The human element - a fictional story

The purple sky where Sarah lived cast a warm glow over the horizon, night was setting in. The great mountain that towered over everything else was obscured at the top by misty clouds. It sheltered the valley where the Yakkas lived, so the weather was always mild during the day. A river running through it supplied water to drink and meant that lush vegetation grow in abundance, providing perfect hunting ground and hiding the village from outsiders.
Her husband, Gregor Defray, had been hunting in the jungle of overgrown scrub around the village when a group of outsiders appeared climbing down the side of the great mountain. There were three humans. He told her how he went to attack, but hiding in the undergrowth he observed them and they were nothing more that the merest shadows of life. So worn down and thin from starvation that they might collapse at any moment. They weren’t a threat and they wouldn’t make a good meal, so curious about what had happened to them Gregor brought them...