I started to protest but thought better of it. First, how do you argue with an animal, even one as special as Tinker? Second, of the two of us she was definitely the one best suited for making decisions here. For all I knew the night in this area would bring forth legions of gibbering zombies.
I shadowed Tinker as she would scamper around for a spell then stop and sniff the air. She was definitely searching for something. The sun was falling rapidly now and darkness was very close. The wind was picking up and the trees were swaying. After some ten minutes of searching we came to a point where the foothills touched the edge of the forest. They were low and rocky and stretched into the distance until they climbed to the larger promontory. This area had bushes and smaller trees sprouting from the terrain. These trees were not like the ones in the forest but shorter with thick trunks and huge, lush leaves. They looked for all the world like giant cabbages with huge green leaves which swept upward to completely hide the thick upper stalks. We were in the middle of a grove of about twenty of them.
Tinker went to the closest one, one of the largest and sniffed. She then executed an orbit around the plant and sniffed again. She must have solved whatever mystery she was pondering because she turned to me and gave off three short peeps.
And for the first time since meeting up with my little animal buddy I felt an understanding for want of a better word, pass between us. It wasn’t words in my head or anything like that but when she looked at me I knew without a doubt that she wanted me to climb the tree. Not up the enveloping leaves to the top but up and into the large swelling bulb of leaves. My little guide intended that we were going to be spending this night within the leaves of the cabbage tree.
Postponing the thought that this revelation definitely required, I noted that the sun was now almost completely below the horizon and the light was waning. I went over to Tinker and asked, “Well now what? Are you going to show me what you have in mind here because I’m kind of stumped?”
With a speed I didn’t know she was capable of, the little creature skittered up the trunk and about halfway up the height of the swell of leaves. She then wiggled her way in between two of the huge leaves and disappeared inside.
Okay.
Not being nearly as nimble as Tinker I grabbed a handful of leaves which were the size of elephant ears and slowly pulled myself up. My bare feet and naked torso made the climb difficult and slightly painful. I had to repeatedly dig my toes into the bulb of the tree and then lunge upward to grasp a handhold. By the time I was at the level where Tinker had disappeared I had a dozen scratches on my ankles and forearms.
I could see no natural opening in the foliage but I knew I was near the point where she had dug her way inside. I poked a hand in between two of the leaves and was surprised to find that they parted rather easily. Hooking my legs around some of the lower stalks I forced both of my hands and arms deeper into the hole I’d created. Eventually they met no more resistance which told me that the interior of the leafy swelling was hollow.
Before venturing any further I pulled my head back and looked around. The cabbage tree was about thirty feet in diameter and the ‘head’ formed by the upswept leaves began about eight feet off the ground, tapering off to a point at about fifteen feet. It was surrounded by some smaller shrubbery. The sky was displaying a beautiful sunset with streaks of pink, blue and orange. In the distance I heard a screech similar to the noise an owl might make.
With no other option but to follow my guide I carefully stuck my head into the hole I’d made. To my great surprise I saw light coming from within. It wasn’t bright but it was definitely lighter than the darkness that was now enveloping our little grove. It was a bluish glow, reminiscent of one of those plastic-covered glass rods one broke and shook to generate light. Imagining a large beast waiting inside for me I wiggled and pushed until I was all the way inside except for my legs which still dangled in the cooler night air.
This far in I saw that the interior of the cabbage tree was hollow, all of the big leaves folded up and outward leaving a round space about ten feet across and three feet high. The sides of the leaves which faced into the ‘room’ emitted the soft blue glow which illuminated the space quite well. The floor of the space was spongy but dry, made up of younger leaves which were much smaller and less brittle than those on the exterior. “Not bad”, I thought. A natural refuge with a soft bed at the bottom and its own nightlight. And we were protected from the night air and any nasty demons which may be prowling around.
I pulled the rest of myself inside. On my knees I looked around again. The light-emitting leaves intrigued me. I pulled one down and examined it. The top of the leaf appeared normal but the bottom, which faced inward, was covered in tiny seeds. The seeds were the source of the bio-luminescence. When I released the leaf it slowly returned to its original position overhead.
Tinker was already curled up on one side with her tail wrapped around herself. Her eyes were closed and her chest was slowly rising and falling. I admit I felt a small pang of disappointment when she didn’t acknowledge my entry but I had to concede that it had been a taxing day. I didn’t know how much distance we’d covered but it was certainly over thirty miles, all of it on foot. I crawled to the side opposite of where she lay and stretched out the best I could. My exhaustion immediately descended upon me and I felt myself drifting off. Just before I faded away I heard little footsteps crawling toward me and felt a warm and furry body snuggle up into my armpit. I smiled, happy to have a friend. I dozed off to the sound of her gentle purr.
CHAPTER SIX
Discovery
The next day I awoke to a rude squawk. Evidently Tinker had awakened and decided I was oversleeping.
“Yes Mother, I’m awake” I said, rubbing my eyes.
Sunlight was streaming into our little nest because Tinker was now peeking out of the cabbage-tree leaves. I noticed that the incoming light killed the luminescent quality of the interior leaves when it struck them. I stretched and yawned, squinting at the light.
Tinker chittered and pawed her way out of the nest. It was dark again now that the opening she had made snapped back together but the leaves around me again began to glow, slowly at first but getting brighter with each second. I didn’t stick around to see them fully recuperate. I thrust my feet out through the place where Tinker had gone and slowly extricated myself from the interior of the tree. It was a little cooler this morning and the breeze on my backside reminded me that I was naked. I climbed down to the ground carefully, trying to minimize the scratches from the larger exterior leaves. I took extra care to protect my more tender spots.
Tinker was on the ground stretching with her rear legs straight and her back arched. A small wet spot next to her bore testimony to her already having relieved herself. It sounded like a good idea so I followed her example. That done, I shivered a little, wishing the sun would get higher and warmer. There were small patches of an evaporating morning fog hanging on and dew dripped from surrounding leaves. The air was brisk and amazingly clean and refreshing.
I couldn’t avoid noting the difference between my new surroundings and the air in Clovis. The Fresno/Clovis area was notorious for having some of the worst air in California. Farm dust and factory emissions from all over Northern California drifted down to our area and hit the wall of the Sierras where it would linger. It was the first thing I had thought of since arriving here that I did not miss.
Surveying our surroundings I could see the hill but the sun was not yet right for me to see the reflection I had spied on it the day before. In the opposite direction stood the forest we’d crossed. Two separate herds of deer were grazing nearby. They paid us very little attention. I began to fantasize as to how one might taste if it was roasted on a spit over hot coals.
The ground leading up to the hill was a tan color with darker spots where grey rock poked through. Little sprouts of weeds and patches of the omnipresent blue flowers decorated the area here and there. I saw my first reptile dash across one of
the nearer rocks. It was about eight inches long and as grey as the rocks themselves. I was no herpetologist but it looked like any lizard one might see back home. Small white insects the size of gnats buzzed around my head.
“You ready to try that hill today?” I asked Tinker.
She replied with a peep instead of a squeak this time and took off toward the high ground. I followed as fast as I could. Evidently my muscles didn’t warm up as quickly as hers. But it wasn’t long before the sun came fully over the horizon and the temperature rose to a more comfortable level. Tinker hit the rise of the knoll without slowing and skittered quickly upward with me hopping along behind her, enjoying the effects of the light gravity.
About forty-five minutes later we crested the mound. The summit was a large depression, much like a dish mesa or a small volcano that had filled in with dirt and rocks. We climbed over the lip of the encircling walls and slid down some twenty feet into the bowl. We were mostly on sand that was hard packed and easy to walk on. The walls surrounded us at all points except one where they seemed to have collapsed, leaving a cleft that was even with the bottom of the mesa bowl. Being down in the depression put us in shadow and it was somewhat cooler at the higher elevation. All around us was more sand and grey rock.
I began searching for whatever had been the cause of the reflection I’d seen the day before but saw nothing. I wasn’t too surprised because, after spotting it, we had moved around the hill while Tinker searched for our nocturnal accommodations.
Thinking of Tinker, I took notice that she was heading for the cleft in the wall so I fell in behind. It took only two or three minutes to cross the bowl. We came up to the break in the encircling wall and I could see back in the direction where we had crossed the forest. This would definitely have been the area where I’d seen the glint that I’d hoped was metal.
Tinker sat back on her haunches and busied herself with her tail, seeming to understand that I needed to search the area. I walked around, kicking sand away from projections, desperately looking for whatever had caused the glint of reflected sunlight. I discovered rocks, dried grass, spiky thistles and just about everything else except what I was searching for. I was rapidly losing hope when my search took me to the edge of the cleft in the rock wall. This part of the wall faced in same direction as the sun sets on this world so I deemed that direction to be the west. That would have been the most likely location of whatever it was I’d seen the day before. I knelt low and scanned the ground before me. After a few moments of searching my eyes locked onto something projecting out of the floor of the bowl. It was more golden-colored than the sand around it. I approached it slowly, not being in a hurry to end my hopes by finding only an odd-colored rock or some other useless object.
A small half-circle was sticking out of the sand. It looked like metal. Though dull and covered with a coating of dust I could still see a shine to the surface. With trembling hands I touched it. It was cold. I wiped the dust from the object. It was shiny. Scarcely breathing I put my thumb and forefinger on it and pulled. It resisted only slightly before coming free. It was a perfect oval. It had a leather strap attached to it which was also buried in the sand. I pulled the entire thing free and almost cried. It was a belt and buckle.
CHAPTER SEVEN
Skeletons
Astonished by my discovery I yelled and began jumping up and down. The buckle was made of a material very much like brass. The leather belt was thick and black, a little dried and rough by exposure to the weather but still useable. If I had pants they could have benefitted from my new find. It had the look of something that had been there a long time. When I settled down I searched for Tinker, fearing that my outburst may have scared her off. It hadn’t. She sat nearby, casually continuing to groom herself and giving no indication that she even knew I was present.
I looked around for more objects. Surely this couldn’t be the only thing here. As I searched my mind worked furiously. This was irrefutable proof that there were humans here. The buckle indicated they were advanced enough to have discovered metallurgy and that they wore clothing. The meaning took root deep inside my consciousness: I was not alone. My next thought was obvious; I must find them.
I went over to Tinker and gestured in the direction where I had found the belt. She looked at me, then sniffed the air and wiggled her whiskers. Instead of heading out of the bowl and down the side of the hill like I was hoping, she turned and scampered away in the opposite direction. She drew up about thirty feet away from me near a group of rocky projections that made up the eastern-facing part of the wall and looked back at me. By now I could interpret her actions to mean that I should follow her. I was a little upset, being anxious to get started on my search but I could not get angry with my little companion. I indulged her desire, following her even though everything in me screamed that we should be leaving and searching for other humans.
Just as I approached her position she disappeared around one of the rocky spires. I followed her through a natural rock arch and stopped dead. Leading into the mesa wall was a tunnel-like opening. It was about four feet tall and the darkness within showed it not to be shallow. Tinker stood by the entry, tail twitching.
“Hey Girl, what did you find?” I asked. Immediately I ‘understood’ that this was not a recent find by my little friend. She’d known about its existence for a long time. Was this what she was leading me to all along? Were there people inside the cave? My heart quickened.
As I pondered those questions Tinker turned and entered the cave opening. Standing on her legs and with her arms to her sides for balance she walked more slowly than I’d ever seen her move. Naturally I crouched down and followed her. The light of the cave entrance ended quickly as we advanced deeper inside. The ceiling also grew higher and I was able to walk erect. The air was cool and had a moist smell to it as if there was water somewhere nearby. The tunnel took a winding path we appeared to be spiraling downward inside the hill. Then we turned a corner and suddenly it was lighter. Ribbons of pinkish sunlight streamed into a large cave opening from cracks in the rocks above. The space we were now entering into was oval in shape, and wide as a barn. The roof was ten feet or so overhead. Even with the shafts of sunlight it was dim inside and there were spots that the light did not reach. I stopped and waited for my eyes to adjust as Tinker continued on inside.
Because she was white it was easier to see Tinker than anything else in the cavern. I could now see her sitting next to a pile of rocks. As my eyes adjusted the rocks on the floor of the cave resolved themselves into smoother, whiter objects. The floor was littered with them. I took a few steps nearer and almost cried out. Tinker was squatting next to a pile of bones. As I looked around I saw them everywhere. Polished white bones, skulls and femurs and ribcages. Human.
Or were they? I knelt down and examined the pile next to Tinker. This was definitely the skeleton of a humanoid. But I saw some differences too. The biggest was the skull. The cranium was higher in the back than normal and kind of peaked instead of domed. The mandible was oversized compared to the rest of the skull. Thick bony projections were formed over each eye socket making for prominent eye brow ridges. There was a caved-in hole over the right eye orbit. This fact gave me a case of the willies and I instinctively looked around myself, afraid of suddenly being set upon by dozens of semi-human cannibals. Seeing nothing to fear I returned to my examination of the bones. I’d seen human bones in books and on the internet. These appeared to belong to something that was somewhat shorter and thinner than the average human. Arranged around this particular pile were the remnants of clothing, torn and weathered almost away. Another belt, similar to the one I’d found outside, was still wrapped around the middle of this skeleton. At the feet were scraps of thick leather soles, the upper portions of the footwear having long worn away.
My heart sank. After finding the belt I had assumed it was proof of the existence of people here. Now it appeared that the article had been crafted by a Neanderthal or some type of sub-human.
I crossed the cavern to where she waited and quickly grew excited. This skeleton was definitely human. I knelt down beside it and examined it more closely. The skull and bones were exactly like I’d remembered of the examples I’d seen. Oddly enough, it was still fully dressed and the clothes were in astonishingly good condition. The legs were covered with black trousers that appeared to be made of a light, tough cloth like linen and closed by a drawstring. There were metal shin guards around the lower legs which had been stained a dark bluish color. The ribs were covered with a sleeveless shirt made from the same material as the pants. That was, in turn, covered by a thick black leather vest. The vest bore several large star-shaped panels made from the same metal as the shin guards. The steel-like panels appeared to be strategically placed on the garment to protect vital areas such as the heart, lungs and abdomen. The arm bones were bare from shoulder to elbow. Encasing each lower arm was a metal forearm guard that fastened with leather straps and buckles. Pits and gouges on the arm guards made it clear these were used to parry blows from edged weapons.
There was a light metal helmet, not on his skull but placed seemingly gently on his chest. The entire arrangement of the remains gave the appearance of reverence and respect. It was as if the body had been placed here as part of a ceremony designed to honor him. To its side rested a large sword, a mace with a heavy spiked head and a spear with a savage-looking metal point.
The Olvion Reality (The Chronicles of Olvion Book 1) Page 5
