The Index -|-

It was dark as it often is at night, and a brisk, springtime breeze gently rustled the treetops in the valley. A half-moon rose slowly above the distant mountain range, its light softly illuminating the rugged land below and causing night birds to sing in delight.

Kpleeb sat on a high outcropping with his head in his hands. Beneath him, the stone’s weight on his rump felt like an anchor. He could feel the breeze ruffle and whip his long, shaggy mane. It was chilly, bordering on freezing, and he ignored the goosebumps raising on his uncovered arms.

[What I am doing here? I go through these motions day after day. We build defenses and weapons. For what? Not once have the Xi come back. The Ganix help me, but only because of my Thoka, the Pale One. How long will they follow now that she is gone?]

He sighed and started silently at his hairy feet.

[What is the point? My girl is gone. She may be dead like her ma, and I can’t even follow the killers. I am stuck here with my feet embedded in the stone while the Xi control the air and everything above. I am as useless as nipples on a pinecone.]

The wind whistled and picked up its pace, gusting in random, potent bursts until Kpleeb could no longer ignore the chill. He raised his head and watched the treetops moving below him. Past the trees in the distance, stood the Ganix village, a mere speck in the moonlight. Its stone wall had been rebuilt after the last Xi attack. That was when he had lost Zara. His heart heavy, he stood slowly and took the long, winding trail back toward the village.

At the village gate, he nodded at the watchman, and the Ganix warrior nodded back. Kpleeb turned to look back at the distant hillside from where he had come and saw a dark form emerge from the nearby shadows.

“You don’t need to follow me everywhere,” Kpleeb said.

Xir nodded in greeting. “I protect the builder.”

“Don’t call me that. There is nothing to protect me from. There is nothing dangerous here.”

“The Xi-” began Xir.

“The Xi have not returned!” interrupted Kpleeb, his voice rising. “Will they ever return? If they do, will they bring Zara back with them and just give her back?! Will I ever even see her again?” He threw up his hands. “No! Even if they come, and even if we kill them, this does not bring Zara back. We have no means of finding her. We are completely at a standstill here.”

Xir just looked at him.

Kpleeb turned and stalked back toward his hut. Within a few minutes, he washed his face in a shallow basin on a stand near the door and stretched out on his mat. With his hands clasped behind his head, he lay and stared at the underside of the roof.

The same breezes blew through the village, and the reeds on the roof above him rattled slightly in response. In the distance, a pack of coyotes yipped and howled together. Nature spoke in its own language that touched all ears the same, and to Kpleeb, it seemed like everything and everyone had a family except him.

He sighed deeply and broke down. Hot tears of bitterness welled up and then slid down toward the back of his head. He sobbed quietly as he remembered Zara’s face smiling up at him. His girl, the child he never expected to have. The wonderful child whom he loved. Thoka’s patient and reserved brilliance had turned into the same kind of motherhood.

[My dearest Thoka. What an epic mother!]

He did not even bother swiping the tears away as they continued to flow. He remembered his Mam, Pfftul, Ullipt, Wup, and even Kenthid the ever bossy. Everyone he knew and everyone he had loved was now gone.

[It is all so hopeless. These beings have taken me from my home. They’ve changed me and dropped me in some new place. They’ve killed my woman and stolen my daughter. I promised I would pay them back, kill them all… but they have so much power that I don’t have. I am utterly helpless.]

There, on Phaedro, in the valley nearest the canyon he lay surrounded by warriors, walls, and weaponry that would make any civilization reconsider an attack. He was without a doubt the most powerful caveman to ever have lived. Yet, Kpleeb did not even know if this place was where he had come from. He did not know if his daughter was alive or dead. He did not know if he had built an army only for it to sit wasting on the ground while the merciless and evil Xi rode the heavens unchallenged, able to strike when and where they chose without concern for their own safety.

If it was even possible, his heart sank lower until it stood at the black gate of death itself.

###

Xir, waiting silently in his own doorway, just across the path from Kpleeb’s hut, remembered as he always did. The path had long been laid bare before him. Even as a young Xinti cavechild he had been taught the prophesy. They had all been taught. The fact that it was coming to pass before his own eyes filled him with a mixture of joy and dread.

[The builder may question, but the Ganix will never lose faith in him.]