Once Upon a Caveman

by Cassandra Gannon

  “He doesn’t even know you!”

  “Men don’t have to know me to like me. It’s just a gift I have.”

  “I’m sure they like you better when they don’t know you, but this particular man is spoken for.” The words were out before Lucy even thought about them.

  Rhawn glanced at her sharply.

  “Spoken for by whom?” Taffi sneered. “You? Right. I’m so sure you’re the dream girl of a guy who looks like a superhero. When’s the last time you even wore lipstick? I mean, yeah you’re finally accessorizing properly,” she gestured to the shiny necklace Anniah had given Lucy, “but, it’s too little, too late. You can’t really believe…”

  “Lucy is the woman of my dreams.” Rhawn said simply, cutting her off. His attention stayed on Lucy. “She is… perfect.”

  Lucy stared back at him, hypnotized and a little afraid. That gaze was so intense. So penetrating. Like he could see straight through her. But, if he could, why didn’t he already know the truth? “I’m not perfect.” She whispered.

  He shrugged. “You are perfect for me.”

  “She’s so not perfect.” Taffi agreed, not even hearing Rhawn’s quiet assurance. “You should have seen her hair back in tenth grade. She dyed it this god-awful blue.” She rolled her eyes. “Lucy always has to be special.”

  “I’m not special.”

  They ignored her denial.

  “Lucy cannot help being special. Even in my dreams, I knew she was born to change the world.” Rhawn looked at Lucy. “But I have not dreamed of this queen.” He waved a hand at Taffi. “I only dream of you, goddess.”

  “You better not have dreamed of Taffi.” Lucy scowled at him, outraged at the thought. Maybe she wasn’t completely sure what was going on between them, but she knew damn well it was only between them. “You’d better not be dreaming of anybody else, at all! I mean it, Rhawn.”

  He liked that demand. “You have no need to worry. I’ve Chosen you. No others fill my thoughts.”

  “Good.”

  “Really?” Taffi exclaimed, throwing up her hands in frustration. “I mean really?” She turned back to Lucy. “You’re dating him, now? While I’ve been eating shriveled up worms and gross, green berries, you’ve been shacking up with the Wild Man of Borneo?! I swear, you don’t care about anyone but yourself! You’re selfish and I’m glad I tripped you going across the stage during graduation!”

  Lucy dragged her attention away from Rhawn and stabbed a finger at her. “I’m not in the mood for your bullshit, Taffi. The fat girls have won the war, so just accept it and shut up, before I throw you out on your liposuctioned ass.”

  “You don’t own this cave! I can be here if I want! Why are you always so mean to me, huh? If you knew what I’d been through you’d be a lot more…”

  Rhawn cut her off. “You ate the green berries?”

  “Yes.” Taffi muttered distractedly, her eye still on Lucy. “You know, it’s all your fault that…” She suddenly seemed to process Rhawn’s concerned tone and stopped mid-word. “Wait what?” Her head swung around to look at him in growing panic. “Yes! The green ones. I ate the green ones. Was I not supposed to eat the green ones?”

  Rhawn didn’t respond to that, but he backed away from Taffi with a worried frown. His eyes cut over to Lucy. “She ate the green ones.” He said in a grave voice.

  “Is that bad?”

  Rhawn gave a shrug. “Perhaps.”

  “Oh God.” Taffi whispered, looking a little green herself.

  Lucy’s eyebrows compressed. “Will she die?”

  Rhawn gave another shrug. “Perhaps.”

  “Oh God.” Taffi gasped again. “I can’t die! I’m supposed to go to Italy in October!”

  Even Lucy was concerned about her prognosis. “Can we do anything for her?”

  A third shrug. “Pray to the Savior?” Rhawn suggested in a suspiciously dire tone.

  Lucy paused, taking in his oh-so-grave expression. “Pray to the Savior?” She repeated skeptically and amusement began to take the place of worry. “The Savior who’s passed out in the other cave? You really think that’s going to cure her, huh?”

  His mouth curved slightly. “As well as anything else will, I imagine.”

  “Oh God!” Taffi slapped a hand over her mouth, missing the joke. “I totally feel the –like-- poison poisoning me. It’s seriously happening!” She went rushing from the cave. “I’m going to be sick.”

  “That is always a good remedy.” Rhawn called after her.

  Lucy didn’t bother to follow her out. She crossed her arms over her chest and arched a brow at Rhawn. “The green berries are fine, aren’t they?”

  He shrugged, but his eyes were glinting with laughter. “Perhaps.”

  Lucy couldn’t quite contain her snickering. “You lied to that poor girl about toxic berries? I thought I was supposed to be the evil one around here? High-five!” She held up a palm and he frowned at it confusion. “Never mind.” She dropped her hand again. Clearly, those weren’t a caveman custom, yet. “What’s important is that you were mean to Taffi in an awesome, awesome way. I knew I liked you, caveman.”

  “She will be fine.” Rhawn was epically unrepentant. “The woman deserved far worse than she got. I do not like the way she speaks to you. Who is she and why is she here?”

  “She’s Taffi Dawson, the prettiest girl in Woodward High. And she’s here because I’m having a real bad week.”

  Except for meeting Rhawn, anyhow, that didn’t seem so bad, at all.

  Rhawn blinked in total incomprehension. “Someone believes that woman is prettiest? Did no one in this Wood-Ward-High place see you?”

  Lucy slowly smiled. “You just won yourself soooo many points.”

  He brightened. “Points are good.” He reminded her.

  “Yeah, points are real good, especially considering you want to see me naked sometime this epoch.”

  His eyes narrowed in deep thought, taking her literally. “How many points do I need before you will mate with me?”

  “A lot of points.”

  “What is the specific number, though?”

  “Sixty-one and a half.” She randomly decided, because he wasn’t going to be satisfied until he had a target. God, he really was the straight-A kid who asked about extra credit.

  “How many points do I presently have?”

  “Three.”

  He frowned at that news.

  “Anyway,” Lucy continued cheerily, “Taffi’s a vapid twit. Always has been. I don’t want to see her dead, though, so we’re going to take her with us when we leave this island.”

  “You are still committed to this insane plan with the ragan, then?” Rhawn asked her that about nine times a day, like he just kept hoping that she’d change her mind. He was such an optimist. “Have I mentioned that jigon live in those waters?”

  “A couple hundred times. But unless you have a better way to avoid being melted by the big ass volcano, we’re still going with my plan.”

  “Believe me, I’m trying to think of one.” He sighed. “In the meantime, we need to focus on more practical concerns. Like food. It’s why I came to find you.” He stepped closer to her, apparently just because he wanted to be closer to her. He did that a lot and it always made her heart race.

  “Food?” She repeated dumbly, staring up at his incredible face.

  “Yes. We used the last of our stores for the Savior’s feast. If you really plan to put us into ragan, we will need supplies. The rest of the Clan will not eat from the sea.”

  “I guess green berries and those vegetarian flower things are a no go?”

  “We need to hunt a mammoth.”

  God, he said that so casually. “Hunt a mammoth?” Lucy repeated, pretending that those words weren’t fucking crazy. “Like the huge hairy elephants, who could crush us with their huge hairy feet?”

  “I am unfamiliar with this word ‘ely-fanz.’”

  She waved that aside. “I thought you said all the mammoths were gone.�
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  “Most are gone. There is a small herd in the valley. Some females had to be spared, so they might breed and raise the young. Others are too large or bad-tempered to bring down safely. We saved them for last.”

  “So now you want to hunt the big, mean ones and the babies?”

  “How else will we get food?” He retorted. “You might not enjoy meat, but there are few other options available. We will need weeks of provisions, if we’re going on the ragan. Strips of meat will last longest and take up the least amount of space.”

  “Damn it.” She tilted her head back, because he was right. What was the Clan going to eat for however long it took them to find land? She hadn’t really considered the logistics of her plan, just the “getting the hell outta there” part. Of course Rhawn had thought about the nuts and bolts of it, though. He was a nuts and bolts kinda guy.

  “What about --like-- smaller, unextinct animals? Could we kill them, instead of a mammoth? Maybe mice. I don’t like mice.”

  It hurt her to even ask that, though. Corny and tree-huggy as it sounded, Lucy really did love animals. One day, she fully planned to get a cute, little dog. Slaughtering fuzzy creatures was the last thing she’d ever want to do. Especially mammoths, for crying out loud. Every paleontology-student bone in her body wanted to study them, not eat them.

  “Small creatures are scarce now. It would take too much time to gather enough to feed us all. And wolves, tandar, and long-tooths are very dangerous to hunt.”

  “Tandar?”

  “Monstrous beasts with septar.”

  “Right.” That really cleared it right up.

  “So you see, mammoths are the best choice.” He sounded positive and she had no reason to doubt him. Rhawn could probably show her some complicated graph proving exactly how much meat each person needed per day. The caveman was kind of a nerd.

  Lucy sighed. “Alright.” Jesus, twenty years of vegetarianism and now she was going on a goddamn safari. Her only consolation was that the volcano was poised to wipe out the mammoths anyway. They’d just be speeding up the inevitable. It still sucked, though. “Just promise me you’ll pick an old and sick one. And that you’ll be super, super careful during the whole spearing part, because I don’t want you crushed to death.”

  His eyes softened. “I promise.”

  “I mean it, Rhawn. You don’t want to piss off an evil goddess by dying. We can get testy.”

  Rhawn’s gaze traced over her face. “I do not see evil in you, Lucy.”

  “Maybe you’re not looking hard enough.”

  That seemed to amuse him. He smiled and Lucy’s insides flipped. “Believe me, no one could look at you more closely than I do. I am unsure of what you truly are, goddess, but I know it is something bright and good.”

  Lucy stared up at him and knew she was never going to be free of this man. She didn’t’ even want to be. “Okay, you can have a couple of points for that one.” She decided softly.

  “I have five now?”

  “Yeah. Fine. Five.” She agreed with a shrug. “Just so you follow orders and stay alive.”

  “Do not worry. All will be well.” One massive hand came over to caress her hair, his fingers tangling in the dark strands like they amazed him. “It is our fate to be together.”

  “I don’t believe in fate.”

  “You did not believe in anything we have on this island, before you experienced it firsthand.”

  She sighed, leaning into his touch. “When you say things, they just seem to make sense. …Even when they don’t make any sense. I don’t know how you manage that.”

  His mouth curved. “Because what I say does make sense.” His free hand came up to absently finger her shiny necklace. “What happened to your green beads?” He asked after a beat.

  “I gave them to Anniah.”

  “That was kind of you.”

  “Not really. Trust me. These are way prettier.”

  Rhawn paused. “That necklace is meant to be worn alone, on bare skin.” He pointed out hopefully. “You should remove you fabric chest coverings and it would be even way-er more prettier.”

  Lucy laughed at that. “Nice try.” She shook her head. “You’re not supposed to be flirting with me, remember? You said you’d wait until I seduced you.”

  “Those were not my words. I said I’d wait to mate with you, until you were ready.” He smiled and it was adorable. “But, there is much we can do to keep busy until then.”

  “You’re sort of a smartass, you know that?”

  “I am not smart.” But, his denial wasn’t quite so forceful this time. Maybe he’d been listening to her on the beach and was starting to consider that endless questions might be a good thing. “You do not see me as others do.”

  “The way I see you is the only way that matters. If we’re in any kind of relationship,” and she had the strange feeling they were, “then my vote is the one that counts, right?”

  His nod was immediate and certain. “You are my mate.” He moved forward, edging all the way into her personal space bubble. Lucy found it comforting. Years of being a loner evaporated around Rhawn. He pushed his way in until she couldn’t remember him not being there. “Your feelings are always paramount with me, Lucy.”

  Lucy wasn’t so sure about the “mate” thing, but the rest sounded right. “Okay, then listen to me. I don’t think I’ve ever met anyone as smart as you, Rhawn. I look at what you’ve done on these walls and it’s… amazing. You are amazing. I mean look at these drawings!”

  “I am not sure what some of them even are. I just paint what I see in my dreams.”

  “Well, this one,” she gestured to a small painting on the wall, “this is an airplane. They fly through the air, carrying humans as passengers. And if we had one of them, we’d be off this island in no time.”

  He moved behind her, resting his cheek on the top of her hair. “Where would we go?”

  “Someplace else. Someplace better.”

  “Newyork?”

  Lucy cuddled into his embrace, feeling secure. “New York isn’t better. I mean, there aren’t any volcanoes, but it’s so… lonely.”

  His arched a brow. “You said this before.”

  “Because it’s true. The city is filled with people, but you’re by yourself in the crowd.” In fact, the person she’d always felt closest to was the caveman in her dreams. Sometimes she’d talked to Rhawn in her head, even when she thought he was just a figment of her imagination.

  As if she was missing someone she’d never met.

  “It wasn’t Newyork that made you feel alone.” Rhawn murmured like he was reading her thoughts. “You were lonely because you weren’t with me. Just as I was lonely because I wasn’t with you. Separation isn’t natural between mates. We were meant to be together.”

  Lucy tilted her head back to look at him. “Even when we were separated, I think we’ve always been together.” She whispered.

  Rhawn smiled at that.

  “And I think these pictures are genius.” She continued. “I think you are a genius. This is more than just stuff you saw in dreams. Your own thoughts are on these walls, too.”

  He self-consciously glanced away and cleared his throat. “This one is the oldest.” He gestured to the picture of the blue whirlpool. “I dream of it often.”

  Lucy frowned slightly, her eyes tracing over the interconnected swirls. There was something eerie about the image. Something familiar. A glow and a depth that shouldn’t be possible from basic pigments on stone. “What is it?

  “I’m not sure. I thought you might recognize it from your world.”

  She shook her head. “It looks familiar, but I can’t place it. Sorry.”

  Rhawn studied the drawing for a beat. “Well, we start your journey across the water, soon. Maybe it’s what awaits us on the other side of the sea.” He paused meaningfully. “Or, more likely, what we’ll find at the bottom of it.”

  Before Lucy could respond to that prime example of his smartass-ery, the whole worl
d began to move. A terrible rumble sounded from deep within the mountain, shaking the ground and the walls and the air itself. It felt as if a giant had lifted the cave up and was violently tossing it around. Unable to keep her balance, Lucy stumbled and nearly fell.

  Rhawn grabbed her before she hit the floor, holding her upright. “Lucy, we must go!” He shouted over the horrific noise and pulled her towards the cave entrance. “This shaking is too big!”

  She certainly wasn’t going to argue. Small stones were raining down from the ceiling. For all she knew, the whole damn thing could collapse. Cracks appeared in the cave walls, splintering through Rhawn’s artwork. Dirt and pebbles bounced off the floor like popcorn.

  Lucy staggered for the exit, still clinging to Rhawn for balance. He was half-carrying her, shielding her from falling rocks as they made it outside. Thing weren’t much better out in the open. Smoke poured from the top of the volcano, billowing up and clouding the sky. Way, way, way too much steam.

  “Oh God.” Lucy whispered.

  The volcano seemed to swell for a split second and then it exploded with a terrifying “crack.” Uooloa even wasn’t erupting. She could tell, because they were still alive. The volcano was just letting off some steam and it still sounded like a thousand cannons going off all at once.

  “Holy shit!” Lucy instinctively reached up to cover her ears, cringing at the noise.

  When Krakatoa erupted, back in the 1883, it was the loudest sound in recorded history. In fact, it was so loud that science didn’t even classify it as a sound. Technically, it had been a shockwave. The noise generated was so massive that it ripped the air apart, pushing through it with so much pressure that human eardrums burst nearly fifty miles away. At the time, Lucy first read that, she’d thought those reports were probably exaggerated.

  Now, she totally, totally believed every word.

  If this was even a fraction of what a full eruption was like, no one could possibly survive it for long. The island would be blown apart.

  “This is worse than it’s ever been!” Rhawn pushed Lucy back so she was against the side of the mountain in case the path beneath them gave way. His arms came up to protect her head from the small landslide of debris pouring down the side of the mountain. “Something is changing below us!”