Cave Dwellers

by Randall, Jonathan

  “I was thinking about working on that pottery oven today,” Zaac said. “If we can rebuild it, I might be able to make a few things. I’m going to need a large bowl to carry the coal— about this big.” Zaac held up his hands showing the size he wanted to make. “I’m not sure how long my pack will hold up if it has to carry coal.”

  “Maybe we can make a few other things as well. My grandmother used handmade pottery for a casserole dish. She said you couldn’t use it to cook a single item like a chicken because it would crack the pottery. But if the ingredients in the dish were spread out, the heat would be distributed evenly and the pottery wouldn’t crack.”

  “This will be a new experience. I’ve never built a pottery oven before, or any other oven for that matter.”

  “Well, we have one thing going for us.”

  “What’s that?”

  “We have the rocks they used for the previous one. All we have to do is figure out which one goes where.”

  “Like putting a puzzle together and already having the pieces, except we’ll be using mud with this puzzle.”

  “I guess we’ll need one of the large bowls to mix the mud and a pot for the water. Is there anything else?”

  “That should about do it. Do you think it matters which dirt we use?”

  “They probably got the dirt from in here. We might be able to tell which kind by the color that’s between the rocks now.”

  She filled the water pot and went to the pottery oven, where Zaac was examining the dirt between the rocks. The dirt crumbled in Zaac’s fingers as he rubbed them together. “Doesn’t that look like the dirt near the entrance to the tunnel that leads to the coal?”

  “I think it’s mixed with some of the clay. I’ll get the dirt if you want to grab a couple of bowls and get the clay.” Ramira headed toward the spot in front of the tunnel.

  Zaac went back to the cave and filled a couple of bowls with clay. Once again, as he passed the cemetery, he pledged to seal it up.

  They mixed the clay and dirt with water. Since Zaac’s hands were already filthy, he was the first to stick them in and start mixing. Ramira watched for a few minutes and then joined in. They added water and kept mixing until they felt they had the right consistency.

  They started by mudding the cracks in the existing section of the oven, mudding both the inside and the outside. Then they selected the rocks they thought might go next. Placing a layer of mud on the top of the old section, they placed the rocks on top of the mud, slanting them slightly inward and mudding on either side and on top. They repeated the process with another layer of rocks and mud. After the last layer, they stepped back to admire their progress.

  “It looks like one more layer of rocks around the top and then another row down the center for a roof will make it complete,” Ramira said.

  “I think we need some means of support, though. The mud’s not dry and the top might cause a collapse.”

  Zaac stood starring at the oven. A solution came to him, “We need rocks to stack inside the oven to support the structure. Once everything is dry, we can take them out.”

  “Brilliant!”

  Her compliment made Zaac blush. He hadn’t thought to impress her, only to do a good job. But it would be nice to have her delighted with what he did.

  They stacked more rocks inside the oven and laid a couple of bones for a temporary support. They added the last layer and completed their work with the center that closed the oven in. They smeared the rest of the mud mixture around the outside of the oven hoping to better secure the whole structure.

  When they were finished, they checked to make sure no cracks were left. Satisfied, they stepped away.

  “Now all we need to do is let the mud dry,” Ramira stated.

  “Do you think it would help to build a small fire on either side so the heat can speed up the drying process?” he asked.

  “As long as you make them small. I don’t think you want too much heat. If there are any cracks after its dry, we can always apply a little more mud to sure them up.”

  Zaac built a couple of small fires while Ramira went to the lake with the bowls to wash them, and to the cave to prepare a meal. When Zaac had both fires going, they sat down together by the boulder to eat.

  “That was a nice day’s work,” Zaac said as he glanced over at the oven.

  “Yes it was. It’ll be interesting to try making a few items and see how they turn out. I like crafts, although in this case, the stakes are a little higher than they are at your average pottery class.”

  While they were chatting, the megapetomeinon flew off their ledge to acquire their daily feast of fish. Zaac and Ramira watched as two of the adults went back to the ledge and two landed on Zaac and Ramira’s side along with their young. Both adults had seen Zaac and Ramira and were prepared for anything that might occur. The younger ones did their usual playing after eating. Finally they all flew back up to their ledge.

  Zaac and Ramira breathed a sigh of relief.

  “Do you think they will ever accept us as part of the norm down here?” Zaac asked looking up at the ledge with a wishful yearning.

  “I hope so. It would be nice to not feel threatened every time they come around.”

  Zaac stood up. “I think I’ll go check on the moss. If it lived, I might plant some more going up to the ledge where the lichen was growing. Would you like to help?”

  “Not this time.” Ramira had other plans. “I want to do some exercises.”

  Zaac went into tunnel number one while Ramira went down the incline to start her stretches and warm ups. The moss he had transplanted was still glowing. The plant looked as though it had taken root. The moss they had planted further down looked the same. Success, so far.

  Zaac decided to continue lighting the way to the ledge with moss. He went back to get supplies and noticed Ramira on the ground, doing splits with her nose on the ground. She must be pretty flexible, he thought. He gathered what he needed and returned to the tunnel.

  After he had finished planting and watering, Zaac headed back and as he got closer to home, he heard periodic shouts of what sounded like “key-eye.” He looked around to see where it was coming from and saw Ramira performing some type of maneuvers, striking and blocking an imaginary opponent, kicking and spinning. He watched until she finished her routine with a bow at the end. Her arms were extended downward with her fists clenched and her feet shoulder width apart.

  She relaxed for a moment when she was done, then assumed the same stance and started another routine. Zaac returned to the boulder and sat down. He knew this was something to do with martial arts but this was his first encounter with the kata that was required for advancing to the next belt.

  Ramira knew he had seen her but it didn’t distract her from performing her Tekki Shodan kata, which she needed for her first-degree Dan black belt. When he first spied her, she had been doing the Heian Godan kata, required for her brown belt.

  When she was finished, she walked up and asked, “I take it your moss was still living? I saw you get some more to replant it.”

  “Yes it was doing fine. I planted three more sections.”

  He wanted to discuss what she had been doing. “I didn’t know that you knew martial arts. What level are you?”

  “I have a black belt in Karate and Jujitju.”

  “A black belt! You mean all of this time I was trying to protect you and you could have kicked my tail?”

  “Well, the topic didn’t come up.”

  “What do you mean ‘the topic didn’t come up’? You don’t normally go up to every person you meet and ask them what level of karate they are.”

  Zaac knew that if you were advanced in the martial arts, you would not go around advertising it. Still, he felt at a disadvantage not knowing.

  “I’m sorry. I usually don’t tell people. I wasn’t trying to hide it from you. I kind of figured that when you came out, I would be doing one of my katas.” She walked to his side.

  “It doesn’t ma
ke you feel less masculine knowing that I can probably kick your tail does it?” She did a mild crescent kick to his butt and took off running.

  Zaac stood for a moment in disbelief. She might be a black belt and could probably beat him in a fight, he thought, but there was no way she was going to get away with that. He took off in quick pursuit even though she had a good lead.

  Ramira ran down the incline to tunnel number four with Zaac chasing her. As soon as she exited the tunnel on the other side, she climbed the wall heading back up and over the falls.

  Just as she reached midway, Zaac ran out of the tunnel but didn’t see her. There was no way she could have made it across the floor in that length of time, he thought. Tunnel number five was the first tunnel on this side. He didn’t think she would run into it, since it had the bones. Besides she didn’t have enough of a lead to cover that distance. Did she continue down one of the tunnels under the falls, he wondered? He looked out over the lake, although he was pretty sure she wouldn’t have gone for a swim.

  While Zaac was in deep concentration, Ramira had enough time to reach a point above the falls where she could climb over them. As she started, however, her foot dislodged a small rock. Its fall made enough noise that Zaac looked up and he saw her.

  “Hey big boy,” she hollered. “What are you doing down there? Want me to lend you a hand?”

  Not only had she kicked him and run. Now she was taunting him. She might have martial arts training, but he knew that she couldn’t out-climb him. He jumped up on the wall, scurrying after her. She had just reached the other side of the falls when he arrived at the point where she had hollered down at him.

  Little did they know that their sudden escapades and hollering had attracted the attention of the two fun loving younger megapetomeinon. The birds were just getting ready to leap off their ledge when a sudden rebuke from their parents made them hold back. They restricted themselves to watching.

  Ramira made it to a ledge and turned to see where Zaac was. He was indeed a much faster climber and he had just about caught up with her. She shot down the remaining wall to the floor with him in hot pursuit. Before touching the floor, she paused to get her bearings and performed a perfect backward somersault off the wall, landing with her knees slightly bent. The pause was all that Zaac needed to make up the distance between them. He jumped off a second after her and landed on his feet within arm’s reach.

  As she was standing erect from her crouch, their eyes met and she tried to take off running again. Zaac dived and grabbed her ankles. Tackling her to the ground, he quickly flipped her over and held her arms against the ground straddling her. She could easily have escaped, but what fun is it being chased if you don’t let yourself get caught?

  Without putting up any resistance, she smiled teasingly and asked, “Now that you’ve caught me, what are you going to do with me?”

  “Well for starters, I want you to know that my masculinity is not threatened by your abilities. As for what I’m going to do ... hmmmm!” He lowered his head and gave her a lingering kiss.

  When he straightened up, he looked lovingly into her eyes. He was unprepared for what happened next. Ramira scissored her legs up and over his head locking them and snapped him backwards until he was on the ground on his back and she quickly reversed positions putting her on top.

  “Just for the record, you should feel threatened,” she said as she bent and kissed him on the lips. As she tilted her head back up, he wrapped his arms around her and pulled her close to him for a much longer embrace. She did not resist.

  16

  Zaac and Ramira woke up the next morning and turned to face each other, saying their good mornings with a smile.

  “I think today might be the day I seal the entrance to the cemetery,” Zaac said.

  “It’s a lot of work to carry all that rock over. I’ll help.”

  After breakfast, they headed to the rock pile and Zaac knelt to test the size of rocks he wanted to carry. He started with one that was about a foot in diameter and lifted it without any trouble. He chose another one about twice the size of the first and lifted it with ease. Not realizing the potential weight of the rock, he carried it over to the other side without any problem. He sat it down in the corner of the entrance, beginning a row upon which to lay others. Ramira arrived with her rock, so he waited for her and they walked back to the pile together.

  Zaac chose another rock that was even larger and lifted it with ease. Ramira watched in fascination as he toted it across the floor of the cavern. She picked a smaller rock and hurried after him. They walked side by side with her glancing at him occasionally. He wasn’t even breathing hard. When they reached the tunnel, he sat it down next to the previous one. She placed hers outside the entrance. She knelt next to the rock he had carried and tried to move it. It didn’t budge.

  “What are you doing?” he asked.

  “I was just checking something.” She looked confused.

  “It looked like you were trying to move it.”

  “No. You put it where it needs to be.” She started walking back to the pile.

  He stood for a moment with a baffled look, then hurried to catch up with her.

  “The way we’re going, it won’t take long before we have enough rocks to seal up the tunnel,” she added as he joined her.

  “I hope not. The faster it’s closed, the better.”

  At the pile, Ramira chose a rock that she couldn’t lift. It must have weighed at least a hundred pounds. “How about picking this rock up?” she asked.

  Zaac lifted it and held it in one hand the way he might hold a baseball.

  “Follow me.” She headed toward the lake.

  Zaac did as requested tossing the rock up in the air from hand to hand. When they got to the edge of the water, Ramira pointed to the other side. “Let’s see if you can throw it to the other side.”

  Zaac looked at her strangely then glanced across the water. Extending his hand fully back with the rock in it, he threw it with what he felt might be enough strength to reach the other side. The rock not only cleared the water but ricocheted off the far wall before landing.

  “Just what I thought.” She looked at him from head to toe. “Do you feel any different? Stronger?”

  “Not that I can tell.” He gave her a bewildered look. “I do feel pretty good but not anything out of the ordinary.”

  “Well, unless I miss my guess, that last rock you carried weighed more than a ton. The rock you tossed across so easily weighed at least a hundred pounds if not a little more.”

  “No way. That’s impossible. The first rock felt a little heavy but I thought it might weigh around seventy pounds. The rock I tossed felt like it only weighed a couple of pounds. There isn’t any way that I could lift a ton of rock like a bag of dog food.”

  “It might seem like it’s impossible but somehow you managed to do it.” She added, “It’s also impossible to cling to walls like an insect but we now have that ability. I can see in the dark in a strange sort of way, which isn’t normal. Something else has happened to give you supernatural strength.” She looked at him with a sort of admiration.

  Zaac thought back over the events of the past few days. They had both been bitten by some type of bugs and now they were able to climb walls. Ramira had a strange gift enabling her to see images in her mind, something he attributed to the bat bites. A thought occurred to him. He had been bitten by ants at one point. He wondered whether the ant bites had had the same effect on him that the other bug bites did, somehow causing a change in his physical make-up which now afforded him a type of supernatural strength.

  He was right on target. His DNA had changed drastically as a result of the bug and ant bites. He could now lift just about as much as could an ant, relative to its size. Even so, his musculature and bone structure had not yet developed to their full potential. The change was still progressing.

  “There is one thing,” he said. “When we stopped at that ledge, I was sitting on the ant hill and they
climbed up my leg and bit me.”

  “I remember that. You jumped up and pulled off your jeans.” She giggled.

  “You didn’t have to remember that particular part.”

  “It was pretty comical. If I had my way, I would train an ant colony to climb up your leg and bite…I’ll leave the rest to your imagination but your backside would not be out of the question.” She laughed heartily.

  “If you had those, I guess I would have to get me an aardvark for a pet. If he happened to get loose and made a feast of your ants, what could I say?”

  There was no way she was going to let him have the last word. “If your aardvark ate my ants, guess what we would be having for dinner,” she responded with a triumphant look.

  “The way you talk, it sounds like we’re a couple and married. Doesn’t one of us have to ask the other for that privilege? So is this your way of asking me indirectly?” he suggested with a little smile.

  Ramira turned red in the face. The triumphant look had disappeared. For once. It didn’t last long. “No I’m not asking you to marry me. But now that you mention it, would it be such a terrible thing to be married to me?”

  Now it was Zaac’s turn to be at a loss for words. Talk about turning the table on someone. He might be falling in love with her but marriage? He was only seventeen. He was still in high school. He had not completed the eleventh grade. Marriage was not part of the equation.

  Ramira drew closer to him with a slight smile on her face. “You haven’t answered me.”

  Zaac was beginning to feel very uncomfortable. Even though the cavern was humongous, he felt trapped. The best possible escape was to change the subject.

  “Shouldn’t we finish moving the rocks?”

  Ramira grinned. She would let him off the hook for now.

  When they reached the pile, Zaac chose a rock that was larger than the previous one. It was approximately four feet in diameter and would weigh about one and a half tons. When he lifted it, he knew that he was close to the limit of his strength, but he still managed to take it across to the tunnel.