Anthro #2 (1968)

Anthro has completed the tests of Chief Tugg to win his daughter's hand in marriage, but learns he was actually competing for the wrong daughter... not the lovely young Embra, but her undesirable sister Ita. Running for his freedom, being chased down on horseback, he is rescued by the arrival of a bear who chases away his pursuers and then tries to kill him. Embra appears and kills the Bear with a spear. She has fallen in love with him, and although they cannot be wed until her elder sister is married by tribal custom, she pledges herself to him with an amulet. Back at the cave, Lart despairs over his crippled condition. He can never hunt or be useful again, and all he does is stay in the back making cave paintings. They are running out of food in the winter, and Lart believes he would be better off dead to stop being a burden on the family... he goes out to the grounds of the cannibalistic tribes and waits for them to take him. Shortly afterward, Anthro and his father Ne-ahn return home from a successful hunt with enough meat to last them many weeks. Realizing what must have happened, Anthro goes out to find Lart. As the boy awaits his doom sobbing, Anthro finds him and calms him down. He constructs a make-shift crutch so that Lart can walk normally, the boy is delighted and is soon hobbling faster than his brother can walk. There is a tribe of Sub-Men who have been drawn to the cave by the smell of food. They are bizarre creatures advanced beyond the point of being apes, but not as advanced as men. Primarily vegetarian, they have turned into meat-eaters out of desperation. Ne-ahn fights them off by throwing rocks and setting fires, but they have primitive weapons of their own and they lay siege. Anthro arrives with only a single spear, but Lart has the idea of setting falling rocks on them with his crutch... from their hillside perch, they are able to decimate the beast-men and save the cave. Their is much celebrating for Lart, having saved the day.