Part Five

Short-legs continues--:

Seasons: sometimes looking up from the floor of the Valley of Caves, the color of the rocks, stones were so intense and in certain areas there always seemed to be strong shadows, especially in fall and winter. Thence the images in winter were always eerie to/for me; in fact, the trees appeared reminiscent of skeletal forms, a lack of color in the environment, which added to the coldness, feeling almost isolated. This was how we could tell the shifting of the seasons, from one to another: empirical data, most practical for us: distinctively, observation.

Yet, summer was the livelier season for the Horde, if not for everyone of the world I suppose. It was the time for tranquility and color; although colorful, it seemed to me it had more subtle hues, also a more stillness to it, with pleasing reflections to my group family, the Horde.

Stone Fortification [The Stone-Builders]

By and by, as we watched this man and woman appear on the biological horizon, I had the capacity to laugh at how much different they looked compared to us. And now there were three groups in our worldthree dominate groups that is, not including our own, the Horde, of which we lived mostly in caves; the Branch-People who mostly lived in the trees [not all that far from us]; and the People of the Fire, who lived in communities, which integrated into such abodes as caves and underground dugouts; as well as, mound dugouts, that is, they would build a mound, or find an embankment, and dig it out, leaving a cavity to live in, a hole; --quite a creative shelter I thought. It never occurred to me the first time I saw them, or us in the Horde, to build such shelters, and after I had seen them again, it never occurred to me a second time, to build them: Id just go back to the caves and as alwaysjust live there, eat, laugh, and dodge the wild boars: lions, dogs, Big-chest, and the People of the Fire, for the most part. That was my life: my real life. But it was changing, and later on in life, when I got older that is, I did get to thinking about it more so, but the caves served me well, for shelter and protection, no need to trade off a good thing for a new vulnerable object.

I had not found a female to mate with, not as of yet, anyhowand to be quite frank and honest, I wasnt looking too hard; --but this new group [the StoneBuilders] migrated all over the place, which it only took a few decades or possibly three to accomplish. They had mates, different ones every night. Family was not the priority, sex was.

The Hermits Song

Now silent by cliffs and shade, In the Valley of the Caves, You lay still, breathless, silent As the vanishing windshowll Neverto awake you again

Eternal traveler: Leaving stories to be told [For ten-thousand yearsor so]

Here: a few tears

From your people: Some laughter: thats All we have to give

6

The New World Order

I, Short-legs, knew of no one [as a rule] who went too far north [to the pole], an ice sheet that was still in place there and the low sea level was not accommodating for our kind, with the few that had gone up that far, most never found their way back, and if they did, it was some years later: in which they often described as the dead zone: the frozen place; in particular, Moss had told a story of a trip he took to the North [Arctic region], and of one of the few Giant Bat-beast[s] left in our world, it was so frozen in place, his eye sockets and tongue along with his teeth were frozen in place: staring into nothingnesshe must have gone too far north, and on his way back, --well, he just never made it back.

I had seen those Giant Bat-beasts fly overhead several times: down by the river, by the swamp area that isthey came down within several feet of Little-eyes head, a few times, so he said: that is down right above his head trying to pick him up with their sharp claws or teeth by the shoulders or for that matter, the head and neck: but only a few times did I see this, and they never get close enough to actually pick him up. He called them the Giant flying-lizard-suckers: Moss called them the Bird Eating Man Giants. As I had said before, there were not many left, but when one was seen, it was surely tracked until it was completely out of sight.

Said I, Short-legs, about them: since Ive never seen one closereal close that is, like a few feet away, I would call them Goat-suckers [Pterodactyl], because the few times I did see them in the sky, flying high and low, they were up so high, they looked similar to little goats, compared to what Moss said they were: I mean they could pick up a mans weight and carry him to wherever they went for their next meal: or feast: once one tried to attack me, actually it tried to attack me a few timesflying about twenty-feet above me, I gave this one, gave it a name, --although I/or we [we: being I and Little-eyes] really didnt know if it was a she or a hefeeling it might remain a it: we called it, nevertheless, a her, anyhow, her name being: Ptero: in lack of a better namewell, it happened to be this one day, the day of this sighting of this beast, lightening struck her, I think she thought it was me, and flew off as fast as she could in the opposite direction I was going

but normally, they would sweep down so fast, I mean so very, very fast, one never had time to turn around twice to run, --and they were so huge, as I mentioned beforeand so I was told, they could pick a man up and take him to their nest and that would be the end of the story. Their teeth were reminiscent of snakes, but they had two rolls of them in the front, and their hands were connected to their wings. Some have called this winged animal a dragon, others a phoenix. I dont know what to call it, except what Ive mentioned already; it was just a big winged bird with a huge head, and wide wing span, so concurs Little-eyes with this description, and confirmed by Moss also. Others in the assembly, that is the Horde, saw them also, when they went on longer trips and gave similar metaphors, I of course, never went on trips to speak of, so I missed out on these so called great adventures: I guess I was akin to the sparrows never really going any place, and just stuck around the Valley of Caves: sometimes down by the river, and within a certain radius of our homeland [their territory]----, I just stayed put, and let some mysterious unknown force provide food and my keep, as always, you know, like the sparrows. Now that I think about it, Mom should have named me: Short-legs-the Sparrow, but then, it would be too hard to remember, you know, such a long name and all.

The Flying Giant Bat-beast [Of the NorthPterodactyl]

And to the far south was a vast desert of heat [which was across a Great Sea], much, much too scorching for us [our kind]: too devastating for/to our ventilating, or respiratory systems: this was of course information given to the Horde through some of the folks who had gone astray and found their way back after many years, one being a hermit named Moss. I was not that adventurous to go to such far off spots in the first place: I liked it right where I was. My family was near-by,--that is to say, my mother: Strong-lungs: my part-time father and brother who lived in caves that were not far from our Horde [let me correct this, my father lived in the tree by the cave I was born in, mostly]. They were part of the Horde at one time and in a way, remained so, yet they stayed-put, in the old environment, which was a distance from the Valley of the Caves, because they did not want to migrate with us; authentically, at one time this was our original location, where my mother lived, where we were raised and born: let me add to that by sayingat one time we all lived in a small cave there, yet, I should explain about my father, whom was from the Branch-People initially, and so I repeat myself by saying, he lived in the trees, for the most part, more-so than the cave for this was common for his kind. And for my brother who was not around much [yet remained in close proximity of the caves], lived within our family structure with our mother in the cave. But they came to visit me often, and I visited them, off and on, or at least my mother did.

[the End of Chapter Six]

As I was saying, or about to say, the climate herein the Cave Valley area, where I lived, where the large cliffs browed above us to heights that seemed to touch the cloudswas for the most part, quite soothing, just right; it got hot at certain times of the year, and cooled off at other times, --even cold, but only a chill, not like the far north by the ice-sheets. For a fact, it seemed never to go to extremes, so like my family we all stayed within the region of our ancestral boundaries: there was no reason, no real need to leave. The sea which was far from us: far but not so much that it was not reachable, brought in some breezes now and then to cool us off in mid summerand the rains cleaned everything up quite well. I just couldnt imagine what the Garden was like, for this was home to me; I doubt I would have gone into it, the garden that is, even if I was ordered to by Big-chest, in fear Id not find my way back out.

7

Owl-ears [The Wise One of the Horde]

Owl-ears [The wise one]

Like in most cultures: groups or animals, people or subgroups, there always seems to be a connector: in essence, a philosopher: seer of some kind, or person who shows guidance: some may refer to this person as the wise one. Our Horde had such a person, she was a little female called: Owl-ears: for shed heard everything going on within the structure of the grouplistened to everyone on what they had to say: in essence, she was very well informed. Sometimes in the Banana Cave as well as at other times, and places in the valley or even in ones personal cave, shed come and give advice, lectures. I think she was the first one to relate thinking [the brain work] and emotions [work of the heart] and connected them together for us. Kind of showing us they were different, yet both needed.

I can also recollect what she said to me one day, she said:

Short-legs, you are always so inquisitive, you will be one of the few to see the changes take place rapidly, before most of he Hordes citizens do; you see Short-legs, changes occur one way or another, weather we see them or not. I guess she knew I was witnessing it at first hand. And for some odd reason she felt she had to inform me that she was aware of it, likely so I might help the Horde in someway in the future.

Another thing she said kind of stuck in my mindor things she said, was she related things to us as they were, and really were, not how wed like them to be. Such simply things when I look back, but at the time quite profound I thought: shed say: life would end, or there was pain to be expected in life; or again, this change thing, that it was inevitable; plus, something to do with transitory, --that, not just us, but everything passes on. I liked that part and was hoping the Stone-Builders would pass on quick, so we could have peace and laughter again.

In a similar form, that is a similar form of lecturing, she one day, in the middle of the valley, about 50% of the Horde stood around her, she symbolically drew pictures in the sand. She drew on the ground little circles with figurines in them, for the Branch-People, and one for the Stone-Builders, and another for the People of the Fire, and one for us, the Horde, along with a few others I couldnt decipher. Then she drew a big circle around all the little circlesit was quite profound for usshe then pointed to them and jumping up off her feet at the same time, Ya, ya, ya! then pointed to us and said: uuss, us: we all smiled, I guess we felt [prior to this] that we were not part of the great circle of life, just a rock thrown into it, but this explanation seemed to affirm we were more of, than less of, the circle; so call it pride or the gift of hope, but we all felt better after that.

8

The Tiamat

Along with this New World Order, which was brought about by the Eve-People, in particular the Stone-People, who came from the loins of Eve, or at least her family tree, appeared at this same time a primordial-being, whom many were talking about. I never could understand the legacy of it or the personifying description of ita, as they called it: a her. The figure, outline, formsounded and looked like a male being, but its predominate representation was female, so it was claimed; this creature came out of the Garden, but was much older than the inhabitants of the Garden; --confusing to say the least. But with this creature came chaos. I did get its name, matter of fact I got a few names it was called, along with a description. I didnt give this much thought, nor put this together much until I was a good deal older though, and I still to this very day do not quite understand it. The creature was called a she, the full name being: the Tiamat, or Serpent of the Sea. Eve, whom Ive seen a half dozen times or so, said in so many words: it came from the watery vaults of the heavens, unto the deep of the sea onto the land where we stand. I heard her say something else, in the vein of that, I sure did, absolutely: Im not sure what it all means though, but what it implied I think was: on one hand I got the impression, there were two unsealed forces working for and against mankindand being older now, I placed myself into that category, humanity that is. For myself, I guess I didnt feel I belonged in the group of mankind, so Im not sure if these forces were for or against me at the time anyway, but it seemed the Eve-People prayed to one God, and then when they turned into the Stone-People, the ones that left the Eve family to be on their own with the aim ofpraying to multi-gods, and some beasts they even prayed to,-- one being they called the Tiamat, others [a pause] I forgot their names already, but its of no value to me. They say she was huge, the Tiamatthat is, even bigger than Big-chest, and was of a green color, and could live in or out of water

as I was about to say, before I got onto the Tiamat that is, far to the East were the huge cliffs, or so they were known as, over looking a passage. They, the Stone-Builders, were building a monstrous fortification on top of it. And across the sea they were building the likeness of a lion, and great mounds of stones as fortresses; such things, the likes of which had never been seen before by the Horde.

Said I, to Little-eyes as we sat night after night in what I would call our medium size cave, [medium meaning: just a little larger than normal, making it comfortable for the two of us to sleep and eat in] in symbolic gestures I expressed: the world was coming to an end for our kindas I had expressed before. He paid me little attention, and was not sure why I brought that up again, or for that matter, I couldnt tell him why he had asked. In any event, he had a little blood, you might say, or I do believe, call it a genetic touch of the Branch-People in him, or so I always sensedbut never said; that is why he had a hard time understanding such little things I do trust, but he understood death was looming. We were young, very young during this time of course; he now has built his intellect up four-fold, as I have probably six-fold.

Some of the cave dwellings in our valley were huge, very huge, gigantic to say the least, and went down deep, deep, and deeper into the cavity of the earth. I called the biggest of them, the Banana Cave, because as you would first go into it, overhead were openings, and vegetation was growing here and there, and bananas were all about. Skulls of our ancestors were also kept on the walls of the caves. They were placed into the walls, as one would dig out an opening and place it there. This is where we would come to if we were bored, and wanted to socialize, or yell without alerting the Horde to or for danger; and at times wed come here to grieve a lost one. But we didnt grieve resembling the People of the Fire, or the Stone-Builders, they grieved as if they had died themselves. We grieved as if it was expected, normal,--such as the Branch-People, which to be honest, I never did see them grieve or mourn, yet I did catch a little sadness, unhappiness on their faces during such periods of distress.

We were in an isolated community of sorts. Yet we did not understand the community dynamics per se; just that it was safer than living alone. Nor did we understand selective mating at this stage of our advancement or breeding, we seemed although to be stable; I suppose this was because of/that our conditions were undisturbed, the process of change was very slow, except for now, given that the Stone-Builders had arrived. Yes, there was a feeling that things would change faster, that filled my brain night and day sometimes, my mentality, my cranium; even the Branch-People knew something was different; something was changing in the world, and it seemedall concerned were, everybody that is, everybody in the world in our area was compatible to mate with; or most were it seemed, where as before only a few like-minded were. And the same goes for the People of the Fire, and the Stone-Builders. This all was a mysterious phenomenon to us; --to repeat myself, we were well-matched, much more than ever before, for conception purposes, or better put, procreation it seemed. You can sense such things. Change was imperceptible for Branch-People as a group, they had no tools, weapons, or reasoning power to figure them out, we had but an ounce of those ourselves. They learned by repetition of the same act. Their leader was Big-chest, as he was known. He had more animal in him than anything elseI say this factiously, for I do not know one way or the other to be truthful. He stood eight feet tall; he must have been 400-pounds, long arms, instinctively brutal. He looked more ape-like than anything else, yet he could reason, but just barely. I do believe his mother was from our Horde, and that is why he liked stealing our women; raping them, and leaving half of them dead when he was through with themthat is, when he wanted no more from them.

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