R.E.solve (Rain Experience Book 2)

by Thomas W. Everson

  Something catches my eye about the spear. The poles are formed metal, wrapped with leather. The tip appears to be forged metal, rather than a hammered out stone. It’s out of place for their level of advancement and I’m confused by it.

  That’s not as crude as it should be. Where did they get it?

  The leader’s eyes shift to look behind me. Ami returns with the basket and holds it out to me. Taking it in hand, I see Ami has thrown an assortment of items in the basket, not necessarily stuff that fits with this primitive time. As I offer it to him, he looks down and sees what I have for him. I offer the handle while waiving my other hand for him to take it.

  With speed and precision, he snatches a small loaf of bread out of the basket and sniffs it. He tosses it over his shoulder and thrusts his spear menacingly at me. I hold a hand up in submission and grab another small loaf of bread from the basket. Putting it to my mouth I take a bite and chew vigorously.

  “Mmm!” I over-exaggerate my delight as I chew and swallow. I rub my belly in an attempt to indicate it is good to eat.

  I offer it up to him and he looks at me with caution and then grabs the bread from me. Sniffing it again, he turns to look behind him for a moment before returning his attention to me. Taking a slow bite, he chews it and barks out something else, though not directed at me. I see some women, dressed in a very little amount of animal skins pick up the other loaf and begin to tear it apart and eat it.

  Once more I offer the basket to him. This time he takes it and passes it behind him to a tribe member. His eyes never leave me though. Taking a less aggressive stance, he uses his spear to point instead. He speaks slower in his language and points behind me. I look and see all four of the women are standing at my back.

  When I turn to him, he barks out orders and his fellow tribesmen begin to move in on us. I fear he intends to take them. With their spears still being wielded against us, my choices to keep them safe dwindle. Surrounded now, the option of sending them back into the house is gone. Taking the only action which comes to mind as the one which will save us, I point my hand into the air and let out a small shockwave. The boom echoes across the land.

  They scatter, yelling as the shockwave dissipates above us. It has had the desired effect, instilling fear into them. They chatter amongst themselves beyond our border while the leader holds his arms out to protect his tribe. I drop my hands back into a peaceful position in another attempt to show I’m not going to harm them.

  My eyes meet his again and I break away to turn and point at the women. Facing him again, I pat my chest a few times quickly to indicate they are with me. He then shouts a few times and motions for some of his people to follow. A swath is cut in the crowd and they disappear into a larger tent. The tribal people back away.

  Turning to the women I command them in a low tone. “Inside.”

  We retreat inside and I lock the knob. Agatha closes the drapes on the window and my shoulders relax a bit.

  “They look primitive enough that we could probably just scare them more and they won’t bother us,” Eve suggests.

  “Maybe. But did you see their weapons? The metallurgy is similar to my time. And their language is far more complex than ours.” I reply. “They may appear primitive, but something’s not right here. Scaring might not be the right course of action.”

  “It certainly seems to be earlier on the timeline than we’ve ever seen before,” Ami makes an observation. “I’m not sure what kind of records exist about tribal people, but if there was ever a time our actions would have serious consequences, this would probably be it.”

  “I vote we allow the alpha male of our house use his powers to scare the alpha male of their tribe into leaving us alone.” Eve won’t budge on her idea. “What big change in time will happen if we just scare them?”

  “Wait. So if this is happening now, this has happened already and it can’t change the future?” Emma asks. “Or does this mean we could possibly be changing the future now just by being here?”

  “Without some recording of this time it’s difficult to tell,” Agatha tells her. “It’s possible to change things. Eventually we might make such a significant difference it shows up in a history book somewhere.”

  “We might want to start reading the books to correlate our interactions. I have this despair wrapped up inside me, and I’m trying to drive it from my body by changing things as needed to make things better for people.”

  “What if doing that stops us ever meeting?” Ami frowns.

  “I’m really not sure how I’d accomplish it, but I’ve come to the conclusion since I’m still here, and so are all of you, it’s probably not likely.” I try to sound confident, despite not knowing if it’s true.

  It becomes quiet and I hope they’ve accepted it as a valid response. Our attention is diverted to back outside when we hear several people shout and then one loud bark from their leader. The horse begins to neigh in distress and I peek out the window’s drapes to see it being hauled off into a sea of tribal people.

  “This is not good,” I state and pull back the curtains some so they can see as well. “So, what do we do?”

  “Get out there and exert your dominance!” Eve shoves me to the door. “Make me swoon at your power to command.”

  I look at the other women for confirmation. Emma’s eyes are wide, but she appears lost in all of this. Ami and Agatha nod reluctantly.

  “Should I use my sword or just shockwaves?”

  “Sword. Weapon for weapon, maybe he will see yours is superior and back down.” Eve becomes giddy.

  “I’m not so sure.” I shake my head. “But I will take it anyway.”

  Ami retrieves it for me. When she hands it to me I stall, fumbling with the belt and scabbard. Eve taps her foot impatiently.

  “Quit stalling!” Eve calls me on it, unlocks the door, and shoves me out.

  Walking forward a few steps I look back at the window and see all four of their faces pressed in it. At the edge where our grass and their settlement meets, the chief steps forward a few feet from his gathered tribe, spear still in his hand. Instead of pointing it at me, he points it up and raises it to the sky and shouts. In an effort to come to common ground, I draw my sword and copy him.

  The leader raises and lowers his spear several times and I continue to mimic him. His motions are still not hostile. After one last thrust into the air he shouts and everyone in the tribe drops to their knees. Their hands are outstretched in front of them and they chant. The chief is the last to do so but he sets his spear down in front of him in a neutral position and chants as well.

  Sheathing my sword, I glance over my shoulder and shrug. The chanting stops and when I look back, they’re kneeling but copying me by looking over their shoulders and shrugging. I’m confused as I’m now the one being copied. I watch and cross my arms, only to be copied again.

  I realize this is going to escalate quickly so I move over to the chief and wave my hands for him to stand. Instead of standing, they all make the same motion.

  “Up.” I tell him and they repeat me to the best of their ability.

  I shake my head and plant my hands firmly under his armpits in an attempt to pull him up. Understanding what I’m trying to do, he stands up and I repeat myself. “Up.”

  I have to wonder if it’s worth the effort to try and communicate through speech. And if I teach them words I might actually have an effect on their speech patterns. Who knows what it might cause.

  I motion with my hand to the rest of the tribe by placing two fingers on the palm of my hand like legs and show them I want them to stand. They look around, seeming puzzled, but they understand. Picking up the chief’s spear I hold it out for him to take. As he does I spin him around and raise his arm in a triumphant manner to show the tribal people their leader is still in charge. He hoots and the village cheers for him. While they are preoccupied, I go back to the house and head inside.

  “What are you doing?!” Eve asks with exaggerated frustration. “You
probably just empowered their leader over you, and over us!”

  “No, I don’t think so. I really think we are far back enough, if we do something drastic, we’re at a higher risk of changing the timeline. I don’t sense any despair here which would need intervention.”

  Agatha appears from upstairs with another of her musty tomes. She flips through pages quickly and when she finds what she is looking for she holds the book up for us to see. In it is a picture of a faded, crude drawing on the wall of a cave. Two lines straight up and down, connected by one straight one across the bottom and two more angled up to meet each other, all surrounded by an oval. Five stick figure people exist in the crude depiction of a house while a multitude of stick figures stand outside the oval. Snapping the book shut and putting it under her arm, she opens her mouth to speak.

  “That’s us isn’t it?” I ask, preempting her.

  “This part of our journey seems to be already written,” Evalyn’s voice comes out. “I just happened to recall this while history hunting. It’s definitely us. The only way to know if we’re changing something is if we look at the history before and after. This isn’t the only example I’ve come across recently. We are being noticed.”

  “Wait. I thought we weren’t doing that!” Ami protests.

  “Well, since Rain and I discussed finding out more about his past I figured the rules were off. We both took turns sneaking off.”

  “That’s where you were going?” Emma looks up at me with big eyes. “I could have helped you!”

  “It was something I needed to do on my own, and I didn’t find anything.” I turn my attention back to Evalyn. “So then what do we do?”

  “Do what you do best, Rain. Meddle in the affairs of time.” She laughs heartily. “Just make the best of the situation. Maybe we can convince them to move away from here.”

  “Perhaps,” I reply.

  Commotion from outside piques Ami’s interest and she returns to the window, then motions for us to come take a look. We all move to the window and an odd sight is seen. The tribal leader is calling forth several females in a wide range from amidst the closest of his tribe. Lining them up at the edge of the property he makes them kneel down and passes his spear over their heads while pacing back and forth.

  “This doesn’t look good,” I state.

  “Maybe he’s recognizes you as supreme and is going to sacrifice one of them,” Eve says in jest.

  My eyes become wide when I realize her joke is plausible. Before they can react I’ve ripped the door open and am running toward the chief. While I’m running, the women in front begin chanting with their hands out again and the chief raises his spear into the air. He too chants, but it is different than what they are saying. He speaks, they speak. He leads them in whatever it is they’re doing.

  When I reach him, he looks at me and smiles with perfect teeth. He questions me with his eyes as he moves to the front of the line and holds the spear over an older woman’s head. I shake my head and put my palms out in protest in hopes to tell him I don’t want him to do this. But he takes it to mean I don’t want that particular one and then moves to a child who is no more than six or seven and holds the spear over her head.

  I move to intercept him, my arms outstretched to take the spear from his hands but he sees my movement and points the spear at me. He barks an order I can’t understand.

  “Hey!” I yell. I am perplexed at what to do here. Shouting back and waving my arm in a sharp manner, I hope it conveys that I want him to just go back to his tribe.

  I motion for the girls and women to stand up as I had before to the whole tribe and they do as I request.

  “Go!” I point rapidly with both index fingers beyond where they all are. “Go!”

  The chief looks at me with bewilderment but they follow my command and return to the throng. Except for one. A young, dark-skinned girl, with straight black hair tied into two pigtails is left after the others have cleared. She is still kneeling, her palms out and eyes closed. I lower myself to her level and take her hands. She opens her eyes, staring at me with eyes nearly as dark as my own.

  I see in her an innocence I’ve never seen before. I hesitate, made unsure of myself, my violent nature to this point. Before I can stand her up and turn her away the chief is standing over us. He slams the end of his spear into the ground and lets out a great shout to the tribe. They respond with a synchronous cry back. He smiles and grabs my hand, then places it on the spear. With a swift move he stands me up and positions the spear to kill her.

  No. This is worse than I expected!

  I fight against him, pushing him away and throwing the spear to the side, but he angrily snatches it up and shoves it at me again.

  “What are you doing? Take it and use it on him!” Eve yells at me from afar but I can tell she’s closing fast.

  “Rain, don’t!” Ami barks at me from behind Eve.

  I point the tip of the spear at their leader and grimace. Shaking my head I try to tell him no, but he doesn’t back down. Instead he puts the tip of the spear right to his sternum and prepares for me to push it in.

  Seeing his willingness to sacrifice, either one of his own or himself, angers me. I thrust the tip of the spear into the ground at my feet; I make sure it’s embedded deep.

  The tribe is silent, but they move with swiftness. I’m surrounded. They grab me and I’m lifted up and carried away from the house. Eve and Ami yell at them and try to break through, but they’re not fast enough.

  With so many hands on me, I struggle to break free. They keep me moving until I can roll from them and drop to the ground. Hands grasp to stop me while I sprint in the direction I think the house is in. I’m hopelessly lost in a sea of bodies. With only one real way of escaping I jump up and roar like an animal. Raising my arms up, I let a shockwave loose.

  The boom causes them to back away in a circle. I can see the top of the house and hear the women calling me. I can’t believe how far they carried me in such a short amount of time. The house is a fair distance away. I rush to return to them but a wall of people pushes me back. They turn me around and send me back toward the middle of the ring.

  “Rain!” I hear Emma yell.

  “Stay there!” I shout back at Ami. “I’m heading to the house!”

  Surrounded in a small circle, I have only one way out. They try to close in again. Another shockwave breaks the air above and they widen the ring to give me room. They’ve given me enough space to boost my jump and not hurt them.

  At the far edge, I run at full speed toward the other wall of tribals, bend at the knees, and leap. With my palms pointed down I let a shockwave go and launch high into the air, bounding over the crowd. I see Ami and Eve’s wide eyes as I fly over their heads.

  My upward velocity peaks and I begin descending. Having not thought it through, I realize the impact at this angle is going to hurt when I impact. The ground comes up on me fast and instinctively I place my arms out. On contact, I swing them under and tuck myself into a somersault in the grass. I leave a skid mark behind but come to rest on my back unharmed. I look up and see the leader a few feet away. He yells in fright and the tribe scatters backward. Ami, Eve and Emma are with me momentarily and scoop me up, dragging me to the house.

  “Well, this is going worse than I expected, and we haven’t even been here an hour yet,” I joke, and am promptly smacked upside the head by Eve.

  “You should have killed him. Assumed the command of their tribe.”

  At the steps to the living room door they set me back on my feet, and Ami shoves me inside forcefully.

  “Am I bad luck?” I ask a question out loud which was more meant to be in my head than anything.

  “Well, we certainly didn’t have these kinds of problems before you showed up. Now look at us: three tag-a-longs in what used to be two people and a spirit.” Evalyn laughs and lets out a snort.

  “This isn’t funny,” Ami says. “They were pretty adamant about you taking her life, or his.”


  “If you don’t do anything, I’ll kill them if they try to take you away again.” Eve is serious.

  “At least they didn’t try to marry you to her. That could have been them hauling you away for a ceremony and consummation.” Evalyn is having more fun with our situation than I’d like.

  “Eww! That’s gross!” Emma covers her mouth. “That’d be like me and Rain!”

  Eve shoves Emma and points her finger at her. “Don’t even think about it.”

  “You’re sick!” Emma hits her in the stomach. “I bet you’d look at your own brother that way though, barbarian.”

  Eve nearly topples me to get to Emma. I chuckle, holding her back. Ami sighs and sits on the couch. When Eve calms, I join Ami. I sit on the end, thinking of leaving no room for Eve. She defies me and sits on the arm of the couch. Emma slumps down at the other end and Evalyn stands in front of the table, crossing her arms, still smiling.

  “Hopefully I’ve scared them enough with my power that they’ll just leave us alone. If only there was a way to just communicate with them.”

  “How did you come up with that?” Ami asks. “The jump, I mean.”

  “I just sort of made it up when I was trying to protect Emma before she was kidnapped.”

  “I’m telling you, just give me a few minutes out there and I’ll scare them all off.” Eve’s boldness and brash attitude knows no bounds. “I’ll make sure they’ll never bother us again.”

  “You know that isn’t…” Evalyn trails off. The luster is lost and she’s become pale. She’s exhausted. Her condition is concerning and I lean forward.

  “Are you all right?” I ask her.

  “Agatha will be fine.”

  “She doesn’t look like it,” I reply standing up to help.

  Evalyn looks at me angrily, and then her facial expression changes suddenly, indicating Agatha is in control now.

  She is looking worse for wear. The frequent possession by Evalyn is taking a heavy toll.