitting around the fire, as a communal meal of sorts, while berries were passed around the other way.

The biggest, meanest looking Volk, with the biggest and sturdiest horns of them all, stood up and raised his hand into the sky, and he proclaimed proudly, [b]“HUH HUHAHA! HUA HUA HEEEEHHH...!,”[/b] and so it was proclaimed that, despite their best efforts, the Volk had still not mastered the art of communication. The rest of the Volk cheered him on and beat their hands onto the ground next to them as a sign of agreement, though it was very unclear to everyone what the Strongvolk had actually said.

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[hider=Actions][color=black][b][list][*] The Volk became aware of themselves, their surroundings and their thoughts
[*] They proceeded to enjoy the large beautiful tree in the center of their starting habitat
[*] They experimented with primitive tools
[*] And also accidentally made fire
[*] Still no sign of a cohesive language[/list][/b][/color][/hider]