The Thinking Rocks

by Butkus, C. Allan

  Changing the subject he continued, "Let’s put the fish some place where we can show them to Cano when he returns."

  Gennos turned and looked up and then down the river, everything seemed natural. Next he looked inland, all he could see were trees and in the distance, high on the hillside it looked as though vultures were circling, his hate for the vultures triggered a thought, he hoped Cano was all right and would return soon.

  Cano was sure he was dead, and he found it hurt to be dead. His head hurt and it was hard to breath. He tried to move and couldn't. I'm dead, he thought, this time I'm really dead. It was then he remembered the bear's mouth trying to swallow his head; he felt a spasm, which caused him to jerk and twist to one side. He was able to move, twisting and shoving enabled him to see some light. He fought harder and was able to get his head out from under the bears shoulder. Gulping in some fresh air, he felt a stabbing pain in his chest and with pounding heart he grouped for freedom. Pulling at the coarse hair on the bears shoulder, he was able to squirm free. He sat up and tried to get his breath back. He would have died if he hadn’t gotten out from under the bear; his chest still hurt when he took in a deep breath.

  He sat looking at the bear, trying to determine what happened. He felt warm blood on his chest, it must be the bear's blood, but when he tried to wipe it away he found that it was his own blood. The bear had gotten in a strong slash; he was fortunate that he had been falling away from the bear when it struck. The bear had been near death when he poked it with his spear. It must have used the last of its strength to attack. When it had lunged at him it was probably almost dead.

  He remembered trying to get his spear up but he couldn't do it. The bear's head came down on him too quickly. It had its mouth open and he jerked back as he thought about it. The bear had tried to bite his face, but his spear had been in the way. It was across his face and as the bear tried to bite, it was blocked by the spear shaft. The bear's bite had knocked the shaft into Cano's head and drove it away from its jaws. The bear was dead by the time it fell on him.

  Cano sat quietly thinking about how fortunate he was. He gently fingered the wounds on his chest and found that they had almost stopped bleeding. He winced and then smiled as he thought of the scars he would have from this day. Ah-- the stories he would tell around the campfire.

  He slowly rose to his feet and stretched. He picked up his spear and walked toward the dead sloth. The vultures rose in a squawking cloud as he approached. He would get some meat to take to camp. As he was cutting away a couple of sizable chunks, he thought, I will take the bear's claws also. They will make my stories more believable.

  By the Campfire

  That night Cano related his adventures of the day, as they sat near the fire eating roasted sloth. His brother had arranged thinly sliced strips of sloth on sticks, and was attempting to dry them as he had done with the fish.

  Dola was sitting by himself quietly off to one side stroking Whiteface's head. During a lull in the conversation, he asked Cano, "Were you afraid?"

  "Of course, I was afraid, but that didn't matter. There was something more important, trying to stay alive." He glanced over his shoulder at his brother, "There are things that must be done and there are things that could be done. It is important to know that these aren't just different words. The difference is doing something that must be done to survive. It's the difference between life and death. You can choose to do things almost any way that you want to. Some ways of doing something are better than others. Many times we have to do something, and it may seem as if all the ways of doing it are bad ways. Nevertheless, if you must do something, you may have to choose the best way, from bad choices. What I am saying is this, when you don't have a good clear choice, make your choice from the least bad choice.

  Gennos then spoke, "I think what Cano was trying to say is, if you can't find a good way to do something, then try to pick the best way from the choices that you have. He hesitated for a moment before continuing, "Think about this. You are walking by the river and you see a plant growing that you know something special about. This plant has a strong spirit. If the spirit gets into you, strange things happen. The magic of this spirit is that if you eat this plant or burn it in a fire and smell its smoke, it makes you feel wonderful. You are not afraid of anyone or anything. Everything is funny. You know if you eat or smell its smoke, you will like it. But, there is a problem. When the spirit of the plant leaves, you will become sick. So sick that you will think you're dying. Any food you eat will come back up. You will have bad pains in your stomach. The pains will be so bad, that you think that you're going to die, and at the same time you will fear that you're not going to die. You'll have to relieve yourself; it will be runny and smell bad. Your head will hurt and it will be hard to think.” Gennos paused, "The question is not if you should eat or smell it or if you should just walk by. The question is: If you have to eat or smell it, what would you do?" Gennos paused again, "The best way is not to, but this time you have to eat and smell it, what do you do?"

  Dola thought about the problem quietly. As Gennos had said, the best thing was not to eat the plant or smell the smoke. But that was not a choice he could make. His only choice seemed to be to eat and get sick. That didn't seem to be a good choice either, even though it was the simplest. As he sat there staring into the fire, an idea started to form. I have to eat it and smell it, but I don't have to eat or smell a lot of it. He looked up from the fire at Gennos and then to Cano, "I would eat only a little of it and not smell much of the smoke. If I had to, I could pretend to eat and smell the smoke. If I couldn't do that I would eat as little as possible, and try not to smell the smoke. I know this is not a good choice, but it is the best that I can do. Am I wrong?"

  Gennos shook his head "No, it is the best choice of poor choices. I'm glad you understand." He hesitated before continuing, “You will make a great hunter someday, because you listen and learn."

  Dola was smiling, he was glad that he received approval from Gennos, but he still wasn't comfortable with the idea of determining what to do. He looked over at Cano, "I understand, but it takes time to think over a problem. You didn't have time to look at all the different ways to do things. The bear was trying to kill you. You had to be quick."

  Cano agreed, "Only a fool would take time to think out what to do at a time like that. I could smell the bear's blood on his breath; I saw it dripping from his mouth. The ground shook when he roared. I could see each tooth in its mouth, the teeth that would crush and kill me." Pausing, he looked away, reliving those few moments. Then he shook his head as if he'd just come awake, "You do what you have to do to stay alive. I didn't have to think; I knew if I lay there I was dead. Anything I did was better than doing nothing. I got the spear and it saved my life." He looked into Dola's eyes as he said, "I couldn't do what I wanted to do with the spear, but what I did saved my life. The bear wanted to bite me, but instead he bit my spear. The Great Spirit was walking with me. He must have thought that this was a lesson that I should remember. He paused again, and then smiled and said, "I hope the next lesson doesn't involve bears.” He stood up and stretched. "Now there's something that we all must do. Go to sleep. We will leave early in the morning.”

  They packed the raft, but they slept by fire that night. It was a good night for sleeping by the fire. Cano took a deep breath and let it out slowly. He looked up through the tree branches at the stars in the clear skies. It was a good day to be alive, Cano thought.

  A Strange Sighting

  The next day as they drifted down the river, they saw something strange. There was a dead deer floating near the shore. Something was sticking out of its side. The river was shallow and the current was slow at this point, and Cano was able to pole the raft over to where the deer floated. Gennos was able to grab the deer by an antler and pull it aboard the raft. "Strange," he said, was he studied the carcass. "Look at the size of spear that killed it. It's so small." The spear was indeed small; it was only as long as a man's arm and was on
ly as thick as a man's finger. Cano's spears were as tall as he was and thicker than his thumb.

  Gennos examined the deer carefully, "It hasn't been dead long. He was probably hit yesterday. The spear hit too far back to kill quickly; the deer could have run a long distance before dying. Whoever did it might be far away."

  The spear meant that there might be men in the vicinity. It was a strange thing to meet other men in the wilderness. It was not something that happened frequently. Neither of the brothers was sure how they would approach this problem. They continued to drift down the river.

  Neither brother spoke for quite some time. Cano could see that Gennos was in deep thought. They both knew that there were probably other people around; nevertheless it was uncomfortable to think about. If they made contact with them would they be friendly? Cano couldn't remember the last time he had met someone outside of their clan. He wondered if they were near another Clan or if these hunters were just a band of travelers. If they met, what should we do?

  Gennos was the first to speak, "I think that whoever they are, they will be down stream of us."

  Dola asked, "Why do you say that?"

  "The deer is a fresh kill, it didn't float by us. If it had we would see it. So, it had to have been hit near here. It could not float up stream. This means that whoever hit it is near. Possibly down among the trees around the bend in the river. "The bigger question is should we try to meet them? We don't know if they are friendly," said Gennos.

  Cano spoke "I would like to know more about the small spear. Why did they use it? Are they small people, which have to use small spears? Where did they come from? How many of them are there? Where are they?"

  Dola said, "I think we will find out about these people soon, I smell smoke.”

  The hunters all sniffed the air and then began looking for the origin of the smoke. The river followed a twisted course, and was never straight for any great distance. Below the raft it turned sharply toward the side of the river they were on. Smoke could be seen rising in the still air.

  "Well, for better or worse we'll know more in a short time," Gennos said.

  Cano said, "Well, let's find out who these people are. We can return their deer and see if they will let us eat with them.”

  As they came around the bend in the river they saw a small sand beach and a clearing with a fire. Cano lay his pole down, then he stood with both hands raised and called in aloud voice "HOLA-HOLA.”

  There appeared to be a small group of men and a woman in the camp. At the sound of Cano's voice, one of them picked up his weapons and dashed into the brush. The others watched him leave and then turned toward the raft. The woman was kneeling next to the fire and did not rise.

  Cano called again "HOLA-HOLA", and then he reached down and held up the body of the dead deer.

  The group of men on shore didn't do anything at first. Then the tallest of the group turned toward the place the first man had disappeared in the brush. He appeared to be listening to something. The distance to the raft was too great for anyone to hear what was said, but the men on shore turned toward him and lay their weapons down. The tall man called toward the raft, but no one on the raft could understand what he said. They stood listening until he motioned for them to come ashore. The others and the woman had not moved.

  Although, they were apprehensive, Cano lay the deer down and he and Gennos poled toward shore.

  Dole said, "I don't see a raft. I wonder how they got here. Oh look, there are some logs near shore. They look strange."

  The brothers were more concerned with the people on shore, and just glanced toward the logs Dola had seen.

  Whiteface stood at the front of the raft, watching quietly.

  Gennos said, "Keep smiling, but know where your weapons are. Something doesn't feel right about this. I don't like the way that one man ran off into the brush, something is wrong".

  Whiteface's ruff came up slowly as they came close to the shore. A rumbling growl started low in her stomach.

  When they were a short distance from the shore, Cano jumped into the knee-deep water. He turned toward the raft, pick up the deer and turned toward shore. He smiled and called to the men onshore. But the words froze when he saw the strange look on one of the men's face. The man was looking at something downstream. Cano turned and saw another man coming quickly toward them from downstream. He was carrying weapons and he didn't appear friendly.

  Gennos saw him at the same time, "Quick Cano, push the raft back out!"

  Cano dropped the deer and spun toward the raft. He leaned forward and started pushing with all of his might. The sandy bottom helped, but the raft was heavy, and was difficult to move. Gennos was using a pole to push and the raft began to slowly move away from the shore.

  The man downstream continued rushing toward the raft, but he called to the men near Cano. Without stopping, the man took one of the short spears and did something strange. It looked like he was going to try and throw both light spears at once. Cano wasn't worried; he knew that the raft was well beyond throwing range. Cano renewed his efforts to move the raft, and as he changed his footing, one of his feet slipped on a large stone on the bottom of the river. This caused him to fall forward. He heard a swishing sound and saw one of the short spears strike the water where he'd been standing. How could this be? Looking back at the man in the water, he saw him getting ready to throw another spear. He looked up at Gennos and saw him swinging his heavy rafting pole at him. His started to dodge the blow, but before he could, he heard it strike something behind him. He looked over his shoulder and saw one of the men fall backward with a scream of pain. There was a large cut across his forehead and blood ran down the side of his face.

  Dola called a warning just as the man downstream cast another spear. The spear flew in a graceful arc toward the raft and then impacted next to Gennos. He looked toward the shore and saw that the younger man near the fire had his back to the woman. She looked around and then dashed away from the river. The young man didn't notice she was gone. His attention was on the action in the river.

  Cano felt a strong hand grab his shoulder and spin him around. Something heavy smashed into his head and everything went black.

  Gennos attempted to hit Cano's attacker, but the pole was too short. He dropped the pole and picked up his spear.

  The man who had hit Cano grabbed a corner of the raft and jerked it. This caused the raft to start a spin and Gennos lost his balance and fell into the river.

  The man with the weapons was very close, and called out something Dola could not understand. The man on the corner of the raft replied, and then continued to pull the raft toward shore.

  The man with the cut head came forward wiping the blood away from his eyes and grabbed the unconscious Cano by his hair and dragged him to shore roughly.

  Gennos sputtered his way to the surface and was about to throw his spear at Cano's attacker when he saw the man from downriver raise his short spear. At this range Gennos knew the man would not miss with his short spears. Death was very close and he knew it. They looked at each other for a long moment before Gennos slowly lowered his spear and then dropped it into the river. He slowly raised his hands.

  Dola called out to Gennos, "What should I do?"

  Gennos said, "Do nothing, we don't need you hurt".

  The man in water seemed to be the chief; he motioned Gennos and Dola toward shore. He then called a question to the young man by the fire. The young man spun around and then shouted something back. The leader became very angry, shouting and waving his spears, and then he pointed toward the woods. The young man quickly picked up his weapons and rushed into the woods without answering.

  When Gennos and Dola reached the shore they rushed over to Cano's still form. Gennos rolled him over to see how badly he was hurt. The man with the cut head knocked him to the ground. When he rolled over and tried to stand, he was kicked in the stomach, knocking the wind out of him. As he lay there trying to catch his breath, he was kicked again.

 
Dola didn't know what to do. He was afraid. He couldn't seem to think. What to do? Oh what to do? He didn't seem to have any choices. Good or bad. He just stood still and then he started to shake.

  The man with the cut head said something to the man with the spears. Then he turned and lunged at Dola. Dola scrambled away, his hands out in front to protect himself. The men laughed at him and put out their hands, mimicking him. He was ashamed to be so frightened, but what could he do?

  In the meantime, Whiteface had crouched down on a pile of supplies on the raft when the action had started. She hid there watching what was happening. Deep in her inner self, in the very essence of her wolf blood she knew danger when she met it. These new men were danger. She wanted to stay with Dola, but there was also the need for survival. This ancient instinct was stronger than the need to be a part of a pack. When all attention was on the action on shore, she slipped into the water and swam downstream. The only one who noticed her departure was Dola.

  Later when Cano awoke, he found himself tied with strips of leather. Gennos and Dola were also tied. As he tried to sit up he felt a pain in his head and gave a groan. He tried to touch his head with his hand but he was tied securely and couldn’t reach it. He was tied so tightly he could barely move.

  Gennos said, "We thought you were going to sleep all day."

  Cano frowned at his brother, "I don't think this is even close to being funny. What's happening now and who are these people?"

  Gennos smile quickly faded, "As you can tell we are tied up. They have looked through everything that we had on the raft and took what they wanted, and then threw the rest in the river. The wolf has gone; Dola saw it swim away. That's probably for the best. These guys looked like they would eat her if they got the chance.