Caveman Chronicles Index
It was dark when Kpleeb awoke, and he could not understand why he woke apart from his normal time. He raised his head, and looked around. The moon was barely visible in its most dim state on the ceiling above, but the sun had not yet begun to glow. He could sense no debilitating fear in the way he had sometimes when he woke as a cave-child. After a few moments he determined that there was nothing amiss. He put his head back down onto the meat of his bicep and prepared to sleep.
“One more gulicuiip will achieve level two,” said a silvery voice.
Kpleeb sat up and looked around him. He felt the hair on his neck standing. [Am I dreaming?] The voice had been quiet enough, but not very distant. He stood. The cave was dark, and he could not see the wall furthest away from him. He stretched out his hand and touched the wall to be certain that he was not dreaming. His fingers rubbed on the rough stone, and he could feel the variations in texture and grit that was characteristic of the stone. It certainly felt very real.
He began to walk slowly along the cave wall. [Just a quick circuit to take a look. I must have been dreaming just as I woke up.]
He had heard voices before, but this one was a little different, and for once, it did not appear to address him directly. Kpleeb did not know what to make of it. He stopped as he reached the defecation pit. The wall protrusion remained there, and the pit was dark without the sun’s light. He turned his head and could not see the food outcropping.
Suddenly he felt disgusted with himself for feeling the urge to check everything. [There is no point in walking the wall. There is nothing in this cave except me and these two outcroppings.] He turned and stalked back to the food outcropping for some water.
He had taken only three steps when he tripped and felt stinging pain on his right shin. He stumbled to the floor clutching his leg. It was dim, but he saw a shape there in front of him. He groaned loudly, and reached out his hand. The shape was a stone about the height of his knee.
“Urrgh, now you decide to appear,” he said under his breath. He patted the stone and got to his feet wish an exaggerated sigh. At least I know it is listening, he thought as he limped back to the food outcropping.
Kpleeb sat and thought about the voice. It had been different than the other. It had not spoken to him, and it had not spoken during the sun-time. [It had to be a dream.] There was no way that he could imagine it was anything but a dream so he went to sleep.
His morning rise was slower than usual, but after trying to sleep longer he eventually rolled over and looked at the increasingly strong rays from the sun.
[Urgh. Need to avoid moon-time walks.]
He sat up slowly. The stone he had requested was prominent in the center of the cave. Along its upper edge there was a blood stain that matched the scab on his shin. He stood and took some water before going to take a closer look. The stone was above his knee height, but below his loincloth band. It must have still been growing when he carelessly walked into it. He watched it as he walked in a circle.
It seemed to him that it was still growing. He sat on the stone and waited. In a moment or two he felt a slight lift as the stone grew again. Amazing!
“What do you wish for?”
Kpleeb stood quickly. It was the same odd voice that had spoken before, but not the breathy voice from his dream. His anger pulsed as he thought about the gods and their machinations… but he immediately remembered his fit of cave-child anger and paused to collect his thoughts before answering. [I must control myself around these gods and not give them the satisfaction of my frustration.]
He spoke moments later, when he was ready. “I want friend. Cave-friend,” he said simply and from his heart.
He was actually very lonely, though he tried not to dwell on it, but he also thought that two would be more likely to escape than one. He waited, though not impatiently this time. Kpleeb had already determined that the gods would not answer. They seemed to excel at requesting information but never delivering it.
He sat back down on the stone and felt it twitch under him. It was fascinating to him that he had requested this stone, and that it grew from the cave floor. It grew for him, and though he could not quite put his finger on how, he felt that this was his ticket to freedom… or at least a way to stick a hairy knuckle in the eye of these manipulative gods.
[I am alone. I have been alone since I came to this cave.] He looked at the wall. [Four plus four markings. Many days to be alone.] Memories of the caves and his friends and family filled his head. [Will I ever see them again? What do these gods want?] His thoughts circled like lazy crows above a caribou carcass on the tundra. [What if they mean to keep me here forever?]
After some time lost in thought, Kpleeb realized the stone has stopped growing. His feet dangled over the side and he could only touch the floor with his outstretched toes. He looked up and saw that the sun was still bright though it was certainly past the middle of the sun-cycle.
He pushed off the stone and walked to the outcropping. He drank a little and then looked back at the stone. [What better time than now?]
Kpleeb took three quick steps and hopped onto the stone. He landed with a knee and hairy foot firmly planted on the top surface. During the many sun-cycles that he had lived here he had searched the whole cave except for two places. Now that he had seen the inside of the defecation pit, the only place left was…
He stood smiling and held his left hand up to block the sunlight. He reached his right hand out touch the cave ceiling several arm’s length from the sun. The ceiling curved up in an arc toward the light, and his hand followed, slowly. He soon reached almost directly above him, but the ceiling kept going. There was a tingling in his fingers, and he felt that he was near to the final, unknown space in the cave. He stood on his tiptoes.
–ZAP! -A bolt of energy extended in an instant from the space above to strike his hand. The force of the shock threw Kpleeb’s body to the cave floor.
Where he lay unconscious.