The sun had burned off the dew and climbed well into the morning sky when Ott decided to act. He assembled a group of the clan’s best hunters and trackers, and with Cha by his side he set off for the natural bridge formation and the lake of the high plateau. Ott had hunted the high plateau many times and was familiar with the route. They reached the bridge and crossed in single file, and then headed up and over the first set of hills. Now on the open plateau, Ott pushed the group into a steady trot. When they reached the second set of hills they rested, and then climbed up and over again. Reaching the bottom on the far side, they turned away from the waterfall and proceeded up the narrow finger of land leading to the flat plateau and the rim of the great lake.
Ott knew they had come to spear fish, and he knew Graf would have gone to the outcropping of rocks that stretched into the lake. They reached the rocks and scoured the area. They found nothing. The grass was too soft to hold prints. There was no blood, no gear, not a sign they had even been there. The men spread out, covering a larger area from the edge of the lake, while Ott and Cha walked along the rocks. Fish flickered silver and darted about in the still water as Ott reached the end. Movement caught his eye. A rippling V glimmered on the surface and moved steadily toward the rocks. He had seen it before and knew what was coming. He grabbed Cha by the arm. As fast as they could move, they sprinted back across the rocks, leapt to the shore, and kept sprinting until Ott felt they had reached a safe distance.
Reaching the rocks, the swirling water veered off and a moment later disappeared from the surface. Ott stood watching the water. Had Graf and Yaan been surprised and taken by one or more of those silent and deadly beasts? He lowered his eyes at the thought of such a grisly death.
Ott called the men to regroup. They had found nothing here. They would continue the search on the way back. As they headed back toward the waterfall, Ott spread the men out to cover as much ground as possible. Looking for any sign, they made their way across the plain and approached the falls. They had walked across the narrow finger of land and started the ascent to the bridge when two younger men veered off and headed to the falls. They had never seen it and wanted to take a quick look.
As they neared the rim overlooking the pool, both men stopped and whooped to Ott and the others. They turned as the two men scooped the bows and quivers of Graf and Yaan from the ground and waved them above their heads. Everyone trotted to the men. Ott recognized the bows instantly and walked to the rim above the pool. To see as well as possible, he dropped to his belly and extended his head over the edge. Directly below, at the edge of the pool, the carcass of the massive rhino lay tilted on its back. Ott stared down as the scenario came together in his mind. Cornered and trapped by the rhino, they had to jump. The question was, had they survived? There was only one way to find out.
Ott knew the long downward route to the pool. With Cha at his side and the men strung out behind, he led the way up to the game trail that led down to the canyon floor and the pool. If Graf and Yaan had survived the plunge, they would be somewhere in that narrow canyon. He would find them—hopefully before something else did.
Without stopping, the group pushed through the afternoon and reached the area where the game trail led down and into the canyon. In single file, they picked and scrambled their way lower and reached the stream bed as the sun burned warm in the late-afternoon sky. Heading up the stream, they clamored around boulders, jumped and skirted logs and rocks, and at the same time searched for any prints or signs. They had traveled well into the canyon to a point where they could hear the falls ahead. Still they found no signs.
Ott knew with the falls not far ahead, they had to be close. Determined, he pushed forward in the soft, gravelly sand, and then froze. The others gathered around him, and they all stared at what lay on the ground in front of them. They were hyenas. That much was sure, but what had killed them? They had seen all means of death from hunting and trapping to predation, but this was beyond their comprehension. The hides and skeletal remains of the beasts were recognizable, but charred and blackened. The eye sockets were empty and rimmed with soot, and the carcasses were without form. They appeared rumpled and almost flat on the sand. One of the men flipped a carcass over and stepped back, shaking his head. The inner hide was charred black and dry. There was no sign of any organs or blood. It was as though the beast had been cooked from the inside.
Ott stepped to the side and further examined the area. It was covered with paw prints. In a small opening in the canyon wall, he found where blood had seeped into the sand—and human footprints. They had been here. Ott swept his eyes up and down the sheer walls. There was no way they could have climbed up. It was just not possible. What had happened here, and where were Graf and Yaan?
Ott motioned the men forward, and they headed toward the sound of the waterfall. All along the sandy bank, human footprints trailed away from the direction they were heading. Ott knew they had to belong to Graf and Yaan. He was positive they were here. Why hadn’t they found them? Ott followed the tracks to a place where they disappeared at the edge of the water. This was where they had left the water. They had made it over the rim and survived the drop to the pool, and had then been carried to this spot, where they had climbed out and made it to the place where they had found the hyena remains. Confused by the mixed signs and mysterious remains, Ott pushed on toward the pool. It was the only other place left to search.
Whitewater and mist cascaded over the falls and crashed to the rocks at the far side of the pool. At the left side of the thundering water, on the rocks at the far side, the dead rhino loomed legs up, like a giant gray boulder. Ott was sure now. Graf and Yaan had been cornered by the beast and had leapt to the pool, where they had been swept over the opposite side and carried by the churning whitewater down the stream to where the tracks indicated they had pulled themselves to the sand. From there they had made their way to the depression in the canyon wall. But what had happened at that place? No additional tracks. No bodies. No other sign of Graf and Yaan. Only the strange carcasses of the hyena pack and the blood in the sand gave any hint of what had happened.
With the sun dropping low, gray shadows stretched over the area. Darkness would come quickly in the depths of the canyon. Ott signaled the start of the trek back to the cave. Dejected and confused, the group hurried along the stream bed, stopping to once again view the strange remains of the hyenas and the last suspected location of Graf and Yaan. Night was closing when they began the ascent up the game trail. By the time they reached the top, they were enveloped in the dark of night. Several of the men stopped, and using flint-sparking tools, they ignited tinder that they then used to light torches tipped with pitch and resin. Like a funeral procession they made their way to the bridge and crossed in single file. Back at the cave entrance, they sat exhausted, exchanged worried glances, and stared beyond the fire into the black night.
The moon had slid low to the far horizon. Save for the sparking of the low-burning fire the night was still and silent. Ott and Cha sat at one side of the fire as Yaan’s father and brother fell in and out of fitful sleep on the other side. Seated on thick hides with her back slumped against the cave wall, Cha’s eyes drooped and then closed to sleep as she succumbed to exhaustion. Ott kept his vigil as the others slept and stared out over the fire’s glowing remains. With the first inkling of dawn, a dark, cloud-like shape drifted into view above the tree line. Flickers of soft red light flashed from within the dark, swirling mass. Ott shook his head and blinked to clear his tired vision. A thunderhead and silent heat lightning? No, this was not a storm. As he watched, the black, roiling mass descended to the ground, where it hovered for a few seconds, and then in absolute silence it rose and disappeared into the dark-gray dawn.
Ott sat frozen in place, trying to make sense of what he had just witnessed. Then, as the light of dawn broke full, he noticed shadowy movement emerging from the edge of the tree line. Instinctively, he grabbed his bow and pulled two arrows from his quiver. In the spreading
light, the shadows moved toward the cave. Ott nocked an arrow and rose to his feet.
On the far side of the fire, the shadows took recognizable form. Ott dropped his bow and started forward toward Graf and Yaan. He met them at the edge of the fire pit. Aside from obvious fatigue, they appeared calm and unhurt. Stirred by the movement and the encroaching light of morning, Cha awoke, and through fluttering eyelids she spotted Graf and Yaan. Rubbing the sleep from her eyes, she sprang to her feet with a shriek of joy. Yaan’s father and brother woke to the commotion and joined them as more of the clan filtered from the cave entrance.
Yaan and Graf were led to hides and seated as the throng grew around them and cooking fires began to flare. As the excitement settled, Ott signaled the crowd to be still and listen while Graf explained what had happened. Standing and sitting, everyone pushed close and listened as the couple recounted their adventure from spear fishing to escaping the rhino and being swept down the whitewater and huddling against the canyon wall. The entire crowd fell silent with anticipation as Yaan described being surrounded by the hyenas and awaiting a sure death. At that point Yaan turned to Graf, extending her hands forward with the palms facing up. There was no more to tell. But neither she nor Graf remembered anything after the hyena attack except standing at the tree line and looking toward the cave fire and Ott.
Yaan looked down to Graf’s leg. It was covered in dried blood, but the bone-deep gash was gone, replaced by a long, thin ribbon of sealed pink skin. His grotesquely twisted foot now appeared straight and normal. As Yaan fell silent, Ott caught sight of the mark on her palm. He reached out and gently pulled her palms closer to examine each. An elongated figure-eight configuration was clearly visible just below the thumb joints. Graf then turned his palms upward and moved them next to Yaan’s. The markings were identical. They both carried the mark of Barjeen—the lemniscate. The same mark Ott and Cha had received when they were taken on the night of the red lights years before. Ott had no answers or explanations, but he knew from this night forward Graf and Yaan would be different. And he was right.
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Seasons blended into seasons and years into years. Children were born, grew to adults, faded to old age, and died, but Ott, Cha, Graf, and Yaan remained unchanged as each generation passed to the next. In times of pestilence, when death came and ravaged many, the two couples never showed more than mild symptoms that quickly passed. Serious injuries that would have caused death in others healed just as quickly with no permanent damage.
Although always held in quiet wonderment by the clan, they never expected or accepted special privileges. They did what they could to benefit the whole of the people and the clan’s way of life—a way of life that had spread far beyond the valley. With each generation more and more groups migrated to lands farther and farther away from the valley, but they always took with them the ceremonies, celebrations, and survival skills learned at the cave. Like many others before them, the time came when the two couples bearing the mark of Barjeen decided to explore other lands. On a clear sunny morning, they climbed over the bridge and began their journey with no destination or expectation other than to discover what lay beyond.
They trekked to many far-off places and lived with many clan groups. Sometimes they stayed only a few seasons or a few years, and sometimes they stayed while an entire generation passed and a new one grew to adulthood. But always they moved on. They traveled through thick forests and explored high mountain passes where no trees grew. They walked vast, grassy savannas and lived with clans by bodies of water too vast to see across.
Countless seasons had passed when they came into a land of scattered forests surrounded by vast stretches of rolling prairie land covered in a sea of amber, knee-high grass. The sun-kissed days were warm, and the nights pleasant and cool. It was in this land they would settle with a clan uniquely adapted to its environment. It was also a place where they would better understand just how different they were.
When they first came upon the cave and the hundreds of dwellings that sprawled around and well beyond it, the sun was dropping in the late-afternoon sky. They had been traveling for several days along a path through a thick forest and had reached the tree line that gave way to the settlement and a large, ground-level cave entrance at the base of a high limestone cliff. The dwellings sat close together and were intertwined with paths running in all directions. In all their travels, it was the largest settlement they had ever come upon, and it was abuzz with activity. Hearths and cooking fires burned in every direction as people walked about and sat in small groups and children scurried about playing.
Ott, Cha, Graf, and Yaan stepped from the forest and walked toward the cave entrance. They were immediately noticed by a group of men standing by the cave. The noise and activity in the entire area diminished as everyone turned their attention to the approaching newcomers. At a short distance from the group at the entrance of the cave, they stopped and pushed their spearpoints into the ground, removed their hands from the shafts, and extended them forward, palms up in greeting. The tallest of the men standing by the cave returned the gesture, nodded, and waved his hand toward his chest, signaling Ott and the others to approach. As they advanced, the tall man eyed them from head to toe. They wore well-made clothing from skins that had been tanned smooth and adorned with shells and carved bone and ivory. The moccasins were carefully stitched and secured with thick straps that wrapped to their upper calves. They walked straight with bows and quivers slung across their backs. Their hair was pulled back and braided to the waist. The tall man eyed the two couples carefully. These four newcomers were not part of a small wandering band, nor were they sick or outcasts. Who were they? What did they want? Where did they come from?
Ott and the others approached the group and stood silent. The tall man looked to each of them and then spoke in a language Ott and the others understood. It was a common language combined with sign, and it was used by many clan groups. He said his name was Tarek and that he and the elders who stood by him were the leaders of this clan. He then looked to Ott and waved his hand under his chin, signaling Ott to speak.
Ott pointed to Cha, Graf, and Yaan, spoke their names, and explained that they had come from a far-off clan in a distant valley and had lived with other clans as well. Tarek listened as he studied the strangers. It was not unusual for clan groups to accept individuals from other groups. In fact, it was common, and these people looked as though they had skills. Tarek told them they were welcome to stay if they would participate in hunting and share food with others. They could build a temporary open hearth, and upgrade to a dwelling if they stayed for longer. If they contributed, they could stay for as long as they desired.
The offer was the basic survival ethic of cooperation. Ott nodded at Tarek. They would stay, and they would provide skills useful to the group. He told Tarek that Cha was wise in the ways of healing with plants and roots and would share that knowledge. Tarek nodded enthusiastically. The ways of healing were valuable and always needed. Ott continued that he and Graf were skilled hunters, and they were all bow makers.
Tarek felt comfortable with the newcomers and went on to explain that he led the clan as his father had before him, and although his father was still alive and clear of thought and speech, he was too old and wracked with stiffness to move about. He spent most of the time at his hearth in the cave or in his dwelling, but he did come to the outside hearth when newcomers came to the clan. Ott and the others would join Tarek, his father, and other elders for food at the cave that night, and tomorrow join the hunt. They could construct a dwelling when they were ready.
Ott eyed the late-afternoon sun riding low in the sky. He wanted to get a hearth and shelter done before dark. With raised palms, Ott and the others set off to find a clear spot to prepare a fire. They found a suitable site by the edge of a small stream, and as the late-afternoon shadows from the tall trees stretched across the clearing, they cleared it of all fallen tree limbs, vines, and low-growing shrubs. Next, they hollowed out a
shallow, rectangular pit that they lined and surrounded with rocks. A raised area was topped with flat rocks perpendicular across the pit to serve as the cooking area above the flames. With the pit complete, they worked together to construct lean-to shelters at opposite ends of the pit. Ott and Graf cut and lashed saplings to surrounding trees as Cha and Yaan gathered leafy branches to cover the structures. With the experience of having done it thousands of times before, the shelters were completed in short order. They would suffice until larger, permanent structures could be erected. Satisfied with the lean-tos, they set about gathering wood for the fire pit, and as twilight closed they sat in the comfort of the radiating glow of a low-burning fire that would welcome them back when they returned from the fire pit of Tarek. As the shroud of night slipped over the huts, fires began flickering at all the dwellings. The entire village glowed with a soft orange hue as funnels of smoke spiraled into the night sky. Heading for Tarek’s fire, Ott looked out over the extensive expanse of dwellings and realized that clan life had changed forever. They had left the caves.
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Winding their way among the closely placed dwellings, Ott and the others made their way through the village to the cave entrance, where Tarek sat with several other men and women around a large, glowing fire pit. As they approached, Tarek motioned for them to sit where hides had been spread for them. The fire had reached cooking height, and meat sputtered as flames flicked up and around the cooking surface. Ott was impressed that this hearth, like all the others they had passed, had more than enough meat cooking for everyone. He motioned to Tarek and asked if game was always this abundant. As the earthy aroma of roasting meat rose in the warm night air, Tarek explained that game was plentiful in the dense forest, but it was a beast that grazed the open plains beyond the low ridge of rock formations behind the village that provided the continued supply that had allowed the clan to build permanent dwellings. He continued that the animals were hunted on a regular basis, and Ott and Graf were welcome to join a hunt the following day. Ott accepted immediately. It would provide the opportunity to prove their worth and earn acceptance with Tarek and the clan.
The Way of the Seed_Earth Spawn of Kalpeon Page 11