Cave Dwellers

by Randall, Jonathan

  The female was a little perturbed that he had not noticed her yet, so she let out a small squawk and pecked him gently on the neck. His eyes stayed on Zaac for a few moments, then he turned and saw her. He opened his beak and emitted a squawk back to her.

  The male braced his legs and tried to stand. Zaac stepped away from him allowing him the room he needed. At first his legs were wobbly, but that quickly faded. But he must have still been a little dizzy for when he tried to take a step, he fell back down.

  He laid there for a minute before trying to stand again. The next time he stood up completely and took a few steps with no apparent trouble.

  Ramira noticing the lichen on his head let out a little snicker. It looked like a sponge puff tied on top of his head.

  Both the male and female megapetomeinon turned and looked at her. They had never heard that strange sound before and it fascinated them. If the male had realized that she was laughing at him, he might have felt more than curiosity.

  The young male, having gained his footing, decided that he was going to fly. He took several running steps, extending his wings and lifted up off the ground.

  His flight was very short lived. The collision must have injured his wing more than they realized, or at least impaired the strength of it. When he was no more than three feet off the ground, he tilted to the right and fell back to the ground. The male laid there stunned, unable to comprehend why he couldn’t do something that was so normal to him.

  The jolt from his fall disarranged the lichen over the wounds. Zaac drew near and he held his hand out waist high with the palm facing downward showing that he meant the male no harm.

  Zaac reached the bird without incident and adjusted the lichen on top of its head, making sure it was over the wound. It was then that the male realized that something strange was tied around his head. He began to shake it from side to side, trying to dislodge whatever weird object was there.

  Zaac reached up affectionately and rubbed the male’s neck telling him, “It’s okay. Calm down. You need to keep that on for now.”

  The soothing tone in Zaac’s voice must have assured the male because he stopped trying to remove the lichen.

  Ramira and the younger female arrived beside them. They watched as Zaac stretched out the male’s right wing and repositioned the lichen on it. As he was retying the string, the male turned his head around and took a playful nip at Zaac’s shoulder and nudged him with his beak.

  Zaac responded by jabbing him back with his elbow and telling him, “You’re in a playful mood. You must be feeling better. But you need to save your playing until your wing heals. Then you can go and do all the playing you want.”

  He knew that the male could not understand him, but somehow it seemed normal to talk to him. Whether or not the male did understand is a matter of question, because he poked him again and looked Zaac in the eye. It was almost like the male was seeing right into his mind.

  In that brief moment, Zaac knew that he and the male had bonded. There was a connection that even he could not fathom. But that connection was briefly interrupted by the squawking of the adult megapetomeinon as they flew off of their ledge.

  The parents circled around the cavern a few times then came down to investigate the condition of their offspring.

  Zaac and Ramira thought that this would be a good time for them to exit the scene and give the megapetomeinon family time alone. They returned to the cave and started fixing something to eat.

  After eating, they went down to the pottery oven and removed all of the pieces they had made. All of them seemed to have turned out alright.

  As Ramira looked at Zaac’s sluices, she asked, “What are you planning to do with these?”

  “It’s going to be a surprise,” he replied.

  She gave him a glance but decided to press him no further. She could be patient.

  After taking the pieces back up to the cave, Zaac went to work on his string. He repeated the process of interweaving the strings together. When he was done, he had another string about the length of his previous one.

  Zaac attached it to his bone hook and the other end to his bone fishing pole. He got his small bug pot, caught some bugs and went fishing for their evening meal. After catching a couple of fish, he went to the other side to clean and fillet them. While he was kneeling to scale one of them, the younger male walked up behind him and poked him with his beak. He watched as Zaac finished scaling the fish and removed the insides. As Zaac was scaling the second fish, the male snatched the first one and took off, chewing it.

  Zaac saw him grab it out of the corner of his eye, but the male was gone with it before he had a chance to react.

  “Hey you big thief. If you were going to steal one, at least you could have taken the one that wasn’t cleaned.”

  When Zaac returned with the filleted fish, Ramira had a fire built and was cutting up potatoes.

  “You won’t believe what that bird did. He stole one of my fish,” Zaac protested to Ramira.

  “You probably provided the easiest meal he’s had since he started catching his own food.” She smiled up at him.

  “I think we need to come up with a name for them. I believe I’ll call him Rogue. He’s mischievous and very playful. I think the name suits him.”

  Ramira finished with the potatoes and stood looking at the birds with Zaac. “Yes, that name does seem to fit.” She glanced at the female. “I believe I’ll call her Siri. It means ‘a beautiful victory’.”

  They had their dinner by the boulder with mild interruptions from Rogue and Siri coming up to snoop. After they had finished, they walked around the cavern with the birds accompanying them.

  Rogue and Siri played lightly, but Rogue seemed to keep it mild, favoring his injured wing. Zaac and Ramira wanted to join them, but decided against it. They didn’t want to encourage Rogue to play harder than he should.

  When they returned to the cave, Zaac took the sluices that he had made and told Ramira, “I’ll be back.”

  He disappeared into the tunnel that went to the other side. Ramira watched as he came out on the far side of the lake. He did not have the pieces with him. He went to the bone pile and rummaged through it for several minutes before apparently finding what he was seeking. She watched as he vanished in the tunnel again and came out on this side without the bones.

  Zaac walked over to the rock pile and picked out several rocks and carried them back to the tunnel. He made a couple more trips until he had all that he needed. He returned to the cave and got the large bowl and loaded it with coal. Grabbing a small bowl, a water pot, his fire starter kit and some lichen, he set them on top and walked down to the vegetables. He stopped, got the jagged rock, set it on top of the bowl and disappeared into the tunnel again.

  There, Zaac filled the water pot under the falls. He dumped the water in the large hollowed out boulder. Taking off his shoes and socks, he rolled up his pants and jumped inside the boulder and washed it out using the lichen as a sponge.

  “Now my strength will come in handy,” he thought as he jumped back out.

  Reaching under the huge boulder, he lifted it in the air and tilted it allowing the water to run out. When it was empty, he set it down and dug a small circular hole under it. He surrounded the hole with the rocks and placed the coal inside the circle.

  After he finished with the fire pit, he took the small bowl and gathered some clay. When he returned, he placed the bottom sluice inside the boulder and the second one, overlapping the top of it. Aligning the holes, he secured the two pieces together with a piece of bone that he had selected and stuck it through the holes. Zaac placed the upper sluice overlapping the second one and secured it, too, with bone splinters. The sluices leaned against the wall for support with the top one under the falls.

  As soon as he had the upper sluice in place, water started running from the falls into the boulder. Zaac quickly got the clay and packed it around the bones to seal the holes so that water wouldn’t seep through.

&n
bsp; While the water was running, Zaac built a fire under it to heat it up. Once that fire was blazing, he built another one in the fire pit they had used to dry their clothes.

  By the time he had both fires going, the boulder had plenty of water in it. He removed the sluices and went to get Ramira. He had a nice surprise in store for her.

  She was waiting expectantly as he walked up the incline.

  “Are you ready for your surprise?” he asked with a pleasant smile.

  “Yes I am!”

  “Follow me.”

  When they got inside, he had Ramira close her eyes before she turned the bend in the passage. This time he led her though she did not really need any help in the dark.

  Zaac halted her a few feet from the boulder, “You can open your eyes now.”

  Ramira was a little perplexed at first. She saw the large boulder with a fire under it, but it took her a moment to realize that there was water in it. Then it dawned upon her what he had prepared for her.

  She turned to him with a bright smile on her face. “Is this what I think it is?”

  Zaac could not help but have a little fun with her. “If you’re thinking that it’s a large rock bath, then you have made the wrong choice. If you’re thinking that it’s a medieval cooking pot to cook young maidens, then you have chosen correctly.”

  “Thank you so much,” she said as she threw her arms around his neck and kissed him. “Now if you’ll excuse me, I have a date with a nice warm bath.”

  “I’ve never seen a girl so willing to be cooked before. I like my young maidens boiled to a nice rosy color.” He turned and left her to her date.

  Ramira felt the water, added a couple more pieces of coal to the fire, took off her clothes and slid in.

  A sigh of ecstasy escaped her lips as the warm water enveloped her. Her thoughts immediately strayed to Zaac. It was so sweet of him to do this for her. His concern for her, doing the little things that made her happy, only increased her love for him.

  With this running through her mind, Ramira took a deep breath as she immersed her head in the water.

  21

  Ramira and Zaac stayed around the cavern for a few days waiting for Rogue’s wing to heal. They made a couple of excursions into the tunnels to no avail. Each time they returned, Rogue and Siri were waiting, delighted to see them.

  Now, instead of having only each other to play with, the two birds had new acquaintances and much better sport. Rogue and Siri seemed to spend more time on the ground with Zaac and Ramira than they did on the ledge with their parents.

  Exhausted after their latest expedition, Zaac and Ramira went to bed on the moss in their cave as usual. When they woke the next day, they were surprised to find that Rogue and Siri had come inside during the night and had fallen asleep. Rogue was next to Zaac, Siri next to Ramira.

  After breakfast, Zaac went to get some more lichen. With a plan in mind, he made another long string. They were going to add mastegan to their diet, along with fish. First, though, he had to capture one.

  “I’m going to dig a hole in the ground and have a bone crate tilted up over it,” he told Ramira. “When the critter climbs into the hole, the bone crate will fall down, trapping him. What do you think?”

  She tried to picture it in her mind, but couldn’t. “Good luck with it,” she said.

  Zaac built the crate out of bone. He got the pieces that he felt he would need, a couple of bugs in his bug pot, some moss to light the way and off he went into the tunnel.

  “This is my brilliant guy at work,” Ramira thought as he left. She wasn’t sure his plan would work, but they would soon find out.

  When Zaac got outside the small tunnel where they had seen the mastegan, he took the jagged rock and dug a hole large enough to trap one of them. He tied a couple of small strings around the legs of the two bugs he had brought, placed them in the hole and staked them with a couple of small bones pushed into the ground.

  Zaac tilted the crate over the hole and propped it up on a bone. The crate should fall when the mastegan entered. He put a rock next to the crate, arranged so that it would roll over the crate after it had fallen. The rock was heavy enough to prevent the varmint from pushing the crate back up and escaping.

  After he was finished, he stood back, admiring his work. Pretty ingenious, he thought.

  Ramira was waiting when he returned from his endeavor. “Did you get your trap set?”

  “Yes. Tomorrow we will have roast varmint for supper.”

  “It will be nice to have the change in diet,” she said. Privately she had her doubts, but she would never express them to Zaac.

  The next day, Zaac could not wait to see whether his trap had worked. He broke off the tip of a bone to use as a spear and rushed off to see his prize.

  As he approached the crate, he could tell that it had fallen and the rock was holding it in place over the hole. ‘It worked!’ he thought as he walked up to it. When he looked in the hole, however, there was no varmint.

  The mastegan had indeed sprung the trap and been caught. But it was a burrowing animal. It had simply dug another small furrow out of the hole and escaped.

  Ramira watched as he came up the incline with the crate in one hand but no critter in the other. She looked at him with her eyebrows raised but uttered not a word.

  “Don’t even ask,” he said as he walked past her.

  She smiled to herself. This would be an interesting story that she would find out about later.

  Zaac would not let the critter outsmart him. He thought about building an animal trap out of bone. He spent the rest of that day and most of the next morning working on his trap. Once it was done, off he went into the tunnel to catch him a varmint. He was going to show that critter who was boss. Man rules!

  Ramira had been watching him as he diligently built his cage. When he returned from the tunnel, she asked, “Did you get it set?”

  “Yes. I think this will work. Tomorrow we’ll be having varmint for dinner.”

  They spent the rest of that day playing with Rogue and Siri. The young megapetomeinon were very fast. Both of them could outrun Zaac and Ramira. They played tag, and even though the birds could run faster, Zaac and Ramira were quicker at climbing. Their only chance was to climb the walls or use the walls as a springboard to flip into the air.

  The change that had occurred in Zaac and Ramira had made them extremely agile and the games with Rogue and Siri were increasing that ability.

  The next day Zaac could not wait to go and check his cage. While he was gone, Ramira caught a couple of bugs and thought that she would go fishing.

  She was not sure if Zaac would return with a varmint but at least they could eat fish. It didn’t take her long to hook one and bring it to shore. Although it wasn’t as large as the ones Zaac usually caught, it would do for dinner.

  As Zaac approached the cage, he could tell that it had been sprung. But it was empty. When he drew closer, he noticed the bones that he had tied together on the other side were loose. Apparently the mastegan had indeed been trapped but gnawed through the string that he used to tie the bones in place.

  Zaac shook his head in defeat. Maybe this time man wasn’t going to rule. He grabbed his cage and started back toward the cavern wandering what the varmint would have tasted like. Probably like chicken, he thought. Everything else seemed to taste like chicken, except the bugs. They had a unique taste all to their own.

  Ramira was preparing the fish she had caught when he came back with the empty cage. She did not ask. He did not tell.

  The next three days they spent in the tunnels trying to find an exit. They arrived back in mid-afternoon no better off than before. But something interesting happened.

  Rogue and Siri were waiting for them expectantly. After putting their packs back in the cave, they went to play with them. Siri tagged Ramira and she in turn chased Rogue.

  The birds somehow knew that the humans could not fly so they kept the game earth-bound. It seemed only fair, given the huma
n’s handicap. Ramira finally trapped Rogue in a corner and tagged him.

  Rogue spotted Zaac and the chase began. He was able to evade the bird at first by climbing up the wall and doing a back flip over its head. That maneuver put him in the lead going across the cavern floor. He was about a third of the way with Rogue coming up swiftly behind.

  When Rogue caught up, though, he didn’t tag Zaac but lowered his head and stuck it between Zaac’s legs at knee level. Since he was able to run faster than Zaac, Rogue quickly had his neck under his human pal.

  Having Zaac right where he wanted him, he jumped into the air and took off flying with Zaac on his neck.

  Zaac was caught completely off guard and fell back across the bird’s body. He tried to hold on but it was difficult with him lying on his back with his feet up in the air.

  Rogue flew out over the lake and made a sharp turn back to the shore. The force of the turn was all it took. Rogue went left and Zaac went right.

  A couple of midair somersaults, not too gracefully done, a splash as he hit the water and Zaac was left befuddled about what had just happened.

  Ramira, watching the drama, was startled when Rogue lifted Zaac off the ground. She stood with her mouth agape as he flew over the lake and sent Zaac flying.

  When Zaac spotted her on shore, she was rolling on the ground, laughing. At his expense of course. He had been tagged and now he was it.

  Rogue had landed and was looking at him. Zaac didn’t think a bird could smile, but that one definitely had a mischievous grin on his face.

  Feeling as though he had been made the brunt of the joke, Zaac swam to shore. When he walked out, he made a threatening move toward Rogue all in jest.

  “Every dog has its day. In this case, every bird. But you just wait. I’ll get you,” he said as he passed Rogue.

  When he was walking past Ramira, he told her, “You would not be laughing so hard if it had happened to you.”

  She smiled at him, all innocent. “If it happened to me, I think I would have fallen a little more gracefully.”