Jariit (Caveman Chronicles)

The Index -|-

The angle split slowly revealing a small compartment. The inside was lit by a gentle, white glow. The entity that reclined nearly onto its back began to move.

The figure that stepped out of the fissure was thin and pale and reminded Kpleeb of Uuiit. They were certainly similar entities. This one was a hand shorter than Uuiit had been and wore a tight-fitting suit made of a glossy, black material. Its eyes were a piercing blue and slightly angled. Its mouth was slightly smaller than normal.

Kpleeb blinked. Or… maybe the mouth is normal and the eyes are bigger?

The figure stopped where it stood next to the angle and stared at Kpleeb and Zara as if they were mangy tundra yaks. It nodded its head slowly, and Kpleeb marveled at the shiny dome. It was nothing like the sleek, grey hair that had been plastered to Uuiit’s scalp.

“You will die like the female,” the entity said in a thin voice.

Kpleeb looked at Zara and she smiled. Kpleeb hunched his shoulders, put on his best stupid face, and spoke roughly. “You no kill. Urgh. You weak. Ugly.” He spat on the ground in front of him and nodded at Zara.

With a few quick steps, Kpleeb bolted toward the pale entity. Its eyes widened and then blinked closed as Kpleeb’s fist smashed into its face. The entity fell straight to the ground without recoiling or curling its torso. Kpleeb knelt beside its torso at looked at its face, but its eyes did not open. This one had the same thin openings on its neck, and they fluttered gently repetitively.

“Da, we must bring it into the cave and bind it. I think I can set up a tensioner of Qon to keep it from using the invisible forces.”

Zara still had that look of concentration, and Kpleeb understood that she maintained some kind of hold on the entity. He nodded and stood. “Yes, good idea. We have to get this done before it awakes.” He bent and grabbed one of the entity’s arms and began to drag it inside. As they approached the mouth of the cave, the angle behind them dimmed and resumed its normal, angular shape.

“I think it knows when one of them is close,” said Zara nodding at the figure.

“Mmm,” grunted Kpleeb in agreement.

Once inside, Kpleeb found a thick cord made of long, entwined grass and wound it liberally around the torso and legs. The thought crossed his mind that many, or all, of the Ganix might be dead. He needed them, not just to make ropes, build huts, and everything else. He also needed fighters.

When he was done, he stood over the entity while Zara released her hold and began to arrange her tensioner. She picked up a small piece of yellow stone and whispered to it while cradling it in her hands. After a few moments, she placed three small clusters at points around the center of the room where the entity was bound. She fiddled with the red casing that was situated on one wall.

When she turned around, she shrugged and looked at the entity. “We will see how well it holds when it wakes up.”

Kpleeb noticed nothing different, but he was not surprised. “Safe to rest then?”

Zara shrugged and looked at Thoka’s body. Kpleeb saw a mix of emotions on her face and it amplified his own. He walked to her and knelt on both knees. With a sigh, he wrapped both of his arms around her frail body. Within seconds, she began sobbing and clutching at his neck.

“I am so sorry,” said Kpleeb through his own tears. The pain of Thoka’s loss flooded over him in a moment, and it was followed by shame for failing to protect his woman. “What can we do without her?”

Zara ignored his rhetorical query and continued to cry great tears that soaked his tunic. Kpleeb held her for a few minutes and then heard a soft scrape. He gently pushed Zara to the side and faced the entity. Zara quickly brushed her face with the backs of her hands and came to his side.

Kpleeb stood and draped a blanket over Thoka’s body with a sigh. There is no point allowing the entity to gain satisfaction… or for us to be distracted.

The entity lay on the floor bound. It eyes were open and stared at them without emotion. Its feet and hands squirmed in the bindings. Kpleeb was happy to see that the ropes held fast.

“My tensioners hold, Da,” said Zara looking up at him. “He is pushing at the Qon, but it holds.” She nodded thoughtfully. “I will have to strengthen the tensioners.”

“Why do you bind me?” said the entity in its thin voice. Its wrists continued to work, slowly testing all approaches to the knot.

Kpleeb ignored its question and approached. He knelt and searched the entity’s body. From its neck, he pulled a thin chain with a crystal attached to it. From small, stretchy pouches on its shiny black suit he retrieved a handful of small objects that he did not recognize. Around its left ankle was a purple band that could not be removed, so he left it and took the remainder of the items back to pile on a workbench at the side of the room.

Throughout the search, the entity’s eyes simply stared at Zara.

When Kpleeb returned to Zara’s side, he spoke to the entity. “What is your name?”

“Jariit,” it said without looking away from Zara.

Kpleeb looked at Zara and smiled. “You’re okay?”

“Yes, Da.”

Kpleeb cracked his hairy knuckles and moved closer. “Well, alright, Jariit. I think we are in a good place. You will tell us the answers to everything I ask, and we won’t kill you.”

“Jariit,” said the entity.

Kpleeb blinked and struck out with his open palm. The slap knocked the entity’s face to the side, at least as far as Zara’s bonds allowed it to move. Over the next handful of minutes Kpleeb worked patiently. He carefully and methodically applied what he thought should have been painful pressure to each part of the body before him. He tried to get any kind of response, but the entity never made a noise, even when Kpleeb stuck his fingers into the quivering openings on the side of its neck. There was no outcry, but Kpleeb smiled with satisfaction as the body twitched and writhed and the eyes rolled back into the head at odd angles.

In a few minutes, while Kpleeb tortured Jariit, there was an echo of feet in the cave entrance. Kpleeb straightened to see one of the Ganix warriors appear. He was spattered with blood and shallow cuts peppered his torso, but his pale, painted face was impassive as was normal for the Ganix.

“Xir, are you okay?” asked Kpleeb with surprise. “I thought all of you must be dead.”

Xir stopped and looked at the entity on the floor before addressing Kpleeb. “Many Ganix dead. Some alive. Urh, one burning,” he said pointing at the figure on the floor.

In his zeal for harming the entity, Kpleeb had put aside any thoughts of the the other lights in the sky. He could only assume they were angles similar to the one outside the cave. He now realized that he needed to be sure that any other entities were unable to surprise them. He nodded and stretched.

“Show me where.” Kpleeb turned to Zara. “You must keep Jariit bound. Do you understand?” He carefully hugged her small form. “I don’t know what I would do without you.”

Zara nodded solemnly. “I will be safe, Da. Jariit will not escape.”

Kpleeb grinned and wiped the goo from Jariit’s neck slits onto the front of Jariit’s clothing. “Wait here, okay Jariit?”

Without waiting for an answer, Kpleeb followed Xir out of the cave.