In quiet reverence Kal walked the camp where his ancestors had used for generations of hunting. It was here that the whole story truly began. It was here that was the beginning of the change of direction for this whole world. Even though at the time that it had happened, no such thoughts were in any of their minds. The leader, K’jor, had been left with a puzzle, and it was one that he, for who knew why, needed to solve. Yes, this camp continued to be used long after K’jor was no more. Yet … yet it had been here that what they were as a people today could be traced back to this very location, this very spot of earth. While the finding of the clan home held importance, in his own mind it was this place, a camp that was used once a season that held a much greater importance, a greater value, to all of them. While it had been important to find the clan home, it had been necessary so that the rest of the story could be located and told.
Jura watched as he walked quietly around the site. She didn’t say anything, knowing or at least guessing what must be going through his mind. Now, with the writings that they had, they had been able to locate two places that had been placed in the myth status by the historians. Those writings that his family had held on generation after generation were finally bearing fruit, and slowly uncovering their true past. What was still ahead of them, what was still to be discovered? She really didn’t know, but the writings had been accurate, so all she could assume was that the rest of what was written there probably was accurate from their ancestors’ point of view. She looked and could see that they’d been here for a while and the suns were beginning to head towards the hills that were located in the desolation and quite visible from here. “Kal, we need to setup camp, and while we have water enough for now, we’ll have to find more.”
Kal barely heard her as his mind was drifting to images of what must have transpired here, cycles of the seasons after cycle of the seasons. He could almost see the ghosts of the warriors and the females who would prepare the skins and meat for the trip back. See them bring in the large herd beasts that required at least three warriors to bring down, and twice that many to bring the carcass back to camp to be efficiently processed and packed. It was like he was being allowed to look through the veils of time and see those ghosts going about their lives, unknown to them that one of their future ancestors was watching. He could see the almost smokeless fires, the numbers of warriors and females here. There must have been a least fifty warriors, with a minimum of ten females if not twice that number. It was like a small village with all the activity going on. Yet there was a quiet the defied the size of the group. They moved with a grace and seemed more to flow than walk. As if they were part of the land, part of the wild places. He knew that there was no way he could ever be that graceful, obtain that way of moving. It was completely unconscious on their part, and he knew if he tried that he would have to think about it all the time, taking away that awareness of the surrounding areas that also seemed to be a part of them.
They were never still, their eyes were forever moving, never staying on one point at any one time. Yet, when they did remain still it was as if they were the land, it was as if they became invisible, disappearing from sight only to reappear when they moved once again. In that movement, and those times of stillness nothing was wasted. It seemed that each move, each pause, had a purpose. In some ways he envied what he was seeing. Still, he realized because of their lifestyle, the continual fighting and hunting that this was a very necessary part of who they were. If they made a mistake or hadn’t learned their lessons well when they were children they wouldn’t be here now, but dead. As he remained on the edge of this ancient campsite he could also see the seriousness of what they were doing. The clan depended on them for their meat, and all the work that he was witnessing reflected that goal. He noticed that the portion of the camp where the females resided was the center where they were protected by the warriors who surrounded them. He became alarmed when one of them looked directly at him and he flinched, but then shook his head and smiled. There was no way that this warrior from the past could see him, or if he did, there was no way he could touch him, since the veils of time stood between the two. Then as it appeared the scene faded and he was alone with Jura and they were standing in this long abandoned camp of their ancestors. Quietly he said, “Yes, you’re right … we do need to set up our camp.” Yet, he continued to stare, trying to understand what he had been shown; but no answers came.
CHAPTER TWELVE
THE DESOLATION
“That was quite a vision you had a 9-day ago. I wonder what brought it on and why you were allowed to see the past that way?” They were standing on the edge of the desolation, knowing that shortly they would make their first foray into that inhospitable place. Jura looked carefully at what they were planning and since neither had ever been this close, they really didn’t know if their plans covered everything, nor did she like what she was seeing.
Kal shrugged and said, “I really don’t know if what I saw was real or not, or whether it was just my mind playing tricks on me. But there had to be something to it, because we found proof that the camp was laid out just about the way I saw it in that vision. Who really knows what exists in the natural world. Maybe there was a brief rift that allowed both the ones from the past and me to look across that veil, even for a moment and see, for them, that there would be a future, and for me, proof of our past and how they lived. I just don’t know. I do know that after the vision was over I began to doubt it. Still as we worked the site and we found evidence that it was as I saw, it left me more puzzled, and I guess if I admit it, still doubting, even though the proof was being uncovered each day.” He looked into the desolation and honestly didn’t want to set foot in there. It had a reputation and that reputation was very bad.
“Now that we are here it makes me wonder what was going on here. I mean from the writings it speaks of many smokes coming out of the desolation at the time there was renewed belief in the gods. You know when the rumbling began again in the Sacred Mountains. It wasn’t very long after that, that the smokes, up and down the length of the desolation, are recorded. But look, there just doesn’t appear to be anything that can burn here. It’s barren, there are no grasses, except here on the edge, and it’s still early in the day and I can already feel the heat building, reflecting off that bare land.” He stared into the desolation once more and could see that on the edges that the grasses attempted to invade but was largely unsuccessful.
“Look, if I remember right, those writings stated that the priests were brought out at a later time to get their take on what was found – you know right after they had destroyed the lair. Also from the descriptions made by the warriors, and by K’jor himself, it was almost impossible to find your way around in there. So my thoughts are this; they probably marked a trail into the area they wanted to go. So let’s hike the edge, and see if we can find some type of marker that would lead us in. Remember they were hunting when they trailed that wounded beast into the desolation. That means that they were not a very long way away from camp – far enough to hunt, but not so far as to make it difficult to bring in their kills. So, I’d guess no further than a half day out, and then, only if it required that distance. If you think about it, traveling a half day, taking down a few of the beasts and then having to haul them all the way back to camp would be a waste of time and effort considering the amount of meat they would need.”
“Makes sense to me, besides the longer we can remain on the edge, at least until we have a better idea about this place, the better I feel about it. And that idea about leaving a marked trail is probably true. I’m sure that for the first few times in they tracked. But looking at what we are seeing here, tracks wouldn’t last long. There’s already a dusty haze as the breeze is picking up. I think that tracks would be wiped out rather quick leaving no sign of one passing through. In fact, if I remember right, it said that in the writings.”
Taking a deep breath and shaking her head Jura continued saying, “I guess we’re just stalling a little h
ere. So let’s work the edge.” They were just outside of the camp carrying enough supplies to last for a couple of days, if need be. But both of them suspected that where the ancestors had entered the desolation chasing that wounded beast couldn’t be very far away. Still what they considered not far away and what their ancestors would have, had proved to be vastly different.
It was pushing the zenith when they came upon a rock cairn. And until they found it there had been no sign of any entering, leaving, or the placing of markers of any kind. Looking further to the south, still on the edge of the desolation, they could see nothing else that resembled this. So using this point they stopped and had their travel rations. They had brought their pack beast with them, not wanting to leave it alone. Also the beast was now carrying all their water and knowing what had been told about the desolation, they knew that there would be no water. It had been another reason for the belief that the priests and servants to the gods couldn’t have lived here, and as such was just a part of the larger myth surrounding this time in their history.
As they sat there staring into that foreboding place Jura asked, “What do you want to do? How do you want to tackle this? I can’t see anything, at least from here that shows us any other markers. Yet, there has to be, especially if this is the right place. Distance was a little further than I thought it should be, be that’s me not them. We already know that they could travel over greater distances in a day than we do, heck almost twice the distance. So it could be the same about their hunting range.”
“I think what we should do is just work inside this area to see if we can find any other rock markers or cairns. Half this day is already gone, and I’m not of the mind to be inside the desolation in the dark. Again from those writings, wherever it is that we need to go is probably at least a half day inside. So let’s just do a cursory look, and then move our camp. There’s a stream close by so we won’t have to keep going out like we are at our present camp to get our water skins refilled.”
“Okay, it works for me. I have to admit that the idea of getting stuck in there in the dark isn’t something I want to do either.”
The next morning as the suns touched the horizon they were ready to make their first trip into the desolation. The plan was simple really, just work in far enough to be able to see their camp and to see if this cairn that was positioned on the edge of the desolation, was the starting point they were looking for, or that it was just another dead end, left by a later or earlier group representing something long forgotten. Yet there was also a worry about those mud hills, well they weren’t mud now, but there was nothing on them but the exposed earth flashing back colors of red and yellow, with large boulders exposed half buried in those hills and they appeared to be close to the edge. Meaning that it would be easy to lose one’s way almost immediately. And if the writings said anything at all, it was a warning that even for an experienced warrior these lands looked the same no matter where one was, and tracks disappeared almost as soon as one made them, leaving only the suns as a marker as to the direction one traveled. It definitely was a land for the spirits, not the living.
And as the cycle of the seasons had passed with hundreds passing, the feeling hadn’t changed. Many had tried to search the desolation, and many never returned. The ones that had sworn that they would never go back to that place, as it was only a place of confusion, dust, and heat. Cooking one’s body and mind, confusing even the most experienced – yet it was here where K’jor and the clan had gone, discovering the servants of the gods, those mythological gods that they now knew never existed. So what was it that they had found, and what had caused all that smoke when it was quite obvious there was nothing here to burn? So with this knowledge and with some trepidation they began their journey into the unknown. Looking into the desolation they could see that there was already a haze as the morning breezes began to pick up, causing the light powdery soils to begin their daily ride in the currents, and to once again settle at night when it calmed, leaving the ground without a mark, without a track, leaving no trace that any had passed here.
Had anybody been standing there as they made this first exploration, it would have appeared that they were slowly turning transparent as the dusts swallowed them, making them disappear from sight as if they were no more. Kal coughed and sneezed before reaching into the pack he was carrying. Looking over at Jura he could see that she was doing the same thing. They stopped as they dug in their packs for something to cover their faces so that it would be easier to breath. The fine particles of dust were too easy to breathe in. Even though they had seen the dust clouds forming, they hadn’t considered the consequences. At least the herd beasts had a natural defense against this, and wouldn’t be having the issues they were. Both turned and looked back to where they had entered and found that it was already obscured to the point that they couldn’t be sure of its location. “How’d they do it?” Kal asked, “I mean they supposedly followed a wounded beast in here to finish it off, and then found that male and female here. They then returned to the camp with not only the slain beast, but the clothing of the two, and from the writings made it sound like it was no big deal.”
“Yeah, big difference between reading it and living it.” Jura looked back once again. “Look, I think we’re going to have to come up with a better method of doing this. We’re really not that far into this area and already we’ve come close to losing sight of where we need to return. And looking at this, this dust and such, how would the ones who entered mark a path? From what little I can see, and I really mean what little I can see, there are no paths, nothing that one can latch onto to know where you are or how you can backtrack. And if the winds really start blowing hard I have a feeling that it will be almost impossible to see anything at all. Yeah, this is making me respect our ancestors even more. Like you said, from their writings it was just another day.”
With an unspoken agreement they turned around and headed back to the cairn that they were using as a landmark. After reaching it they looked at each other and both of them were covered in a fine dust with the footwear full of silt, changing the color of their clothing to that of the desolation. “No wonder there’s never been any bodies recovered from here. We’ve only been in there a short time and look at us. If someone died in there it wouldn’t take long to bury the body or make it invisible just from this dirt. Besides I don’t think many would have spent too long looking anyway. We’re already learning, personally, what the dangers of this place are.” Kal looked back over his shoulder into the desolation and could only shake his head.
Jura began to brush herself off raising clouds of dust as she did. “Well, one thing for sure, if there were people or clans that lived in there, they would be safe from anybody out here. And that’s a very big ’if’. If it hadn’t been for that accident they would not have been discovered and our history would probably be very different. You know it’s kind of funny how just one small incident like this ended up bringing major change to us. Makes one wonder, what other inconsequential incident that happened in our past may have led to some other major change for us, and this world. I guess we’ll really never know, since such things aren’t considered important at the time, and it’s only after much time has passed and one can look back to that point in time that it becomes apparent.”
They hiked up and down the edge of the desolation to see if there might be an area where the powdery dust wasn’t being stirred by the winds producing that haze that obscured everything. “We’re going to have to rethink this. I felt that we could just hike in there keeping that cairn in sight and mark something so we’d have a direction to both go into that place and find our way back out. I really didn’t think that the dust would be that big of deal. Boy was I wrong. How’d our ancestors do this anyway?” Kal stopped and stared knowing that while the desolation was so close, it was still beyond them at this moment.
“Yeah, I just figured it would be easy too, at least take a small excursion into the area – kind of learn a little about it and
then come back out. We spent less than the morning time in there and learned nothing – exasperating to say the least.” Jura stood there next to him with her hands on her hips coming up with no solutions. Both hiked back to the cairn and began searching around it to see if there was something that identified why it had been built here, but after a long period of time had passed and they came away with nothing, it just added to a very frustrating day. “There’s got to be a time when that dust isn’t so bad, and maybe back when our ancestors entered here it wasn’t this bad. Things change and I’m sure it’s the same for the desolation.” With nothing found and no solutions, they returned to their camp somewhat depressed.
Once they arrived back at camp they unpacked the pack beast and staked him out on some of the grasses where it began eating, unconcerned about what its owners were thinking about. As long as he had food and water and was treated well he could care less. “Well, this has been a successful day.” Kal said sarcastically. “I surely have a puzzle to solve, and speaking of puzzles didn’t our friend say that he had been in the desolation?”
“Yeah, I think he did, but he didn’t say how far or whether it was just along the edge like we ended up doing today. That’s a very dangerous place, and a tough one to crack. No wonder people get lost and die in there. And I didn’t see many rocks and such when we went in there either. That’s not to say that there isn’t any, but that means if we are to mark a trail by using stones then we’ll need to bring our own, and from those clouds of dust today we’d have to plan on marking our trail at least twice as often as we would normally. That’s a lot of stones.”
A Taste of History Past Page 27