Later, Kal was to find out that the little grazers froze when threatened, and the ‘eater’ just walked among the paralysed bodies, picking out the plumpest until it had had its fill.
He thought it was about time to eat, as nothing new was happening, and having taken his fill in the dark, lay back in his little stone house with its booby trapped entrance and fell asleep. The stars circled around above his head, the grazers went back to where ever grazers go during the day and the dawn broke to show a tranquil and undisturbed scene.
Having eaten, and armed himself well, Kal set out to find any trace of last night’s carnage. Not a sign of it remained. There were no tracks or marks where the grazers had been, no faeces from the ‘Pad Pad’, no holes in the ground to show where the subterranean consumers of grazes were hidden.
In fact, nothing to show of any activity, except that the gross was only a little shorter than the night before, despite all the commotion in the dark hours.
Kal was not going to be put off that easily, and began prodding the ground with his pointed stick. He had covered quite a large area before he got a result, and didn’t much like it when he did. The stick dropped about half a metre into the ground and he nearly fell over.
This was accompanied by a slight heave in the surrounding surface, and a jerk on his stick as something recoiled in pain.
He pulled it out, and found it covered in a noxious liquid that smelt as though it had come straight from hell, and had taken no corners on the way. The end of the stick had been attacked by the fluid, and had lost its sharp point.
Kal had no compunctions about giving the underground ‘thing’ a good poking just to see what size it was, and wished he hadn’t.
The pole was slowly getting shorter, but he managed to determine the size and approximate shape of the creature.
It was pear shaped, with the narrow end just below the surface of the ground, and the body a good metre in diameter.
The top of the neck sported a sphincter on which it had persuaded the gross to grow, so the camouflage was complete, and that was why he had never noticed it before.
Kal supposed that it was dormant during the day and that was why it hadn’t tried to take his foot off, as he must have trodden on several during his travels.
As there was little more to do here, Kal noted where the sun was and set the course for this day’s journey of exploration.
The night before had given him plenty to think about as he wended his way between the trees and out onto the clearer ground ahead.
Kal only walked on the gross, or a stony track, as anything else may well have hidden dangers.
A couple of hours into the morning’s walk, and the ground began to rise a little. There were definite signs of water runoff here, and he was glad of that as it meant he would not be so dependent on the water sticks, which he still carried.
Ahead he could see a cliff-like formation with clumps of rocks breaking up the otherwise smooth landscape. The rocks looked a little different somehow and he went over to one formation to see why.
They rose about thirty metres above him, and the only way to see anything other than the outer ring of rocks was to climb up, which he did.
He was surprised to see a large pool of crystal clear water, and he could see right down to the very bottom of it. The water was a lot deeper than he first thought, and he wondered what dangers it might contain.
This much water and nothing using it as bait? Hard to believe. Very cautiously he reached down and scooped up a cupped handful of water. A drop on the lip, and he knew it was good. Kal drank his fill and wondered about having a swim to clean up and refresh himself a little.
That might be a little too risky, as he didn’t know what might be concealed and looking like a rock. He was getting cannier as time went by, or was it just good old plain suspicion?
Kal climbed a little higher to check out the view, and thought that the ridge of cliffs, which he could now see more clearly, might be worth a visit later on.
It was very pleasant up here on the rocks, and he lay down in the warming sun for a while, and dozed off. Kal awakened to the sound of a stone rattling down the rock face below, and he froze. Movement gives most things away; it was quite surprising what would miss you, if you kept still.
Very carefully he rolled himself towards the edge of the rock, and slowly moved forward to peer over the edge. He could not believe what he saw.
In a group at the pool there were six little people drinking the water, with two more armed with sticks looking back down the rock face, probably in the direction from which they had come.
The Tribe
It was difficult to judge height accurately from up here, but Kal estimated that they were only one third of his height at the most. They were naked as the day they were born, and covered with a deep honey coloured skin and a fine hair or down of the same hue.
High pitched squeaks and whistles drifted up to him, and he supposed they were conversing with each other.
Kal was tempted to make himself known to them, but for all he knew there might have been a hundred of them just around the corner, and they might have been hostile.
As discretion was always the better part of valour, he decided to follow the little people to see where they went, and find out just how many of them there were, before making any advances.
The drinking party had finished, and two of them took the sticks from the guards, and took up their position at the rocks edge, while the previous guards went to drink.
‘That proves a reasonable degree of intelligence’ Kal thought and felt a bit easier at once. The little troop climbed down from the rocks, one by one, and onto a rough path which Kal hadn’t noticed before, a guard leading and one following, each armed with a stick. They too, were taking no chances.
Kal followed at a discreet distance, not wishing to show himself until he had learned a little more about his new discoveries. They may well turn out to be friendly, and he would then possibly have a few companions, although they didn’t look very human to him. Perhaps less distance between them might prove otherwise.
Following the little troupe was made easier when they approached the cliff, as there were plenty of rocks about the place for Kal to hide behind, while he observed them.
As he got closer to the cliffs himself, he was in for another surprise. There were about one hundred and fifty of them. The water party was greeted with hoots and whistles and seemingly made very welcome.
Now that the cliffs were a bit closer, he could see that the little people had been busy constructing a wall of stones around a dark opening in the cliff face.
He assumed the opening was a cave, and this was their home. The wall was well put together, with an opening in it for the people to come and go.
They probably had some means of closing the entrance at night, to keep out unwanted guests. That would prove a higher degree of intelligence, hopefully.
He kept them under observation for the rest of the day, and retired to the big rock formation for the coming night.
Kal would still keep to his stone house with its alarm system of pole and stones until he was sure of the kind of reception he would get from his hoped for new companions.
He finished his meal, watched the sun go through its usual colourful ritual, and fell asleep. That night he dreamt peacefully for the first time, although he couldn’t remember what it was about next morning.
The little people were up and about just as early as he was, and although his camp was high up in the rocks, he tidied away any sign of his being there except for his stone house. Let them make of that what they will, if they found it.
Shortly after sunrise a large troupe of them came to the watering place. Several guards with sticks went before the main group and some brought up the rear, in all it must have amounted to at least half the tribe.
Kal watched as they all had a drink and walked around the area of the pool, but none of them bathed. Perhaps they didn’t wash, or didn’t want to pollu
te their drinking water.
Later, when the troupe had returned to their cliff-side site, the others made their way to the pool. They seemed very orderly, with no rushing about as one would expect with animals, no playing or fighting.
Maybe they were somewhere between animal and humanoid. There was something about them that did not seem quite right.
When the little people had all returned to their site, Kal moved in closer to observe them. The rocks gave good cover, and he was able to get quite close to the stone wall they had built. They did not seem to have any tools or utensils of any kind, not even a drinking cup like his.
They just sat around in little groups, or walked about talking in their squeaks and whistles, the groups breaking up sometimes and reforming with different members.
Kal didn’t want them to see him until he was good and ready, with a strategy of safe contact worked out. Although they were so much smaller than he, and didn’t look aggressive or even very strong, enough of them armed with sticks could do him some serious damage, and that was chance he could not take.
This of course, limited the risks he could take in getting close to them. A small party of them suddenly appeared out of nowhere and entered the enclosure. They had been out gathering food by the look of it, as they were in twos, one on each end of a long bamboo pole from which hung clumps of fruit of a kind he had not seen before.
The usual guards with sticks accompanied the little group, and they were greeted with a chorus of squeaks and whistles as they entered the hole in their protective wall.
Kal thought a gift for the little people might be a good idea. They would then know that there was someone else out there, who didn’t mean them any harm.
Later that day he left the pool rocks and made his way down to the area where he had seen several bamboo clumps.
The dead poles still had a growing point on them and after snapping several of them off, it did not take much effort to work up a good sharp point using a rough textured stone.
He then made his way back to his side of the rock formation, and climbed up to his stone house which was well out of sight of his neighbours.
Waiting for darkness to fall took forever, but he used the time well by working out a safe route from his position to their wall entrance.
Not only must he not be detected, but neither must he provide a meal for anything on the way. Kal prepared his evening meal in his cup, to which he had added two more cups that afternoon.
Things were getting a bit more civilized. At long last the sun dipped below the horizon with its customary scintillating display, the stars began their dance across the heavens, and Kal set out on his gift bearing journey.
Reaching the wall was no problem, but a guard had been posted near the hole in the compound wall. Kal wanted to place the bamboo poles at the entrance to make the point that he could get there undetected, and was pleased to leave a gift at the same time.
He took a chance, and picking up a small stone, took careful aim and sent it on its way to a point further along the wall. It had the right effect. The guard made a couple of low whistles to summon up help, and went to investigate the place where the stone had landed.
Quickly Kal slipped up to the entrance, placed his bundle of poles across it, and retired into the darkness.
He didn’t think his gifts would be discovered until daylight so he retired for the rest of night, and he was right. Kal was up early next morning, ready and waiting.
The water party had just made it to the entrance when the poles were seen by the leading guard. They stopped, and a chorus of squeaks pierced the morning air. They approached the bundle cautiously, and there was much squeaking and waving of arms.
The fear they had shown was soon replaced by wonderment as they realized what had been done, and a few of them climbed up onto the wall to look around in all directions to see if the gift bearer was still in the vicinity.
The bundle of poles was distributed among the larger members of the group, and they ran around jabbing at imaginary foes, much to the delight of the others.
They caught on quickly Kal was pleased to see, and he thought a gift of cups may go down well. If they could figure out how to use them, then he would know that they really did have a level of intelligence that could be contacted.
He wondered why they had not armed themselves with the bamboo poles before, and then realized that they were probably not heavy or strong enough to break even the dead bamboos out of the clump.
Later that day, while he was hiding behind a rock observing the compound, he had a chance to see some of the little people at close hand.
A party of four were engaged on clearing stones from the path that led from the compound to the pool rocks, and a guard armed with one of the new bamboo poles was standing on the highest point of the wall overlooking the area.
One had a stick with which it prised up the stones that were making the path uneven, while another scraped the surrounding ground for loose sand and gravel to fill the hole left by the stone, and trampled it flat.
The third was placing the stones neatly alongside the edge of the path, so making the path more distinct. The fourth member of the party was keeping a general lookout for anything untoward that might appear. All in all, well organized, Kal thought.
As the little group worked their way nearer to Kal’s hiding place, he was able to get a much closer look at them. They were definitely humanoid in having a head, two arms, hands with three fingers and an opposing thumb, a trunk and two legs complete with feet.
There was little or no head hair as he had, but the whole of their bodies were covered in a short dark honey coloured fine hair the same colour as their skin.
Facial features were a little strange, but they did have two eyes, a stumpy nose, a mouth slit as opposed to a full set of lips, ears that were more like holes with a fringe of skin around them, and a neck that was only just discernible where the head joined the main body.
They were not ugly or pretty, just different, and he was getting used to the idea of them as fellow beings. They were the only beings around, so he had little choice really.
Their bodies were well proportioned, and moved with ease. There were no signs of genitals or mammary glands, so determining their sex was not possible, at least not yet.
If the sexes were mixed, there was no clue as to which was which. Their speech was at such a high frequency that Kal could only hear it as the squeaks and whistles that had been going on ever since he had first seen them, so conversation between them was going to be a bit of a problem.
The little work party had now moved past Kal’s vantage point, and he carefully retreated to the pool rocks.
The afternoon was spent in making some more cups, and at the same time using the ‘glue’ from the base of the pod stem to glue a few ‘blade teeth’ he had found into short pieces of bamboo, making a kind of knife.
He hoped they would figure out how to use a blade before they amputated their fingers, especially as they had one less on each hand than he did.
A few bamboo spears were added to the collection, and he was ready for another visit to the compound that night to deliver his gifts, and after that, perhaps he could take a chance, and make contact.
Early that night it rained for the first time and Kal quickly took off his clothes and tucked them under a ledge so that they would remain dry as he got wet.
The rain was warm and he felt refreshed afterwards, as this was his first all over wash since arriving, and he needed it. Just before dawn he crept down to the compound, and left his gifts outside the entrance.
Kal had his breakfast just as the sun began to light up the clouds on the horizon, and then made his way over to the view point to see what would happen when his neighbours discovered what he had left for them.
He didn’t have long to wait. It was almost as if they had anticipated the gifts, for they came running over to the opening in the wall and gathered around the collection, showing no fear at all.
&nbs
p; The gifts were passed around for all to see and touch and he thought that just about the whole tribe had gathered by the time the excitement had died down.
Shortly afterwards a small party of the little people left the compound, and began searching the immediate area, possibly looking for clues as to their benefactors whereabouts.
Kal felt pleased that a form of contact had been successfully made, and that the little people now knew that there was someone else around who posed no threat to them.
Feeling drawn to the next best thing to human company that this planet had to offer was a strong reason for not continuing his exploration, but he knew that he needed all the information he could get in order to increase his survival potential.
Who knows what lay just around the corner, so to speak. There may be other tribes, more advanced, maybe a whole civilization complete with space travel.
Somehow he didn’t think so, it didn’t feel as though there was anything more advanced than the little people, it was just a hunch, but his hunches were usually right.
Kal decided to press on a little further in the same direction as he had been going, and if nothing of value was found, then he could always return, and establish contact.
Collecting up his armoury and provisions, he set out early next morning, before the others were up and about. By midday he had left behind the pleasant rolling plains of gross, dotted about with their various trees and bushes, and arrived at an area of desert.
It was a clean cut break from one kind of country to another, with no gradation in between. Rolling sand dunes swept out to the horizon in all directions, and just to make sure there was nothing out there for him to visit, he returned to the nearest rock formation to gain a better view.
By the time Kal had reached the top of the outcrop he was feeling very tired. The climb had been a lot higher and harder than he had anticipated, but the view was worth it.
He was right about the desert, it was never ending as far as he was concerned, and he then remembered seeing huge areas of this world covered in sand when coming in to land.
The Inosculation Syndrome Page 6