The Index -|-

Kpleeb peered over the ridge at Uuiit’s village below and sighed quietly as he lifted his hand. On his wrist was a bracelet that Thoka had given him. One of her rings was on his thumb. The air shimmered in front of him and then swirled as if it was uncertain what it might do. Finally, after a few moments, the view ahead of Kpleeb widened and zoomed in rapidly. Xit grunted almost inaudibly beside him.

Kpleeb couldn’t blame him. The change was certainly disorienting, and even he felt a little queasy. The village was laid out in straight lines and there was little traffic. The occasional pale warrior strolled by on some unknown errand. Near the edge, where the village passed nearest the creek, there was a huddle of cavewomen washing and working. Clumps of cavechildren bustled around them like a cloud of gnats much the way they would in any village. Near the center, the raised stone structure that Uuiit lived in stood with its door open. Uuiit was nowhere to be seen.

“Food, there,” pointed Xit. There was a hut of sorts on the far side of the village. It had a reed roof and a stone foundation. The walls were made out of the standard vertical logs at the edges and every pace or so, but with thinner sticks covering the in-betweens. There was a border of thin stones along the first knee-length of the wall and the joints were mudded

“Made to last, I see.” Kpleeb said eyeing the building.

“Keep away klemp rats,” Xit said. “Many.”

“Good eating though, right?” Kpleeb remembered a drought season back at the river canyon when the whole cave-village ate rats for months. He had been a cave-teen at the time, but he still remembered the delicious meat dripping with fat on the turn spits. Muskrat had nothing on real rat, even if you had to eat three to feel somewhat full.

“Lak house,” said Xit pointing at the opposite side. There rested a large bunker made of stone and logs. It was enormous compared to all of the other structures, even Uuiit’s house. The walls were made of stout logs stacked in a criss-cross fashion.

“Seems a bit much fo–“

“Uuiit,” said Xit interrupted under his breath. His whisper sounded anxious to Kpleeb.

Kpleeb shifted his gaze and saw the death-white step out onto the veranda with its lak robe glittering in the breeze. It stood and swept its gaze across the village stopping only to speak briefly to a passing pale warrior. After a moment, it turned and went back inside.

Kpleeb looked back at the lak bunker. “That house isn’t full of lak, is it? It just seems so big. why would it–” Kpleeb saw that Uuiit had returned.

This time he brought with him a small table with an odd device on it. The table had five curved legs that led to an oval top surface. The device itself was a squarey, piped structure the size of a hen. The tubes and wires that made up the bulk of the base were tightly woven. They ran in all directions but maintained right angles that kept themselves inside the constraint of the invisible cubic constraint. On top, connected by only two tubes was a circle bigger than a caveman’s head. It was attached by an adjustable arm.

Uuiit reached out and grasped the circle and angled it upward and toward the mountain that Kpleeb and his pale warriors peered down from. Uuiit peered through the circle, and to Kpleeb’s viewpoint, Uuiit’s eye instantly magnified a thousand percent to become a large and hideous eyeball that filled his vision.

Kpleeb fell backward and with him, the circle of air that had been conjured by Thoka’s bracelet and ring dispersed and the view with it.

“Uuiit see,” Xit said quietly looking down at Kpleeb.

“Let’s go back to the village,” said Kpleeb, shaken by the unexpected turn of events. He stood and walked slowly toward the floating platform. “So- he saw. Will he be angry?” He felt a bit unsafe.

Xit shrugged in the Xinti way and did not speak a word.

Later, when Kpleeb was sitting next to Thoka in the hut, he recounted the story.

“Uuiit looked at you then?” Thoka gently rocked their baby girl against her chest. The tiny pink head bobbled and sagged with great weariness, and her dark eyes remained closed.

“He looked directly at me. There was no guesswork. It was exact.” Kpleeb had been unnerved for the entire half-day trip back to the new village where Thoka and he lived with the pale warriors and their families. The giant eyeball tormented him. He looked right at me as if he knew that I was there. The eye was different somehow, and hugely grotesque.”

Thoka appeared thoughtful. “If you see the enhanced view through my viewer, and on the other side, I see you through my viewer, would it not be double magnified?”

“Huh?”

“If you magnify to Uuiit,” she made a tube with one hand, “and on the other side, Uuiit magnifies to you… Would the two views combine to make a double magnified view?” Her hands portrayed two tubes aimed at each other.

Kpleeb scrunched his face and though about it. He imagined tubes and swirling air combining to magnify things that were invisible to him but somehow enlarged the things his eyes looked at. Then his mind clicked.

“How would he magnify at all?” The thought made his eyeballs tingle. “Another caveman with your skills at manipulating the invisible forces?” His mind reeled at the possibilities of potential danger to he and his family.

“Mmm. ” Thoka did not focus on the source of the issue in Kpleeb’s mind. “Yes, but what do you mean the eye was grotesque?” Thoka stroked the baby’s head absent-mindedly.

Kpleeb pictured it in his mind. “Well, it was normal shape, at least as far as I could tell. It was larger than our eyes I think, but I can’t tell if that was just the magnification. The main difference, now that I think of it is…. the center part was not round. It was more of an oval. The iris was a strange blue-green color as well. What could that mean? Different kind of caveman?”

“Maybe,” said Thoka. “Maybe not. This is something I will think about. We will need to keep working on the village though. Not enough strange warriors to defend if the other Xinti come to attack.”

Kpleeb nodded. He had been considering how to use the yellow stone to bolster their attack. “You are right. We are vulnerable to attack. I will make a wall out of yellow stone which should slow them down.”

“That reminds me,” said Thoka, “I tested the stone with one of the cavechildren and it did obey. We must be careful to protect the secret. If the Xinti know that the stone will obey them, everything could go wrong.”

“The cavechild will not know the secret?”

“No, I hid a small piece of stone and had the cavechild merely speak a command.”

Kpleeb knew exactly what to do. “I will solve that problem. Do you need help with the baby?”

“No, I have many Xinti women who help. We need to find a new tribe name!” Thoka smiled at him. “We have the beginnings of a good tribe.” The baby yawned and squirmed in her arms. “Time for feeding, again?” She sighed.

Kpleeb shifted on his feet. “Urh, well, I have plenty to do,” he said awkwardly. He shifted his feet for a moment and then turned to leave.

###

The next afternoon, Kpleeb walked the perimeter that he had marked. Xer paced beside him, and Kpleeb was beginning to deeply appreciate the dedication of these pale warriors. Not only were they loyal to Thoka – their Pale One – but they were well trained and effective warriors. He had placed stakes in the ground every two paces around the perimeter. The warriors and Xinti women began to dig holes where the stakes were. Poles would go into the holes and brush would be tied in between.

“What was it that you said the other day?” said Kpleeb. “Ganix?”

Xer lifted his chin. “Ganix.”

Kpleeb’s memory only retained snippets of the moments after he ingested the tiny crystal, but each snippet was clear and contained an undertone of happiness. “What does this mean?”

“Pale One is gracious.” Xer said the words with a subtle sense of reverence.

“She is gracious indeed,” said Kpleeb quietly. He was pleased and surprised every day by her strength and by the way her influence seemed to constantly grow. “She is a force to be reckoned with.”

Xer lifted his chin and spoke again. “I bring wood.” He trotted off toward a group of other pale warriors.

Kpleeb meandered back to the circle of huts that had been built on the hillside near a stream. Several Xinti women were cooking in a small cave that they had constructed of stone. A light smoke streamed from the short chimney, and he could smell bread and meat roasting with the peculiar spice mix that the Xinti used. Ahead of him Thoka appeared in the doorway of their hut. She waved at him and gestured for him to come.

“The wall structure is going well,” Kpleeb said as he approached. The baby looked up at him and smiled. Kpleeb grinned back at her and noticed that the redness in her skin had decreased noticeably. Her face had slimmed as well, and she was holding her head up. “She is getting to be quite cute!” He gently caressed her cheek with his knuckle.

“How many babies have you been around?”

Kpleeb paused and tried to remember what seemed like the distant past. “Urh, I don’t know. A few?” A young caveman generally did not pay attention to babies.

“I want to call her Zara,” Thoka said. “It means ‘blooming flower.’ You might not know this, not having been around very many babies, Kpleeb, but she is truly a miracle.”

Kpleeb shrugged.

“She is only a handful of days old and she holds her head and her eyes focus. She recognizes you as her father. These behaviors are extraordinary at her age. Trust me.”

“Zara,” Kpleeb said quietly. “A beautiful name for a beautiful and smart baby.”

Thoka smiled at him. “We have a family and a tribe.”

“Speaking of that, Kpleeb said, “I know what we should call the tribe.”

“Good, finally!”

“Ganix. The pale warriors used this word and it means ‘the pale one is gracious.’ It’s a great name for our tribe.”

Thoka appeared hesitant.

“Look, Thoka, you can’t be weird about the fact that you are the one. You have a tribe and a loyal and strong group of tribe members. That is an excellent and fairly rapid start considering how long we have been here.. Using Ganix as the tribe’s name will serve to remind the Xinti that you are the leader.”

Thoka nodded thoughtfully, and Zara scrutinized Kpleeb with her gray eyes. Her fingers twitched and she touched her thumb and finger tips together repeatedly.

“Okay, well, I am going to continue working on the wall. Lots to be done.” Kpleeb leaned forward and lightly kissed Thoka on the cheek. With a pat on Zara’s head, he returned to his work.

The Index -|-

Kpleeb paced nervously. Back and forth he strode at a slow pace. He heard a muted cry and stopped to face the hut across the village center. There was nothing to see, of course. Thoka was inside with Chief Kilow, Bre, and the Xinti birthing cavewoman. There were no additional cries, so he began to walk again.

Thoka had winced, moaned, and clutched his leg all the way from the ridge to the village. It had been a long trip, even with Thoka’s floating platform. They had wended their way down the mountain and past the new village that Thoka’s tribe had established only a few weeks earlier. There, Kpleeb had called the birthing cavewoman, named Jial, to board the floating platform. She had been ready, and the pause was very short.

Thoka had made a deal with Chief Kilow and Bre that her child would be born in their village. Both of the women were familiar with childbirth, and they had a special hut that had been set aside for the purpose. Jial was recruited because Thoka did not want to be there alone without one of her own tribe in the room.

Cavemen were not welcome at the childbirth ceremony, which in Kpleeb’s mind, was something of a relief. Yet, he worried, and thought that any caveman should have the choice to witness the birth of his own child. The various cavewomen that had been present when he mentioned the idea had raised their eyebrows and emphatically told him ‘No.’

And so, Kpleeb paced on the other side of the village center. He had been just outside the door earlier in the day, be he had tried to rush in after hearing Thoka cry out. That had got him banished to his current position.

“Wait for Jial,” a voice said.

Kpleeb spun and saw Xit standing there beside one of the nearer huts. “Yes… I will, but I can’t help but be nervous. You understand?”

Xit lifted his chin the way the Xinti did and spoke again. “You ‘nervous’ not help. Cavewoman lead birthing.” His face was entirely deadpan.

He looked back at the hut across the center. “I know that it’s not helpful, but I am nervous anyway. I know pretty much, practically…. entirely nothing about childbirth.” He turned back to face the pale warrior. “You have cavechildren, Xit. Were you not nervous when they were born?”

Xit shrugged as if he had never considered anything so pointless. “Xit not nervous. Why?”

“The birth of your first child, the way this is for me… Well, it is a new thing. It is a special thing. It makes me think of many questions that I have never considered before.”

The pale warriors were so schooled at keeping their emotions from showing that Xit could have been laughing inside… or taking pity on Kpleeb, and he would never know.

After a long moment, Xit spoke again. “Cavewoman lead birthing. No nervous. Xit fight. Xit bring lak for Uuiit.”

Kpleeb shook his head. How can anyone be so focused and unconcerned about a family member? Sure, childbirth is the domain of the cavewomen, but cavemen still had concern. He had seen Xit and his family. It was obvious that there was a deep affection among them. Their culture is different. Maybe the Xinti simply do what they are there to do and nothing more. They are certainly very good at fighting.

“What is this lak that you bring to Uuiit?” Kpleeb said.

“Lak is-” Xit paused and appeared to search for the word. “Shiny.” He shrugged.

“Something shiny? Reflective?” Kpleeb looked around and saw a small polished stone hanging from a cord on a hut nearby. “This is lak?”

Xit put his chin up. “Lak.”

Kpleeb thought for a moment about some other way to confirm. Finally, he turned his back on Xit and slid his bracelet off. “Make a flat piece the size of my thumbnail, very polished,” he whispered. He cupped his hands around the bracelet and waited for a moment before opening them again. It was done, and he took the small, flat piece between thumb and finger and broke it off of the bracelet before placing it back on his wrist. He turned around and stuck his hand out, palm up, with the tiny yellow stone mirror resting in plain sight.

“This is lak?” He asked.

Xit put his chin up again as he glanced at Kpleeb’s hand. “Yes”

“Why?”

“Uuiit want.”

Kpleeb was about to launch into what would surely be a long and painful line of questioning to fulfill his curiosity about the relationship between lak and Uuiit when he heard a voice from the hut across the village center.

“Come see child,.” said Jial with a twist of her head and neck. She turned quickly without any further words and disappeared into the dark doorway.

Kpleeb nodded at Xit and then took a few jogging steps before slowing down. Don’t show them your nerves, Kpleeb! He truly felt like a total n00b around these Xinti warriors. He walked slowly and impatiently across the hard-packed dirt, and as he came closer he heard a gentle mewling and low conversation.

“I’m coming in,” he announced as he approached the door. He did not wait for a response, but entered immediately.

His nose was clobbered by an astringent scent that might have been some combination of elderberries and dert, fermented by the smell of it. It took a moment for his eyes to adjust to the dimness of the hut. There along the edge of the somewhat rounded hut wall, Thoka rested on a low table. She was covered from the waist down in a rough cloth that was larger than he had ever seen a caveman weave. In her arms, a tiny form suckled at her bosom. The mewling emanated from the baby as it drew each breath.

Thoka looked up at him expectantly and smiled. It was a weary smile of the likes he had never seen on her face. “Welcome your daughter, Kpleeb.”

Kpleeb stepped closer and looked down at the child. Its form looked much like the other babies he had seen, but it was very ruddy and wrinkled.

“She is so small,” he said.

When he spoke, the baby turned awake from its meal and looked at him. Her face was pink and crowned in a fine, black hair. Her mouth moved slightly, appearing as if to speak, but instead a burp came out. Her eyes were dark and he felt as if she was sizing him up. After a moment, the baby turned and resumed nursing.

“She is new,” explained Thoka. “Small is how they come. Thankfully.” She chuckled slightly. “I don’t need to be ripped in two.”

Jial stepped into his field of view. “You go now,” she said with a nod at the door. “Pale One rest. Baby rest.”

Kpleeb looked at Thoka, who nodded at him. “It’s true, Kpleeb. I’m exhausted and I’m sure you have plenty to do. The Xinti village still needs a great deal of improvement.”

“We can’t keep calling them the Xinti. I will ask the pale warriors for name ideas.” Kpleeb placed a hand on Thoka’s shoulder gently and then on the baby. It was blazing hot. He smiled stiffly and turned to go. As he stepped out of the hut he heard Jial speak.

“Pale One never broken. Not speak such.” It was as much of a reprimand as he had ever heard from one of them.

They take their Pale One seriously, he thought.

As he approached the center of the village near the pole where he had once been bound and beaten, Xit spoke. “Baby?”

Kpleeb nodded. “I have a daughter.”

Xit turned and shouted toward the other pale warriors that had come with them to the village. It was more of a high-pitched bark, repetitive and piercing. Kpleeb watched in awe as the other pale warriors raised their fists and repeated Xit’s shouts. None of their faces showed any emotion.

“Girl baby, much reward,” Xit said turning back toward him. Kpleeb thought that Xit’s eyes expressed great satisfaction. “Much reward.”

Kpleeb looked down at his shaking hands as reality set in. “I thought I would have a son,” he said.

Xit slapped his back forcefully. “Son good. Girl better. Girl child from Pale One-” he paused as if considering his words. “Pale One honors you much.”

The other pale warriors had approached. Xer, Xio, Xep, and Xaq. It was Thoka’s regular crew. Maybe not bodyguards, but, they certainly stuck around. Kpleeb thought that they vied for the position, though they did rotate other pale warriors in and out.

Xer pulled a small pouch from the cord that fastened his loincloth. He tipped the contents into his hand and offered it to Kpleeb. “Much honor,” he said.

On his palm was a tiny crystal. Kpleeb picked it up and looked at it closely. “Fascinating,” he said. “What is it?

“Eat,” said Xer. The rest of the warriors looked at him expectantly as they reached for their own pouches.

“Urg, well…” Kpleeb could not think of any reason why the stoic warriors would harm or play a prank on him, so after a moment of consideration, he dropped the crystal onto his tongue.

“Ganix,” said Xep. The other pale warriors repeated the unknown word almost reverently in unison.

Kpleeb’s eyes swam and he swayed as he looked around him and the sea of painted, white faces. There seemed to be so many of them, and they were all smiling at him. Their eyes exuded joy at his great fortune. He remained standing there for some time, soaking in the emotion, swaying slightly, and grinning like a fool.

The Index -|-

“The best vantage point is just over this rise,” said Kpleeb. His knuckle pointed ahead of the small, floating platform that Thoka sat on. The hillside sloped upward ahead of them and ended in a blue-grey sky. They were in the cool shadow now, but soon would be blinded by the sun shining over the ridge. “We’ll need to stop soon and walk the rest of the way so that we don’t make a silhouette that will be seen from the other side.”

He looked behind him. The slope was dotted with evergreen trees in a sparsely, random pattern. Halfway down the slope, at least a double-stone’s thrown downward and outward was a meadow with spritely, green grass. The landscape in every direction was covered with stones of many sizes – from fist sized up to those that rivaled the five-legged beast that Thoka had once told him about. She had only seen a herd of them as a cavechild, but had described them as being absolutely enormous.

The platform slowed and stopped next to a tree, and Kpleeb retrieved the loop of woven rope that would help Thoka climb back onto its flat surface when they were ready to leave. The platform sunk slowly to rest close to the ground. The Xinti warriors nearby eyed the contraption warily. Kpleeb had thought that by now – nearly ten days after they had defected to Thoka’s tribe – the warriors would be familiar with Thoka’s ‘magic.’

Thoka smiled down at him and held out her hand. “I am too big to be jumping down from here – or jumping at all for that matter.”

Kpleeb took her hand and helped her awkwardly from the platform. “You should not be taking these kinds of trips in your condition,” he said with a slight grin to show her that he was only partially joking.

“The Wet Mountain cavewomen are not so weak, Kpleeb.” She was grinning back at him and also had a hand on her lower back. “Never mind that I have to brace my back against the little one. She is so heavy! I don’t remember my ma saying how much one weighs.”

Kpleeb shrugged. They had entered into awkward conversation territory that made him feel unsure of himself. “Urh… well, she will come soon as you say. I think that her arrival will help you move around and make your life easier.”

Thoka put her head back and burst out with a barking laugh. “Oh, Kpleeb. You are funny!” She wiped a tear from her eye and shrugged as she looked at the hill. With a gesture upward she said, “Time to take a look at this Uuiit person, don’t you think?”

Kpleeb was not sure what was so funny. Why would having the baby, ridding oneself of the obvious discomfort, and finally being un-pregnant be a reduction in chores? It just made no sense to him, but the change in subject was welcome either way. He was smart enough to know when to shut up.

They walked. Behind them and on either side, a dozen of the warriors encircled them. They seem to take Thoka’s care seriously, but Kpleeb had not yet been told why. The fact that a whole band of pale warriors had shown up a mere day after Thoka had single-handedly clobbered them in battle surprised him. Seeing the pale warrior wives and children, none of them painted as violent and vicious warriors made no sense to him either. How could a culture of bloodthirsty demons even have wives and children? Was there any capability of tenderness within them?

Kpleeb watched them stride up the hill on the balls of their feet like a cat that could almost hover over the sharp rocks, stickers, and debris that covered the terrain. They stalked like lions and were as silent as butterflies. They never smiled and rarely talked. How can these people have a family of anything but little, white-painted sociopaths? Maybe the rest of them as just as deranged as these. Kpleeb resolved in his mind to watch the families closely from here on out. After all, there was no sense in trusting them too much.

Thoka did not seem perturbed by them at all. In fact, she was herself in every way. Except, somehow, she was more confident than before. Kpleeb remembered the Thoka he had first met. She was imprisoned, but she was bright-eyed and smart. She knew her own worth then, but now she seemed even more sure. He was not sure what had changed.

“Watch it, Kpleeb,” Thoka said, putting a hand on his shoulder. There was a large gap in the stone in front of them.

Kpleeb could see a deep sliver of black, and when he looked down there were tree tops visible in the distance. “Thanks. This ridge must be more pronounced than I thought.” He turned. “Xer, can you point out Uuiit’s camp? Be careful though. We don’t want them to see us.”

Xer nodded and peered into the distance while walking forward slowly. He scanned and then lifted his arm. “Uuiit,” he said with a nod in the direction his arm jutted.

Thoka and Kpleeb both moved forward. The drop off was steep, and below them treetops stood silent and unmoving. The morning was breezy at the top where they stood. The spot that Xer pointed at was some distance away. Kpleeb did not have a word for it, except maybe to estimate the time it would take to travel there on foot.

“A day’s walk?”

Xer looked at him and angled his head the way Xinti do. “Half sun-cycle.”

Show off, thought Kpleeb. The Xinti were fast and appeared to be almost tireless. If Kpleeb were less of a suave and significant caveman, he might have felta bit overwhelmed by the Xinti prowess and athleticism. He looked again into the distance.

The village small and hazy, but it seemed to be uniform. Someone down there must be persnickety about their organization. In the age of caveman and their ilk, organization and the associated virtues of planning, structure, and unified design were highly unusual. In fact, Kpleeb only understood organization in terms of what must be done in which order so that a complex thing might be assembled. Order was special and when he had spent time thinking about the nature of it, he had realized that symmetry and structure were an indication of a high intelligence.

Kpleeb had never been the sharpest bone on the pile, or the smoothest feral hog in the passel. He had been average back in the canyon river tribe, and even with Thoka, he knew that she was far more intelligent than he was. Despite this knowing, this understanding of his place in the hierarchy of cavemen and cavewomen, he recognized his own intelligence. He knew that his stature was different and higher than the average caveman. In fact, if pressed, Kpleeb would admit that he was probably the smartest caveman alive.

The smartest caveman alive looked down into the jungle clearing and knew with every fiber of his being that the caveperson, or whatever this entity was, that had designed the village was highly intelligent. It made him momentarily take stock of his own mental abilities.

“Well now. We have something different here, don’t we Thoka?” Kpleeb squinted and muttered. “Why couldn’t the gods make my eyes better too?”

“That’s easy,” said Thoka. She stood close, just in front of him and lifted her hand.”

She smells nice, Kpleeb thought with a sense of satisfaction before he was distracted by the air swirling before him. It was as if he saw through a shimmering haze the way the rocks appeared at times on the tundra’s hottest days. The light bent at odd angles, and then flowed towards them. The perspective made him dizzy for a moment as the distant view rushed inward and paused, hovering before his amazed eyeballs. He felt Thoka’s hand on his left quad stabilizing him as if she understood how it must feel to see this rushing torrent of a view explode in front of one’s eyes.

The narrowed and greatly magnified view shook slightly as Thoka adjusted her arm. “Easy, just like I said, huh?”

Kpleeb was taken aback by the utility of this…. thing that Thoka did with her hand. “Is this the invisible forces?” His mind whirled with the possibilities.

“It is. You saw what I can do. This is just the beginning, Kpleeb.”

“Well, it looks like I am on the right side. Remind me not to anger you!” Kpleeb grinned at the back of Thoka’s head.

“I’m your queen, Kpleeb.” Thoka turned and smiled sweetly at him. “But, yes, you should not anger me.” She stopped and nudged her chin at a small group of the Xinti warriors standing nearby. “Xap, come look at this village.”

“I see village,” Xap said with a nod toward the valley. He was a lanky and somewhat swarthy caveman with high cheekbones and even higher eyebrows.

“Xap, come see it closely,” Thoka said. “Stand here.” She nudged Kpleeb aside and pointed to the spot behind her.

Kpleeb glared slightly (and ineffectively) at Xap’s immovable features, but Xap dutifully walked toward Thoka. As soon as he stopped moving, Thoka raised her hand again. Kpleeb saw a shimmering oval appear about a pace ahead of Thoka and then rush toward her. Xap stepped backward quickly. It was just one small step, yet it was one the largest demonstrations of surprise that Kpleeb had seen from any pale warrior.

“The village, close now,” Xap said gruffly, and he bent at the waist and attempted to peer around the edges of Thoka’s swirly air-window.

Xap did not appear to be as ruffled as Kpleeb had felt moments ago, and Kpleeb bristled momentarily before realizing the truth. Well, at least I didn’t recoil like this dauntless warrior. He smiled to himself. It’s a small thing, but I’ll take it.

Xap leaned in and pointed over Thoka’s should. “Uuiit.”

Kpleeb jumped into place over Thoka’s other shoulder and looked. There, in the expanded view, was a very strange sight. A death-white stood at the door of a stone hut and gazed out on the village. The door that it gazed from was raised, waist high off of the ground. The porch was constructed of stone in a way that Kpleeb, thought was beyond any skill that a caveman could do by hand.

“That’s a death-white, Thoka,” Kpleeb muttered. “I haven’t seen one in many years, but that is nothing I could be mistaken about.” Can you get closer?”

Thoka nodded and sligtly adjusted a ring on her thumb. The view zoomed in, but its clarity was reduced. “There are limits, Kpleeb.”

Kpleeb patted Thoka on the shoulder. “It’s okay my queen,” he said mockingly. “We can’t all be perfect.”

“Shut up, Kpleeb,” Thoka said as she stared into the valley. “That is what you call a ‘death-white’ of course. We knew them as the tinkers. Always strange and shiny, but never a common sight.” She pulled her hand down the the hazy view disappeared.

Xap stood up straight and looked at Thoka. “Pale one?” he said in askance.

“I need details.” THoka turned and stepped away from the ridge’s crest. “Xap, Xer, Xit, Xog… All of you. I need to know when Uuiit came here. Where did Uuiit appear first and to whom? You lived under his…it’s rule. What was that like?” She looked around and the handful of Xinti warriors that stood looking at her. “Who is Uuiit?”

Xer spoke up.”Uuiit chief. Come many sun-cycles before now. Gher find Uuiit. Bring Uuiit to village.”

“Xaf say Uuiit from sky,” blurted a shorter, pale warrior named Xud.

“No.” Xog waggled his first and second fingers at Xud. “Xaf crazy. Gher bring Uuiit.”

Kpleeb and Thoka looked at each other.

“Can we talk to Gher?” said Kpleeb. “We need to know. What about Xaf? Anything is possible.”

Thoka nodded, but her face slowly changed as Kpleeb looked at her. She moaned lightly and put both of her hands on her belly. “She comes. We must go, now.”

Kpleeb saw that a pale red trickle pooled at her feet. The blood drained from his face. Though Thoka had told him what would happen, he had not really believed it. “Come. Carry the Pale One to the platform!” He wrapped his arm around Thoka’s torso and helped her hobble down the hill. She groaned with each step and began to clench his hand so tightly that his fingers felt as if they were smashed under a sizable rock.

“Don’t hurry, Kpleeb,” she said hoarsely. “It will not matter if we hurry. She will hurt me the same.”

Kpleeb turned his head to stare at her, but all he saw was the side of her face. Partly white. Partly red. The Xinti warriors danced awkwardly in front of them with their hands held out and low as Thoka and Kpleeb approached the platform.

Kpleeb growled at their fearful inability to approach their Pale One. “Out of the way then, you fools.” He finally got Thoka onto the platform and began to move down the slope at a somewhat dangerous speed.

Thoka grasped his hand tightly and moaned occasionally.

Kpleeb gritted his teeth and hoped to the Great Spirit Tahr that he would live through this birth and come away in a few days with a rested and renewed Thoka..