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.

The Index -|-

The water trickled happily as it was guided by the stones, sticks, and other debris that made up the stream bed. Golden light filtered by spotty, white clouds glinted off the water in a warm and pleasant way. It felt like a fresh beginning of the hotening on the tundra. A faint cry of the birds echoed off the multi-colored walls of the canyon and mixed with the distant, joyous laughing of cave-children at play.

Kpleeb heard footsteps, and turned to see his mam approaching slowly. She smiled at him and tousled his hair for a moment before walking to his right down the edge of the bubbling river. She would likely be fetching a fish for dinner. On the canyon lip where the other side of the river cut into the rock, Wup rolled a roundish stone on by. Wup waved and continued out of sight just as Pfftul sat down next to Kpleeb.

“Where have you been?”

Kpleeb leaned back onto his big, hairy palms and turned his head. “I have been right here, Pfftul.” He had been there in the canyon. [Have I not?]

“Kpleeb, you left when Kenthid banished you, but she really does not have the power to do that. You should have just returned in a sun-cycle. We would have let you come back.”

His memory expanded, and he vaguely remembered walking the tundra alone with his thoughts for some time. “I did leave. Am I not back?”

Pfftul did not answer immediately. Instead picked up a smooth river stone and threw it in a high arc. The stone plunked into the water. Then he stood slowly and followed the same path as Kpleeb’s mam. “Maybe someday,” Pfftul said as he walked away.

Kpleeb was watching Pfftul’s brown, hairy back recede when he heard a growing buzz. It was dull, and it registered with a tension in his skull more than it did within his ears. He looked around and did not see anything that might make a noise, but the pressure continued expanding. Finally, his ears popped slightly as equilibrium was reached. The buzzing faded, but he heard a hissing that remained in the background.

After a moment, he felt a sting at the back of his neck. He slapped with his hand and caught nothing. There was a fluttering sound as he turned and saw a blue, long-winged insect fly away upstream to his left. The water gurgled merrily, and as Kpleeb turned back to enjoying his day, he felt tired. In a moment he was resting on his side gazing at the water. Just before he fell asleep, he noticed a clear, thin liquid on his palm. [What’s tha…?]

Kpleeb awoke in the center of the cave. He was lying on his back with his arms outstretched, and beneath him, the floor radiated its very slight warmth. He raised his palm to block out the light from the sun and sat up. He raised his head and saw that the stone in the center of the room was gone. For a moment, he was angered by the loss, but he realized that the stone had proven useless.

[Except… I did prove that there is something protecting the sun.]

He lowered his head and noticed an ache on his neck. [Again?] He carefully touched the back of his neck and felt a bump there that hurt slightly when he pressed it. He pulled away his hand and noticed that the tips of his first two fingers were coated with a transparent and filmy liquid.

[I need a drink.] Kpleeb stood and walked to the outcropping. “Water,” he said. After drinking he dipped his hands in the cool water and splashed some of it over his face. It seemed to him that every few days he woke up to some new surprise, some literal pain in the neck, or some new taunt from his captors. Be they gods or cavemen with a magic stronger than he had ever seen, they kept him in this cave with no exit and nothing to do but dream of his past and plot his escape.

[That will be their mistake.]

Kpleeb straightened and looked around. “Why do you keep me here? What possible interest could you have in me?” He began pacing. “But of course, you will not answer. No, you will hide behind your magic and speak only to take what I know.” Disgusted, he smirked with a newfound confidence. “You do not know it yet, but I will be your downfall.”

He waved his hand over his shoulder in an annoyed dismissal as he turned toward the wall where the day-marks were made. He put his finger on the wall above the first of his day-marks.

“I want an indentation here.”

The wall complied quickly, and there was a dent where he places his finger.

“Now I want a line here,” he said as he drew his finger in a line down the wall over the second of his day-marks.

The wall complied a little less quickly.

He repeated the process with varying sizes of lines until he had his four groups of eight-day marks complete.

[Yes, the wall needs more time to make a bigger change.]

Kpleeb finished his lines and smile with satisfaction. [Four plus five, and no more picking at this scab for blood or using gray flub. There has to be a way to use this for escape.]

He decided to experiment. “I want an arm, thin but tall from the floor,” he said. He stuck out his arm at chest height. “This high.” He watched as a stone rod rose from the floor. It was as thick as his arm and perfectly straight up. It grew until it reached the height he had asked for and them stopped. The end of the rod was rounded.

Kpleeb pushed on the rod’s side and it did not budge. He pressed harder and there was no movement at all. It did not bend or break, even when he put all of his weight on it.

“Now, make two more like it, right here, here, and there.” He gestured at the spots near the first rod, and the new rods grew at the same speed, starting with the first location he had pointed to. [Interesting. I wonder…]

“Now make two, smaller rods here and only as high as my knee,” he said as he squatted and placed two fingers side by side only a hand-width apart on the floor. The two thin rods grew, but one grew completely before the other began.

“Now make a flat stone about this big,” he raised his arms in a circle, “here, on top of these three arms. A table top grew out of the top of the first rod and slowly expanded two reach and meld with the other two rods. He clambered up onto the top of the flat stone and jumped up and down a few times. [It is incredibly sturdy.]

Kpleeb hopped down from the stone table and kicked at one of the small rods that protruded upward. His foot stung where it connected, but the rod snapped off and rolled away to rest in the center hollow of the cave floor. When he picked it up it felt normal in his hand, smooth with a textured surface and not very heavy. The rod was about as thick as two of his fingers. [This would make an amazing wildebeest whacking stick.] He paused to remember Kenthid and the other cave-people back home.

For many handfuls of moments, Kpleeb walked in circles. He followed the cave wall and felt the heft of his stick and twirled it around in his hands. He shifted it between hands quickly and drug it against the wall or the floor with a scraping sound. His mind raced in a way he had never experienced, and a large number of new ideas manifested themselves in his brain.

After some time, Kpleeb stopped and knelt at the edge of the cave. He tried to gouge the wall with the stick. Both the surface of the wall and the point of the stick were affected equally. He felt that he could make his day marks with the stick, but it was easier and just as effective to tell the wall to change. He began to rub the stick against the floor, and eventually, the stick had a point that would be suitable for a spear.

[Now, if only there were animals to hunt.]

He whipped the stick around and jabbed the air a number of times and then chuckled at himself. He had never been the best hunter, but any cave-man had to have the basic skills or be laughed out of the village. Still, this was the first hand-held object (other than his food) that he had encountered in his four-plus-five days inside the cave, and he enjoyed the feel of it in his hand. Kpleeb pondered the options that the responsive stone gave him.

[I can make an eating tool… Which would be nice since those worms are so gooey. But… I could also ask for new food. That would be good… Not to get distracted. Maybe I can make a better weapon, but surely the gods would recognize it and be wary, unless…. Unless I can make it seem like it is not a weapon. This will require more thought. What about hiding?]

Kpleeb looked around the cave. There had never been any place to hide. The gods could talk in the center of the room, and he could not see them. Certainly, they could see through the stone somehow. [This is worth a test.] He pointed with his knuckle at a spot near the wall about midway between the two outcroppings.

“Make a hollow there,” he said clearly. “Big enough to sleep in.” [The hollow will be big, so it will take some time.] “And make a cave wall from the edge of the hollow to the ceiling.” He gestured with his knuckles. [A small cave inside a bigger cave, and maybe they cannot see through two walls]. Kpleeb did not wait to see if there would be a response. Instead, he returned to the stone table top and held up his smallest finger.

“Make a stick as high as my hand and as thick as this finger.”

Nothing happened on the table at all. It was as if it did not hear him. Kpleeb waited for much time. Slowly the wall of the small cave grew in increments. He fought his frustration and then dozed and daydreamed about Ilsa, a cave-girl back home in the canyon. He ate the steaming hot worms that appeared in the outcropping, and drank the tepid water. Eventually he fell asleep.

When he awoke, he sat up and saw that a stick grew directly out of the table top. He stood and shuffled to the table. The stick was very close to what he wanted. [Can it judge based on the finger I held up?] He paused to consider how to test this theory. After a moment he held one hand cupped and then put the thumb and finger on his other hand inside the cup and spread them apart from each other.

“Now, make a flat part this wide on the end. and only a little taller than it is right now.” He released his fingers and then dropped his hands to watch. The stick grew in length and expanded its size on one lateral dimension. There it was, just how he asked. It was a scoop stick made of stone instead of wood. It was more flat but similar to what he had used back home in the caves on the river. Even though he had hidden his fingers from sight, and it knew the distance anyway. [This will warrant further inspection.]

[But why did it wait?] He looked over to where he had commanded the small cave. In that spot was a large stone that reached from the floor to the cave ceiling. He examined it from all sides and saw no evidence that it was anything but a stone.

“Make a hole here,” he said pointing with his knuckles at the stone. Slowly a hole grew and as the depth of the cavity expanded, it bored through to the cave that was the other side.

[Ah, I said to make a cave wall, but did not say to leave a hole for entry.]

He could fix that. “Stop,” Kpleeb commanded. “This hole is big enough.” He bent and looked inside. It would do nicely. He slithered into the hole and commanded it to close behind him. When it closed the light from the sun was shut off completely, and he could not see anything. To resolve this, he put his finger on the wall.

“Make a small hole here.”

With a tiny hole, Kpleeb could faintly see the inside of the cave, but the tiny hole looked directly at the food outcropping. He put his finger on the small cave wall nearest the big cave wall.

“Make a small hole here.”

The hole formed and immediately outside he could see the side of the larger cave.

“Close this hole,” he said pointing at the previous small hole.

Kpleeb looked at the one remaining hole. [I cannot let light in without also letting the gods peer into the smaller cave as well. Their invisible eyes could be looking in right now even, and how would I know?] He jabbed his finger through the small hold quickly, but the light went out and he could not feel any eyeballs on the other side. He used the sharp end of the stick to prod through the hole, but the effect was the same. He could not be inside the small cave and prevent them from looking unless the cave was sealed.

[But… wait.] Kpleeb left the small cave through a hole he commanded. He bent and pointed at the wall that was toward the outside wall of the larger cave.

“Make the hollow bigger here.”

He straightened and quickly commanded the smaller cave to be sealed. When it closed, he walked to the stone table and pushed at the side of the eating utensil with his hand until the stone broke.

“Outcropping,” he said with confidence, “I am hungry. Give me more worms.”

The Index -|-

It was dark when Kpleeb awoke, and he could not understand why he woke apart from his normal time. He raised his head, and looked around. The moon was barely visible in its most dim state on the ceiling above, but the sun had not yet begun to glow. He could sense no debilitating fear in the way he had sometimes when he woke as a cave-child. After a few moments he determined that there was nothing amiss. He put his head back down onto the meat of his bicep and prepared to sleep.

“One more gulicuiip will achieve level two,” said a silvery voice.

Kpleeb sat up and looked around him. He felt the hair on his neck standing. [Am I dreaming?] The voice had been quiet enough, but not very distant. He stood. The cave was dark, and he could not see the wall furthest away from him. He stretched out his hand and touched the wall to be certain that he was not dreaming. His fingers rubbed on the rough stone, and he could feel the variations in texture and grit that was characteristic of the stone. It certainly felt very real.

He began to walk slowly along the cave wall. [Just a quick circuit to take a look. I must have been dreaming just as I woke up.]

He had heard voices before, but this one was a little different, and for once, it did not appear to address him directly. Kpleeb did not know what to make of it. He stopped as he reached the defecation pit. The wall protrusion remained there, and the pit was dark without the sun’s light. He turned his head and could not see the food outcropping.

Suddenly he felt disgusted with himself for feeling the urge to check everything. [There is no point in walking the wall. There is nothing in this cave except me and these two outcroppings.] He turned and stalked back to the food outcropping for some water.

He had taken only three steps when he tripped and felt stinging pain on his right shin. He stumbled to the floor clutching his leg. It was dim, but he saw a shape there in front of him. He groaned loudly, and reached out his hand. The shape was a stone about the height of his knee.

“Urrgh, now you decide to appear,” he said under his breath. He patted the stone and got to his feet wish an exaggerated sigh. At least I know it is listening, he thought as he limped back to the food outcropping.

Kpleeb sat and thought about the voice. It had been different than the other. It had not spoken to him, and it had not spoken during the sun-time. [It had to be a dream.] There was no way that he could imagine it was anything but a dream so he went to sleep.

His morning rise was slower than usual, but after trying to sleep longer he eventually rolled over and looked at the increasingly strong rays from the sun.

[Urgh. Need to avoid moon-time walks.]

He sat up slowly. The stone he had requested was prominent in the center of the cave. Along its upper edge there was a blood stain that matched the scab on his shin. He stood and took some water before going to take a closer look. The stone was above his knee height, but below his loincloth band. It must have still been growing when he carelessly walked into it. He watched it as he walked in a circle.

It seemed to him that it was still growing. He sat on the stone and waited. In a moment or two he felt a slight lift as the stone grew again. Amazing!

“What do you wish for?”

Kpleeb stood quickly. It was the same odd voice that had spoken before, but not the breathy voice from his dream. His anger pulsed as he thought about the gods and their machinations… but he immediately remembered his fit of cave-child anger and paused to collect his thoughts before answering. [I must control myself around these gods and not give them the satisfaction of my frustration.]

He spoke moments later, when he was ready. “I want friend. Cave-friend,” he said simply and from his heart.

He was actually very lonely, though he tried not to dwell on it, but he also thought that two would be more likely to escape than one. He waited, though not impatiently this time. Kpleeb had already determined that the gods would not answer. They seemed to excel at requesting information but never delivering it.

He sat back down on the stone and felt it twitch under him. It was fascinating to him that he had requested this stone, and that it grew from the cave floor. It grew for him, and though he could not quite put his finger on how, he felt that this was his ticket to freedom… or at least a way to stick a hairy knuckle in the eye of these manipulative gods.

[I am alone. I have been alone since I came to this cave.] He looked at the wall. [Four plus four markings. Many days to be alone.] Memories of the caves and his friends and family filled his head. [Will I ever see them again? What do these gods want?] His thoughts circled like lazy crows above a caribou carcass on the tundra. [What if they mean to keep me here forever?]

After some time lost in thought, Kpleeb realized the stone has stopped growing. His feet dangled over the side and he could only touch the floor with his outstretched toes. He looked up and saw that the sun was still bright though it was certainly past the middle of the sun-cycle.

He pushed off the stone and walked to the outcropping. He drank a little and then looked back at the stone. [What better time than now?]

Kpleeb took three quick steps and hopped onto the stone. He landed with a knee and hairy foot firmly planted on the top surface. During the many sun-cycles that he had lived here he had searched the whole cave except for two places. Now that he had seen the inside of the defecation pit, the only place left was…

He stood smiling and held his left hand up to block the sunlight. He reached his right hand out touch the cave ceiling several arm’s length from the sun. The ceiling curved up in an arc toward the light, and his hand followed, slowly. He soon reached almost directly above him, but the ceiling kept going. There was a tingling in his fingers, and he felt that he was near to the final, unknown space in the cave. He stood on his tiptoes.

–ZAP! -A bolt of energy extended in an instant from the space above to strike his hand. The force of the shock threw Kpleeb’s body to the cave floor.

Where he lay unconscious.