Plans (Caveman Chronicles)

The Index -|-

Thoka huffed quietly to herself and put her viewing rod aside. The magnified view that she had experienced disappeared as the rod was removed from her line of sight. She had not enjoyed seeing Kpleeb with the girl in the village. As far as Thoka could see, he had not touched the girl, but he was standing there unclothed in the river while she spoke to him.

He had been tied to a pole in the village for most of the days and nights since his capture. She had seen the big caveman beat Kpleeb and mock him. She could not hear the words spoken, but understood much of the body language. The dark-haired girl was the only one who had fed Kpleeb and spoken to him.

She gritted her teeth in frustration.

[Two days and the hussy is throwing herself at him already. And the bathing! What kind of woman bathes in front of a strange man! I need to hear what they are saying. Without the words, I cannot know what I need to do.]

Thoka’s face flushed in anger. The image of the girl and Kpleeb dripping with water filled her mind. Her rage increased exponentially. Her imagination was fueled by hormones and a lack of sleep. It ran away from her quickly and her thoughts spiraled out of control.

[She is thin… look at me. Ugh.] She looked down at her pregnant torso and grimaced. She was not tremendously large, not yet anyway, but she had lost the toned and shapely figure she had once been so proud of and had gained an unsightly bulge on her abdomen. [He cannot help but be attracted to her- to anyone else- really. How can I blame him?]

The baby kicked and Thoka was brought back to the present. She smelled a faint savory scent, and looked about her. There was forest in all directions. In front of her the river trailed from left to right. It was mostly hidden by the trees, but the silver sheen of sunlight on water broke through the trees in spots. To her right, the village rested on the river at a medium to far distance. There was no sign of a fire or anyone cooking anywhere closer than the village.

Maybe the scent drifted on the wind from the village. It seemed unlikely, but she knew that air currents flowed in ways and patterns that she could not discern. She sighed. [There is no point in being so angry at him. Maybe the baby is affecting my temper. but the girl will pay… maybe Kpleeb too, but for now I must save him.]

Kpleeb was the only smart caveman on the planet as far as Thoka knew, and she had become quite fond of him during their time together. He might be hairy and not particularly strong, but he was a caring caveman. To be specific, he cared for her and had demonstrated it on a regular basis. Thoka had lived long enough to know that this was not normal for many cavemen.

[Does he really care for me?]

Three days ago, she would have stated with certainty that he cared. Now… she doubted his feelings. To be fair, she  also doubted her own judgement and seethed at the apparent insecurity that lifted its flaming head. Thoka shook her head and picked up her sight rod again. Holding it in her right hand she directed it toward the village and slowly changed the angle and rotation of her hand until the view improved.

She was still discovering the its methods of use, but with the rod focused on the village she could see a reasonably close-up view. The air around the edges was cloudy and streaked, but it was clear in the center. There in the village, the pole now stood alone and bare. It was surrounded by crude huts made of reed and mud. Children the size of her thumbs played in clumps. There was no sign of Kpleeb or the girl.

[Did she steal him away?]

Thoka bit her lip and suppressed the annoyance that tried to interrupt her newly reclaimed peace. She then carefully, rescanned the rest of the village and found nothing to alleviate her concern. Wherever Kpleeb was, she could not see him. The village was relatively close to the river. A trail ran along the river bank from the canyon and past the village. The trail only disappeared when nearby foliage obscured it from view. In the far distance she could see a great, flat space, but it appeared to be many days travel from the village.

On the opposite side of the village, the jungle grew thickly and greenly. Several large, rocky crags were visible at a short distance. They were overgrown with climbing green plants and deep shadows. Thoka had never seen anything like it, and Kpleeb had never described anything similar during their long talks in the prison caves. His homeland was dry tundra with only distant mountains visible. She had considered that those mountains might just have been the wet mountains where she had grown up.

The wet mountains were tall, chilly, and its cliffs were loaded with mountain goats. Though the summers were mild, the winters there had always been brutally frigid. Thoka had traveled to the land at the base of the mountain when she had been granted her cavewoman-hood ritual. It had been a tremendous hike, seven days to reach the foothills below. She remembered how strange it felt. The jagged evergreen trees that she was used to were gradually replaced with budding trees with huge leaves. Enormous boulders the size of huts were strewn everywhere, and the land was mostly rutted and rocky. She remembered that it felt like a wasteland. It took ten days to ascend the mountain again.

[It could be that it was Kpleeb’s tundra. Or perhaps the beginnings of it.]

She scanned the village again, and finding that nothing had changed, she put down her viewing rod again. She was hungry, and she knew that warriors could be close by. She had heard them earlier in the day as they passed on the trail below on their way upstream. Looking up at the sun, Thoka could tell that it was just about mid-day. It would be some time before they walked the trail again. There was no better time to leave.

Thoka picked her way carefully down from her perch, pausing every few steps to listen. In a few minutes she reached the trail, and a short time after that she was back across the river. There was only a game trail on the other side where she and Kpleeb had first approached the river. They had never seen any cavepeople on that side of the river. Stopping for a drink, she sat, filled her yellow-stone container with fresh water, and began to make her plans.

[In order to rescue Kpleeb I will need to sneak in and steal him away. Will he want to go with me? Maybe at night and I can knock him out… but then how would I carry the brute? Or… maybe I can find a way to trick them into leaving him alone. A diversion. Or… Wait, if I can see clearly across this distance, maybe I can fight them or hurt them across the distance. There has to be something useful about the invisible forces other than the far-sight.]

Thoka had been in enough fights to know that she could not beat a village full of cavemen without a major advantage of her own. She just needed to think… and plan. The baby kicked again.

“I know, little one, I know. We’ll get some food soon,” she murmured.

She stood and traveled into the forest and up the hill toward the canyon’s ridge. There, halfway up she paused and silently scanned the forest below her. After a few moments, she was sure that nobody was following her. She ducked under a branch that and stepped into a half-circle against the granite wall. The trees had gathered here to protect the mouth of a cave from being seen. She had only spotted it the day before while scanning with her viewing rod from her high perch on the other side of the river.

Thoka stepped under the stone cliff and toward the sloping roof. The cave was shallow, only a handful of paces to the rear wall. There were no animals in sight nor were there bones or other signs that one might count this place as their residence. She reached up and touched the ceiling with outstretched fingers. They came away clean, and there was no sign of soot.

[Is it possible that no caveman has ever found this cave? With a village so close? Can you really call them “cave” people if they live in huts? This is a perfect spot for a den. Why are there no animals here? She pondered the question for a moment before discarding it. There is more important thinking to do. I must eat, drink, and be strong. I must rescue Kpleeb.]

Thoka was diligent and began to think, plan, and work. Soon she had a fire inside the cave, and the thin smoke wafted through the tree boughs above the cave entrance. She ate the remainder of the fish Kpleeb had left her, and took another long drink of water. She then laid out her pieces of yellow-stone. By the time it was dark, she had a workbench and a new rod to test.

[I have to figure out how to hear when I use the viewing rod. I have to find a way to hurt the cavemen from a distance. And shield myself from their stones and spears.]

She squinted and looked up. The sun had disappeared behind the canyon walls and her cave was dim. Her shoulders ached from the bending, and her butt ached from sitting on the stone.

[And I need light. Kpleeb better not make me regret this.]