The Index -|-

It had been a long night, and Kpleeb was exhausted. Despite his dulled senses and achingly wooden legs, a list of penetrating worries gnawed at his mind.

What if Jariit escaped the bonds? What if Zara fell asleep and it has killed her? What if I missed some wreckage and there is another entity out there hunting us… or bringing others?

He had no choice but to keep moving. Ahead of him the Ganix jogged effortlessly as they always did. Kpleeb knew that they slowed so that he could keep up, and it galled him. He was also grateful. Over the ridge ahead of him the cave waited, and he knew that one way or another, his worries would be over in a few minutes.

“Close, now,” said Xir dropping back to speak to Kpleeb. His voice was level and calm. His breathing deep and regular. Apparently, he had taken charge of the remaining Ganix though Kpleeb had seen no rank or ceremony.

“Yes,” gasped Kpleeb. “She better be okay.”

“Zara, strong.” Xir nodded and slowed as they reached the crest of the ridge.

Just ahead of them the gray-ish colored angle rested where he had left it near the cave entrance. Kpleeb stopped and put his hands on his knees. He drew in spasmodic breaths until he recovered from the strenuous jog. A couple of the Ganix warriors posted themselves at the perimeter while the rest of them grouped around the angle. They appeared to be studying it, prodding it with their hands and feet. Some bent under it, even laying on their backs underneath it, presumably to get a better look at the nodule clusters. One Warrior threw a knee over the front angle and climbed on top. The angle rocked, gently cradled on the invisible force that Kpleeb assumed kept it levitating above the ground.

After a moment, he entered the cave. Inside, Zara sat cross-legged a couple of paces away from Jariit. As Kpleeb approached, he saw that they were talking to each other, but that conversation stopped as soon as he entered the room.

Zara looked up. “Da, I’m glad you’re back!” She smiled at him.

Kpleeb frowned and looked at Jariit whose face gazed at him without emotion. Kpleeb visually checked the bonds and saw that the thick rope still encircled Jariit’s body. “Are you okay, Zara?”

Zara nodded and gestured at the entity. “Da, we got its name wrong. This is Kiipo, and he can talk to us. He is a ‘Xi’.” She pronounced the word with an accentuated “z.” “Zee.”

Kpleeb nodded at Zara and then looked at Kiipo. “It this true?”

Kiipo spoke in a reedy, thin voice. “Yes. I can speak.” Its eyes flickered from Kpleeb to Zara and back.

Kpleeb noticed that its neck slits oozed, and a trickle of the clear substance dripped into its neck line and disappeared under its black clothing.

“Da,” Zara said, “Jariit is a title for the Xi who fly the angles which are called Lutu.”

Kpleeb was surprised that she had learned these things, and he sat next to her her on the cave floor. “You have learned more?”

“Much more. The Xi come for lak, the shiny stuff that Uuiit had stored in the village.”

“What is the lak for?”

“Lak is a key mineral in their manufacturing. They make many things with it, even the lutu and these small objects.” Zara gestured at the pile of small objects nearby that Kpleeb had pilfered from Kiipo’s body.

“Why did Uuiit have a cloak with lak pieces all over the outside?”

Zara looked at Kiipo.

“The Iteek have a habit of…” it paused as if searching for a word, “of making themselves little kings.” Kiipo’s head tilted to the left slightly.

“Iteek?” Kpleeb shrugged.

“Uuiit was the Iteek here, Da,” said Zara gesturing around her. “It seems to mean outpost leader. Kiipo asked what had happened to Uuiit, and apparently, it was the only Xi here. ‘Phaedro’ they call this place. It is an orb.”

“Phaedro. Mmm. Your Ma was correct then about the shape and the, urh, position of this place?” Kpleeb remembered several of Thoka’s late night freethinking sessions. He had been skeptical at first when she had told him that the canyon river area was merely a small area on a large orb that floated in darkness. She had convinced him by describing in detail the mechanics of the orb’s orbit around the sun. She said that they had been dropped here when they awoke in the snowy woods all those months ago.

Zara nodded to confirm his statement. “The Xi come from another place like this one, but far, far away I suspect.

Kiipo’s eyes flicked between Kpleeb and Zara.

“Yes, Kiipo,” said Zara, “we know.”

Kpleeb was confused, but he merely nodded and remained silent.

“We know that the Xi come from another orb. You come in your lutu and you use the cavepeople you find to take lak from these orbs.” Zara paused and regarded Kiipo with a raised eyebrow. “The lak is a core component of everything you have, so it must be very valuable.”

Kpleeb turned and motioned to the nearest Ganix warrior. “Get me Xir and his dust bags.” The warrior nodded and left the cave. In a few moments, he returned with Xir who held two, small leather bags.

Kpleeb took one of the bags and opened the drawstring at the top and tipped the whole container over. Pure, white silica dust poured out into a pile on the floor. He motioned for the other bag and Xir handed it to him.

Kiipo let out a short, nasally-thin squeak and then clamped its mouth shut.

“This will be you if you do not give us all of the information we ask.”

“Da,” said Zara,” Kiipo has been so helpful already.”

“I see,” said Kpleeb smiling at her. “We need all of the information we can get.” He addressed Kiipo. “I only want you to understand that I am serious. Uuiit is dead, and these two Xi are dead as well. You killed my woman, Thoka. You tried to kill my daughter.” He shook his fist. “We can, and we will do what we must do to protect ourselves.” He set the second bag down. “Do you understand?”

Kiipo nodded slowly and mechanically. “Zara, make sure everything it says is written down or recorded.” Kpleeb looked at Kiipo. “Do you eat?” He put his fingers together toward his mouth.

Kiipo blinked. “Yes. My sustenance comes from the lutu.”

“Sustenance?” said Kpleeb.

“It is what sustains my body.”

Kpleeb smirked. “Imagine that. What is it called and what is it made of?”

“Poda is made of… it is synthesized from nutrients.”

“What if there is no lutu?” said Zara.

Kiipo paused as if processing a strange request. “Poda comes from the lutu.”

Zara sighed “Yes, but not every Xi is jariit. Where does an Iteek get its poda?”

Kiipo nodded. “Ah, yes, I understand.” It pointed at the red, tiered machine that stood against the wall.

“The red box contains poda?” Kpleeb stood and walked to it. He did not see any food or any holes that had food stuck on the edges.

“Push the bottom, right, second button three times. Then push the center triangle.”

Kpleeb held his finger over one of the unlit protrusions in the bottom-right most corner.

“No, the one below it.”

Kpleeb moved his finger and Kiipo nodded. Kpleeb looked at Zara. “Do you think it’s safe and that Kiipo is telling the truth?”

Zara looked at Kiipo and then at the red box. “Yes, it is safe.”

Kpleeb pressed the button three times. Each press changed the glowing patterns above the emitter. When he pressed the center triangle, more than two hand’s length of tubing poked out of a small hole.

“I need to eat from the tube,” said Kiipo, “or dispense into a container with the bottom-right, third button.”

Zara stood and handed Kpleeb a small, stone bowl. When Kpleeb pushed the button, a thick, grey-green goo extruded into the bowl. After a handful of seconds, the flow stopped and the tube retreated. Kpleeb smelled the contents of the bowl, but there was no scent. “Smells like nothing.”

“Xi do not require scent to eat.”

Kpleeb held the bowl in front of Kiipo’s mouth, and shuddered in surprise when a nozzle with the girth of his thumb protruded out of Kiipo’s open mouth, dipped into the thick goo, and drained the bowl.

When Kiipo’s nozzle had receded into its maw, it spoke. “Thank you. I will not need sustenance for another six of Phaedro’s days.

Kpleeb and Zara exchanged glances. “Urg, okay. Good,” said Kpleeb as he sat a few paces away. “More questions then. Are you male or female?”

Kiipo tilted its head slightly to the right. “I am Ja.”

“What’s Ja?” Kpleeb pointed at Zara. “Zara is female. Females can make babies. I am a male. Males cannot make babies, but are built for heavier work.”

Kiipo nodded. “I know about your genders. Ja are utilitarian. Ka are leaders.”

“Who makes the baby Xi?”

“Na make the babies,” said Kiipo.

“Wait, what?” Kpleeb shook his head. “Na, Ja, and Ka? Three genders?”

“They are the three aspects of the imminent Janaka.” Kiipo’s fingers twitched.

“Diety?” Kpleeb yawned. “Like the great spirit tahr?”

Kiipo tilted its head. “I have not heard of the great spirit tahr, but it is possible.”

Kpleeb nodded. Their diety makes no difference. He paused and thought for a moment before asking his next question. “Who rules the Xi?”

“Who is your ruler?” asked Kiipo.

Kpleeb was not able to discern if Kiipo was being defiant or merely participating in the conversation, so he gave him the benefit of the doubt.

“I am my ruler,” said Kpleeb. “Once, long ago I was a part of the canyon river tribe, and we had a chief, the fab elder Shoofit. I don’t know where he is, or even if he is alive. Now, I am my own ruler.” He repeated his question. “Who rules the Xi?”

“The Predominant rules from Nidix,” said Kiipo.

Zara chimed in. “Where is this Nidix? It is a large village I presume.”

Kiipo did not speak for a long moment. “It is… difficult to explain for several reasons.”

“Go ahead, I’m listening,” said Kpleeb.

Kiipo blinked. “Nidix is a planet, an orb like Phaedro, but I have never seen it. As a simple Jariit, it is outside of my knowledge. This is true for most of the Xi. Perhaps there are some Xi who live there and serve The Predominant, but I do not know.”

“How many such planets do the Xi live on?” Zara yawned and looked up at Kpleeb.

“I- I do not know,” said Kiipo with his neck slits fluttering. “Please do not hold this against me. The young Xi are taught that the mighty Xi extend to all known planets. I know of at least twenty-nine by name.”

Kpleeb looked at Zara and noticed that she was yawning again. “Kiipo, we must sleep. Are you cold, or hot, or uncomfortable?”

Kiipo blinked again and then lifted its chin slightly. “This cave is very hard, and I am cold.”

Kpleeb turned to Xir. “Bring a reed mat and yak blanket.” He spoke to Zara. “We must rest and talk. Can you make sure Kiipo cannot escape?”

“I will not escape,” said Kiipo.

Kpleeb looked at Kiipo. “Maybe, but I don’t trust you.” He motioned to Zara. “When you are sure he is unable to escape, come to sleep. Xir, make sure two Ganix stand watch here while we sleep.”

Xir nodded slightly and disappeared through the cave entrance.

Kpleeb turned and made his way to the small, secondary chamber that housed their bedding. His eyes stung with lack of sleep, and his thoughts drifted to Thoka.

When Zara came into the chamber, she saw Kpleeb lying on his mat with a grimace of pain and anger on his face. His fists were balled up, and in the low light she could not see the tears flowing. Zara laid down next to her Da and wrapped her small arms around his neck.

“It will be okay, Da,” she whispered. He did not respond, but he did cradle her in his arms. In a few minutes, both were fast asleep.

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.

The Index -|-

Kpleeb tripped as he crossed the threshold. He landed on his knees and palms and skidded painfully to a stop. It was a momentary and blinding pain, but hopped up quickly.

“Zara!” he hollered at the trees that blocked the cave mouth from the outside world. Tears wet his face, and his heart ached in a way he had never felt before. He could not lose Zara the way he had lost Thoka.

He pushed his way sideways through the right side of the brush. The green, long-needled tree leaves jabbed into his hands, and he grunted in pain at the sharp, stabby sensation that bloomed through him. When he emerged, he saw that the night sky still contained lights that swung in long arcs around the land ahead and below him. The lights and the stars were blurry due to the tears. He swiped his eye sockets with the back of his wrist.

One of the clusters of lights arced closer before turning away, and he realized that the lights must be searching for something.

“Zara!” he called with his hands to his mouth.

“Shh, Da,” Zara’s voice said quietly behind him.

Kpleeb whipped around in surprise, and saw that Zara was standing at the edge of the cluster of trees. She hung back under a branch and watched the lights with what might have been a look of fascination mixed with fear. “What are you doing out here?” he said to her. “We need to go back inside right now!”

“I don’t think the cave will protect us,” she said quietly. Her eyes were affixed on the lights and followed them. “Can you feel it?”

Kpleeb reached out with his senses and felt the kind of weirdness that he had felt before, but nothing more. He sighed. “It’s just the same odd feeling I had before. Why won’t the cave protect us?” He sat next to Zara under the branch and looked into the night sky.

“It’s strong,” she said. “Stronger than I expected. I wonder if Uuiit was this strong?” Her fingers twitched, and she traced a loose shape on her palm.

Kpleeb noticed that her eyes were not focused, but he had learned in the past to speak anyway and trust that she heard everything he said. “Uuiit was strong, but your Mama took care of him. I don’t think we need to worry.”

“Perhaps the angles are stronger.” Zara blinked. “There is more than just another Uuiit there.” Her hand lifted slightly as if to indicate the moving lights.

Angles? Kpleeb didn’t understand. His ears picked up a whining noise that seemed to grow stronger.

“Da!” Zara voice screamed.

Kpleeb turned and saw that one of the clusters of lights moved toward them. It was surely two hour’s walk away, but the lights grew with alarming speed.

There was a flash of purple light from which emitted a purple and red bolt of lightning and a sharp crackle that sounded as if a stone had been shattered. The ground to their right erupted in a shower of dirt and rock.

Kpleeb heard a grunt, and saw Zara grasp the air in front of her like a hanging tapestry and pull downward with a violent twist. There were no corresponding flashes, but the cluster of lights ahead wobbled and plummeted. There was a loud crunching in the trees ahead of them followed by a rumble and a flickering purple light that disappeared after a few seconds.

The remaining cluster of lights pivoted in the distance and began to grow larger in the sky. The same whining that he had heard earlier approached with the lights. “Zara,” Kpleeb hissed, “can you knock this one down?”

Zara stood and nodded shakily. She seemed to be concentrating on the lights, but Kpleeb could not see or feel anything different. She seemed only to wait, and Kpleeb became nervous. He remained silent and watched as the lights approached. The lights slowed and hovered above the spot where the other lights had been thrown down by Zara. Even though it was dark, the purple light that had been emanating from the trees no longer flickered.

The whining changed, lower and then higher in pitch as the lights shifted slowly. Whatever it was, clearly was searching the area.

Zara breathed in deeply and waved her hand quickly in a circle ahead of her. A ball of yellow light began to glow just a few paces in front of them.

“What are you doing?” Kpleeb shook his head.

“It’s fine Da,” Zara said under her breath. “Trust me.” The yellow light flickered and then flashed brightly.

Kpleeb took a step back as the lights swiveled toward them. He hissed with concern, but he felt that Zara deserved his trust. The cluster drew closer quickly, and his fists clenched in anticipate of the destruction that it might unleash.

After a short moment, Zara shoved the ball of light forcefully out and upward. She grabbed Kpleeb’s hand and pulled him sharply to the left. Kpleeb landed clumsily on his outstretched hands in the dirt, and Zara landed next to him.

There was another sharp crackle and the ground where they had stood exploded. Kpleeb grasped his ears and yelped in pain. The world around him was muffled and blurry, but the moment passed shortly. He looked up and saw Zara standing a few paces away staring intensely at the lights in the sky. The cluster was close by, and under it, very close was Zara’s ball of light.

Zara stood with her hands raised toward the lights. The yellow orb flashed, and Kpleeb saw it in a moment. The lights clustered on the front of an angle. “Uuiit’s angle!” he gasped. He stood carefully and approached Zara’s side. Her face was masked with concentration. Her hands swayed, and her fingers twitched with odd motions.

“Why hasn’t it attacked us again?” Kpleeb said.

Zara shifted her weight, small though it was, and cocked her head. Kpleeb heard a strange cough from the angle.

Zara smiled. “It cannot attack us now.” Her hands lowered slowly, and the angle soundlessly lowered with her hands until it rested on the down-sloping ground ahead of them. “Da, the entity inside the angle is still alive. Still very dangerous. I will contain it, but you must prepare to talk to it.” The yellow ball of light winked out of existence.

Kpleeb blinked and looked at Zara. “Talk to it? Is it an Uuiit?”

Zara shook her head slowly. “It might be the same kind as Uuiit. It’s an entity. We don’t know what its name is. Maybe it’s Uuiit’s brother.”

Kpleeb sighed. “Alright.” In his mind he remembered. The entities that took Thoka and I away from our families. The entities that just stole Thoka from me. These might be the same.

He clenched his fists and stood tall grining wickedly. Time to meet my makers… maybe? Either way, this “talk” will be for you, Thoka.

Zara nodded to him. The side of the angle began to split open slowly.

The Index -|-

Kpleeb woke with a start. Eyes open, he stared up from his bed. There was nothing to see but the deep of night. His ears scanned the darkness for any sign of what might have awakened him. His turned his head and heard only the crinkling of the dry straw under his bedding. Nothing presented itself as the reason. He did not need to urinate. He could feel the warmth from Thoka’s body next to his, her chest rising and falling with the breath of deep sleep.

He reached out with the invisible forces, as Thoka had taught him in the past. To say that he expected no sense at all from the invisible forces was an understatement. He had rarely felt anything, to be more honest, he had only felt the forces once. That occurrence had proven to him that he could detect, but it had never happened again, and Thoka had not been able to explain it. He reached out anyway because Thoka had told him that it might take time to become attuned to the forces.

He almost twitched when he felt it. There was something there. He could not explain it really. It was just a feeling, a sense of the unexplainable hanging in the air. He rolled and gently placed his hand on Thoka’s side, but she did not stir. He pressed slightly and shook her.

“Wha- what do you want, Kpleeb?” Her voice was sleepy.

“Do you feel anything?” Kpleeb felt a little foolish, hoping that she would not slap him and roll over.

Feel? Anything?” Her query sounded confused.

“Yeah, like, the invisible forces. It feels weird to me.” In his mind, Kpleeb shrugged.

There was a pause. Kpleeb thought that maybe she was considering how to ridicule him.

“Hmmm,” said Thoka after a long moment. “Something is different, but I’m not sure what it is, or why. Let’s wake Zara.” Thoka sighed and rolled out and upward from the bed before crossing the room and kneeling next to Zara’s pallet.

Zara woke more slowly as children tend to do. She was normally cheerful in the morning, but this was far too early. When she did finally awake, Thoka pulled Zara to her feet and hugged her and rubbed her back gently.

“Zara, do you see anything different with the invisible forces or Qon?”

Zara yawned deeply into Thoka’s neck and opened her eyes. “It’s strange, Mama.”

“What is, Zara?”

Zara squinted. “All of the colors are mixed and blurry.” She paused. “And distant.”

Thoka looked at Kpleeb. “I think we should go to the cave. You take Zara. I need to get some of my tools from the shop.”

Kpleeb nodded. They had talked about using the cave as the most defensive position, even if they believed their defenses would hold. “Okay, let’s go.” Kpleeb grabbed a woven sack and threw a handful of things into it. A change of clothing for each of them, a few yellow stone cups and combs, and a woven hat. He grabbed his spear from where it leaned against the door frame.

“Come on Zara!”

“I’ll be right behind you, Kpleeb,” said Thoka with a tight smile. “It’s probably nothing, but I’d rather have Zara safe.”

Kpleeb took Zara’s hand, and they walked out of the village in the direction of the cave. The walk was long, at least twenty minutes, more because it was so dark. The concern weighed on the edges of his mind, but did not want to worry Zara, so he turned on his hand-lamp and talked to her in a quiet tone.

“I am proud of your work on the caves, Zara. This is a safe place and has everything we need.”

“Why don’t we live there all the time then, Da?” Zara’s tiny feet jogged along next to him in the bobbing pools of yellow light that were generated by the hand-lamps.

“We live with the Ganix because they follow the Pale One. We need them and they need us.”

“Why is Mama the Pale One? She is just Mama to me.”

Kpleeb ran through his head a few easy answers, but found none to his liking. What struck him most was that he could not explain Thoka’s relationship to the Ganix.

“It’s because of their prophecy, but I don’t know if it’s real,” he said. “The Ganix believe she is the Pale One, so she is the Pale One.” He shrugged in the dark. “We cannot survive and flourish alone.” [And we cannot repay the entities alone either.]

They walked in silence until they reached the cave. The entrance was an oval shape that was cut into a rock face behind a few trees. The shape was rough and imperfect, but it smoothed out as it gained in depth. Kpleeb had watched, amazed, at Zara’s ability to bend the stone. She had learned quickly, and after a few paces into the stone face, her efforts had begun to produce a perfectly smooth and curved surface. The result was a cave that was elegant compared to the caves he had grown up in. Those had been altered by eons of water flow and the occasional caveman digging crew and were rough and inconsistent.

The lights came on we they entered the larger room. Uuiit’s angle sat against the rearmost wall. There was a triangle hatch opened on the bottom, rear side. The opening was dark. Zara toddled to the red, multi-tiered cabinet that they had brought from Uuiit’s house and touched the side of it. The device began to glow.

“Da, the defenses are resisting something.” Zara squinted imperceptibly.

“What is it? An attack?” Kpleeb pictured a death white mounted on a ferocious, multi-tusked yak, swinging a spiked chain and baring its sharp teeth.

Zara blinked. “Something is coming, Da. It’s big!”

Kpleeb closed his eyes and tried to feel the invisible forces again as he had done earlier. Other than the general sense of weirdness, he couldn’t feel anything. There was no sense of resistance or nearness or size. He sighed.

Zara gasped and lifted her hands.

Kpleeb heard a distant and muted rumble that echoed through the stone that surrounded them. “I want to see,” he said, turning toward the stone hallway that led outside. He left Zara behind and jogged until he could see the darkness outside. Stepping past the trees, he saw lights in the sky that were not normally there. They were reddish and flickering above the tree line toward the Ganix village. There were occasional, quick flashes of a purple light.

After a few moments, Zara padded up to his side and took his hand. “Da, there are many strange things happening there.” Her tiny hand pointed. “I’m scared!”

Just then there was a low rumble, and the reddish glow from the horizon was amplified momentarily before dying down.

Zara gasped.

They waited quietly for a handful of long minutes. Time stretched while the lights played in the sky, but there were no larger explosions. Then Kpleeb saw a form struggle haltingly out from the darkness. It was Thoka.

Zara dropped Kpleeb’s hand and ran toward the form. “Mama!”

Kpleeb moved toward the dark form. Thoka stumbled and fell to the rocky ground. When Kpleeb reached her, Thoka coughed and he felt a splat on his leg. He knelt next to her.

“Kpleeb,” Thoka said. “It’s coming. Have to get Zara inside.” She coughed again, and her head rolled back.

Kpleeb grasped Thoka under the armpits and lifted her torso. She was heavy, but his heart and adrenaline were racing. Zara silently walked beside him as he dragged Thoka toward the cave. Thoka’s feet made small furrows in the dirt until they were hidden in the gravel. Kpleeb proceeded into the larger cavern where he knew it was safe and gently laid Thoka on her back.

In the light he could see that blood trickled from her mouth and down her chin and cheek. She was unconscious and an angry terror rose in Kpleeb’s throat. “Thoka! Thoka,” he said shaking her. “Don’t panic, Kpleeb,” he muttered.

Thoka stirred and coughed again and more bloody spittle leaked from her lips. She moved her arm toward Kpleeb, and he saw a purple rash on the inside of her arm and on her torso near her elbow. Kpleeb gently shifted her gown, and saw that most of her torso was mottled with thumb-sized black and purple sections. There was no pattern, and it did not appear to be the result of bruising.

He gently brushed her skin with his finger tip and Thoka let out a blood-curdling scream. Her back arched and she bared her teeth in a rictus of suffering. The moment passed before Kpleeb could react, and Thoka slumped.

Zara cried out and flung herself to her knees at Thoka’s side. Kpleeb put his arms around them both, but after a moment, Zara clenched her tiny fists and stood with tears streaming down her face. “She’s gone, Da. Arhhhh!” Her voice shrieked in a wail of pain and anger.

Kpleeb put his hand on Thoka’s chest and felt for movement. He could feel no heartbeat. He put his ear to her pale lips and could sense no breath. He felt tears forming and blinked his eyes to shoo them away.

How can this be happening? What has done this to her? The entities?

Zara stood and silently ran toward the entrance of the caves, her bare feet made tiny slapping sounds on the smooth rock. Kpleeb stared after her in an emotional haze of disbelief and suffering.

It has to be the entities. These gods, Uuiit and the others. Who else could bring such destruction against Thoka? Yet how could they not? Hadn’t they changed me and Thoka? Aren’t we their workmanship? He gritted his teeth in response to a fierce anger that flashed through his mind. They made us what we are and discarded us. Now they kill us.

He looked again at her body and the strange rash. It was unlike anything he had ever seen, so foreign and colorful. Thoka’s eyes were now glassy and her face was blank. The realization struck him. She truly is gone.

Just then, a sharp and distant whine echoed from the direction of the cave’s entrance. Kpleeb’s head whipped around, and after a second the high-pitched whine ended and was followed by a rumble. The cave shook slightly with a momentary tremor.

Kpleeb clambered to his feet and ran toward the tunnel. “Zara!” he yelled. Her name echoed through the cave and down the length of the tunnel. “Zara!” he repeated.

There was no reply.