Ki'ti's Story, 75,000 BC

by Bonnye Matthews

  When Wisdom restored color to the land, the group rose and ate. They packed up and began their walk. Off to the west, two huge live oak trees provided unused shade. A good bit before high sun, they could see strange gray shapes looming ahead. The gray shapes were stone and they had been shaped in amazing ways. Some looked like trees without branches. Others looked like bridges. Some were huge stones piled atop other stones, sometimes huge stones above much smaller ones. Some appeared to have been cut evenly across the bottom and placed atop other columns. The closer they got, the more amazing the scene became. They got close enough to walk among the pillars. The group stayed together, and they spent hours walking among the pillars. Atop a pillar once in a while they could see a tiny piece of vegetation growing as if it mistook the top of a column for the ground below. For once in her life, Ki’ti was speechless. The place did not call her to a mind web not of her own, but it took her imagination and expanded it beyond anything she could conceive. This was totally beyond her.

  “Do you see why I thought of giants and playing?” Grypchon-na asked.

  Wamumur looked at him. “I cannot wrap my mind web around this place. Never have I dreamed of such a sight. It is astounding. I wish Emaea had come.”

  The group spent the day at the place where the giants played. They could not seem to take it in. Ki’ti was trying to make mental pictures of the things she saw. She wanted to describe them for Emaea. She would stand and stare at a single view for a long time, trying to remember every detail.

  Ghanya walked up to her and said, “You’re trying to capture the image like you capture the stories?”

  She was always fascinated when he’d make a statement and then raise the tone at the end to turn it into a question. “Yes,” she replied. “I want to be able to share this with Emaea.”

  “It is lovely in a strange way?”

  “It is. There is a special beauty here.”

  “I’m glad you can see that, Ki’ti.”

  She smiled a genuine large smile at him. How, she wondered, had he known she loved the beauty in things? Did it show somehow?

  Ghanya left her for Minagle. “Your little sister is really special,” he said.

  “She is. She’s had a hard time, but she seems to be doing a lot better recently.”

  “You love her a lot?”

  “Differently from the way I love you, but yes, I love her a lot. I watched out for her for most of her very young childhood. I still think of her as a very young child.”

  “In some ways she is. In other ways, she’s like a little old lady!”

  “Oh, poof,” Minagle said as she shoved her elbow into Ghanya’s ribs.

  The men had built a hearth at the edge of the stone pillars. They had gathered firewood for a small fire and the women were getting things ready to cook the evening meal. Wisdom was beginning to suck the color from the land. They had a novel experience that day. They would never forget the images they put in their mind webs.

  Ki’ti was sitting with Wamumur watching the color leave the treetops at a distance.

  “Wise One,” she asked Wamumur, “why does Wisdom suck the color from the land?”

  “So the things he made will sleep and be rested for the next day,” he replied.

  “Why did Wisdom make us need to sleep?”

  Wamumur looked into her eyes. He yawned and said, “So we don’t get filled with pride and see ourselves as being Wisdom for ourselves. We depend on Wisdom and we need to know it.”

  “Does Wisdom sleep?” she asked.

  “No, Little Girl, Wisdom keeps everything he made working all the time. Wisdom doesn’t need sleep, but you do, so get ready for a good sleep tonight.”

  “What do you make of this, Amey?” Likichi asked, slowly sweeping her hand with her finger pointing to the strange shaped rocks.

  “I honestly don’t know. I can see why Grypchon-na wanted the storytellers to see it, but it’s over my head.”

  “It’s over everyone’s head, I think,” Likichi said, and continued, “I have been intending to tell you that I think Lamk is turning into a fine young man, but of course, you know that.”

  Amey said, “That’s nice to hear. He reminds me of Manak.”

  Likichi thought of her son. “Now that you mention it, I can see that.”

  “Manak is a fine young man. I hope Lamk turns out like him. I wonder whether Manak will be a father when we return home,” Amey said smiling.

  “That’s the only shadow on this trip. I want to be there when the baby is born, and I might miss it.” Likichi raised her arm and wiped sweat from her brow on her forearm.

  “I can see why you wanted us to see this, Grypchon-na,” Wamumur said. “But I don’t know what to do with the knowledge.”

  “Why do you have to do something with it? Why isn’t it enough to have seen this place and let it go at that?” Grypchon-na asked.

  “I don’t know,” he replied. “It’s so perplexedly different that you’d think that you’d have to do something with it.”

  “Well,” Grypchon-na laughed heartily, “it looks for once like I figured something out that stumped you. I knew what I had to do. I had to show it to you!”

  Ki’ti didn’t know whether to laugh out loud, so she did what she’d seen Minagle do a year or so ago. She covered her mouth with her hand and grinned. Across the fire, Minagle winked at her.

  They settled down to sleep. For Ki’ti, sleep did not come quickly. She was fascinated with the silhouettes of the stones against the night sky. What were these things? she wondered. And finally, finding no solution, she fell asleep.

  The next morning, they ate and got underway. Grypchon-na led them northwest. There was a part of the country he wanted to explore. He’d seen a section of it and wanted to get a bigger view. They walked steadily, rising a little over time. They entered a forest of hardwood trees where they discovered a path, albeit overgrown, a path that seemed to have been there since ancient times. The path was oriented north to south. They headed south. Somehow, Grypchon-na hadn’t seen the path when he was in the area the first time. The path made progress much easier. Elevation change was significant through the hilly country. At one time, they’d pass through lowlands where citrus shrubs grew and they’d pull some lemons to carry home. Then they’d pass through elms and hickory hardwoods to birch and alders to pine and spruce and firs. The change was gradual with the different vegetation mixed until certain trees predominated. There seemed an endless variety.

  They entered into a forest of bamboo. They were fascinated with the plant and the girls pulled up some of the smaller trees so the plants would fit in collection baskets. As they continued through the bamboo, all of a sudden, they saw a creature moving ponderously. They froze in place to watch, alert to possible danger. The animal appeared to be a bear. Its coat was black and white. The ears, arms and across the shoulders, and legs were black. The body from the arms down was white. The face was white. There were black circles around the animal’s eyes and it had a black nose. Likichi knew for the first time the source of the material for the garment of the man with the green bag. The animal showed no fear. It watched them as it was watched. Clearly, it was eating bamboo. From the signs that Totamu had given her, Likichi didn’t think that the People should eat the leaves that the animal was eating.

  They continued along the pathway winding through the forest, until they came to a stream that was bordered by a rock wall and caves. Large rhododendrons edged the rock wall, along with pines and a few hardwoods. Grypchon-na signaled them all to stop and to be still and silent, including the dogs. Grypchon-na and Nanichak-na used hunters’ stealth and surveyed the rock wall and caves. When they determined that no one currently was there, the others were allowed to examine the caves. It was so like their home it surprised them. It was clear that others had occupied the place long ago. Wamumur put his hand on Ki’ti’s shoulder to warn her to use caution. She understood and called Wisdom to protect her.

  They could see hearths where the peo
ple had made fires. Ki’ti’s inhalation was heard by all. “Look at that!” she said louder than she intended, pointing.

  All looked at the aurochs carved in the cave wall. It wasn’t fancy but the shape of the wall was like the shape of the side of an aurochs. The carver had simply supplied the straight and curved lines that drew attention to the animal’s shape that the wall didn’t show. Never had any of them thought to do such a thing. But there it was, a seed of things to be. The visualization in tangible form of a memory. It was a thing to behold. Ki’ti worked feverishly to store as much information about the image as she could. Words could give form to the memory of a story. Lines could give form to the memory of an image once beheld. It was academic training hurled at her in an immense amount in a tiny fragment of time. The same thing was happening to Ghanya. Something in him responded to the image in ways that set off a harmonic to which his whole being vibrated. This was something he wanted to do. It was inborn. In a flash of inspiration, he had learned to see and to supplement.

  “Oh, there!” Ki’ti exclaimed. She pointed this time to a panda on the wall. This representation had the panda’s leg and arm shaped by the cave wall and a part of its head and ear. And there was a sprig of bamboo. It was more fantastic than the aurochs.

  “Wise One, can we please look at the rest of the caves to see if there are others?” she asked.

  He nodded and took her hand. They went to the next cave. Ghanya was still stuck on the panda. The second cave was image free. They moved to the third cave and found a barking deer. It seemed to come alive, caught in the light from outside. The next cave was huge and had numbers of rooms. Wamumur sniffed to see whether he could detect any living thing. Nanichak-na hurried to stay with the two of them. It was dark so Wamumur looked for something to form a light. Nanichak-na called to Grypchon-na and asked for a light. Grypchon-na came with an oil lamp and a coal that was carried along to light fires. He got the lamp going. They went further into the cave and sure enough, in one room, there were more images. These were not the fantastic painted images that would come later in time from the Others but they were not lesser by any means. A few lines here and there and the animals leapt out of the rock. Ghanya finally reached the room of the animals. Here was a rhino, there a gazelle; here a serpent, there a monkey. A hyena crouched in a corner. A straight-tusked elephant raised its trunk.

  Ki’ti gasped. On the far wall there was an animal that she had never seen. It looked like a winged serpent with four legs. It seemed to be exhaling fire. The fire was red dripped color from the cave staining the wall. Never in her life had she seen or imagined anything of the sort. You actually couldn’t see the image unless you stood in a certain place in the room. If you walked around, it would disappear. Everyone in the group walked around looking and seeing and not seeing. How, she wondered, could someone make a thing on the wall and have it appear and disappear? The little group of travelers couldn’t seem to make themselves leave the room of the animals. Ghanya couldn’t believe how just a few, very few, lines could make something that was an idea leap to life. It amazed him. He would like to have met the artist. Sadly, the man lived hundreds of years before Ghanya.

  They went to the remainder of the caves but there were no more images. In one cave, Minagle found a little bag. She took it to Ghanya who carried it to the group. He opened the bag and dropped a tiny little yellow owl into his hand.

  “Look at this,” Ghanya said.

  Wamumur said, “Look at this,” and took the little owl from the bag at his neck. The two were identical. Wamumur put his away.

  “What should we do with it?” Ghanya asked.

  No one spoke. Some thought that since Wamumur had one, it should go to either Emaea or to Ki’ti. Amey put out her hand. Ghanya placed the little yellow owl in Amey’s hand. She tucked it into her bag. Nothing further was said.

  The little group continued following the ancient path. The path threaded its way through a pass in the mountains. They arrived at a flat place near the summit of one mountain as evening fell. They stopped near a tiny rock overhang, barely enough to shelter them from the falling dew. The men made a hearth and a fire and the women began to gather the food for preparation of the evening meal. Lamul noticed a small four-horned antelope. He fluidly loaded his slingshot with a small round rock, releasing it and hitting the deer’s head in a sensitive area, and the deer collapsed. It was not dead but could not get up quickly, so he raced over to finish the kill. The women began to prepare the area to camp. Lamul returned with the antelope and the men got it skinned and readied for roasting as fast as they ever had. They would eat well that night. It might be a little late, but when they ate it was good. They looked into the starry sky and wondered at the things they had seen. Ghanya and Minagle wandered off a bit from the group and spent time being man and wife in the grasses with more abandon than they normally practiced in the community cave.

  Amey had talked to every member of the group asking about her thought as to what to do with the owl. She thought it would be a right thing to do to make a pouch like Wamumur had and thread a piece of leather through it and make it for Ki’ti to wear around her neck. Everyone approved wholeheartedly. That night, she presented it to Ki’ti. The girl wept and threw her arms around Amey. Amey reminded her that the whole group was in accord with the idea. Ki’ti went from person to person and hugged them and thanked them. She had never had a personal item, except for the dog and her tunic. This was an unbelievable honor in her eyes. It was also a tie to Wamumur as storyteller.

  When Wisdom returned color to the land, they began again, following the path downhill for a long time. The day was lovely and there were many plants to gather. Most were familiar but there were some strange ones. The baskets were almost stuffed full. The women thought that Totamu would be pleased.

  Grypchon-na said at dinner that evening that they should arrive home the next day or the day after that at the latest. They were well pleased. The trip had been incredible but they were all tired and longed to be home. They slept that night under an overhang and it rained a little. Fortunately, none of them got wet, including the dogs. The next morning, they arose and ate some more meat and began their walk. Suddenly as they walked, Nanichak-na said, “This area looks very familiar. I know where we are!”

  Grypchon-na asked, “Where then?”

  “Look up,” Nanichak-na said. There above them was the cave of the man with the green bag and his family. The group knew they were almost home. Soon, they arrived at the home cave and the People raced out to welcome them back.

  Minagle ran to Domur. In her arms was a very tiny baby. “Totamu said she thought the baby was early,” Domur explained. “But she is fine.” Likichi went to her to see the infant that she’d just heard was a girl. She looked at the tiny face. She looked a perfect combination of Manak and Domur. But she was so tiny. She couldn’t tell whether the infant had blue eyes or green ones like Domur.

  Wamumur found Emaea. He raced to her and surrounded her with his arms. For a brief moment, the two were the only ones in the world.

  “My Husband, I have missed you,” Emaea said when she could speak.

  “I have missed you also, My Wife,” Wamumur said with great feeling.

  “How is our child?” Emaea asked.

  “She is well. I approved of her on this trip.”

  “That is good.”

  “It is good,” he reaffirmed with a palm strike and a bit of a sigh of relief.

  Likichi and Amey took the plants to Totamu. The three women sat on mats on the floor and began to examine the plants. Meeka and Liho joined them and offered to help hang any plants that needed to dry. Totamu asked them to get the drying rack and put it up along with the pole. She had the girls hang the new plants on the long pole that fit from one projection to another on the cave wall, not the normal drying rack. The young girls were delighted to be able to help.

  First, Totamu went through the plants that were unfamiliar. She was the most surprised at the bamboo. It brought
up a memory that she couldn’t quite grasp. Perhaps, it would come to her later. She told the girls to take the leaves to the fire and drop them in. Then she told them to dry the plant.

  From another plant, she chose to keep the leaves and burn the root system. There were clues with each plant and as she went through, she explained to Likichi why she did what she did. She stopped at the plant that looked like a close match to the leaves she used for breathing. “Take this leaf, Meeka, and steep me some tea,” she said. Meeka hurried to do as requested. Liho took the plant to hang on the pole.

  Then, Totamu moved to the next set of baskets. She was delighted. The women and girls had obtained a wonderful supply of plants she desperately needed and hadn’t felt well enough to gather. Meeka brought her the tea and Totamu drank. In a few moments, she was far more open to breathe than she had been in a long time. Perhaps the plant, seeming similar but somehow different, had something that would help over the long run since the potency of the leaves she’d been using seemed to have decreased. Maybe it was just different enough to give her more time.

  Ki’ti and Minagle had unpacked the dogs and they raced to join the ones who had remained at home. Even Ahriku, as much as he doted on Ki’ti, went to join the others for a while.

  Nanichak-na and Chamul-na had been planning to take a different trip. Chamul-na had to wait while Nanichak-na accompanied the others on what would be referred to as the trip to the place where the giants played. Chamul-na and Nanichak-na planned to travel due north. Now that they had found the ancient path, Nanichak-na suggested they simply follow it. They knew now that there were signs of human habitation along that trail and they wanted to know if other humans lived in the north. It wasn’t so much that they wanted to meet other humans as much as they wanted to know where other humans were. It was a trip more for security than social purposes. After all, they’d found an established path, a rather wide one at that. Likewise, Ermol-na and Arkan-na had talked of following the river to the east for the same reason. If People were around, they reasoned, they might be located near rivers. It had struck all of them as strange that they had so far seen no sign of people anywhere, only traces of those from the long ago.