Caveman Chronicles Index

Kpleeb stood hunched over the outcropping while he scooped a new pile of worms into his mouth. He savored the rich flavor and texture, but noticed that it was different this time, at least slightly. After a handful of moments, he straightened and cracked his back. He rocked his hairy shoulders back and forth for a moment while looking at the outcropping.

[The outcropping is so low.]

He had never noticed the height of the outcropping while eating the gray flub, probably because of his long-held tendency to hold and eat his food while squatting on the balls of his feet. When he had been a cave-child, the older ones would sometimes steal his food by distracting him, and he had learned to eat at all times with eyes upward and legs poised to run.

Kpleeb looked down at the hair on his chest and gingerly picked at the dried worm goo tangled there. During the last sun-cycles he had learned that these sticky worms were not at all well-suited to eating while walking. After eating he cupped water from the outcropping into his palms and wetted the hair on his chest in an effort to wash out the goo. He smeared in a circle and grimaced at the tangled hair basket that was created.

“Urgh!” he grunted. “This outcropping is low!” He began scooping water more quickly, and in a few moments, the front of his body was dripping with watery goo. The liquid on his feet was thin and milky. He kept scooping until the soggy mat on his chest was almost gone. Yet again there was a small puddle in the middle of the cave floor. Kpleeb glared at the puddle in frustration and went to use the defecation pit.

[Odd that there is no smell here,] he thought as he bent over the pit. He looked down, but the hole was dark. It was the only place other than where the sun lived that he could not examine. “I wish I could see down there,” he grunted to himself. He looked up at the sun and saw that it was dimming. Once he completed his defecation, he settled down for the night slumped against the food outcropping and fell asleep.

He awoke on his back in the center of the cave, and the back of his neck hurt.

His eyes opened and the dim, morning sun above him was terribly blurry. He shut his eyes again and rubbed with the heel of his palm before reopening them. He could see better, but there appeared to be some kind of substance stuck to his eyelashes. He prodded at his tear duct with his finger-tip and it came away damp and gooey. The tip of his finger was covered with it. He rubbed carefully at the ache on back of his neck, and thought that it was similar to the last time he had encountered the same wound in the same spot.

Kpleeb sat up and went to get water at the outcropping. He washed his face and noticed that the water pooled in the hollow contained small, yellowish floating pieces of goo.

“Similar to worm goo,” he muttered. He had washed all of the goo out of his chest hair and did not remember getting any on his face or eyes.

He turned and noticed that the puddle was once again gone from the middle of the cave where he had been sleeping, and that was when he realized that somehow, in the night he had gone from sleeping against the wall to sleeping the middle of the room on his back. After pausing to think about it for a few long moments, he was not sure if he simply forgot where he slept. Moving without remembering was certainly unlikely but not impossible.

His mam had told him that skir-walkers were cave-children that were possessed to wander at night. Some skir-walkers were lost, but they could be saved if their mam made them sleep under a covering that was weighted with rocks. Either way, Kpleeb had not been one of the skir-walkers, and had in fact participated in the group that jeered at the cave-children who were cursed in such a way.

He turned back to the outcropping to get a drink, but the hollow was still full of his face wash, floaters and all. Not appetizing. He remembered the hole that had formed at the bottom.

“Empty hollow,” he said. It was just a statement of whim really, and he did not believe it would happen. Nevertheless, in a moment a hole did form at the bottom of the hollow, and the water drained out. He put one hand on each side of the outcropping and bent to look closely at the hole but could not see the bottom. He bent further and looked at the underside of the outcropping and there was no hole and no water on the cave floor even though the outcropping was only as thick as two of his hands.

“Water,” he said as he straightened, and water began to flow from the edges of the hollow. The water appeared to come from the stone itself, and it covered all of the sides before it trickled into the hole that remained at the bottom.

“No hole.” The hole slowly disappeared and the water began to fill. When it reached about half of the hollow’s depth it stopped.

Kpleeb drank from his cupped hands while he pondered his new-found ability to command the outcropping. When he straightened he realized that the outcropping felt higher than it had been the previous sun-cycle. At least he thought it was. He bent again and turned his head to the sides. Holding that bent position was not difficult, but he could not be sure.

[I slept here,] he thought looking at the outcropping. It came to mind that he might be able to see the difference from the floor, so he sat next to it the way he had done before and turned his head to look at the outcropping next to him. [It is higher!]

He stood again, and paced from one side of the cave to the other. He did not understand how the outcropping could change. It looked the same in every way as it had before, just a little higher on the wall. He turned and walked toward the defecation pit, and the recurring curiosity came to his mind. [What is inside the pit?]

Kpleeb stopped and looked into the low pit. It was still dark. He did not want to reach his arm inside even though it did not smell. He paused and looked at the sun.

[What if…]

“Sun. Be here,” he said pointing with his knuckles at a spot in the ceiling above the pit. He waited and watched the pit and the sun alternately. There was no change. He waited longer, at least two handfuls of moments in his reckoning, and nothing happened. He became impatient and raised his voice while accentuating with his knuckle. “Sun, go HERE! Come here!”

It did no good.

“What is your name?” The strange voice spoke from the other side of the cave.

Kpleeb swiveled quickly and looked. There was no one there, just like before. He began to crouch, ready for a quick flight. He understood, but the voice was extremely odd. It sounded as if the person speaking had a mouth full of broken teeth and river water, and did not want either to escape. After a few moments of silent disappointment, he decided to answer.

“Kpleeb,” he said loudly, “of canyon river cave-tribe.” He paused and waited for an answer. Though patience was not Kpleeb’s virtue, he continued to wait and wait. After what seemed like many handfuls of moments, he spoke again in hopes of coaxing the voice to answer.

“What you want from me?” He waited some more while his eyes scoured the curved surfaces of the cave.

“Why you not answer me?” After a few more moments his patience evaporated like a noon-fog.

“You speak but no answer?” he yelled and waved his hairy hands. “What games you play, gods?! You speak, now answer!” Kpleeb stomped to the spot where he had heard the voice. “Come talk to me, you fear-badger!” He put his hands into the outcropping, filled them with water, and threw the water at the wall in disgust.

There was no response, but Kpleeb was now angry and began to scream indecipherably at the walls. He slammed his fists and feet on random spots on the cave floor and walls. He yelled into the pit, and jumped up and down in anger, but nothing changed. There was no response, the water flowed when he wanted it, the sun shone, and he was entirely stuck in the cave. His outrage boiled over for many moments until he finally gave up and raised his fist at the sun.

“I hate being the joke. I am not your toy!” It was a statement made as a confirmation for the fury that he felt inside. He felt powerful when he made this statement, and so he glared at the ceiling with upright fist for several moments before moving to sit watchfully by the middle-wall.

His blood cooled, and Kpleeb sat for much time. Many thoughts echoed around inside him that he had never thought before. He felt as if he could see the cave, and himself, in a new way.

[These gods, do they make the water flow? The hole opening and closing… what about the outcropping?] He had witnessed things in the past few sun-cycles that challenged everything he knew, and he now truly believed that the gods, at least these gods, were present. [These gods use me for sport like a cave-child plays with the captured lemmings.]

[I will not be so quick to answer, but I can learn.] He was determined. [I will learn.] He stood and walked to the defecation pit. “Cave wall, come here,” he said and placed his hand above the pit. “Be shiny, like water.” He stepped back and waited.

Nothing happened in Kpleeb’s cave for many, many moments, and eventually, he shrugged and went to get another drink.