Tamara was starting to feel excited. Suddenly, everything was beginning to become a lot more real. She looked out the window and at the city of Bordeaux as they weaved through its streets and then out toward the countryside. The atmosphere in the coach was full of anticipation and the girls looked at one another as they took in their surroundings.
“God, what have we let ourselves in for?” Carla said as she rolled her eyes. Tamara couldn’t help but laugh at her friend. For someone who had chosen archeology as a major, she had a funny way of showing her interest in the subject.
As the coach continued its journey, the expedition leaders kept them entertained with facts about the caves. Tamara was quietly proud that she knew most of them, and found herself looking out the side window and at the beautiful countryside.
After around an hour, the leader announced that there would be a short rest stop, and the driver pulled the coach off to the side of the road where there was a sheltered layby and a small block of restrooms.
Tamara stretched her arms high over her head as she looked around the sprawling countryside. Everything was so green and pure, it was like nothing she had ever seen before.
“Wow,” she breathed as she shielded her eyes from the sun and looked out across the meadows.
People meandered around her, and she and Carla waited until everyone had approached the restrooms.
“The queue is going to be huge,” Carla said. “Shall we hang back and wait until it’s died down?”
“Yeah,” Tamara nodded. “Come on, let’s wander over there and take some photographs on our phones.”
The girls wandered out into the meadow, over a small rise and down the other side. They could hear the chatter of the group somewhere behind them and they were aware of the coach’s engine running, but they didn’t pay it much attention. As they kept walking, the wind began to pick up and it whipped around their ears, disorientating them ever so slightly as they aimed their cellphones over the rolling hills.
“It’s just so beautiful,” Carla smiled. “I wish we could sit out here all day!”
“Well, I’m sure once we get to the caves it’ll be only small groups going in at a time and we will have a chance to see some more of the countryside,” Tamara smiled.
She held up her cell and took a photo of the meadow. The long grass was blowing in the wind, making the whole scene look magical and whimsical.
Tamar wasn’t sure how long it was before she realized that she couldn’t hear the coach’s engine anymore. But it suddenly hit her like a ton of bricks and she spun around and found herself running back towards the small rise, her legs aching with exertion as she pushed herself to the top and down the other side. Carla wasn’t far behind her, shouting her name, and realizing herself what had happened. But it was too late…
The coach had gone.
They were alone in the French countryside.
They were lost, with no way of reaching the Lascaux Caves.
“Oh shit,” Carla said as she stopped beside Tamara, panting and totally out of breath. “What the hell are we going to do now?”
7.
Tamara looked up and down the highway, but they were out in the middle of nowhere, and it was so remote that there were no cars passing by. The whole world seemed silent around them, apart from the wind and the sun that beat down heavy on their heads.
“We’ll have to start walking,” Tamara said as she squinted into the distance in the direction that the coach was travelling. “But I don’t think we should bother sticking to the roads.”
“Why not?” Carla pouted. “Surely we’ve got more chance of being picked up?”
“Neither of us speak French,” she said matter-of-factly, “and I have the distinct feeling that we are likely to be close by. I’m sure the eccentric leader with the clipboard said something about this being the last rest stop before the caves… There probably isn’t any facilities there.”
“So you think we’re closer than we thought?”
“I think we are,” Tamara squinted again into the distance and she turned her direction of sight across the meadow. “And I think we should be heading directly across there,” she reached out and pointed across the wistful countryside. “We’ll probably be there before we know it. Look how the road curves around. I bet you anything, the caves are right over that rise of hills and hidden down in the valleys.”
“Well, we may as well give it a shot,” Carla shrugged. “But if we get lost?”
“We won’t,” Tamara shrugged. “And anyway, we have our cell phones, we can just call someone and ask them to come and get us.”
“As long as you’re sure…” Carla said cautiously.
“I’m not sure… But it’s better than walking for miles, trying to flag down a car and not being able to explain where we need to be and why, or calling the French police and asking them to come and pick us up… I’m pretty sure we can find our own way there quicker than either of those options.”
“Yeah,” Carla agreed, “I think you’re probably right.”
“Come on then,” Tamara said heartily as she slipped her cellphone into her back pocket and started out across the meadow. “Let’s get to it.”
Carla skipped along behind her and tried to keep up.
***
The girls walked for around half a mile when they began to tire. The hills and meadows were vast and sprawling, and the midday sun was raging high above them.
“I need to stop,” Tamara said as she clutched her side. A stitch beginning to spread.
Carla nodded, flung herself to the ground and crossed her legs before she slowly laid backward and stretched out in the long grass. The breeze blew around them, cooling them down, and Tamara looked from left to right and then dead ahead. The road hadn’t been visible for some time, and all that was ahead of them seemed to be more grass and open terrain, dotted with small mounds and hills springing up out of the meadow.
Tamara left Carla to rest and carried on forward. “I’ll be back in a minute,” she called to her as she wandered down a slight embankment and found herself at the foot of another set of small hills and valleys. She looked around at the intense beauty of where she was, and although she knew they were lost, she was finding it impossible to be afraid.
Just then, something caught her attention out of the corner of her eye. She turned on her heel and looked toward one of the small hills to the right and realized that it had an opening at the front of it, which was covered by metal gauze and a sign that read KEEP OUT.
She was taken aback for a moment. Why would there be a flimsy metal gauze up against the entrance to this isolated cave if there was nothing inside to see? Could it be a back entrance to the Lascaux Caves? Had they found it? She called over her shoulder to Carla but feared her voice had been carried away by the wind, but she was so excited she headed forward at full steam.
As she approached the opening, she could see that there wasn’t just one cave, but many openings in the ground, and they had all been sealed in some way. Tamara smiled smugly to herself, knowing that she had been right all along and that they had managed to find the legendary caves themselves. She could imagine that the road had bent around and had led the rest of the expedition to the other side of the hills and they would be waiting for them there. But now she had an opening right in front of her; she wasn’t going to climb a hill, and hike across the top and down the other side, she would venture down into the caves and meet them in the middle.
“Carla!” she called again over her shoulder, but there was no answer. “Come on Carla, I’ve found something!”
“In a minute…” Carla said groggily, and Tamara figured she had probably started snoozing in the tall grass.
She stepped forward, approaching the entrance to the caves. She was going to find a way inside, and nothing was going to stop her.
She pulled at the gauze and it broke away from its attachment to the rocks immediately. Tamara crinkled up her nose… Who had even put it there? Did they really think it would keep
anyone out? She threw it to the ground and stepped inside. She could see that the tunnel she was walking into disappeared deep into the ground and she began to feel anxious. Maybe it wasn’t safe and that was why they wanted to keep people out. The meadow was so isolated, there wasn’t much chance of anyone randomly happening upon this place.
Tamara thought for a moment whether she was doing to best thing. But the scientist and explorer inside her got the better of her common sense and she continued, delving deeper into the cave and travelling further underground.
When the cave opened up in front of her and her eyes adjusted to the dark, her breath was taken away. The scene in front of her was incredible, and she knew immediately that these caves were not those of Lascaux. She shivered as the cold tingled over her entire body and she looked up at the intricate rock formations and the art work that adorned the cave walls.
“Where am I?” she said aloud as she looked around some more.
This place was definitely not what she had seen when she had researched. This set of caves were new, untouched, forgotten, hidden…
Someone didn’t want anyone to know about them, or be inside of them.
Tamara turned and looked over her shoulder. In the corner, glinting as if it was being illuminated by sun light and water, were two rocks; one coming down from the ceiling and one travelling up from the ground so that the two points of either end were almost touching. Tamara had never seen anything so beautiful and she was drawn to them immediately. Her curiosity and their power pulled her forward; they charmed her to come to them.
Her fingers tingled as she stood there and tried her very best not to reach out and touch the points. But it was too overwhelming, she couldn’t pull herself away.
As her fingers graced the sharp points, something changed within her. Her body felt split open and scattered, but not with pain, with healing light.
Suddenly, everything went black and Tamara couldn’t feel or hear anything. Her world was spinning. She was moving across time and space, but she had no idea where she was heading. And she had no idea how to stop it.
8.
The cold bit her skin before she even had a chance to open her eyes. It was all around her and all encompassing. The ice ran below and above her, penetrating her soul.
She shivered as she opened her eyes slowly and looked around. She was nowhere she recognized, and her clothing was ripped and dirtied. She reached into her back pocket and pulled out her cellphone, but the screen was smashed. She fiddled with it and tried to turn it on, but it was dead. She slipped it back in her pocket and slowly got to her feet. Her shoes were missing and her toes were bare against the icy ground. She looked at her arms and at the mud that was slicked all over them, thick and dry like clay.
She had been inside a cave and something had happened. She felt as if she had travelled a very long way, but she had no idea how or where she had come. She swallowed and felt the panic begin to rise within her. There was something about this place that was familiar in a lot of ways, but she knew she had never been here.
She looked around. The meadow she had been in was now covered in ice and it was wide and open. She was in the center of it and vulnerable, and she was sure she could hear the sounds of animals in the distance.
“You need to find shelter,” she said to herself as she turned and began to run. “If you’re where I think you are Tam, then you’re in a whole load of trouble.”
She ran as fast as she could toward what she believed could be an entrance to a cave, and as she skid on the ice, toward the rocks, she stood and peered nervously inside. It looked to be empty, nothing inside but a couple of broken stones and the remnants of a long burned out bonfire. She rubbed her hands together and climbed in, immediately sheltered from the icy winds.
She blew into her fists and willed the heat to spread through her limbs. She had no idea how long she had been lying on the ground and she feared frostbite or hypothermia. It was so cold. She had never known anything like it.
How had a warm, sunny field in France turned into an ice cold wasteland? How had she come to be there?
She thought back to the cave she had discovered and to the rock formations that had pulled her in like a moth to a flame.
Something happened in that cave, she thought, something magical… Something unexplainable…
She pulled her knees up to her chest and tried to pull her thoughts together. She was alone out there in the wilderness, and she had to find a way to survive. The temperature was dropping and who knew what other dangers lay out there, waiting for her when she least expected it.
She was about to burst into tears when she heard something out across the ice plain. As she looked up, she could barely believe what she was seeing, but she knew, all the same, that it was very, very real…
Walking toward her, with a spear in his hand and an animal pelt slung over his muddied shoulders, was the man from her dream.
A man from the past…
Someone prehistoric…
A caveman.
9.
She gasped and pressed herself flat back against the wall. Out on the tundra, the man was walking sternly toward her, braving the winds and ice, coming closer every second. Tamara was finding it hard not to be afraid now… She had no idea what to do, or how to react. She pulled her knees up close to her chest and tried to hide her face, but she knew it was futile. He had already seen her. No doubt, he had seen her running across the open icy plain and coming into the cave in the first place.
She watched his muscular physique and she felt as if she could make out each bulge and swell on his skin with each step he took closer. He was an incredible sight; tall, rugged and dirty, covered in animal fur and he had clay smeared around his face to disguise him in the undergrowth. His eyes shone brightly, the whites of them glinting in the day light and the centers a deep, cold blue. Tamara felt herself shiver. His eyes were so enchanting, it was as if she was under his spell and she hadn’t even spoken to him. He was striding ever closer and holding out his spear, pointed in her direction, and Tamara froze, she didn’t dare move or speak.
What was he going to do?
When he stopped at the entrance to the cave and looked in at her, she peered up at him with innocent eyes and hoped he would have mercy.
“Please…” she whispered, not daring to really make a sound. “Don’t hurt me…”
“Wo-man,” he said gruffly. “Out. Now.”
He pointed with his spear and then he reached inside, took hold of her shaking arms and pulled her out into the daylight. He studied her for a moment as if he couldn’t really believe what he was seeing. He took in the unusual sight of her clothing, the way her nails had been so perfectly manicured but were now dirty and chipped. He could tell that she was not of this place. They stood side by side, completely different in so many ways, but with a mutual fascination joining them together. Tamara couldn’t believe what she was seeing.
A real life caveman…
Dragging her out of a cave and demanding she went with him…
But where…?
“Please,” she pleaded again with a hushed voice, not wanting to startle him. “Please, don’t hurt me.”
“No hurt,” the man said with a nod.
Their eyes met properly for the first time and she was pulled in just as she had been to the rock formations back in the cave. She had never seen such wide, crystal blue eyes before and they were magical in their own special way. Tamara looked at him, he was so wild and feral, like a wolf or animal that needed to be tamed, but the way he looked upon her was gentle and kind, as if she were something he needed to protect.
“Danger,” he said finally as he broke her gaze. “Go. Now.”
He pulled Tamara to him and lifted her up high over his shoulder. As he began to run with her across the tundra, the spear still at his side, she gasped and dug her fingertips into his muscular arms, willing him not to drop her as he sprinted forward and headed for a hill rise that led down into another icy v
alley.
Tamara’s mind was whirling. Could all of this really be happening? Or had she just banged her head in the cave and was she really unconscious, back in France with Carla?
She ran her hands across the caveman’s shoulders and breathed in his strong scent; a mix of smoke, fire and herbs.
No, this was very real indeed.
She clung to him, her hands trembling and his strides becoming more prominent as they climbed the hill and began to descend the other side. She could feel his heart beating underneath her palm and she could tell that he was panicked. He was trying to get them out of the way of something or someone, and he was determined to be fast.
As they reached the bottom of the hill, another maze of cave openings sprang up in front of them and he headed for one of the farthest, hidden deep in the side of one of the hills. Tamara tried to keep focused and keep her gaze fixated on their destination, but she couldn’t help but keep looking around, and she was sure she could see the glints of other sets of eyes coming from inside some of the caves. She suppressed a squeal as her caveman ran with her to the cave and began to climb inside.
The darkness enveloped them and she gave herself to it. She had no idea where she was, or who she was with, but she had to put her life in his hands because she had no chance of making it out there in the icy tundra on her own. Something very strange was happening to her, and the only way she was going to get answers was if she played her cards right and gained the man’s trust.
He lay her down gently on the floor of the cave, on top of a thick, plush animal skin as he bent down next to her and started to rub two sticks together in a bid to start a fire. Tamara was shaking and she pulled the skin around her, hoping that it would quickly make her warm.
She looked up and around at her surroundings and breathed in deeply as she saw the drawings on the ceiling of the cave and all around the walls. She recognized them and their style, and even though she had been trying to deny it, she knew then that there was no doubt of where she was.
SCAR (LOST CREEK SHIFTERS NOVELLAS Book 2) Page 18
