The Index -|-

“Now, 34₅,” said Thoka.

“Urh… fourteen?”

“No, it’s nineteen. Look,” she held up a hand three times. “Five and five and five is what?”

“Fifteen, right?”

“Yes, three fives and then add four. Fifteen and four.” She tallied three groups of five on the wall and then added four more.

Kpleeb wrangled his fingers a couple of times before it clicked. “Urh, yes. Nineteen. This is hard.”

Thoka had been schooling Kpleeb intermittently for a few days, and he was becoming tired of it.

“What is the point of this? It is too complex.” He rubbed his sloping forehead for a moment before standing. “I already knew how to count to eight, and you taught me nine through twenty. Why do I need this five-grouping math?”

“You need more math for the future, just like you will need to know how to read and write.” said Thoka.

“I know the alphabet,” Kpleeb said, “and a few words.”

“Yes, and I will teach you more each day., but for now, we can stop this for a while and try some more hands-on things.” She walked over to one of her larger shelves and muttered a command at the wall.

Kpleeb could not hear the command, but he saw the wall open. Thoka reached into the hole and pulled out two objects. She turned and handed the first one to him before placing the second one on a high shelf.

The object she handed Kpleeb was a complex stone contraption with a square base. On opposite sides, two fingers rose out of the stone and supported a beam with a rotating piece suspended on it. The rotating piece had another; thicker rod attached to one edge.

Kpleeb turned the object over in his hand and the rotating pieces wobbled back and forth. He looked at Thoka. “What is it?”

“It is a prototype of a machine I want to build.”

“Pro-toe-type?”

She nodded. “Something I want to build, but smaller. For testing. Look.” She took it from his hand and placed it upright on its square base on the nearby shelf. Then, with her fingers, she held up the thicker rod on the rotating piece and dropped it. Gravity took the rod and swung its end down and between the supports before swinging back.

The piece was still gently rocking when Kpleeb picked it up. He looked at the round pieces and the support rod and the swivel-rod. With his index finger he pushed it again.

“What does it do?”

Thoka’s face flashed a momentary spark of annoyance before she took the device back. She placed it on the shelf against the wall. “Imagine that this device is very large, bigger than you, and this wall is the wall over there,” she said pointing to the cave wall a few meters away. She lifted the swivel-rod again.

When she let it go, the contraption swung around and the swivel-rod hit the wall squarely with a light tap. “We could break through the wall.”

Kpleeb could not believe what he was hearing. He shook his head and frowned. “That will not work, and anyway, what if the gods hear us? Will they not stop us?” He picked up the device. “We do not know if this will even break this stone.” He tapped the shelf as if testing its strength.

“These spirits seem to be in complete control, Kpleeb,” she said, “you could be one of them, or even me. They could be standing right here!” Thoka gestured next to herself vaguely and shrugged. “I am not one of them, of course, but the point is that we do not know. We have to learn and try our best to escape.”

She glanced up at the dimming sun. “Are you hungry? We can continue learning math tomorrow.”

[Not more math, please!] Kpleeb sighed and then spoke. “Yes, food is good. I want muskrat leg with dinga root.” He walked to Thoka’s food outcropping, but she spoke up.

“I want worm soup.”

He looked at her. “You go ahead so that it knows what how you want it. I will be back soon.” He walked to the gap in the wall and told his table what he wanted. For some reason he was feeling a little nostalgic for home, and in particular, his mam’s dinga. Thoka ate soup quite often. It was cold with soft and spicy worms. He did not understand the attraction.

He urinated and then looked around the cave while the muskrat leg was made. Almost all of the holes were filled in now. He had proven that there was no way through the grey stone, and it made no sense to keep the holes around. He bent and rubbed the knee that he had skinned two nights ago when he had tripped over one of the holes he had left in the floor.

His daily routine had changed in the few short sun-cycles since he had met Thoka. Having someone to talk to made the days go by far more quickly. He looked forward to waking, but sometimes had a difficult time falling asleep. There was so much to think about, even if he did not understand much of what she spoke about. The lessons could be excruciating, but deep inside, he felt that it must be worth it in the end.

The smell of lightly-roasted muskrat leg wafted through his senses, and he turned to gather his food. Next to the food outcropping was the platter that Thoka had made and named for him. He placed the hot legs on it and then gingerly lifted the dinga root pieces onto the plate. His fingers burned in the short moment that he touched them, but he did like them hot. Licking his fingertips, he crossed back into Thoka’s cave and met her at the low table that she used each meal time.

Thoka sat cross-legged. In front of her was a large and shallow bowl with a fat, stone tube resting on its rim. She smiled at him and wrinkled her nose as he approached.

“I do not know how you can eat muskrat. It is so gross.” She leaned forward and stirred the bowl before placing the end of the tube in her mouth and sucking on it.

Kpleeb watched in fascination. “That is an odd way to eat soup.”

“This is how it is done in the wet mountains,” she replied, taking another sip.

“What happens if you have chunky soup?” He rested his plate on the table and awkwardly kneeled and then shifted to a sitting position.

“We do not make chunky soup, but certainly one could drink it from the bowl.” She paused and lifted the large bowl to her lips in demonstration. “Let us talk about more important things.”

Kpleeb nodded and tore at his muskrat leg.

“There are no stars in the sky here,” said Thoka gesturing at the ceiling. “There is no sky at all, just the sun and moon, and they are false.”

Kpleeb nodded. It was slightly confusing, but the statement rang true inside him. “This is lo-gi-cal,” he said. “The sun does not set, it only dims.”

“Yes, and we are trapped inside a cave with no doors and a false sun. We are captives to the gods, Kpleeb.” Thoka paused and drank more soup.

[She is so smart, and very thoughtful.] Kpleeb ate a piece of dinga root and then spoke. “This angers me. It has angered me for many sun cycl- urh, days. I hate them, and if I escape, I will make them pay.”

“This emotion makes sense, but we must be careful to learn and control our own fate if we can.” She pushed her bowl away though it was not empty. “You and I are young and have much time to discover the workings of these caves, the gods that control them, and learn how to use what we have. Tomorrow, you can begin to learn more about breaking the stones.”

Kpleeb nodded and sank into thought. In a short while, Thoka announced her bed-time and they closed the gap between the caves.

Kpleeb toyed with the device that Thoka had given him for many minutes before drifting off to sleep. [Why does the rotating piece fall? What will make it fall faster or harder?] Full of questions, he finally slept.

Kpleeb sat on a rock overlooking the end of the canyon where the river spread out into the large and flat marsh that bridged the area between the tundra and the ocean. He saw a glint of light in the far distance, but the atmospheric haze covered all distant features in a general blur. The stunted marsh-trees grew twisted and blacked, and their trunks were partially submerged. The river flowed at a snail’s pace through the marsh, leaving a contorted path where little vegetation grew.

He heard a tinkle and turned his head to look over his right shoulder. He quickly scrambled backward on his hands and feet for a few paces. The death-white sat on its white yak a short distance away gazing across the lands below. [Why did I not hear it approach?] Kpleeb rose to his haunches in preparation for a possible escape.

“The river flows, and the world changes with it,” the death-white said in a smooth and emotionless voice. The yak stared directly at Kpleeb, and its eyes glittered with myriad colors.

Kpleeb felt an intrusive force from the yak as it analyzed him. Under its scrutiny all of his sins were laid bare, and he sensed that he was minuscule in its design. Time stretched and for many moments he was locked in place by the yak.

Suddenly, there was a painfully high-pitched buzzing sound, and though he tried, he could not turn his head to look. The yak’s penetrating gaze held him fast. A stinging sensation grew slowly until it was unbearable. His throat refused to cry out though every muscle in his body clenched tightly and his spine arched.

“You must accept,” he heard death-white say just as he lost consciousness.

There was a hand on his shoulder, and he opened his eyes. Thoka looked down at him with concern.

“Are you okay? I heard you scream.”

Kpleeb sat up and looked around the cave. The sun was very dim and the whole cave was draped in shadow. Though he understood Thoka’s words, his ears sounded as if they were stuffed with yak’s-wool. With her help, he stood and walked to the outcropping to gather a drink of water.

“Your neck,” said Thoka. She touched him, just below his hairline and he felt a growing pain. “There is goo here.” When she held out her fingers, he recognized the clear substance that he had seen in the past on his own fingers.

“I saw a death-white in my dream,” he mumbled.

Thoka nodded. “There is not enough light to see your neck. What did it say?”

Kpleeb hesitated for a long moment as he tried to recall the dream. “It said that the world changes and I must accept, but the yak held me in place with its eyes.” He shuddered involuntarily.

“Come sit down,” said Thoka. She led him through the gap into her cave and had him sit on the stool that she had requested the previous day. “Tell me as much as you can remember about your dream. Everything.”

“I saw the land from a high place,” Kpleeb began. “The river was below and flowed into the watery lands that I have heard of beyond the canyon. Then I heard something and turned to find the death-white. It spoke and the yak stared at me. I could not look away, even when the buzzing and pain happened. Then I woke up.”

Thoka smiled and patted his shoulder. “How do you feel?”

“My ears are blurry,” said Kpleeb. He stuck the tip of his index finger into one ear and twisted, but nothing changed. “What do you think it means?”

“In truth, I do not know, but I do recognize the same feelings I had. A dream followed by disorientation. I did not try to write what happened my dream, and now I cannot remember most of them.” She traced some lines on the table with her fingertip. “You should make a special mark on your day markings, Kpleeb.” Thoka stood and walked to her day marking list. “Mark where I touch,” she told the cave. With the tip of her smallest finger, she made her mark and then added an angled accent above it. “I made a mark for you on my wall. Maybe we can combine our markings into one.”

Kpleeb did not feel like making a mark of any kind. “Yes, yes that is fine.” He put his head into his hands.

The sun had brightened noticeably while they were talking and Thoka came to look at his neck. “There is a wound here,” she said quietly. “I can finally see one with my own eyes. It is small, white in the center and surrounded by a circle of red. The clear goo has dried on the surface.”

“Don’t touch it,” said Kpleeb, “it hurts.”

“I know. Do you want to do math today?”

Kpleeb turned to look at her. “Are you serious?”

She looked abashed. “Sorry, I… I guess I thought maybe you might be feeling better. We can wait until tomorrow if you need to rest.”

Kpleeb nodded. “I think I will lay down and rest for some time today.” He stood and went back to his cave. His thoughts circled slowly like tundra-buzzards waiting for a dying animal to cease its movement.

[These gods speak in dreams, but what does it mean?]

[What must I accept? Change?]

[I need to escape. There must be a way.] His thoughts drifted to Thoka’s device. [A heavier rod will break a thicker stone. I should test this, maybe with a smaller stone. If it can break stone, maybe it can be made to break the grey stone as well. It will take much force and a very big device.]

Kpleeb had many thoughts and plans that repeated over and over in his head. Eventually he fell asleep nestled in the warm hollow he had created near the outcropping.

The Index -|-

Kpleeb’s excitement grew as his conversations with Thoka continued. Not only was he starving for cavehuman interaction, but her big, brown eyes glowed with a certain fascinating intelligence. It was clear to him that her mind worked at super speed, and Kpleeb felt challenged by the way she constantly probed at everything she encountered. He also felt stimulated in ways that he had never experienced before, and he could not define what it was that he felt.

“Before I came here, I just wanted to be a rock carver like my friend, Pfftul,” Kpleeb said. “Now, I feel that I could be more. I am not suited to be a warrior.”

Thoka nodded. “I understand your feelings. These caves have opened my eyes. I am not sure yet what the answers are, but I believe that I will discover great things here.”

Kpleeb felt outclassed when she talked this way, even after a few hours of non-stop chatter about their childhoods and everything else. [She is extraordinary!] Her pale hair in particular intrigued him.

“Why is your hair so pale?” he said abruptly. Being that he was so unused to people, the interruption took a moment to set in. “Sorry… Urh, it is just that in the canyon river tribe, and every other tribe that I have encountered, the hair is like mine.” He ruffled his shaggy bangs. “It is brown. Just brown. The only person I ever saw that had hair similar to yours was a death-white that passed through riding a tundra yak when I was just a cave-child.”

“Death-white?” Thoka asked. Is it a person or…?” She looked in askance at him.

“It is a person just us but the hair and skin are all very white, and the eyes are a bright blue. My mam told me that they are touched by evil before they are born.” Kpleeb paused. “What I remember was that her yak had many silvery items hanging from its mane, and it tinkled when it moved.”

“Impossible to sneak with a yak like that,” commented Thoka.

“She smiled at me,” said Kpleeb, “and I remember that her teeth were perfect.” He shuddered with involuntary fear. “No one has teeth like that unless they are evil.”

Thoka smiled at him, and Kpleeb noticed how clean her teeth were. [They’re not perfect, though. Just clean. It’s different.]

“How do you keep your hair so clean in this cave?”

“I just wash it in the water basin.” She pointed at the waterfall.

“But it’s so straight!”

“I do comb it, and it helps that my hair is very fine and straight on its own.” She walked to a shelf above the food outcropping and picked up a piece of stone that had been shaped into a flat hand with many small and parallel fingers. “This is my comb.” She demonstrated by carefully pulling the comb through her hair.

Kpleeb blurted without thinking. “Wow, you are so smart!”

“I am not stupid and neither are you. People have different types of smartness. You will see.”

Kpleeb was not so sure, but he knew that one sure way to impress people was to act as if he was sure about something.

After returning her comb to its resting place, Thoka turned and sat on an upright stone next to the food outcropping. “Cave. Make a new seat here.” She pointed with her fingertip at the floor a meter away from the existing seat. “Knee high.”

The floor began to bulge and slowly the stone formed.

“This cave is wonderful,” said Kpleeb. “I wonder if the caves back in the canyon would also respond in this way?”

“I do not think so,” said Thoka. “I find it interesting that almost everything we talk about revolves around our life before cave and after cave. It is hard to ignore the fact that this is an important time in our life. We must use it!”

Kpleeb nodded. “I do not understand why we are here, but I am sure that these gods or spirits have something to do with it. I will escape and make them pay if I can.”

Thoka looked thoughtful. “Have you not tried to escape?”

“I tried everything. Everything in the cave is surrounded by the gray stone. The sun is protected, and there is nowhere else to look. I will keep trying. Maybe I am just not smart enough.”

“Did you ever wake up with a sting in the back of your head?” She gently placed her hand on the back of her own neck.

“I did at least two times,” Kpleeb said. “Maybe three. Why?”

“It was the same for me as well. Can you tell me which day-marks were created on those days?” She stood and walked to her marking wall.

Kpleeb followed. On the wall were a great many very small marks in groups of five. Thoka touched the wall, and he noticed that the markings were only as large as the tip of her smallest finger.

“This is my method of counting by fives.” She held up her hand. “It is logical because we have five toes and fingers.”

“I knew a guy back home that had six toes on one foot,” said Kpleeb.

Thoka ignored his comment and pointed at several marks that were elongated. “These are when I woke with the neck sting.” There were four special marks and the last one was six five-groups in the past.

Kpleeb had never considered making a special note of those days, but he put his hand up to his neck. “I did not mark those events, but the last one was not very long ago. Maybe four or five sun-cycle- urh, days ago.”

Thoka had that look in her eye again. “Do you feel smarter?”

“What do you mean?”

“Do you feel smarter now than before?” She smiled faintly. “Even a little.”

When he thought about it, Kpleeb realized that he had enjoyed moments of clarity recently that he was unaccustomed to. He had thought of new ideas, new ways to test the cave, and build items out of stone.

“I do feel smarter,” he said uncertainly.

“Tell me how. Talking through it will help you remember.”

Kpleeb pondered his answer for a long moment before speaking. “I spoke to the cave many sun-cycles past and understood that it would obey me. But… I did not think of how to use that obedience for many more sun-cycles.”

“Days,” said Thoka.

“Yes, many days. It was not until very recently that I began to feel as it my mind was seeing new ideas for the first time. It was then that I began to really explore my cave and try new things. I created a flat and shiny surface to figure out what was at the bottom of the defecation pit. I build the table and a spear too.”

“Did that come after a neck sting?”

He shrugged. “I do not know exactly. Perhaps it did. Why?”

Thoka pointed at the second of her elongated marks. “I experienced the same thing here, many days ago. At first, I felt sluggish and achy, but after a day or two, understanding became easy. I began to see patterns that I had not recognized before.” She pointed at the waterfall. “This waterfall was one of my ideas at that time, but now it seems so simple!”

“It is a very clever thing,” said Kpleeb glowingly.

“It is clever, but not very.” She pointed at her defecation pit. “I made the seat next. It was so high and uncomfortable, and now it seems an obvious change.” She began to point at the elongated marks in sequence. “Spear. Waterfall, defecation pit and shelving. Comb, and here I also found the gray stone. After a few days I began testing its properties. And finally, this last neck sting I thought of the five-group math.”

Kpleeb’s mind was swimming with confusion and disjointed thoughts. It was almost too much, but he fastened onto one question. “What do you mean, you tested the gray stone?”

“Kpleeb, you said yourself that there is no way out of this cave. The gray stone is absolutely impervious to any command or attack. I have found this to be true so far, but I have tried many things.” She walked to the far wall and pointed at a spot on the floor.

“Make a small hole here, as big as two of my hands.”

The hole formed.

When Kpleeb looked, he said that the small hole – only a little bigger than his arm – opened into a wider chamber below it. At the bottom of the chamber were many small divots in the stone, and each one held a liquid or a dried-up remnant of substance.

“This is my test,” said Thoka. “At the bottom of each indention is gray stone. I put water in one, worm goo in one, and many other things.”

“But why?”

“Water drops can smooth and change stone over time. We have a fruit that grows on the wet mountains that burns the tongue. I asked for that.” She pointed at a crusty, red divot. “I hoped that it would burn the stone, but it has only been almost thirty days, and nothing has happened.”

Kpleeb at least understood that. “Many years are needed for a waterfall to carve a path in stone.”

Thoka nodded. “Close the hole.”

Kpleeb stood and cracked his back. “You are very smart and have not found any way to escape. Did you close the hole to prevent the night mist from changing the test?”

“Yes,” she said with a smile. “See? You are smarter than you realize. We maybe never escape, but I will keep trying.” She returned to the food outcropping and drank water. “Would you like some?”

Kpleeb was famished and noticed that the sun had dimmed a little. “Yes. Meat.” He listened and ate while she talked.

“With each neck sting I became smarter, and I believe you did as well. Some of them were a very small change. Sometimes I felt achy and foggy after waking, but each time I noticed some small ability to see more with my mind. I realize now that the power to shape with my hand follows what I first shape with my mind.”

“How can this be?” mumbled Kpleeb around his food. “A sting that makes you smarter?”

“We will talk about the deeper subject later.”

“Why? If you know, I would like to understand as well.”

Thoka paused and looked patiently at him. “I hope you can accept this. If I pour my beliefs into you, you may believe them to be fact. The truth is, Kpleeb, I am not smart enough.”

“This is not true,” he protested. “Look at all you know and have done!”

“I can sense that there is a greater meaning in all of this. I know there is, but I cannot piece together the meaning yet. In this way, I know that I, –we-, have more to learn. You must not accept my words as fact!” She looked very adamant. “Not ever.”

Kpleeb was thoroughly confused. “Then how can I learn?”

“Spend time here. Let me show you my math, and some ideas that I have. Once you have learned what I have learned, we can work together to puzzle out the bigger questions.”

He saw that there was not much of a choice. “Okay, I am eager to learn.”

Thoka smiled at him. “It is time for me to sleep, and you must go to your own cave.”

“It is early still,” said Kpleeb.

“I sleep early and wake early.”

With reluctance Kpleeb took his swirling thoughts, his burning curiosity, and palpable excitement through the gap in the gray stone and turned.

“I will see you tomorrow,” he said.

Thoka nodded.

“Cave, close the gap.”

The Index -|-

Thoka rolled over and stretched slowly. The moon was dim, and the sun had not yet begun to shine, but she had always been an early riser. There was something tremendously peaceful about the quiet and cool morning hours. As a little girl, she remembered waking early to draw shapes in the sand and watch the sun rise over the distant plains. The birds, animals, and in fact the whole world seemed to wake from the nightly slumber in complete harmony.

Back then, the one constant at night was the sound of the small waterfall on the edge of the village. Water droplets would fall and send their tinkling notes out into the air at all times. Those notes blended into an ever-present background that signified to her that she was home. It was one of the many pieces of her old life that she missed.

“Start the water,” she called out in a low voice. After a moment, she could hear a faint trickling. Thoka stretched again and rose to her feet. The water sound became louder as the small pool filled and the water from above fell into the pool. It was not much and not nearly as loud as the waterfall from home, but it helped to make her feel better.

She rolled out of the warm hollow onto her hip and then her knee and stood looking at the tiny waterfall. It was just a gap in the lip of the upper outcropping, and below was a shallow pool at floor level to catch the water. The small pool had a drain hole in the upper rim so that it would not overflow. With a faint smile of satisfaction, Thoka walked to the defection pit and sat musing about her dream. She hoped it would come true someday.

When she was done, she went toward the food outcropping. It was then that she noticed the gap in the grey stone that opened up just to the left of the outcropping. [What is that?] She had cleared away various parts of the mottled stone that lined her cave, but the smooth, grey walls were impenetrable and had never changed. She tiptoed over to the gap in the wall and peered through. The gap was thin, and she would have to turn her body slightly to fit through.

First, she crouched and peered through cautiously. The adjoining chamber was like her own in shape and size. There was an outcropping on the far side that was just how her defecation pit used to be. She had since changed it to be more comfortable for sitting; that was at least fifteen days ago, if she remembered correctly.

To her left through the gap, she could see what looked like a very large stone attached to the chamber wall and it had a hole in one side. The walls of the whole chamber were pockmarked with many holes, some large and some small. There were many in the ceiling and floor as well except where the artificial light shone in the center of the chamber. To her right, just through the gap was the side of the other chamber’s food outcropping.

Thoka stood and reached to take her spear from where it leaned against her food outcropping. She had never needed it, but this was a new situation. With great care to remain stealthy, she slowly angled her body and stepped through the gap in the wall. [It is surprisingly thin,] she noticed as she stepped through the wall. [Yet tougher than stone.]

She her a slight grunt from the other side of the food outcropping, and stood on her tiptoes to see what was there. [Maybe it is a pig I can eat, or a tundra goat and I can make a cloak!] She stretched to see and was surprised to see a person’s curly mop and a hand that was scrubbing at the attached scalp. Very quickly, she slipped back through the gap in the wall.

[A person? Maybe a caveperson. Amazing, and yet… What if they are violent or crazy?] After a moment Thoka realized that she needed to take the element of surprise. She hefted her stone spear and slipped back through the gap and rounded the food outcropping.

“Stay where you are!” she said loudly.

The caveman, as he clearly was a caveman, spun his head with disbelief. His scratching hand descended slowly, and emotions writhed on his facial features. He must have come to some conclusion because he started to stand.

“Stay there!” Thoka said more firmly. “I’m not going to hurt you. Just tell me who you are.”

The caveman slumped back into his original position. “Urh, uh. Kpleeb, of the canyon river tribe.”

“I am Thoka of the Wet Mountain tribe.”

He nodded as if that made sense.

“How long have you been here?” she asked.

Kpleeb pointed at the day-marks he had made on the wall, and Thoka forgot about her danger for a moment. She walked to the wall and counted the groups. Four groups of eight marks and another partial group with seven marks. She used quickly tallied using her fingers and elbows. “Thirty-nine days!” She swiveled back and held the tip of her spear toward Kpleeb as he stood.

“There are missing days at the beginning, but I do not know how many. Thirty-nine?” he asked. “What’s that?”

“That’s… how many marks you have on your wall. Don’t you know how to count?”

“Well, yes. I can count to eight. If there is a name for the next number, Pftull never told me.”

[Interesting.] Thoka smiled at him. He did not look like an idiot, and clearly, he had made a number of structures and holes in the cave. He smiled back at her in a disarming way.

“I can teach you what the next numbers are and the system I use to help with that,” she said. “But I really need to know if you are insane or like to punch people… people like me.”

“Punch people?” He seemed confused.

“Are you a warrior?”

He shrugged. “I did okay in my coming-of-age ritual, but I was never a part of the warrior group. I did join a cavecraftsman group. I wanted to be a rock carver like my friend Pfftul.” He paused and thought about the other term. “Insane,” he said. “I like calm, but I have, at times, lost my temper. Most recently it was at the gods or spirits that rule this cave. Is anger the same as insane?”

“No, not the same at all,” said Thoka. “Anger is just a heightened state of frustration, but crazy or insane is… like one cavelady in my village. She would wake up every morning, run to the pond, and lay down on her belly and talk to her reflection for at least a couple of hours. She called that her cavesister.” Thoka paused to consider. “Insane is an unexplained reason for acting very abnormal.”

Kpleeb nodded. “I understand. I do not think that I am insane.”

Thoka finally let the tip of her spear sink. “Thank you. Do you want to see my cave?”

In all of the hubbub, Kpleeb had not noticed the gap in the wall. “Your cave? I thought maybe the gods finally just sent someone to keep me company. Where is it?”

“Maybe they did arrange our meeting, but my cave is over there,” she said pointing. “It looks a lot like yours, and it is just through the wall.”

He turned. “I do want to see your cave, but I need to urinate first!” He jogged over to the defecation pit and lifted his loincloth and quickly relieved himself.

Thoka waited by the gap, and then stepped in first when Kpleeb came back.

“It is much the same,” said Kpleeb when he saw it. He paced the room for a moment or two while looking at the sleeping hollow, various outcroppings, and tools that Thoka had made. He made a point of stepping precisely and counting. “Eight-and-two. That is the same length.”

“I believe that these two caves are just two of many,” Thoka said, “but, that is a talk for another time. “Are you hungry or thirsty?” She walked to a section of the wall and made a day mark. “What did you plan to accomplish today?”

Kpleeb did not know what to think of this cavewoman. [She is very intelligent.] Her hair was thick and very pale. Moreover, it appeared to be very clean. He patted at the side of his matted hair self-consciously. She wore a loincloth of her own as well as a tattered neckpiece that covered most of her chest. He always thought that he had a way with cavewomen, but in this situation, he felt entirely out of his element.

“Well?” she said, waiting for an answer.

Kpleeb came to with a start and felt his cheeks flush. “Sorry, I have not seen anyone, much less a cavewoman in…”

“I know, me too,” she said. “It has been fifty-three days for me, maybe as many as fifty-five.”

Kpleeb’s face was blank.

“Oh,” she said with a smile, “six-and-five in your way. I will begin to teach you my numbers tomorrow.”

“I did not have any forethought for today.”

“Each day when the sun-brightens the cave, what do you do?”

Kpleeb thought about the past handful of sun-cycles. “I looked for the limits of the cave walls and a way through the gray stone. I tried to hide from the gods by making a small cave… but what if they are spirits? They speak into the middle of my cave at will.” He shrugged. “I made sticks to eat worms with, and a spear. I made a shiny part of the cave wall to see inside the defecation pit.”

“You saw the green stuff?”

“Yes. It eats whatever is put inside.”

Thoka walked to the food outcropping. “Savory worms.” In a few moments the worms had appeared. “Show me your eating sticks,” she said to Kpleeb.

He went into his cave and came back in a moment with his sticks. They were almost as thick as his fingers and about twice as long as his hand. With pride he dipped into the outcropping with one stick in each hand and awkwardly pinched three or four worms between the sticks. He ate with pride at his invention, and then worm goo dripped down his chin. [Way to impress the girl, Kpleeb!]

Thoka nodded and retrieved her own sticks from a shelf that rested above the food outcropping. Her sticks were more delicate and tapered slightly at both ends. She held both sticks in one hand, thrust the end into the pile of worms, swirled with her wrist, and pulled up a hefty mouthful. She licked a tiny amount of worm goo from her lips.

Kpleeb felt like an idiot.

Thoka did not seem to notice. “These worms are very good. I have never had any food like this before I came here.”

Kpleeb looked at her hands, and tried to hold his sticks in the same way she held hers. Thoka helped him without any sign that she was patronizing him, and though it was awkward, he was able to slowly eat his portion of the worms.

Thoka and Kpleeb talked for some time and shared some of their past with each other. It was the most pleasant time either of them had experienced since they were brought to the caves.

[I asked for a cave-friend,] Kpleeb thought. [Maybe the gods listened.]

The Index -|-

Kpleeb squatted and stirred his worms, but they would not stay on the flat eating utensil that he had requested.

[How frustrating!]

He looked at the pile of worms and realized that before coming to this cave, he had never eaten worms or any food like this. The closest meal had been the thin, green roots of the reeds that grew in a slow-water bend of the canyon river. He had hated those, but his mam told him that they would give him health and had nagged him incessantly until he ate them.

He switched to eating with his fingers while he thought about the problem. Halfway through the meal he stopped chewing and mumbled, “Give me two rods, about half as thin as my finger and as long as two of my hands.” He pointed at the table and watched as they grew. When they were complete, he broke them off and held them – one in each hand – to pinch the worms. He was able to eat slowly.

[At least my hands are clean.] There were other ways to tackle the problem though. “Tomorrow, I want a piece of meat,” he said.

When he was done eating and washing, Kpleeb went to the small cave that he had created on the wall of the larger cave and looked inside. The hollow had expanded toward the larger cave wall just as he had asked. He climbed inside and looked closely. The space had enlarged by at least two of his hands. He knew that the sun would be greatly dimmed soon so he commanded the large hole to close. With just the light of the small hole, he placed his knuckle on the wall and floor.

“Close the small hole.” It closed and the light was shut out.

[I now have two walls between myself the and the gods… If that even matters.]

“Grow bigger here,” He whispered at the floor. “Bigger, as deep as my whole body.” He took his knuckle away from the wall and rolled over to sleep.

Kpleeb awoke with a jolt when his face hit the bottom of the hole that he had requested. He was head down against a hard and smooth surface, and his head was spinning from the impact. It took some effort and squirming to pull himself back up to where he had been sleeping. He felt the size and angle of the hole before he put his knuckle out and requested a peephole for light.

When the light appeared, he could see that blood dripped off of his chin and made spots on the floor.

The hole itself was larger than he had expected. It cut into the wall at a steep, downward angle and was dark at the bottom. He carefully let himself down into the hole and found that it came up to a little past his waist. When he knelt and touched the floor at the bottom it felt extremely smooth and slick like a stone that had spent all of its days under a rushing river.

[There is no way for me to see here unless I open a bigger hole above for the light. But… the gods will see. Is there no way to really hide here?] He thought about the problem for a minute and then quietly told the inner ceiling of his small cave to produce a shelf above the hole. When that was completed, he asked for a hole the size of his head above the shelf, and the light flooded in.

[I hope the gods are not small enough to come inside, but I suppose there is only so much I can do.]

He knelt again and put his hand flat against the floor. It was a pale color like the smooth bark of the trees from the distant mountains back home. It was also glossy and so smooth that he had never seen or felt anything with its texture. He touched the surface with his knuckle.

“Make a hole here.”

Nothing happened for many moments and soon Kpleeb climbed up and out of the smaller cave. The room looked the same except for his changes. More and more he had a gut feeling that a simple wall would not block the gods. [If they have bodies, then how can I hear their voices without seeing them? But- if they are spirits, how would a mere wall keep them out?]

Kpleeb got a drink and determined that his next step would be to test the boundaries of his prison cave. He requested a series of holes all around the cave. After remembering that each hole would grow only after the previous hole was finished, he told the wall to stop all of the changes and requested new holes only the diameter of his arm. Soon, the walls were riddled with holes at various elevations.

Every single hole he requested ended at the smooth, gray surface. He began to request holes in the floor and ceiling, but those ended the same way. There were many large gaps, and he realized those could be big enough to hide a door, so he requested more and more holes. Eventually, it became obvious that there was no cave door behind the stone.

“How can I be in a room of impenetrable stone? How did you get me in here?!” Kpleeb walked around the room yelling and then grabbed his sharp stick and jabbed at the smooth surface a few times. Eventually, the top of the stick broke off but there was no mark on the stone at all. He became more flustered and shouted at the walls, “I was not born in this cave!”

As soon as he heard the echo of his own voice, he realized that he had again lost his temper. [These gods have power that I do not understand, and they have their own goals. There is no point in being too angry at this time.] He calmed himself down, and took another drink. The sun was not yet dimming, but he was hungry.

He walked to the stone table and put his knuckle on the center. “Make a shallow hollow here.” The table complied.

“I want some meat, blacked with fire. Make it here.” He gestured at the table again with his knuckle and waited. He had never demanded food at a different time, but he thought it was a good time to see if it would happen. He requested an outcropping to sit on and watched the table. After a handful of moments, a squishy lump grew slowly upward from the spot he had indicated.

Kpleeb rose and examined the lump closely. He poked it with his finger, and it quivered for a moment until the motion dissipated. It was just barely tacky to his touch and did not resemble meat at all. He sniffed it, and it did smell faintly of blood and protein along with an astringent scent that was not at all appealing. He kept watching, and little by little the lump turned into a chunk of meat a little smaller than his fist.

He had to admit, the meat smelled amazing. When he picked it up it was hot to the touch, and rendered fat mixed with blood dripped and pooled on the table’s surface.

[Meat does not grow from stone…. but I will still eat it.]

He turned it over and bit into a crusted edge. It was delicious, and the blackened fat was smoky and juicy just like he wanted. Kpleeb waste no time wolfing down the rest. When he had licked his fingers, he prodded the hollow where the meat had appeared, and it was plain, hard stone just as he expected. [Just another piece of magic in a cave that is full of it.]

He spent the rest of the day poking at the gray stone and pondering the nature of this cave, but he could not think of any way to escape. Finally, with the sun dim and almost gone, he curled up near the food outcropping and went to sleep.

Later, long after Kpleeb’s breath became heavy with slumber, the gray, glossy stone on one wall shimmered slightly, and appeared to be transformed into liquid.

“The breadth of his experience must be augmented before we enact level three.”

The silvery voice was like a breeze that rustled through leaves on a quiet night, and Kpleeb did not wake.