The Angle (Caveman Chronicles)

The Index -|-

Kpleeb was on the ridge again, but this time he had Thoka’s new detector device. When he had returned from the large rock the Ganix called ‘The Fist,’ Thoka had been pacing back and forth in front of her workshop with Zara playing nearby in the sand. Thoka muttered to herself and examined her detector for hours. A few days later, here he was, on the ridge watching Uuiit’s village again.

Thoka had redesigned her device from scratch. Now it was curved around his arm starting at his elbow. The clockwise curve wrapped his arm twice like a thin, pale snake. The end was anchored on the back of his hand by a bracelet. Protruding away and slightly upward were two curved horns that did not quite touch

Kpleeb had no idea how these things worked. He had spent some time off and on for months trying to “see” or “feel” the forces that he knew Thoka could touch. It did not matter how he held his hands, his mouth, his feet. He had even tried to stand on his head once, when nobody was looking of course. If he did not know better, he would swear that the forces were just a myth. But- he did know better. Thoka had proven their existence over and over.

With an exaggerated sigh, Kpleeb returned his focus to Uuiit’s village. Below, the grid of huts occupied a clearing. Inside that grid, Uuiit’s unique dwelling – the one with the raised porch – registered on the detector. When he moved his arm side to side, panning over the building, the detector bumps turned a pale green color. At the building, it was solid red.

“I’m picking up a big red from Uuiit’s house,” Kpleeb said.

“Mmm,” said Xit.

Kpleeb had found out that the Ganix warriors had a strange quirk around Thoka’s abilities. They did not gawk, and they did not run away. It seemed to him as if they were caught in the middle between terrified and awestruck. They were a stoic group, and their respect for their Pale One seemed to run deep.

Kpleeb scanned the area outside of the village and found that there were several large red-zones. The lak store house was one of them, but there was another one further into the jungle that he could not see.

“How far to walk there?” Kpleeb pointed toward the spot on the other side of Uuiit’s village.

Xit squinted and looked at the sky for a moment. “One day. We go?”

Kpleeb pondered. He looked back toward home. Everything was quiet on all fronts. “I think we should go. We will have to stop when it gets dark.” He paused and pointed with his knuckle. “Down this way?”

Xit lowered his chin. “Big cliff. This way better.” He looked along the ridge further to their left.

“Alright, lead on then.” Kpleeb stood. They had not seen Uuiit, but there was a good chance that he was there. Thoka had told him about the angled shape that flung itself through the distant sky and into the clouds. He had been incredulous at first and a bit disbelieving, but he trusted Thoka. After considerable discussion, they were not sure if what she had seen was a message being sent or some kind of large bird. The perspective seemed very distant, which would mean it was large. They considered that it might be a false image, smaller, or perhaps an illusion.

Xit disappeared over a large rock ahead of him, and Kpleeb moved quickly to catch up. There was a winding path that navigated leftward and down through the rocks into the tree covered hillside. The trees there were evergreen and sparsely scattered among the stones. The ground was covered in a brown bed of needles that made it easy to walk silently. with minimal underbrush they made good time and soon it was dusk.

“When do we camp?” asked Kpleeb. His stomach grumbled, but he had seen very few animals and the party only carried a small meal for each of them.

“Soon,” said Xit.

Xip behind them spoke up. “River ahead.”

Kpleeb saw Xit nod.

“River camp.”

“Thank the great spirit tahr,” muttered Kpleeb. He kept moving, but imagined a nice, flaky fish roasting over a fire. The weather was still warming, and all of the snow was gone, but it would still be chilly overnight. The idea of a fire and food was tremendously appetizing. Soon enough, the sun was low in the sky and mostly covered by distant trees. Kpleeb heard the sound of rushing water. When they crested a small rise, he saw the gleaming thread of sunfire shimmering on the river.

The river wound from their right to the left before turning to angle away from them. It was a wide and placid river, and they were very close already. In a handful of long moments Xit spoke.

“Camp here.” He knelt next to a pile of stones that Kpleeb recognized as an old fire pit.

“You know this place?” Kpleeb looked around the area and saw that there were other signs of a previous camp.

Xit grunted and began to light a fire from the coal he had extracted from his leather bag. Xip dropped a small pile of sticks next to the stones and left again, presumably to collect more.

“I’ll go fish,” said Kpleeb quietly. Had had only caught a few fish since he and Thoka had found themselves in this place, whatever this place was. He had spent a little more time working out a special spear made of yellow stone. The spear had five thin barbs, and when it was thrust, the four outer barbs extended momentarily. The few times he had used it, the fish always seemed to be caught by surprise.

This night, he caught two fish, and it was only because the light shone perpendicularly across the river and illuminated the top hands-breadth of water with a greenish light that reflected off the fish’s scales. he arrived back at the fire just as the final rays of sun disappeared. He felt as proud as ever until he saw that Xip held three rabbits.

Beginning to feel sour, he scoffed. “Kill the whole family, did you, Xip?”

Xip nodded silently and resumed skinning the animals.

That night, Kpleeb, Xit, and Xip ate like kings, and when they were done, they packaged the remaining meat inside leather wrappings for the following day. The night was quiet and the fire crackled comfortably. Soon Kpleeb was asleep.

The next morning, they ate while moving, and soon enough when the sun was high in the sky, they approached the far side of the village. Once Xit had confirmed that they had successfully skirted the village itself, Kpleeb had regularly checked his detector for the most direct route. The bumps on the detector lit up brightly, which Thoka had explained meant that the detected object was large.

Xit raised his hand and crouched low. “Close now.” He pointed at a spot in the trees.

Kpleeb could see nothing there, but he swept the detector in the direction and it lit up nicely. “Well, okay. Let’s have a look.” Kpleeb tiptoed forward and brushed aside a section of the wall of wide, green leaves. Behind it was a clearing surrounded by a low, wooden fence. In the center was the angle.

Xit and Xip appeared silently behind Kpleeb and stared at it.

“Xit see before,” said Xit.

The angle was an uncertain color. Kpleeb would have said that it was grey at first, but the daylight bounced off of its surface in strange ways. He raised his arm with the detector and slowly swept from right to left. The red bump stayed lit, but brightened at the center. The angle was a tall as he was and as wide as six or more cavemen laying foot to head. Its edges were sharp, yet blurred and rounded to the eye.

Kpleeb stepped out into the clearing after looking in all forward directions for a sign of any living thing that might want him to stay away from this place. He walked around the large device slowly and examined it from every perspective. Finally, out of curiosity, he reached out his arm, the arm that the detector was mounted on. He wanted to put a finger on it, but as his finger came within a hand’s span, he felt a fuzzy sensation in his fingertips.

He pulled his hand back quickly. The tingling sensation reminded him too much of his time in the caves.with Thoka. It seemed so long ago that they were imprisoned there. He had been so angsty, and frustrated.

He tested his internal temperature. Am I less angry at the gods now? He felt like maybe he was, but then another idea occurred to him. Maybe I am just busier now. Being cooped up in the caves had given him so much time to think, and everything there was so fresh and new to him. The truth is, the gods gave me some useful things, but it was still terribly wrong to take me away from my family. Okay, so I left in anger, but I would have gone back. The gods took Thoka as well. She is the smartest cavewoman and was probably going to be a leader in her tribe someday.

Kpleeb brought himself back to the present. The gods, or entities as Thoka called them, had done evil towards them. They would pay for that eventually.

“I think we need to go back and maybe bring Thoka here, and someone who can watch.” He began to pace out the measurements of the angle. On the side they had entered, it was eight paces wide. He raised his hand and took note that it was maybe a hand’s span taller at the edge than his own shoulder, but that it angled upward towards its center.

“Maybe an extra arm’s length,” he muttered to himself. On the other side, the angle was acute and measured the same eight paces, but the other side was different. It was split in two in an asymmetrical indention, and there was no middle edge. The first of the edges was three paces and the second was around five. There was a tri-cluster of large bumps near the mid-point of the larger edge. The bottom was angled inward and lower just like the top, and Kpleeb stooped to look under the edge.

“What in the pit of the damned?”

The angle’s undercarriage came to a dull point and touched the dirt. Aside from a few finger-lengths of surface, no other part of it was supported. There were a few tri-clusters underneath, and when he checked, there were matching tri-clusters on the top.

“Interesting. We definitely need to get back,” Kpleeb said to Xit. “Thoka will want to see this.”

Xit and Xip turned immediately and led the way back. Kpleeb followed and remained in thought as they traveled.