Sunset of the Sabertooth

by Mary Pope Osborne

“You stay in there,” said Annie. “There’s no teeny coat for you.”

  Peanut vanished back into the pack.

  “I wonder how they made these coats,” said Jack.

  He turned the pages in the book until he found a picture of Cro-Magnon women sewing. He read:

  Cro-Magnons scraped reindeer skins with flint rocks to make them soft. They used bone needles to sew the skins together for clothing.

  Jack added to his list:

  “I hope the cave people won’t mind if we borrow their coats,” said Jack.

  “Maybe we should give them our towels,” said Annie. “To thank them.”

  “Good idea.”

  “And my goggles, too,” said Annie.

  They left their gifts on top of the rest of the animal skins.

  “Let’s explore the cave before they come home,” said Jack.

  “It’s too dark in the back,” said Annie. “We won’t be able to see anything.”

  “I’ll find out how Cro-Magnons saw in the dark,” said Jack.

  He opened the Ice Age book. He found a picture of cave people holding odd-looking lamps. He read aloud to Annie:

  Cro-Magnons made stone lamps. They hollowed out a rock, filled it with animal fat, then burned a wick made from moss.

  “There!” said Annie. She pointed to two stones near the fire. In the hollow of each was gooey white stuff and a pile of moss.

  “We have to be careful,” said Jack.

  He picked up one stone. It was smaller than a soup bowl, but much heavier.

  Jack held the stone close to the fire and lit the piece of moss.

  He lit another lamp and gave it to Annie.

  “Carry it with two hands,” he said.

  “I know,” she said.

  Jack tucked the book under his arm. He and Annie carried their stone lamps to the back of the cave.

  “Hey, I wonder where this goes,” said Annie. She held her lamp up to an opening in the wall.

  “I’ll check in the book,” said Jack.

  He put down his lamp and flipped through the Ice Age book.

  “I think it’s a tunnel,” she said. “Be right back.”

  “Wait a second,” said Jack.

  Too late—she had squeezed into the opening and was gone.

  “Oh brother,” said Jack, sighing.

  He closed his book and peeked into the opening.

  “Come back here!” he said.

  “No! You come here! ” said Annie. Her voice sounded far away. “You won’t believe this!”

  Jack picked up his lamp and book. He ducked into a small tunnel.

  “Wow!” came Annie’s voice.

  Jack could see her lamp flickering at the other end.

  Crouching clown, he hurried toward her. At the end of the tunnel was a huge cavern with a high ceiling.

  Annie held her lamp close to the wall.

  “Look,” she said. Her voice echoed.

  Animals were painted on the wall in strokes of red and black and yellow.

  There were cave bears and lions, elk and reindeer, bison and woolly rhinos and mammoths.

  In the flickering light, the prehistoric beasts looked alive.

  “Wow, what is this place?” said Jack.

  “Maybe it’s an art gallery,” said Annie.

  “I don’t think so,” said Jack. “It’s too hard to get to.”

  He read about the cave paintings:

  These Ice Age beasts were painted 25,000 years ago. Cro-Magnons painted pictures of animals they hunted. They may have believed the paintings would give them power over the animals.

  “Wow, look at this,” said Annie.

  She pointed at a painting farther down the wall.

  It showed a figure with human arms and legs, reindeer antlers, and an owl face. It seemed to be holding a flute.

  Jack looked at the book again. He found a picture of the figure and read:

  Cave men may have been led by a sorcerer, or “Master of the Animals.” He may have worn reindeer antlers so he could run like a reindeer—and an owl mask so he could see like an owl.

  “What is it?” said Annie.

  “The Master of the Animals,” said Jack. “He’s a sorcerer.”

  “Oh wow,” breathed Annie. “That’s it.”

  “That’s what?”

  “That’s who we have to find.”

  “Why?”

  “Maybe he’s a friend of Morgan’s,” said Annie.

  Jack nodded slowly. “Maybe,” he said.

  “Let’s go find him,” said Annie.

  They went back through the tunnel into the first cave.

  “We better put our lamps back,” said Jack.

  He and Annie blew out their lamps.

  They placed them back by the fire.

  Jack’s backpack was on the floor next to the skins. He put the Ice Age book into it.

  “How’s Peanut?” said Annie.

  Jack looked into his pack. “She’s not here,” he said.

  “Oh no!” cried Annie. “She must have crawled out when we were looking at the paintings.’’

  “Peanut!” Jack called.

  “Peanut!” called Annie.

  Annie walked slowly around the cave, looking into the shadows.

  Jack peered around the fire and under each of the furry skins.

  “Jack! Come here!” said Annie.

  She was standing near the entrance to the cave.

  The snow had stopped falling.

  In the snow were tiny tracks.

  “Peanut’s tracks,” said Annie. “We have to find her before she freezes.”

  She wrapped her reindeer coat around her and headed across the snow.

  Jack pulled on his backpack and followed.

  The mouse’s tracks led them between the fallen rocks and back onto the open plain.

  The wind blew harder. Snow swirled over the ground, covering the tiny footprints.

  “I can’t see them anymore!” wailed Annie.

  She and Jack now stood in the middle of the plain. They stared at the windswept snow.

  The mouse’s tracks had vanished.

  “Yikes,” whispered Annie, staring up.

  Jack followed her gaze. On one of the cliffs was a tiger. A giant tiger with two long, sharp fangs.

  “A sabertooth,” said Jack.

  “I hope he doesn’t see us,” whispered Annie.

  “Me too,” Jack whispered back. “We’d better head back to the tree house.”

  Jack and Annie stepped very softly across the snow. Then Jack glanced back at the cliff.

  The sabertooth was gone.

  “Oh man,” he said. “Where is he?”

  “Run to the trees!” said Annie.

  He and Annie started running. They ran over the snowy plain, heading toward the tall, bare trees in the distance.

  Suddenly Jack heard a crack.

  The ground caved in, and Jack went with it.

  Annie fell beside him.

  They crashed down onto a heap of branches, snow, and earth.

  They struggled to stand. Jack pushed his glasses into place.

  “You all right?” he asked Annie.

  “Yes,” she said.

  They both looked up. They were in a deep hole. All Jack could see were gray clouds moving overhead.

  “This is a trap,” Jack said. “The Cro-Magnons must have put branches over this hole. Then the snow hid the branches. So we didn’t see them.”

  “There’s no way out,” said Annie.

  She was right. They were helpless. The pit was too deep to climb out of.

  “I feel like a trapped animal,” Annie said.

  “Me too,” said Jack.

  He heard a yowl in the distance.

  “The sabertooth!” whispered Annie.

  Jack pulled out the Ice Age book. He found a picture of the sabertooth. He read:

  The sabertooth was the fiercest beast of the Ice Age. It attacked humans as well as woolly mammoths and other large
animals.

  “Oh brother,” said Jack.

  “Listen!” Annie grabbed him.

  “What?” Jack jumped.

  “I hear music.”

  Jack listened. But all he heard was the wind.

  “You hear it?” said Annie.

  “No,” said Jack.

  “Listen carefully.”

  He closed his eyes. He listened very carefully.

  He heard the wind. But this time he heard another sound, too.

  Strange, haunting music.

  “Ahhh!” cried Annie.

  Jack opened his eyes.

  Staring down at them was a figure wearing reindeer antlers and an owl mask.

  “The sorcerer,” whispered Jack.

  Squeak.

  Peanut peered down at them, too!

  The sorcerer didn’t speak. He stared through the eyeholes of the owl mask.

  “Help us, please,” said Annie.

  The sorcerer threw a rope into the pit. Jack grabbed it.

  “He wants to pull us up,” said Annie.

  Jack looked up. The sorcerer was gone.

  “Where did he go?” Jack said.

  “Tug on the rope,” said Annie.

  Jack tugged. The rope tightened. It began rising.

  “I’ll go first!” said Annie cheerfully.

  “Annie, this isn’t a game,” warned Jack.

  “Don’t worry, I’ll be careful.”

  Jack gave her the rope. “Okay. But hold on tight,” he said.

  Annie held the rope with both hands. She pushed her feet against the side of the pit. She rose into the air with the rope.

  She kept pressing against the side of the pit—until she reached the top.

  Jack saw the sorcerer reappear and help Annie up. Then they moved out of sight.

  Jack was puzzled. The sorcerer had used both hands to help Annie. So who held the other end of the rope?

  “Wow!” came Annie’s voice.

  What’s going on? Jack wondered.

  The sorcerer came back and threw the rope down again.

  Jack grabbed it. And the rope started to rise.

  Jack held on tight. He started up. His hands burned. His arms felt as if they were being pulled out of their sockets.

  But he kept his hold on the rope and his feet against the side of the pit.

  At the top the sorcerer pulled Jack onto the snowy ground.

  “Thanks,” said Jack, standing.

  The sorcerer was tall. He wore a long fur robe. Jack could see only his eyes through the owl mask.

  “Hey!” Annie called.

  Jack turned.

  Annie was sitting on a woolly mammoth.

  Squeak. Peanut was sitting on the mammoth’s head.

  The mammoth looked like a giant elephant with shaggy reddish hair and long, curved tusks.

  The other end of the rope was around the mammoth’s huge neck.

  “Lulu pulled us up,” said Annie.

  “Lulu?” said Jack.

  “Don’t you think she looks like a Lulu?” said Annie.

  “Oh brother,” said Jack. He walked up to the mammoth.

  “Hey, mammoth starts with M,” said Annie. “Maybe Lulu’s the special thing!”

  “I don’t think so,” said Jack.

  The great creature knelt down, just like a circus elephant.

  “Whoa!” said Annie. She clutched the mammoth’s ears to keep from falling off.

  The sorcerer helped Jack climb onto the mammoth.

  “Thanks,” said Jack.

  Then the sorcerer reached into a pouch. He pulled out a smooth white bone and handed it to Jack.

  The bone was hollow. It had four holes along one side. And two on the other.

  “Oh man, I think it’s his flute,” said Jack. “The book said they make flutes from mammoth bones.”

  Jack tried to give the flute back to the sorcerer.

  “Nice,” he said politely.

  But the sorcerer held up his hand.

  “He wants you to keep the mammoth bone,” said Annie.

  “Mammoth bone,” whispered Jack. ‘‘Hey, maybe this is the third thing.”

  Jack looked at the sorcerer. “Do you know Morgan?” he asked.

  The sorcerer did not answer. But his eyes sparkled with kindness.

  He turned away from Jack and untied the mammoth’s rope. Then he whispered in the ear of the giant woolly creature.

  When the mammoth stood up, Jack gripped Annie’s coat to keep from falling off. He felt miles above the ground.

  He nestled behind Annie, in the dip between the mammoth’s head and huge curved back.

  The mammoth took slow, plodding steps across the snow, then picked up speed.

  “Where are we going?” said Jack as they bumped up and down.

  “To the tree house!” said Annie.

  “How does he know where it is?” said Jack.

  “She just knows,” said Annie.

  Jack looked back.

  The sorcerer was standing in the snow, watching them.

  But at that moment the clouds parted, and the sun came out.

  Jack was blinded by sunlight on the snow.

  He squinted to see—but the sorcerer had vanished.

  The huge mammoth walked across the open plain.

  “Look!” said Annie. She pointed to a herd of elk in the distance. They had great, wide antlers.

  “There!” said Jack as a herd of reindeer came into view. They pranced gracefully across the snow.

  Then a woolly rhino joined them on the open plain. Then a bison!

  The elk, reindeer, rhino, and bison moved along with them, at a distance.

  They seemed to be escorting Jack and Annie back to the tree house.

  The snow sparkled with sunlight.

  This is a great parade, Jack thought. Fantastic.

  They were getting closer and closer to the grove of tall trees.

  “I told you,” said Annie. “Lulu’s taking us home.”

  But just then the mammoth let out a cry. All the other animals bounded off.

  Peanut started to squeak.

  Jack looked around.

  Behind them the sabertooth was slinking across the sunlit snow!

  The woolly mammoth roared and plunged forward.

  Jack and Annie nearly fell off.

  Jack clutched Annie. She and Peanut clutched the mammoth’s shaggy hair.

  The mammoth thundered wildly over the ground.

  “Ahhh!” Jack and Annie yelled.

  The mammoth charged to the grove of trees.

  But the tiger had circled around the trees. He stood between the tallest tree and the mammoth.

  They were trapped.

  The sabertooth began moving slowly toward the mammoth.

  The woolly mammoth roared fiercely.

  But Jack knew a sabertooth could kill any creature, including a mammoth.

  The huge tiger’s head was down. His burning eyes were fixed on the mammoth. His long white fangs glinted in the sunlight.

  The sabertooth crept forward.

  Jack stared in horror.

  “Play the flute,” whispered Annie.

  Is she nuts? Jack thought.

  “Try!” said Annie.

  Jack held the mammoth-bone flute to his lips. He blew.

  The flute made a strange sound.

  The tiger froze. He glared at Jack.

  Jack’s hands shook.

  The tiger growled. He took another step.

  The mammoth roared and stomped the ground.

  “Play it!” said Annie. “Keep playing!”

  Jack blew again.

  The sabertooth froze again.

  Jack kept blowing until he ran out of breath.

  The tiger snarled.

  “He’s still here,” whispered Annie. “Keep it up.”

  Jack closed his eyes. He took a deep breath. Then he blew as hard and as long as he could. He covered and uncovered the holes on the bone.

  The mu
sic sounded strange—as if it were coming from another world.

  “He’s leaving!” Annie whispered.

  Jack raised his eyes. The sabertooth was slinking off toward the cliffs.

  “We did it!” said Annie.

  Jack lowered the flute. He felt very tired.

  The mammoth waved her trunk happily.

  “To the tree house, Lulu,” said Annie.

  The woolly mammoth snorted. Then she lumbered over to the tallest tree.

  From the back of the mammoth, Jack grabbed the rope ladder. He held it for Annie.

  She stroked the mammoth’s giant ear. “Bye, Lulu. Thank you,” she said.

  Annie grabbed the rope ladder. Then she started up. Peanut climbed up, too.

  After they disappeared into the tree house, Jack climbed onto the ladder.

  He looked back at the woolly mammoth. “Bye, girl,” he said. “Go home now. And watch out for the sabertooth.”

  The mammoth walked away into the sunset.

  When Jack couldn’t see her anymore, he started up the lope ladder. He pulled himself into the tree house.

  “Ta-da!” said Annie. She handed the Pennsylvania book to Jack.

  Jack smiled. Now he was positive they had found the third M thing. Their mission was complete.

  “Before we leave, we have to give our coats back,” said Annie.

  “Oh right,” said Jack.

  They took off their reindeer-skin coats and dropped them to the ground.

  “Brrr!” said Annie. “I hope the Cro-Magnon people find them.”

  Jack stared out the window. He wanted to take one last look at the prehistoric world.

  The sun was setting behind the hills. Four people were crossing the snowy plain. It was the Cro-Magnon family.

  “Hey!” shouted Annie.

  “Shhh!” said Jack.

  The Cro-Magnons stopped and peered in Annie and Jack’s direction.

  “We left your reindeer skins! Down there!” Annie pointed to the ground.

  The tallest person stepped forward and raised a spear.

  “Time to go,” said Jack.

  He grabbed the Pennsylvania book. He found the picture of Frog Creek and pointed at it. “I wish we could go home,” he said.

  “Good-bye! Good luck!” Annie called, waving out the window.

  The wind started to blow. And the tree house started to spin.

  It spun faster and faster.