by Feath Pym
“You, Speaker! This is all your fault!” Seaweed tangled in his braid to fall down his chest, dripping clumps of sand.
“What?” Eh Speak said blankly.
“Your fault!” Eh Lip threw his hand around, indicating the few remaining clan and the devastation around them. “If you had listened over a moon ago, when Mother Raven told us to abandon the cave, this wouldn’t have happened!”
“What are you talking about? The Mother has sent me no patterns.”
“Eh Stern said there have been patterns and you’ve been ignoring them. Tell them, Eh Stern,” Eh Lip back handed Eh Stern in the chest, but Eh Stern didn’t blink, his gaze still locked on the ocean.
“Eh Stern isn’t a Speaker, he’s not even a Speaker in training.” Eh Speak frowned, looking up at Eh Lip. “What nonsense is this?”
“The Mother has abandoned us! Look around, fool!”
“She hasn’t abandoned us, Eh Lip,” Eh Speak brightened in understanding and he placed a gentle hand on Eh Lips arm. “As you say, look around us.” When everyone looked at the Speaker with confused silence, he blew through his nose. “First, the Mother hit our cavern with her wing, waking us to the danger. Then she made the rock drop, to drive us from the cave. After that, she let us know the problem was a fire, far away.”
“But -”
“Then she placed a question in my mind and I went to the high cliff and saw the water rushing back. We warned everyone to run, to get up the cliff. Those of us who listened to the Mother stand here now.” Eh Speak patted Eh Lip with a gentle hand, as if to a very small child and not a bulky hunter. “The Mother hasn’t abandoned us. We are alive.”
“But -”
“And now we need to go back down and see if there is anything left, besides our lives.” Eh Speak turned his back on the gapping Eh Lip and made his way to the trail down the cliff. He saw the condition of the trail. “If we can.”
The trail had been scoured clean of earth, but rocks clung infirm to mud and deposited shells. It didn’t just look dangerous it glistened fatal. When it was Eh Quest’s turn it reminded him he wore no loin cloth, as sensitive places received their share of new scrapes. They scooted down with caution, until most of the rubble had been cleared and the younger members could get down without slipping.
Cautiously they entered the cave. Was the wave still in there waiting in ambush? Were the Shadow People crouched, waiting as well? Who knew what lurked in the cave now? But they had to go in, they couldn’t stay out like bees around a hive.
Inspecting their cave found most of their possessions gone. Only a few were collected behind outcroppings or snagged on walls. It had also left a lot of seaweed and rubbish along with useless, dead fish.
The ocean had returned the body of a young Eh. Why his and no one else's, they didn’t know. By Eh Quests quick head count, he saw they’d lost at least half the clan. Where over one hundred had slept there the night before, tonight most would be sleeping at their sky fires. A soft moan escape him at the knowledge.
Unable to bury them properly, the missing clan members were destined to roam the land looking for their bodies and being tormented by the Shadow People. They were heartsick at that loss, but consoled at least the young Eh would return some day. With too much to do, only the parents and Eh Speak gave him a proper burial in the field.
“The pits are filled with water and what little food we had is gone,” Ta Bray, the last elder and the clan cook, told Eh Speak after inspecting their storage area. “I’ll sent out some people for plant-food, but there is no saying if we’ll find enough. We will go hungry if we don’t.” She gave Eh Speak a desperate look. “I can do a lot with little, but there are still limits.”
“I understand,” Eh Speak put his hand on Ta Brays shoulder. “Do what you can, everyone understands, tonight will be rough. I just hope sleep comes to us.”
“I’ve organized a clean-up party. We should have most of the mud out by night fall, at least we have a place to sleep!”
“We’ll need more food. Is Eh Hand …near?” Eh Speak looked around at the working clan members. “Eh Hand?” He called out hopefully.
“Yes, Eh Speak?” Eh Hand emerged from a back corner.
“Our spring first-day hunt? How is it going?”
Eh Hand made a fast study of the people nearby. He became more subdued, his chest sinking down further. “It has been planned. I need to see if we have to replace hunters for the group.”
“You will take care of it, I know.” Eh Speak turned to exit the cave and see what else could be done.
“At least the shadow people are gone!” Eh Quest said, hoping to cheer people up and find one good thing in the evil day. When he heard the words that jumped from his mouth, he wanted to grab them and eat them back. In all his sixteen summers, he’d managed to cloak his perception of the shadow people from the Speaker. Now he stood as naked prey.
Concealment from the speaker had been only one end of the spear; it was the shadow world he desperately hid from. By his words, they could find him now, rend and corrupt him, betray his love of The People. If this is a shadow dream, everything would return to normal when he woke. That’s all he wanted! Things to go back to normal. But if the Shadow People were truly gone, perhaps they hadn’t even heard? Perhaps Eh Speak hadn’t heard?
Eh Speak stopped and turned back to Eh Quest with a raised eye brow. “And how would you know that, young Eh Quest?”
~end~
Thank you for reading my book. If you enjoyed it, won’t you please take a moment to leave me a review at your favorite retailer?
Don’t forget, Season of the Sand Bird is coming out soon! At over 125,000 words, it will keep you reading for days. This vivid book will pitch you into the Neanderthals primal world and keep you captive. Watch out for it.
Thank you,
Feath Pym
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