Obsolete Theorem

by Stan C. Smith

  Skyra stepped in front of Veenah and placed her face in her sister’s line of sight. “You will stay here,” she said in the Una-Loto language. “I will return soon.”

  Veenah’s face was still swollen and bruised, and a trickle of blood had formed a jagged line down her cheek from a cut Skyra had reopened while washing her sister in the river. Veenah’s eyes had always been clear before, with slight expressions that only Skyra understood, but now they were dull and expressionless, with yellow ooze gathering in the corners. Something was wrong inside of Veenah. Skyra’s birthmate had been hurt beyond her visible cuts and bruises. Odnus would know what to do. Or maybe Ilkin would know. Skyra needed to get Veenah back to Una-Loto camp.

  Veenah didn’t resist as Skyra forced her to sit on the ground beside the same boulder she’d sat against the previous day.

  “You must run from this place,” Veenah said.

  Skyra pressed her temple to Veenah’s temple and spoke into her ear. “If the bolups try to hurt me, I will gladly kill more of them.” She then got to her feet and headed down the slope.

  Lincoln and Ripple silently followed.

  They entered the forest of burned trees. Some of the scrubby ground plants had burned, but there were also wide areas where the fire had burned only in the treetops, leaving the ground untouched. This gave Skyra hope that maybe some of the bolup weapons hadn’t been destroyed.

  She pulled both her knives from the sheath on her wrist. She then kicked a head-sized rock toward Lincoln. He gave her a strange look then selected a rock half the size of the one she’d offered. He held it up near his shoulder and nodded. She assumed this meant he was ready to go on, so she headed for the camp.

  Skyra saw movement and froze. She then took a few more steps to get a better view. Ahead, several women were rolling up a shelter skin. The bolups were moving their camp. She only saw women, not men.

  She turned to Lincoln and whispered, “We go now to get weapons.”

  His face was sweating, and air was spewing out of his nose so loudly that Skyra could hear each breath. He nodded once.

  Ripple rose from the ground to the height of Skyra’s eyes. “Again, I’ll lead the way.” The creature then surged forward, humming like a nest of bees.

  Skyra took off.

  The women stopped rolling the shelter skin and ran screaming. They gathered into a tight mass with the children and the rest of the women. Skyra still saw no men. For a few breaths, the group of women and children held their ground, some of them shaking khuls at Skyra, Lincoln, and Ripple. Then they all turned and ran. One of the women stumbled and dropped the baby she’d been carrying. She paused for a breath, as if she were considering leaving the child behind, then she grabbed one of its legs, swung it back up to her chest, and kept running. She vanished among the blackened trees with the others.

  Lincoln said, “Well, that was easier than I… oh, shit.”

  Skyra turned and followed his gaze. The bodies of the bolups she’d killed were still where they’d fallen the day before. Most of them had burned in the fire. She stepped over to the dead bolups. Something had eaten portions of the burned bodies. She kneeled to take a closer look. Some of the charred flesh had been chewed off, but long cut marks indicated that other portions had been removed with hand blades or khuls. The stories about bolups she’d been told as a child were true.

  She spat on one of the blackened bodies then rose to her feet. Scanning the area, she spotted a bolup khul among the rocks a short distance away. She stepped over and picked it up. It was not burned. “We came here for weapons,” she said. “We will find more, then we will leave this place. I do not like the smell of these bolups.”

  “The sooner we get out of here, the better,” Lincoln said, still staring at the bodies.

  They searched the area and found three rolled shelter skins the women had already arranged upon dragging poles, which Ripple called a travois. Tucked between the skins on the travois were several more weapons. Skyra picked out another khul for herself, then she handed a third to Lincoln.

  Lincoln pulled a strange object from the skins. “This is what I was hoping we’d find.” It was a long, curved stick with a thin cord tied to each end. Skyra did not know how the weapon worked, but she had seen one of the women use this object to throw the small spear that had hurt Maddy. Lincoln pushed aside one of the rolled skins and pulled out a leather pouch that contained a bundle of the small spears. “This is a weapon I think I can use,” he said.

  “Skyra, you might find this to be useful,” Ripple said. The creature was standing beside a stone-tipped spear that had been left leaning against a burned tree.

  She slid both khuls into the sling beneath her cape and picked up the spear. The wood shaft was straight and felt strong. The stone spearhead was well crafted, with a longer, sharper tip than those she and her people made. It was securely tied with a leather strip to the notch in the shaft, although the bolups had not used bajam from a pine tree to keep the point from slipping. Skyra leveled the weapon and thrust it forward a few times, savoring the comfort of having a good, straight spear in her hands once again.

  She turned to Lincoln. “Now I take Veenah to Una-Loto camp.”

  Skyra did not want to stop. Throughout most of the day she had led Veenah, Lincoln, and Ripple across the vast rocky fields of the river plain her people called the Dofusofu. Then they had entered the low foothills of the Kapolsek, the mountains that formed a high barrier her people had never crossed. Veenah was beginning to slow down now, so Skyra had no choice but to allow her birthmate to rest. She stopped the group beside a clear stream rushing noisily over jumbled rocks.

  Veenah walked straight into the stream without removing her footwraps or waist -skin and sat down in the shallow water.

  “Damn, I thought you’d never stop,” Lincoln said. He removed the green bag from his back and looked at it carefully. He pushed two fingers through a hole in the bag’s thin skin. “Piece of crap is already falling apart.” He opened the bag by pulling on something that made a brief buzzing sound, then he reached inside and pulled out a white object resembling a short length of birch limb as thick as Skyra’s arm. He put the object to his mouth and tipped his head back to drink.

  “You might be able to go all day without drinking,” he said, wiping water from his chin, “but I’m getting dehydrated.” He stepped toward Skyra and offered her the white object. “It’s water. Do you want some?”

  She took the object and studied it for a few breaths before handing it back. “The stream has plenty of water.” She turned her back on him and kneeled by the stream’s edge. The cool water felt good on her face as she washed off the dirt and sweat. She waited for the current to move the dirty water past then stuck her head in and drank her fill.

  When she pulled her head up, she saw Veenah watching her. “You must drink, sister,” Skyra said.

  “She probably needs to eat, too,” Lincoln added. “I don’t know how long you nandups like to go between meals, but I haven’t eaten much since yesterday morning. We humans need to eat several times each day.”

  Skyra scanned the surrounding area. She had not seen many animals while walking the river plain—only distant herds of bison and ibex—and here in the foothills she had spotted only occasional deer. There were fewer rocks here also, which would make it difficult to find worms and other small ground animals.

  Her eyes were drawn to Veenah, who was still sitting in the stream, and was now chewing on something. Skyra removed her footwraps and waded out to her birthmate, being careful to keep her own waist-skin dry. “What are you eating?”

  Veenah looked up at Skyra and opened her mouth. Inside were the legs and broken bits of shell of a salal, the water creature Ripple called a crayfish. Skyra moved closer to the stream bank and turned over a submerged rock. A brown crayfish, almost as long as her hand, scooted backward slightly, obviously startled. Skyra thrust out her hand and flipped the creature onto the shore.

  “I got it,” Lincoln sai
d. He grabbed his green bag. “If you can find more, toss them to me and I’ll put them in here.”

  Skyra moved from rock to rock, turning them over and throwing crayfish to Lincoln, until his bag was bulging. She waded over to Veenah and held out a hand. “Come and fill your belly with us, sister.”

  They all sat on the ground, and Lincoln scooped a handful of the crayfish from his bag and dropped them into the sand. Skyra and Veenah started snatching them up and eating, first chewing off the tail then sucking the organs and fluids from the body shell. Lincoln dug around in his green bag for a few breaths before pulling out a smaller bag. From the small bag, he pulled an object unlike anything Skyra had ever seen.

  He placed the object on the ground then pulled it into two pieces. The top piece was a bowl, which he filled with water from the stream before placing it on the bottom piece. He pulled out a fire stick, like the one Derek had used, and made fire in his hand. He used the fire to ignite a blue, hissing campfire beneath the bowl.

  As the bowl heated up, Lincoln began dropping crayfish into the steaming water. “I’m sorry, but I don’t think I can eat these things without cooking them,” he said.

  Skyra gazed at her sister, who was chewing on a crayfish tail and staring at the strange campfire as if it were no different from the campfires she’d seen her entire life.

  “This is disgusting,” Lincoln said. He was digging through the squirming crayfish in his bag again. This time he pulled out three objects the size of Skyra’s hand. The objects sparkled in the sun with different colors, like the feathers of a magpie. Lincoln tore one of them open. Inside the thin, sparkling cover was a brown object resembling an auroch’s dropping.

  Lincoln offered it to Veenah. “Try it. It’s a protein bar. It’s food.”

  “He says it is food,” Skyra said in the Una-Loto language.

  Veenah accepted it and took a bite. As she chewed, she continued staring at the blue flames.

  Lincoln tore the skin from another and gave it to Skyra. She sniffed it then took a bite. Whatever it was, there was no animal flesh in it. She held her hand out toward Lincoln’s bag. “Crayfish.”

  He pulled one out and handed it to her. She bit off the tail and chewed a few times before putting another bite of Lincoln’s auroch dropping in her mouth. Much better.

  Lincoln used a shining blade he’d pulled from his bag to stab the boiling crayfish and move them from the water to a flat rock. Then he dropped more live ones into the hot water.

  Skyra held out a hand until he gave her one of the cooked crayfish. She gave it to Veenah and demanded another. She didn’t mind eating crayfish raw, but her birthmother had taught her and Veenah that piercing them with a stick and cooking them over a fire made them tastier. She would gladly eat the creatures boiled.

  Soon all the crayfish were gone, and Skyra was too full to consider catching more.

  Lincoln put out his campfire by touching something on the side of the object beneath the bowl. “How much farther is your tribe’s camp?” he asked.

  Skyra thought about this for a few breaths. “If Veenah is strong, we might get there tomorrow.”

  He looked at the black strap on his wrist. “It’s getting late. Maybe we should find a place to camp.”

  Skyra looked at the sun. Then she growled. This stop had taken longer than she had hoped. “You go back to your people. I will take Veenah to Una-Loto camp.”

  Lincoln’s face twisted into one of his strange frowns. “It’s too late for that. I don’t know that I could find my way back. I guess you’re stuck with me.”

  “You cannot go to Una-Loto camp, bolup. My people will kill you.”

  He shrugged his shoulders once. “I’m just doing what Ripple suggested. Coming with you may have been a mistake, but that’s what I decided to do. You didn’t give me much time to think about it.”

  As Skyra led the group away from the stream, she searched for a defensible shelter. The area was mostly rolling hills, with fewer exposed rocks than the Dofusofu river plain and no outcrops or caves. Darkness was approaching, so she chose a low area between hills. There was no stream here to attract predators, and the area was dotted with scrubby trees that would provide enough sticks to keep a campfire burning until morning.

  Veenah joined in the effort to collect wood, which surprised and pleased Skyra. Veenah’s eyes now looked more alive, and she had even started to speak more than simple responses.

  As the sun touched the hilltop, Lincoln pulled yet another object from his green bag. He held it to his nose and wrinkled his brows. “Well, this smells like wet crayfish now, but it’s better than nothing.” He loosened a cord on the bundle and removed a thin skin that had covered it. As Skyra watched, he unrolled it, pieced together some gray sticks that had been hidden inside the roll, and transformed the object, which had started out smaller than his head, into a shelter that was waist-high and longer than his body.

  “It’s a tent,” he said, standing beside the green shelter. “It’s, um, not very big, but I think we can all fit inside.”

  Skyra touched the shelter. The green skin was so thin she could see through it. She pushed open a flap that was obviously a cover for the entry hole and peered inside. “This shelter stinks,” she said to Lincoln.

  “The smell should go away after a while. I thought maybe you and Veenah would want to sleep where you’re not lying in the dirt.”

  “Lincoln is making a generous offer, and you should accept it,” said Ripple.

  Skyra looked inside the shelter again. Her mind overflowed with reasons why she should not do this. No. She wouldn’t get inside a small shelter and sleep beside a bolup man, and neither would Veenah. She stepped back. “Your shelter is not safe. If wolves or cave lions come for us, you will not see them.”

  He seemed to think about this. “Okay. I guess we should stay out by our campfire. That’ll make it easier to keep the fire burning. I’ll leave the tent up in case you change your mind.”

  Skyra arranged twigs and a few sticks for burning. Her birthmother had taught her how to start a fire, but the process was difficult and did not always work, so she waited for Lincoln to use his fire stick.

  Ripple said, “I will make myself useful tonight. The three of you should get the sleep that your bodies need. I will monitor the fire and add fuel as needed. I will also watch for signs of danger.”

  “You can add wood to the fire?” Lincoln asked.

  Ripple put out a foreleg and knocked a stick from the pile. The creature then stepped forward and tapped the stick until one end was in the flames. “My fine motor skills are quite good, Lincoln. You said I was able to etch a detailed message into my own shell, as well as into a femur, did you not?”

  Skyra was tired of hearing Lincoln and Ripple speak words she didn’t understand, so she settled in beside the campfire with Veenah. If they would ever stop talking, perhaps she might even get a few stretches of sleep. She moved closer and rested her head on her birthmate’s shoulder to share body heat. Veenah let out a long breath and put an arm around Skyra, the way she used to.

  Skyra blinked and snapped her head up. She had almost fallen asleep. Perhaps her body was more tired than she thought. She put another stick on the fire and turned to her birthmate. Veenah gazed back at her with clear eyes. Skyra put her hand out, with her palm flat and her thumb up.

  Veenah stared at the hand for a few breaths then held her own hand beside it, with her palm facing Skyra’s. Her eyes narrowed slightly as she watched Skyra’s face.

  Skyra slapped her hand.

  Veenah grunted and held her hand out again, only to be slapped a second time.

  Skyra put her hand back into place and spoke firmly. “Lotup-aibul-batas-fekho.” Watch my eyes, sister. She waited two breaths and then swiped to the side. This time Veenah’s hand was gone.

  Veenah’s lips parted slightly as if she were trying to smile.

  “That’s a good sign,” Lincoln said. “I think she’s feeling better.”

 
“Yes, indeed,” Ripple added. “Perhaps now, Skyra, you will change your mind about returning to your tribe.”

  Skyra didn’t want to think about what she would do in the morning. She just wanted to sit beside some good weapons and a pile of firewood she knew would last the entire night. She wanted to rest with Veenah, believing her birthmate would live to see many more warm seasons. Also, for some reason, she now wanted to talk to this strange bolup who followed her around like an unweaned auroch followed its birthmother.

  She turned to Lincoln. “In the cave, you asked me what my people do for laughing. I told you we tell stories. Now I will tell you a story.”

  He sat up straight. “Really? I mean, I would like that.”

  “I will tell you a story about Skyra and Veenah hunting pikas. This story happened last cold season. Skyra and Veenah went to a hillside of rocks where we like to hunt for pikas.”

  Ripple said, “Lincoln, Pikas are small, mountain-dwelling mammals. They are lagomorphs although somewhat smaller than most rabbits.”

  “I am telling a story, Ripple! Do not talk now.”

  “It’s okay,” said Lincoln. “I know what a pika is.”

  Ripple turned away from the fire, perhaps to watch for predators.

  Skyra continued. “Pikas hide in the rocks. Skyra and Veenah make skinny spears—spears just for killing pikas hiding in the rocks.” She made a small circle with her finger and thumb to show how skinny the spears were. “On that day we hunted until we wanted water and food in our bellies, but we did not find pikas. Skyra wanted to go back to Una-Loto camp, but Veenah said, ‘No, we will not go back. We will find a pika, and we will make a fire here and Skyra and Veenah will eat the pika without sharing with our tribemates.’ Skyra laughed at Veenah’s words. ‘Yes, Veenah, we will kill a pika and fill our bellies. Then we will make a camp here, and we will not go back to our tribemates until the sun shows us the way in the morning.’”