The Index -|-

Kpleeb woke every day with a new sense of excitement. For the most part he forgot about the gods and his anger toward them. His days passed quickly, and he noticed that he was distracted much of the time. Thoka was always on his mind. He found himself pacing the cave as he tried to think of new and more clever devices to build. Each time he passed the gap in the cave, he would stop and look at her.

She does not seem to be distracted at all. She is so focused… I cannot even understand what she is doing. Yet, she is beautiful. His mind was torn between the curves of her body, the sharpness of her mind, and his own seemingly insatiable drive to build something that would crack the cave wide open.

Despite all of his mind-flutter, he did achieve new heights of understanding, and was eager to show Thoka one of his ideas.

He cleared his throat and approached slowly through the gap between the caves. Thoka did not look up. Her hands still moved slowly in circles around a bowl that she held between her crossed legs. Her pale hair lay gently across her shoulders and fell all the way to the middle of her back.

“Urh, Thoka?” Kpleeb crossed his legs and sat in front of her. He looked at her face and was surprised at the confusion that was written there. “What is wrong?” he said laying a hand on her arm. She finally acknowledged him, and in raising her eyes, he saw that they were puffy and rimmed in red.

She did not respond.

“Are you okay?” he asked again.

Thoka finally answered, slowly and in a thick voice as if her lips were too large and her throat was clogged by mucus. “They did it again.”

“Did what? Who did what? You mean… the gods?”

Thoka raised her hand, gently pulled back her hair, and turned her head so that he could see the large, red welt that adorned the back of her neck.

“Oh, I see,” he said quietly. He moved to looked more closely. “It looks the same as the last one. Does it feel differently?” He gently caressed her soft neck in a circle around the bump, and when he pulled his fingers away their tips were covered with a sheen of clear goo. He moved his hand into her line of sight and tapped his fingertips together. The slightly tacky goo glistened.

Thoka bowed her head and began to sob silently.

There was nothing that Kpleeb could think to say, so he did what felt the most natural. He wrapped his arms around her and squeezed gently. His nose was tickled by a strand of her hair as he knelt patiently next to her and let her cry.

After some time – not too long, but enough for Kpleeb’s mind to focus on the way she smelled and how softness of her skin – Thoka spoke.

“Will it ever end?” Her voice was rough. She cleared her throat the then spit a large wad of mucus out in an impressive arc.

Kpleeb did not release her.

“I see patterns, Kpleeb,” she said. “This time, they have awakened something new in my mind.” She shook her head slightly and then shrugged in apparent helplessness.

Kpleeb, not wanting to push his luck, began to let go of her.

“No, don’t let go.” Thoka brought her hands up to rest on his right arm as it crossed under her chin.

As Thoka rubbed his arm lightly, Kpleeb felt goosebumps rise on his skin. He froze and waited, hopeful that it would not end. But Thoka shifted gears and jolted him out of his reverie.

“We must continue to learn everything we can. We will escape from this place, and there will be an opportunity to use what we learn here.” She turned in his arms and he let go and rocked back onto his heels. “Don’t you see, Kpleeb? We are their special creation.”

Kpleeb did not understand. “Then you believe they truly are gods…. Like the great spirit tahr?”

“Maybe, but if they make us in their image… does it really matter what form they take?” Thoka shifted onto her knees and leaned toward him.

Kpleeb’s mind swam with the ideas she spoke about, but when she swayed, he was distracted by the way her topcloth swung and settled against her skin. Flustered, he felt his face heating up and stood abruptly. He turned and walked toward the cave wall. When he turned, Thoka was standing and watching him.

“Come, look at this,” she said. She took the bowl full of water that she had been holding and set it on the table. She then picked up an odd-looking stone rod the size of her finger. A handful of infinitesimally small stone threads protruded from the end in a complex shape.

“How did you get the threads so small?”

“Wait,” she said impatiently shushing him. “Watch the water.” She moved her hand around the bowl holding the rod. Nothing happened.

Kpleeb started to speak, but Thoka held up a finger. She picked up another rod that had a completely different shape and held it on the opposite side of the bowl from the first rod. The water moved.

“You see?”

“You blew on the water, and it moved. So what?”

Thoka rolled her eyes. “Okay, watch again, but stand here on the other side of the table so that you can see. She moved moved the rod into place again and the water rippled.

Kpleeb looked at Thoka’s face and she had her mouth closed. The water continued rippling. Wha….? “Wow,” he said, “what is that?”

“I do not know, really.” Thoka moved the rods into various positions and the water ripples followed her motions in a number of different ways. “There is a force that we cannot see, and it moves the water. I think that I am moving the force… or at least manipulating it.” Thoka’s eyes were still rimmed in red, and her voice was still rough, but she was clearly excited.

“I don’t understand. I mean- I understand what you are saying, but I don’t understand how that can be. Is it magic?”

Thoka smiled at Kpleeb. “I don’t think it is magic. We will both understand, I am sure of it. You just have to be patient.”

There was not much that Kpleeb could do. Either he would understand or he would not. He did feel slightly jealous that Thoka was so smart and knew so much. “Okay, I believe you. When?”

“That is up to the gods.” She smiled widely and circled the small, stone table to stand next to him. Her head came just past the height of his hairy shoulder. She reached her hand out and rest her hand on his shoulder and squeezed. “This is useful to us. I promise.”

Thoka turned away and gestured at the room. “This cave is made of stone. This stone understands our words. It moves as we command and takes shape to fill our needs. It is filled with hidden forces that communicate and act on the world. This cave is alive, Kpleeb! It is all a gift from the gods, and I must study it!”

Kpleeb was a bit taken back by the fervor in her voice, but deep inside he felt that she was correct. “If there is anyone who can figure this out, it is you, Thoka. Let me think about all of this.” He turned to walk back to his cave.

“Hey Kpleeb.”

“Yes?” Kpleeb turned.

“It is we, Kpleeb, who will figure this out. It is us, together. You are my partner here. Don’t forget that.” She flashed him a beaming smile and turned toward her food outcropping.

Kpleeb did not know what to make of this new and more friendly Thoka, but he liked the attention. He sauntered back to his cave a picked up the small device that he had been working on.

“Take a look at this,” he said as he walked back to Thoka’s outcropping. He placed the device adjacent to the waterfall that tinkled at floor level.

Thoka turned and clapped with glee as soon as she saw the moving wheel. “Oh Kpleeb, it’s genius!” She skipped around the outcropping and gave him a quick side-hug before kneeling to examine his machine.

Thoka’s waterfall trickled out of her outcropping an struck the device on its wheeled edge. The force of the water, though small, made the wheel turn continuously. A small two-dimensional rabbit shaped stone was attached to the support structure near the center of the wheel, and the wheel’s turning shaft had a rabbit tail. The tail turned and twitched when the wheel spun.

“It is useless, but I thought that you would like it,” Kpleeb said. He was still shocked by the unexpected hug.

“It is nice. I like it.” Thoka put her finger on the spot where the water exited the outcropping. “Bigger gap here,” she said.

The water stream increased and the rabbit tail moved faster.

“I am building a larger version for drilling the grey stone.” Kpleeb knelt beside Thoka. “The center shaft will be very long, and much thicker. I will press it against the grey stone and let it turn for days to make a hole there. Do you think it will work?”

“Maybe,” Thoka shrugged. “We can only know by trying it. You keep improving this, and I will increase my knowledge of the hidden forces. Together, we will learn much.” She paused, and looked him in the eye. “Can you make a special dinner for me tonight? Anything but muskrat leg.”

Kpleeb was shocked. “Urg, yes…? What do you want?”

“Anything, but muskrat leg. I will take a nap and clear the brain fog, but I feel that this is an auspicious day, and we should celebrate.” Thoka stood again and put a hand on Kpleeb’s shoulder.

“Okay, I will think of something,” Kpleeb said. He bravely patted Thoka’s shoulder and smiled widely when she did not reject his touch. “Time for your nap, I will work.”

With the gap between the caves closed behind him and Thoka napping, Kpleeb took a moment to let the whole morning sink in.

The gods changed her again. Every time I think she is the most intelligent caveperson ever, she becomes even smarter. Maybe there is hope for escape after all. He remembered how it felt to hold her, and grinned to himself. She is so smart and smells nice. I have to impress her with dinner. Maybe I can make something amazing that mam gave me. He pictured muskrat leg and dinga root. No, that is my favorite, and I already tried that. This has to be about her.

Kpleeb spent the better part of the day working on his larger drilling device and thinking about dinner with Thoka. In his mind, nothing would surpass the excitement and satisfaction that he felt at that moment.

The Index -|-

Thoka lay awake staring at the moon. Something bothered her, but she was not quite sure what it was.

It was normal for her was to think excessively. Her mind spun like top, and though it ricocheted off the surfaces of a multitude of topics, it never seemed to stop. She had so many ideas and so little time. Despite the thinking, she never failed to sleep, but tonight was different.

After some time lying silent, she realized. [It must be Kpleeb. His kindness is surprising. He was clearly very genuinely concerned.]

She turned her head to look at the gap between the caves, and her eyes swept the room slowly. Her mind wandered when she saw the food outcropping.

[So much to learn. I need to dissect and analyze.]

Thoka sighed and looked back at the moon. She sat up and looked at the gap between caves again.

[Focus, Thoka. Focus. Kpleeb has come a long way in the last handful of days. He was clearly altered just as I was. — But he is such a caveman. Can’t he just brush his hair and maybe throw some water on his face now and then?] — She sighed. [This is so petty, Thoka.]

[He is strong and really seems to work well with mechanical devices. He already understands almost more than I do in that regard. — He is more than a little hairy. Even his feet! Can’t he just take a little extra time to clean up? — Who cares? Who cares about his grooming habits? His looks don’t matter. He is a caring and sensitive caveman. He is capable, and does not try to impress or lie to gain your favor.]

Thoka laid back down and squeezed her eyes shut in an attempt to sleep.

[Envision complete darkne– but you could groom him yourself, and maybe he would like it and learn. ENVISION COMPLETE DARKNES– some cavemen just need to be trained a little.]

“This is pointless. We need to get out of here,” Thoka said to herself. “Who cares what he looks like? Just shut up!” She growled quietly, and close her eyes again to envision the darkness that would help her sleep.

In the morning Thoka woke up and yawned as she ran her finger through the little waterfall noisemaker that tinkled near her outcropping. It was early even though she was exhausted and had slept longer than usual.

[Kpleeb is not up yet. Now is a good time to learn.]

Thoka relieved herself, drank, and did her stretching exercises as she did every morning. When she was done, she found her mind to be clear. Stretching always cleared her mind, and she had learned to harness that focus for her work. She began by taking apart her food outcropping.

The stone that it was made of was the same as the rest of the stone that lined every surface of the cave. It was organic in shape and there were no separate parts or pieces that she could find. Her first cut was horizontally into the wall under the bowl. The water that drained away trickled into her cut and down the side of the cave. The hole she requested in the bottom of the hollow bowl had no bearing on the tube that carried the water through the stone and downward. When the hole was closed, the tube remained intact.

Seeing this, she cut stone away from the tube that continued downward until her cut intersected the grey stone. There, the tube stopped, and the grey stone was solid.

[Interesting.] “Cave,” she said, “close the drain and give me water.”

It complied and she took a handful of water and poured it on the grey stone at the bottom of the hole in the floor. When the water splashed into the hole, the grey stone opened up a perfectly round hole that would easily fit her arm.

She laid on her stomach and shouted into the hole. Her voice echoed eerily for a moment. She reached down and put her hand inside. The hole did not close. The hole was dark and the seemed to continue indefinitely into the floor.

“Enlarge this hole,” she said tapping the inside of the hole.

Nothing happened. It was no surprise to Thoka. The grey stone seemed to be designed as the substructure that contained all else. It opened only for specific reasons. [And maybe in specific places?]

She stood and started removing stone from the bottom of the defecation pit instead. As the stone moved out of the way, the green goo that was contained inside slowly spilled out of its pit and spread out across the grey stone. She wrinkled her nose at the strong, astringent scent that accompanied the green goo.

Thoka made a cup out of stone and then scooped green goo into it and set the cup on the table. Using a stone spatula, she pushed the green go out of the way and looked at the grey stone underneath. There was no hole. She gathered a handful of water and poured it into the puddle of goo. The floor opened in an identical sized hole, and the water drained away with some of the goo following slowly. This time the hole closed on its own.

[Interesting. Maybe it knows to keep the goo in but needs to eliminate water.]

Thoka picked up her cup with the goo in it, made it into a ball by building the walls upward to meet at the top, and placed it on the shelf. She then made a larger bowl and scooped a bunch of goo into it and put it on the table.

“Hey, Thoka, can I come in?”

Thoka turned and saw Kpleeb waving through the hole they had agreed on. It was there to pass sound, but too high to see through. “Yes, come in,” she called out.

He told the wall to open, and then came in smiling. “What’s that?” He sniffed. “Oh. I have never seen that outside of the hole.” He poked the goo with his finger.

“No!” said Thoka brusquely, but it was too late.

Kpleeb grimaced and waved his finger around wildly. “Ouch, that hurts. A lot!”

“Well stop waving around like a tundra hare. Let me see it.”

Kpleeb out his hand, palm up, into Thoka’s waiting hands. She ran the tip of the finger gently against the wall.

“Oh, ouch!” Kpleeb cried.

Thoka ignored him and splashed some water on his finger. It had an angry, red blister where the green goo had touched it, but it looked clean. When she sniffed it there was no scent. “That was not smart, Kpleeb. You know the goo dissolves feces. Your finger is made of the same basic stuff.”

Kpleeb looked sufficiently embarrassed, and shrugged. “I was not thinking about it.”

Thoka smiled at him and patted his hairy shoulder. “It’s easy to get excited about new things, but you have to be careful. This cave,” she said gesturing, “this whole place, the food, the walls, the gods… everything is new and potentially dangerous. Wash it off, and just wait a few days for it to heal.”

“Thanks, Thoka,” Kpleeb said with a smile. “You are the best.”

Thoka shrugged. “Of course I am. Now, go back and work on something. I am still busy.”

“What is all this anyway?”

“It is just the cave, you know? I have to determine where this power comes from. Is the stone a creature that obeys our commands? Is it magic? I want to know if I can use these new discoveries for us. I do have some ideas already, but I need to know.”

Kpleeb nodded at Thoka. “I believe it because you are the smartest person I know.”

“Thank you, Kpleeb,” Thoka said. She grinned at him. “You always say the nicest things.”

“Well, it is true. You are pretty too.” Kpleeb looked at his feet momentarily and then back at her with a smile.

Thoka stood there for a moment silently trying to find a response. She was silent for just a few seconds too long, and the moment became awkward.

“Urh, sorry. I did not mean to offend you.” Kpleeb shuffled a little and turned to walk away.

“Wait, it’s fine. I- I just don’t know what to say. Thank you.” Thoka smiled broadly and hoped that it would ease Kpleeb’s feelings.

He walked to the gap in the cave and turned to look back at her. “I’ll be over here working on a device.” He waved awkwardly and turned away.

Thoka turned to continue her own work. She felt a flush in her cheeks that she had not experienced for a long, long time. [He certainly is a nice caveman.]

The Index -|-

Kpleeb was in funk. A day passed. Two days, and then four more. He fiddled endlessly with Thoka’s small device. He built a dozen new devices and improved upon them with Thoka’s help.

Thoka, for the most part, was quiet. She answered when Kpleeb spoke, and gave her assistance when he asked, but she was subdued. Kpleeb did not know what she was doing. He only knew that she tinkered with her own devices and was deep in contemplation for the majority of each day.

Kpleeb looked up from where he was hunched over a small table that protruded from the stone floor near the gap between the two caves. Thoka quietly slid pebbles across the many rods of the new counting rack she had made two days before.

[She looks so sad in a way. I wonder if she still believes that we can escape?]

Kpleeb thought back to the voice command and the total annihilation of the device he had built. His anger simmered under the surface, but it was now lined with a worry that had not been there before.

[The gods are so powerful. How can we escape or fight anything so strong and so unknown? Only an evil god would keep us here against our will.]

Kpleeb rose from his sitting position and approached Thoka. She looked up at him but did not speak, so he sat next to her. Thoka continued moving the pebbles around, and Kpleeb waited. In a few moments, she stopped and looked at him.

“What is it, Kpleeb?”

“Are you okay,” he said putting his hand on her shoulder gently. “I mean… you have been very quiet since the voice spoke.” He noticed how soft her skin felt and almost immediately realized how awkward the situation might seem to her.

He took his hand away. “Urh, I- I am sorry for getting so, uh, comfortable. I am just concerned and want you to know that we are in this fight together.” He paused and shifted his eyes downward. “You can talk to me about it if you are also concerned.”

Thoka looked at him strangely for a moment before speaking. “I am fine, just thinking. It is true that I am concerned about what happened. How can we not be worried by this?”

“I know,” said Kpleeb. “These gods command such power. It is a strange magic or some other kind of power that I have never seen.”

“Whatever these gods are, they are very different than the gods I was told about as a child.” She shrugged. “I am worried, Kpleeb. The voice is not cavehuman, and it came at the perfect time, which proves that they are always watching and ready. They can speak instant destruction on stone which means they can do the same to us.”

“Do we have any hope?”

Thoka hesitated and appeared to consider the point for an extended moment before answering.

“What am I supposed to say? On one hand, we are trapped by some kind of unknown and powerful entity.” She raised her other hand. “On the other hand, if we lose hope, we will die here. Maybe it will be slow, but we will die anyways. I refuse to give up.”

Kpleeb was stirred by her statement, and he nodded in agreement.

“Kpleeb, there is something that I have been thinking about for some time. Have you noticed that each time we received these neck wounds that we had after-effects?”

“What do you mean?” Kpleeb shrugged. Do you mean the fuzzy-brain?”

“Yes, and the clear goo and the neck bumps themselves.” Thoka looked at him seriously. “I think that the gods are touching us in some way.”

“It- I guess it does make some sense. It is possible. But why? What is the point?”

Thoka raised her palms slightly in uncertainty. “Each time I wake with a bump, I feel as if I am smarter, don’t you?”

Kpleeb balled up his fist in anger when he thought about it. “So, you are saying that these gods are changing us, making us smarter?” It seemed truly unbelievable to him. [How dare they!]

“Don’t you feel your mind racing some times? I know myself, and these things I think about are new. I am able to do and understand more than before.” Thoka gestured at the counting rack. “The smartest person in my village in the wet mountains only used stones, and the largest number I ever heard of was fifty. Nobody even thought of the five-grouping math. Now, I think I understand that this kind of math is not enough.”

Kpleeb shrugged noncommittally. [More math talk, sheesh!]

Thoka did not stop. “I think ten-grouping math is better now, only today. Only since my last neck bump! Look. Five-grouping math is complex because there are just… well you have to know how it works to make sense of it. Ten-grouping math is easier to understand. When you count from 1 to 9, the next number is just 10.”

Kpleeb did not understand.

Thoka waved her hand excitedly. “Look, you just, start a whole new column from 1! ” She drew invisible numbers in the air with her hand. “It is more logical!”

“Okay, fine,” said Kpleeb. “Math is good, and you are smart and good at it. I want to think about these gods touching us. I want to know why. Why would they make us smarter?” He shook his head. “It is crazy!”

“I don’t know why, Kpleeb. I just am questioning everything that is happening. Maybe this is some form of torture, or maybe this is just a test. Either way, we can use this to escape somehow. “We must escape!”

“Maybe they will make us so smart that we become gods like them.”

It seemed so far-fetched, but Kpleeb contemplated the possibilities anyway. [If I become a god, I will rise up and make these gods pay for their actions.] It was a satisfactory thought that made him smile, even if it was crazy. He looked at Thoka.

“I need to think about these ideas.” He stood and walked away leaving Thoka staring after him.

He sat in his own cave against the wall, put his elbows on his knees and his head in his hands.

[If the gods had this much power, to capture cavehumans, take us to a secret dungeon, speak from the air with such power, and make us smarter… They can do anything, and we cannot escape. I do not understand why they would do this – if it is even true, but I will try to learn more. They will regret this.]

He gently smacked the back of his head against the wall. It seemed so fruitless.

[We cannot even make clothing. The food is easy, but it requires power from the gods. They could stop feeding us at any time! But…  I did make a scratch on the wall. I will make better machines.]

He sighed.

[Thoka is pretty. She is a bit odd, but I like her. How does she keep her skin so soft and her hair so clean and neat? And she is amazingly smart. It is a bit intimidating, but it can be useful to both of us.]

Kpleeb stood and went to the gap between the caves and looked in. Thoka was still sitting with her back straight and moving the pebbles around on her counting rack. Every few moments she would make a dimple in the stone floor next to her with her finger before continuing. From the side, he could see the way her neck cloth draped pleasingly over her chest. He had looked before, of course, but she was very direct with her eye contact, and he always felt odd about staring while she was watching him.

Kpleeb’s loincloth was only a cord around his waist with a cloth in the front that stopped just a few inches short of his knee, but the wet mountain cave-tribe also had a back flap to their loincloth. The cloths were shorter too.

After daydreaming for a long moment, he shook his head. For once in his life, he did not feel terribly confident. Maybe it was just the sheer lack of options.

[Do I really have a chance or…? No, she is too smart for me.]

He turned and went back to his shelf of tiny devices intent on thinking about something else. After a few minutes he decided to make a device that would press against the grey stone and rotate. He thought that the scraping friction and pressure might slowly erode the stone. He began to work and was soon lost in the effort and focus of his task.

He made three different rotating devices for testing, and mulled many things over and over in his head.

“Kpleeb, are you hungry?”

He stood stiffly and looked toward Thoka. She was standing in the shadowy gap between the caves. He noticed that the sun had begun to dim, and her knees were lit in the glow. He could not see her face.

As was the usual, working with his hands had removed his stress and centered his mind in a most satisfactory way. “I lost all track of time,” he said with an easy smile.

He approached Thoka, and she backed out of the way to let him through. “I made food for you, if you would be willing to taste something from the wet mountains.”

“Urh, sure. What is it?” Kpleeb had never been a terribly adventurous eater. “Soup?”

“No, I know how you don’t like soup.”

“It is not that I don’t like it,” he said mimicking her word mix, “it is just so difficult to eat, and does not have the same stuff as meat or dinga root.”

“It is often very cold in the wet mountains, and we find that soup makes us warm. But never mind, I did not make soup.” She waved at the table. In the center was a large pile of small, crispy legs. They were pale in color, and there was a divot in the table that held some kind of sauce. Next to the divot was a small stack of root vegetables with leaves sprouting from one end.

[It certainly smells good.] Kpleeb sat where Thoka pointed and reached for one of the mini-limbs.

“Hold on, Kpleeb,” said Thoka with a smile. “Let me explain what this is first.

He nodded and waited impatiently.

She pointed. “These are frog legs from wet mountain hissing frogs. They are the largest of the frogs where I grew up. And these,” she said pointing at the vegetables, “are parsnips. They are slightly cooked. Both the legs and the parsnips are delicious when dipped in the sauce.”

“Frog legs?” Kpleeb leaned forward and sniffed. They did smell good. He picked up a parsnip and bit off the end. It was a vegetable. “Mmmm,” he said unimpressed.

“You don’t have to like it, but please be honest.” Thoka nodded at the frog legs.

Kpleeb stubbornly ignored the pointed offer and instead dipped the parsnip into the sauce and took a bite. His face changed. “Ahh. What a difference! Wow!”

He reached for the pile and picked up a somewhat stiff frog leg about as thick as his index finger and more than twice as long.

“Wait, taste it before you try it with sauce,” said Thoka.

Kpleeb ate the frog leg and was surprised at how light and moist the meat felt. It was bland, but the charring on the outside added a flavor that he was well acquainted with.

“Okay, I can get behind this,” he said looking at Thoka. She seemed expectant, and uniquely focused on him, which made him feel slightly self-conscious. He picked up another frog leg, dipped it into the sauce, and then ate it quickly.

“Unbelievable!” he said quietly before looking at her. “What – er, why is this so good?”

Thoka had a look of immense satisfaction on her face, and her eyes practically glowed. “This is something my ma used to make for da when I was growing up. It was his favorite meal.” She smiled widely at Kpleeb and bent forward to pick up several of the frog legs.

Kpleeb forgot about feeling self-conscious, and felt his comfort bloom under Thoka’s scrutiny. Their conversation wended its way through various topics and was intermingled with laughter and a sense of familiarity. After a few minutes, Kpleeb leaned back and patted his full stomach with an exaggerated sigh.

“That was… incredible,” he said. He noticed how the corners of her brown eyes wrinkled as she smiled proudly at his compliment. “You- er, your food is so good. Thank you.”

Thoka nodded with what Kpleeb thought was a super friendly smile and then stood. “About time for my sleep,” she said with a nod toward the gap between the caves.

Kpleeb got up and began walking.

[She might be too smart for me, but I am the only caveman available.]

The Index -|-

The sun was just beginning to dim when Kpleeb awoke. He rolled over and immediately noticed that the brain fog that had plagued him was gone. He blinked his eyes. His vision had cleared up as well.

How long have I been asleep?

Kpleeb sniffed. The air seemed normal. He could hear a faint tapping in the distance. It seemed to be coming from the gap in the cave wall. He stood, and stretched, bouncing on his toes. His body felt good, and all of the numbness and motor function issues that he had experienced earlier seemed to be gone. He went to the defecation pit, and then stopped at the food outcropping for a drink.

When he crossed over the gap between the two caves, he saw Thoka holding her other spindly device and moving pieces around. It was that movement that made the tapping sound he had heard.

Thoka looked up as he approached. “How are you feeling?” She put the device down and stood to examine him.

Kpleeb endured the momentary prodding with patience. Thoka looked at his eyes first, and then moved behind him to look at the wound on his neck. It was still slightly sore, but nothing he could not handle, even when she poked at it.

“The white circle has faded,” she said.

“I feel great,” said Kpleeb with a cheerful smile. “What’s that?” He pointed at the device that Thoka had been holding.

She hesitated for a moment and then picked up the device and handed it to him.

The object was a delicate framework a little bigger than both of his hands together and made from thin rods connected to edge pieces on four sides. It was formed in a matrix with five parallel rods running in one direction. Kpleeb held the edge and looked at the knobs that sat upon the thin rods.

“Hold it like this,” said Thoka as she took the object and rotated it ninety degrees so that he was grasping the next edge. The five parallel rods now pointed away from him and the knobs rattled as they slid to the bottom.

Each rod was thin and smooth, and Kpleeb was impressed by the level of detail that Thoka had formed from the stone. “What does it do?”

“It is a counting rack,” Thoka said. “It helps someone count and perform very big maths without having to write everything or keep all of the numbers in their head. Here,” she took the device back from him and laid it on her shelf. “There are four knobs on each of the five rods. So if I want to mark 34₅, or 19, I move 4 knobs up on the first column, and 3 knobs up on the second.” She pointed. “34₅, see?”

Kpleeb nodded. “Okay I think I understand. This is just something to remember the numbers for you.”

“It does do that, but it also helps learn other things.” She moved a few knobs around. “What’s that?”

Kpleeb saw three columns with knobs moved upward. “2, 1, 4,” he said. “214₅. 1 group of 5 plus 4 is 9. What is the 2 for?”

“2 groups of 25. 25 and 25 is 50 and then 9.”

“So 214₅ is 59?” Kpleeb nodded just to make the lesson stop. A significant part of him did not want to spend the rest of his life trying to understand Thoka’s math, especially if it was over his head. He knew that he should be honest about it. “I think this is an interesting device, but…”

“It is modeled after some counting stones that I saw someone use when I was a child. They were grouped into similar colors.” Thoka seemed proud of herself.

“You are very smart,” said Kpleeb carefully trying to pacify her math pushiness, “but I don’t like math, and I don’t want to do it.”

“We must be smart in order to escape, Kpleeb. In time, it will become easier.” She looked very serious. “How can we do anything except be trapped here if we cannot escape? How long will it be? Maybe we will die old and hunched over with straggly grey hair in these caves together.”

That was a very unappealing thought. Kpleeb sighed. “I know. I will make some effort, but I will need much time, and many breaks. Either way, I want to build your other device. Building is more interesting to me.”

Thoka nodded. “I am hungry.” She stood and asked the stone outcropping for soup.

Kpleeb picked up the small device with the rotating rod and went into his own cave. He decided to make the new device at a spot where some of the stone had already been removed from the wall. The grey structure underneath glinted darkly in the dimming light of the sun. He commanded a new shelf next to his building spot, and placed the small device on it.

“Cave, make two tree trunks here. One pace apart and as thick as my body.” He pointed with his knuckle at the floor in two places to mark the spots. “Make them as tall as my head.” The stone began to grow, but as usual it was a painfully slow process. Kpleeb decided to eat while he waited.

Finally, after he had finished his leisurely meal and urinated and assembled and disassembled the device in his head three times, the stone had finished growing. The sun was very dim now. Kpleeb reached up and smacked the top of one of the trunks. Next, he used all of his strength to shove against it with his shoulder. Very strong, good.

“Make a thick rod connecting the trunks.” He ran his hand from the top of one trunk to the other. He glanced at the sun again and growled in frustration. “Sun, stay bright for more time tonight!” Nothing happened, of course. He walked to the gap in the wall, and there Thoka was just walking toward him.

“I wish there was a way to make light at night. We have no wood or fire to make a torch. I cannot work at night,” he complained.

“I am going to sleep,” she said, ignoring his comment.

Kpleeb looked at her sun through the gap and it was exactly as dim as his as far as he could tell. “I will see you tomorrow.”

How can there be two suns, anyway? I already knew this was a strange sun, but… He shrugged slightly to himself. It did not seem to matter what he learned. There was always so much more. These gods clearly have the ability to make light whenever they wish.

Kpleeb sat with his back against one of the trunks and waited as the sun grew more and more dim. The cave was perfectly silent, and the growing stone did not make any sound at all. He nodded off, and later when he woke, he crawled to his sleeping hollow and fell asleep again.

When he awoke Thoka was standing over him with a surprised look on her face. “Thoka, is everything alright?” He stood slowly.

“It happened to me again,” she said. “Look.” She turned and bent her head so that he could see the wound.

He did not have to strain to see because Thoka was a bit shorter than him. She did have a wound just as she described. He reached out and poked it gently.

“Ow!” She turned and slapped his hand.

“You poked my wound and I did not complain,” he said. “Don’t be a thunket. You will be fine. It’s raised. Do you think something is in there?”

Thoka stood on her toes to look at his neck and then shook her head. “No, yours has gone down completely in only a day. I do feel a little fuzzy this morning though. I’ll go eat something and meditate.” She waved her hand vaguely in his direction as she walked away.

Two wounds one night after the other. I wonder what that means? He watched Thoka go and then got a long drink of water.

When he was done he looked at his partially complete structure. The crossbar he had requested was complete, and it was very thick. He reached up with his large, hairy hands and swung carefully from the bar. It certainly supports my weight. I hope it is enough.

“Make a thin rod here as tall as my hand,” he said pointing at the floor about two paces from the tree trunks. He raised his hand as high as he could. The rod grew quickly upward from the stone, and in a matter of seconds it was complete. He could have broken the rod off easily and used it as a spear.

“Now, make a very thick trunk from the crossbar to the rod.” He pondered how he might make the trunk rest on, but not merge with, the crossbar. The stone appeared to grow from other stone in a way that required the merging. When the trunk was done, he traced a line around the crossbar on the horizontal axis and told the cave to make a space there. It did, and Kpleeb stood back to admire his handiwork.

“Hey, Thoka,” he said through the gap between the caves, “come see if we can break through the grey stone.”

In a few long seconds Thoka approached through the gap. “That is very big.” She circled the device once before focusing on the gap between the crossbar and the trunk. “This is a very rough cut. How did you do it?”

Kpleeb felt heat rising in his cheeks. “Urh… I. Well, I just traced with my finger and told it where to cut.”

Thoka nodded. “It is alright. I did that as well at first, but I learned that there is some affinity the stone has with the object that is used to direct it. Fingers are very squishy inside and produce uneven lines. You can make another stone with a smaller tip that will be very smooth.” She must have noticed Kpleeb’s face, for she immediately added, “But, this is perfect for what we are trying today, right?”

Kpleeb nodded and looked over his creation. It was not beautiful or smooth, but it was massive, and he hoped that would count. “This is very heavy,” he said patting the enlarged hammer-shaped head at the end of the rotating trunk.

He struck outward with the palm of his hand and broke the thin rod that held the hammer elevated. When he did, the hammer moved downward, swung around the crossbar. The head collided with the grey stone wall with a resounding thud and a shower of dust. Kpleeb could not help but smile as the floor under his feet shook.

“That was very strong, don’t you think?” he said looking at Thoka expectantly.

She looked thoughtful, and pushed the now hanging trunk with her foot. It swayed slightly. “How can you reset the trunk so that it can swing again?”

“I don’t know yet, but I will work on it,” he grumbled. He could tell that she was still deep in thought as she walked away without saying another word.

Kpleeb commanded the cave to grow another thin rod and another, larger hammer in place of the one that had fallen. When it was complete, he still had not determined how he would reset the hammer once it had fallen, so he requested another entire trunk with a hammer-head next to it.

He slept fitfully after lying awake for hours trying to determine how to pull the heavy hammer to a height above his head. In the morning he was groggy and cranky as he stood and looked at the twin hammers. These trunks, at least, had very smooth edges on the crossbar, and he was grateful that Thoka had taught him how to direct the stone into a more accurate build.

When Thoka entered his cave, he was still frustrated. “Okay, I am ready to try again,” he said abruptly.

She looked at him with a piercing stare for a long moment before turning and coolly replying. “I see you have two hammers now, but no way to raise them again. Why did you not request five or ten?”

“There is no way to position ten hammers that would strike the same spot,” he retorted too quickly. “Anyway, I did think of a way to raise the hammer again, but it would require a cord of some kind and we do not have anything to make cord from.” He fingered the edge of his loincloth. “These are so shabby, soon we will be utterly naked.” With disgust he struck the first thin rod holding the first hammer.

The hammer fell.

“Klo hiut!” a voice said immediately. The huge stone hammer head disintegrated in a puff and the floor beneath it was dusted with a cloud of particles that quickly sank into the stone.

Kpleeb looked at Thoka in shock and then turned back to the device. The trunk swung headless back and forth below the crossbar until it stopped moving of its own accord. He stepped toward it.

“Stop, Kpleeb, it might be dangerous,” said Thoka.

“I don’t care.” He stooped and looked at the end of the trunk where the hammer had been. It was melted at the end as if the stone itself had decided to let go of the hammer. Huh. He straightened and looked around the room. That was the garbled voice, not the silvery voice. He had not heard this voice in many, many days. Maybe I should have made a mark for each voice and each neck wound… Too late now.

“Well, what do we do now, Thoka?”

She walked right up to Kpleeb, closer than she had ever been to him, and leaned in to whisper in his ear. Her breath moved his curls and tickled his neck, raising the small hairs.

“I will speak to the stone and tell it to be strong.”

Kpleeb scoffed quietly and shook his head in disbelief. “You have no magic.” He folded his arms and watched as she stepped up to the remaining hammer-trunk.

Thoka put her arms around the trunk and held it close. She mouthed many words in a way that Kpleeb could not hear. She gently patted the trunk when she was done and stepped away.

“Now try,” she said.

“You’re as crazy as a death-white,” Kpleeb said under his breath. He broke the retaining rod and the hammer fell.

“Klo heeit gah!” The same gravelly voice rang with power in the cave and both Kpleeb and Thoka instinctively covered their ears. The hammer, its trunk, the crossbar, and the base all simultaneously shattered into tiny pieces.

Kpleeb was pelted with bits of stone and rubble, some as big as muskrat eyeballs. It was over in a moment, and within a few minutes, the floor had absorbed all of the pieces. He looked at Thoka, and spoke. “I think the words of the gods are stronger than yours.”

“It is true,” she said without any indication that it bothered her. “True, but I will learn their words and their power.”

Kpleeb walked to the grey stone where the first hammer had struck. There was a mark there. Maybe it was infinitesimal, but it was there.

It can be damaged. The gods are not impervious. Kpleeb smiled with satisfaction.