“Wolf—walk for me.”
Wolf snored.
At some point, long before Seeker resolved his inquiry, Zvi fell into a contented sleep, the buzz of Seeker’s movements comforting, awakening only when Sun’s glow lit the front of the cave.
“Sun has returned! We can continue,” but the cave was empty.
“Seeker!” Zvi got no answer. Zvi relieved herself and called again. When that failed, she shouted for Wolf with the same result.
“I hope Wolf is with Seeker. Wolf won’t let him get lost.”
A muted thunk echoed in the distance. Zvi hurried toward the noise. Wolf lay on his stomach below a tree, whining softly and pawing his head, a coconut by him.
“Wolf! Why didn’t you tell me where you were going?”
At the sound of Zvi’s voice, he flapped his ears.
A voice came from high in the branches. “I chased a bird what brilliant colors I thought it lost its nest.”
Zvi tilted her head up. Seeker straddled a limb, a coconut in each hand.
“There are no eggs but I did locate these coconuts and befriended a snake he realizes what happened, that it was an accident, you know, before.”
Zvi wanted to laugh but settled on, “Good job, Seeker, but next time you toss coconuts, aim away from Wolf.”
Seeker seemed oblivious to Wolf’s distress. “I watched Sun awake. What brilliance! Well cloudy but better than yesterday. There’s no use sleeping when Sun is awake.”
Seeker descended the tree and left to collect roots while Zvi cracked one of the coconuts.
“Wolf, do you eat coconut meat?” In answer, the pup snatched a mouse that tried to run by and swallowed it whole.
When Seeker came back empty-handed, Zvi motioned, “Drink this.”
He guzzled it greedily. “At home, well, before you and I and Wolf became home, we drank coconut juice, ate the meat, used the oil to salve burns and the shell for upset stomachs,” and he chattered on and on. Zvi almost missed the change of topic.
“If we’re going to migrate, we need tools.”
Wolf let out a yip and took off. They chased him to a dead Big-horned Gazelle, eaten to the bones.
Seeker bounced. “Look at the curve of these antlers.” He fingered the spiral shape and their gnarled texture. “Each grows the same distance from the center.”
He petted them as though in a trance and then noticed the defleshed bones. “What luck no one ate the marrow!”
He cracked the legs, hacked slivers from them, and scooped out stickfuls of goo handing one to Zvi and keeping the other for himself. The taste exploded in Zvi’s mouth and her stomach rumbled.
“I’ve never had this before, Seeker. It’s delicious. Only the females carrying babies were allowed to eat it.”
Seeker humphed in reply as he chopped at the antler with a cutter.
When the stone tool chipped, he motioned, “We need stronger stones.” Without another word, he headed toward Fire Mountain. Zvi and Wolf dashed after him.
It took most of the day and the next to reach Fire Mountain but there, on the rock-strewn slopes, they uncovered a wealth of tool-making stones. They loaded them into a new bladder sack and settled into a temporary camp tucked against a soaring cliff. There, they knapped as many handaxes as possible, the basic tool used to dispense flakes for cutting and chopping. The quiet boomed with birdsong, the breeze blowing a dry stalk against its neighbors, and a cricket chirruping. Seeker listened, mouth open, and set to work, each scrape and thwack of stone against stone in tempo with the sounds.
“That’s how you chew, too, Seeker, in rhythm with your body swaying or foot tapping. No one else does that.”
If Seeker heard Zvi, he didn’t show it, instead motioning, “I love these proportions, Zvi—shaped like the fruit, ending in a point.”
Zvi knew nothing about ‘proportions’ but liked watching. To her surprise, the boy finished one face and started on the other.
“My people didn’t realize why anyone would shape both sides—”
“For a sharper cutter of course. And the fat bottom makes it easy to grip.”
Zvi crouched across from the boy and copied his movements right down to matching the rhythm. It was easier than the old method, though slower which didn’t matter. Time was in great supply.
The piteous squeals of an animal in distress interrupted their labor. Wolf took off, Seeker and Zvi trying to keep up. Wolf stopped at a huge gazelle lying at the base of a cliff.
“It fell over the edge and broke its leg,” Seeker commented as he stabbed the wretched animal in the chest, ending its misery.
While Zvi swished the internal organs in a stream and rubbed the insides with a plant that neutralized the smell, Seeker scraped the underside of the pelt clean, chopped a piece out of the center, and looped it around Zvi’s neck.
“A loin-skin to cover your body, Zvi.”
Zvi felt instantly warmer. “It feels like sunshine. Don’t you want one, Seeker?”
“Why would I?”
Zvi cocked her head and stared at the pelt for a breath, another, and then shrugged.
“Wolf needs a neck sack,” and she threaded a tendon through the holes she’d dug in the top of Gazelle’s stomach and dropped it around Wolf’s neck. Wolf immediately shredded it, unable to ignore the tantalizing aroma.
“I’ll make another out of something he won’t eat.”
Then it started to rain.
Zvi, Seeker, and Wolf stayed in the cave waiting for the sky to clear, Zvi and Seeker sharing the warmth of Gazelle’s hide while they completed tasks to make travel easier, each doing what she or he did best. Wolf brought them gophers and rats he caught while shedding his downy fur in handfuls, revealing a pelt that made him look more like a dangerous wolf to anyone who didn’t know him.
The sky finally cleared and they continued. The jungle thickened forcing them to hack a pathway through the foliage which dulled their cutters and compelled them to spend most nights sharpening tools and creating new ones. Zvi’s spear was trampled by a charging bear who wanted the group’s cave. A replacement required a thin but strong tree trunk. After many days, they came upon a perfect grove and spent the next days making spears for both of them.
“You can never own too many weapons, Seeker.”
These they looped over their backs with tendons.
Days passed, Moon had come and gone. Zvi couldn’t have been happier though a niggling worry had begun to torment her. Seeker was outside, clapping in sync with a bird’s song. Wolf had settled on his haunches, head tilted sideways, listening to his packmate.
“Seeker, you know a lot but you wander off and forget things. You and Wolf are still young,” to which Wolf pushed against Zvi’s leg and yipped, as though to say, I am growing.
Zvi touched Wolf’s full neck sack, stocked with travel food and tools. This one, made from Cat’s hide, he left untouched. The wolf huffed, settled his head between his paws, and fell asleep.
“You’re right. I do overthink things,” and Zvi too took a nap.
After many days with little progress, Zvi picked up the light scent of water, barely recognizable over the stench of decayed vegetation and scat.
Seeker responded, as usual reading Zvi’s thoughts. “It’s salty, Zvi. Trees can’t grow there.”
“That would be a pleasant change from this constant chopping.”
It took a full day and another to break through the trees. What they found was unending sand along an infinite pond.
“We did it.”
“Did what?” Seeker reasonably asked.
Within a day and another, Zvi saw what he meant. The water was undrinkable and meat nonexistent.
But there was food.
“Zvi. Over here,” and Seeker veered to a tiny inlet.
“Fish. They get stranded when Endless Pond grows and shrinks.”
Zvi bounced as Seeker might, she was so excited. They would never starve with this many fish. The trick was finding a pool that flushe
d into a gully which Zvi could block to trap the fish too slow to escape. That made it easy to snag the stranded fish. Wolf had his own method. He snapped at the water, burying his muzzle almost to his eyes, and always came up with a wriggling, scaly tidbit.
“Seeker,” Zvi motioned between bites of fish. “Every pond has two shorelines, across from each other, but this one has no birds.”
While Seeker explained about his homeland’s Endless Pond with only one shore, Zvi and Wolf ate. When Wolf finished, he rolled over and scratched his back against the gravelly sand, head flopping, legs flailing inelegantly. He righted himself, ears akimbo, and stared at Seeker.
Who was still talking.
“Look at the sand flowing between my fingers, Zvi!” His head tilted, eyes wide with wonder. “It creates a mound that collapses of its own weight.”
Seeker recreated the mound over and over until Zvi fell asleep.
Before Sun came and went a handful of times, they tired of fish, wishing for the moist blood of a meaty pig.
Zvi suggested, “Let’s travel inland one day and walk along Endless Pond the next.”
Seeker and Wolf liked that.
The days passed, one moon after another slipping away, weather cooling and then warming, their direction always toward Sun’s sleeping nest. They saw no other Uprights despite watching for trace, prints, and odor, and found nowhere to settle.
That changed one morning. Zvi awoke late. Wolf was out somewhere—she never knew where—but Seeker crouched across the clearing, penetrating hypnotic eyes latched onto Zvi, hands folded in his lap, lips silent.
That’s not right. Seeker’s hands are never motionless.
The hair on Zvi’s neck prickled. Footprints covered the clearing and one of Spider’s webs was already broken after a full night’s work. An unfamiliar smell drifted across her nose and then a slight movement in the shadows behind Seeker was followed by the blink of something shiny.
“Please welcome our company, Zvi.” Seeker’s hands moved serenely but Zvi’s throat tightened.
A hand of warriors appeared out of the waist-high grass. They were taller than Seeker though shorter than Zvi, with heads too large and legs too long. Their chests were hidden by a huge pelt, maybe the hide of Gazelle or Cat. Arms and legs were furless but thick with muscle. Each held a spear in one hand and a warclub in the other.
“Are you hungry?” Zvi asked, hoping she hid her fear.
Where is Wolf?
The warriors squinted in confusion.
Seeker kept his face placid. “They ask—demand—that we go with them to their homebase.” He motioned so calmly, Zvi wondered if he had an idea. “I don’t want to. Do you?”
Zvi narrowed her eyes as she shook her head. “Where’s Wolf?”
The strangers seemed confused by Zvi’s hand movements.
“Preparing.”
“What does that mean?”
Seeker didn’t seem to feel that required an answer.
One warrior edged closer to Seeker, spear aimed at the boy’s chest, while the rest skulked toward Zvi. Her size was easily two of theirs so they led with their spear as though that thin pole would defend them. Zvi wasn’t worried. Giganto had taught her how to knock a spear from the air.
One of them jabbed, testing, at the same moment Seeker brightened and motioned, “I’ll start.”
He jumped up, head lopsided, twirling and waving his arms. The warriors lurched back, puzzled by these odd movements.
“The sun the sky the air enraptures all creatures. There are no warriors no enemies no way to destroy us because we are from Sun. Stop Sun stop yourself…”
He danced around his guard. The stranger tried to retreat but Seeker grasped his hand and that of another warrior. Both were so shocked, they dropped their spears.
“I get it,” and Zvi too snagged a hand on either side of herself, leading the chain sidestepping in a circle around the clearing, stepping in rhythm with Seeker’s rhythmic voice. The warriors grunted, gnarled hands shaking in Zvi’s, too afraid to let go.
Seeker raised his arms over his head, and with them, the strange warriors, and shouted, “We welcome you!”
The warriors bared their teeth and planted themselves in wide-legged stances, trying but failing to shake free of the two who should have been their captives.
“They think we should be frightened, Zvi. I’m not. Are you?”
That was Wolf’s cue. He issued a throaty growl from the edge of the clearing. Only his massive head showed above the vegetation. Hs muzzle opened in a smile, lips curled, though his eyes remained as hard as blue stone. The intruders shook like leaves in the wind, from their legs to their heads. They broke free of their captives, in the process falling over their own feet. At this point, they were as close to panic as any male could be pointing a spear at unarmed opponents.
“Wolf—we were waiting for you!”
Wolf slid from the trees, tail a rigid fur-covered stick, hackles stiff. Saliva dripped from his mouth, still bloody from his last meal.
“Meet our new friends!” Seeker’s arms waved overhead encompassing the quaking warriors.
They jabbered noisily but their gazes locked on Wolf. All it took was one more paw step forward and the entire group shrieked and bolted. Seeker chased them, leaving Zvi shocked and Wolf angry. His cold blue eyes and bared fangs indicated he took his guard duties seriously. He wanted to go with Seeker but somehow knew Zvi required more protection than the scrawny boy.
“I know, Wolf. You weren’t gone long and still we failed to defend ourselves.”
Wolf huffed agreement while Zvi collapsed, confused.
It wasn’t until Sun’s descent to its sleeping nest that Seeker reappeared, dragging an entire cave lion haunch behind him.
“They called me a ‘god’, whatever that is. We terrified them. And they say I control Wolf.” Anger flared in Seeker’s eyes. “I’m insulted for Wolf. No one commands him, nor does he us.”
Wolf panted his agreement and Seeker audibly sighed.
“Anyway, they told their Leader what happened and the entire tribe disappeared.” He dropped the haunch. “They left this.”
The cave lion looked fresh, without any white worms or green flies.
“You speak their language?”
“Not before but as they ran, they jabbered nonstop. Once I see a hand motion or hear a vocalization, I remember it. By the time they reached their tribe, I’d heard almost every word they knew.”
Zvi tore chunks of meat from the haunch and passed them around as Seeker talked.
“They called Wolf ‘Spirit’. According to them, that’s how a god like me would control a beast like Wolf. They left to warn all of the other tribes to protect us—a god and a spirit—until we leave their territory, hoping we won’t cause them trouble.”
Zvi chewed a flavorful wedge of the meat once and then swallowed. “So Wolf’s real name is Spirit?”
Wolf snorted and burrowed his teeth into the haunch.
Chapter 35
From then on, no one bothered the travelers. Zvi often heard rustling but when Wolf—Spirit—growled, hurried steps stumbled away. When new tribes saw them, they whispered about the strangers who talked to the gods and controlled a wolf. Often, meat—sometimes, an entire carcass—lay across their forward path, like a gift.
“I like them afraid of us, Seeker. They’re good hunters.”
One night, as they settled in after a long day of travel, Seeker turned to Zvi. “The stars are frosted.”
Zvi blinked, hard, as she often did at something Seeker said that made no sense. Much of his conversation was confusing but there was always a kernel of truth and intrigue.
He motioned, “The coming wet time will be cold and harsh. We must go somewhere warmer.”
They continued along Endless Pond keeping Sun’s sleeping nest in front. The dense forest to their strong side disappeared, replaced by grassland, plateaus, and bluffs. Seeker loved the variety. Left to himself, he would walk forever
but Zvi never quit looking for a home. She wanted trees, birds, meat, meandering trails, and Others. Seeker wanted the stars. Though they pebbled the night sky, they weren’t the ones that mattered to him so they continued.
After a particularly boring and tedious trek, Seeker grinned, “It is good, Zvi.”
Zvi scratched under her arm, scrunched her brow in thought, but still didn’t understand. “What is?”
“This. You and I and Spirit. We are different from everything around us and that is our strength. We see things as others don’t.”
Wolf flared his muzzle and whiffled. Zvi laughed over the supreme joy of life.
Chapter 36
North Africa, a third of the way between the two shores, along the Mediterranean
This land echoed with the hooves of Giraffid and antelope, pigs and Wild Beasts, and the soft-clawed paws of Sabertooth and her cousins. The soil overflowed with tubers, corms, grasses, roots, berries, and fruit. The scouts found prints of Uprights and caught occasional glimpses, but they always slipped away, as though frightened.
The People rested often, not just when the females delivered babies but to enjoy the bounty. The moon of travel before this, through scrubby grassland with dry waterholes and scrawny herds, had been difficult but was behind them. Now, as promised, Rainbow had led them with courage and confidence to what everyone called as good a homeland as they’d ever seen.
Rainbow allowed his People to travel in the open, never hiding their presence. He claimed that their massive size would deter attacks.
Mbasa disagreed. “You allow an enemy to assess our defenses. That is a mistake.”
“You’re wrong—it intimidates them.”
She sneered. “You know we are being followed.”
He dismissed her with a wave of his hand. “One Upright, always limned against the sky—”
“Head up, feet spread, spear in hand, and he shows not a trace of fear. He is not intimidated by what he sees!”
“Maybe their customs are different. He could be preparing to greet us.”
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