Natalie Rochefort is a 22-year-old Neanderthal woman living a thoroughly modern life, something she considers considerably less interesting than everyone else seems to. Short, immensely strong, and unmistakably Homo neanderthalensis, Natalie grew up in an ordinary Neanderthal family and has never understood why people expect her to have profound insights into prehistory. She was born in the 21st century. She owns a smartphone. She has never knapped flint in her life.

Quiet, practical, outdoorsy, and possessed of a wonderfully dry sense of humor, Natalie studies environmental science and would much rather talk about forests and conservation than human evolution. She hikes, camps, rides a slightly battered vintage motorcycle, and has the irritating natural strength of someone who can casually move furniture that required three people to get into the house. Finding clothes that accommodate both her five-foot height and enormous shoulders is considerably more challenging.

To her closest friends, however, she's simply Nat. She's become honorary "Auntie Nat" to her best friend Julie's children, which means babysitting, family errands, fixing bicycles, carrying unreasonable quantities of groceries, and answering questions like, "How come your arms are bigger than my Dad's?" She adores the kids, although she reserves the right to describe them as weird directly to their mother's face.

Natalie is perfectly comfortable being Neanderthal. She's considerably less comfortable with everyone else's ideas about what being Neanderthal is supposed to mean. She dislikes being treated as primitive, mystical, aggressive, or a walking anthropology exhibit, and has developed a particular hatred of museum displays describing Neanderthals as humanity's "mysterious extinct cousins." As Natalie is fond of pointing out: "We didn't go extinct, Kevin. I'm sitting right here."