Substructure (Caveman Chronicles)

The Index -|-

Kpleeb squatted and stirred his worms, but they would not stay on the flat eating utensil that he had requested.

[How frustrating!]

He looked at the pile of worms and realized that before coming to this cave, he had never eaten worms or any food like this. The closest meal had been the thin, green roots of the reeds that grew in a slow-water bend of the canyon river. He had hated those, but his mam told him that they would give him health and had nagged him incessantly until he ate them.

He switched to eating with his fingers while he thought about the problem. Halfway through the meal he stopped chewing and mumbled, “Give me two rods, about half as thin as my finger and as long as two of my hands.” He pointed at the table and watched as they grew. When they were complete, he broke them off and held them – one in each hand – to pinch the worms. He was able to eat slowly.

[At least my hands are clean.] There were other ways to tackle the problem though. “Tomorrow, I want a piece of meat,” he said.

When he was done eating and washing, Kpleeb went to the small cave that he had created on the wall of the larger cave and looked inside. The hollow had expanded toward the larger cave wall just as he had asked. He climbed inside and looked closely. The space had enlarged by at least two of his hands. He knew that the sun would be greatly dimmed soon so he commanded the large hole to close. With just the light of the small hole, he placed his knuckle on the wall and floor.

“Close the small hole.” It closed and the light was shut out.

[I now have two walls between myself the and the gods… If that even matters.]

“Grow bigger here,” He whispered at the floor. “Bigger, as deep as my whole body.” He took his knuckle away from the wall and rolled over to sleep.

Kpleeb awoke with a jolt when his face hit the bottom of the hole that he had requested. He was head down against a hard and smooth surface, and his head was spinning from the impact. It took some effort and squirming to pull himself back up to where he had been sleeping. He felt the size and angle of the hole before he put his knuckle out and requested a peephole for light.

When the light appeared, he could see that blood dripped off of his chin and made spots on the floor.

The hole itself was larger than he had expected. It cut into the wall at a steep, downward angle and was dark at the bottom. He carefully let himself down into the hole and found that it came up to a little past his waist. When he knelt and touched the floor at the bottom it felt extremely smooth and slick like a stone that had spent all of its days under a rushing river.

[There is no way for me to see here unless I open a bigger hole above for the light. But… the gods will see. Is there no way to really hide here?] He thought about the problem for a minute and then quietly told the inner ceiling of his small cave to produce a shelf above the hole. When that was completed, he asked for a hole the size of his head above the shelf, and the light flooded in.

[I hope the gods are not small enough to come inside, but I suppose there is only so much I can do.]

He knelt again and put his hand flat against the floor. It was a pale color like the smooth bark of the trees from the distant mountains back home. It was also glossy and so smooth that he had never seen or felt anything with its texture. He touched the surface with his knuckle.

“Make a hole here.”

Nothing happened for many moments and soon Kpleeb climbed up and out of the smaller cave. The room looked the same except for his changes. More and more he had a gut feeling that a simple wall would not block the gods. [If they have bodies, then how can I hear their voices without seeing them? But- if they are spirits, how would a mere wall keep them out?]

Kpleeb got a drink and determined that his next step would be to test the boundaries of his prison cave. He requested a series of holes all around the cave. After remembering that each hole would grow only after the previous hole was finished, he told the wall to stop all of the changes and requested new holes only the diameter of his arm. Soon, the walls were riddled with holes at various elevations.

Every single hole he requested ended at the smooth, gray surface. He began to request holes in the floor and ceiling, but those ended the same way. There were many large gaps, and he realized those could be big enough to hide a door, so he requested more and more holes. Eventually, it became obvious that there was no cave door behind the stone.

“How can I be in a room of impenetrable stone? How did you get me in here?!” Kpleeb walked around the room yelling and then grabbed his sharp stick and jabbed at the smooth surface a few times. Eventually, the top of the stick broke off but there was no mark on the stone at all. He became more flustered and shouted at the walls, “I was not born in this cave!”

As soon as he heard the echo of his own voice, he realized that he had again lost his temper. [These gods have power that I do not understand, and they have their own goals. There is no point in being too angry at this time.] He calmed himself down, and took another drink. The sun was not yet dimming, but he was hungry.

He walked to the stone table and put his knuckle on the center. “Make a shallow hollow here.” The table complied.

“I want some meat, blacked with fire. Make it here.” He gestured at the table again with his knuckle and waited. He had never demanded food at a different time, but he thought it was a good time to see if it would happen. He requested an outcropping to sit on and watched the table. After a handful of moments, a squishy lump grew slowly upward from the spot he had indicated.

Kpleeb rose and examined the lump closely. He poked it with his finger, and it quivered for a moment until the motion dissipated. It was just barely tacky to his touch and did not resemble meat at all. He sniffed it, and it did smell faintly of blood and protein along with an astringent scent that was not at all appealing. He kept watching, and little by little the lump turned into a chunk of meat a little smaller than his fist.

He had to admit, the meat smelled amazing. When he picked it up it was hot to the touch, and rendered fat mixed with blood dripped and pooled on the table’s surface.

[Meat does not grow from stone…. but I will still eat it.]

He turned it over and bit into a crusted edge. It was delicious, and the blackened fat was smoky and juicy just like he wanted. Kpleeb waste no time wolfing down the rest. When he had licked his fingers, he prodded the hollow where the meat had appeared, and it was plain, hard stone just as he expected. [Just another piece of magic in a cave that is full of it.]

He spent the rest of the day poking at the gray stone and pondering the nature of this cave, but he could not think of any way to escape. Finally, with the sun dim and almost gone, he curled up near the food outcropping and went to sleep.

Later, long after Kpleeb’s breath became heavy with slumber, the gray, glossy stone on one wall shimmered slightly, and appeared to be transformed into liquid.

“The breadth of his experience must be augmented before we enact level three.”

The silvery voice was like a breeze that rustled through leaves on a quiet night, and Kpleeb did not wake.