I wasn’t the only one who felt dismayed by what we’d heard.
‘Will we ever get away? I think we’ve had it.’ Sam’s shoulders dropped and he turned, hiding his face from us.
We were half led and half pushed back over to Crow’s hut. We didn’t have any choice. After a while the Stinkers pulled us out and we joined the rest of them. More of the drink was passed around. Ivy was led away by the women and joined Demelza. Sam and I were surrounded by the Stinkers. Sam gave up and slowly collapsed and fell asleep after several more gulps of Stinker brew.
David was in his hut and well guarded. I tried several times to leave the group but they closed in on me. I needed to find out more from David. I had to find out what happened to Mum. Was she dead? But there had to be more. Was rescuing David all that Alice Tregarthur had promised? What was David hiding?
The Hunt
-13-
We weren’t going to find out the answers straight away. I wanted to get back to questioning David but the next day Crow pulled me and then Sam out of the hut and we found all the males gathered with clubs. Crow wasn’t wearing his cloak.
‘Hunting, I think,’ I muttered.
‘Hope so,’ Sam said with a nervous glance.
‘I expect they’ll give us a bit of a start.’
Sam seemed to miss my joke.
Ivy poked her head out of the hut.
‘Try and get some more out of David,’ I called before Crow gave a grunted shout and they set off with their loping run. We had no choice but to follow, wedged in between more Stinkers. We were taken past the remains of the mammoth. Very few remains but still a lot of flies.
Then to the bridge. Crow sent two across at a time. I guessed the bridge wasn’t strong enough to take the weight of more than two, but how did Crow know that? The bridge looked complicated, creepers strung in a pattern. More complicated than anything else the Stinkers had built. Who had made the bridge? It wasn’t very wide but I could see that it saved a long struggle down the side of the ravine, across the river, and up the other side to wherever we were going. After crossing the bridge we soon came out of the forest to a wide grassy area. One huge tree stood in the middle.
‘This is where we watched them chase the mammoth over the cliff.’ Sam pointed to a dark green line that marked the edge of the plain in the distance.
‘And that’s where we stopped for the night.’ I nodded towards the hill.
There seemed to be a track on our side, running up into the trees. Now I could see there were a range of hills leading to the mountains. ‘That would have been a shorter route to the sniffer’s cave, if we seen it,’ I said.
‘Oh good, shorter.’ Sam didn’t seem to want to know.
‘It feels such a long time ago.’ I thought of all the things that had happened since our first night after leaving Jenna and the others.
Several small herds of deer grazed on the plain and the hunt began. The Stinkers had two hunting methods. Either they tried to chase the deer over the cliff or they chased them and tried to hit them with their clubs. Both methods were exhausting and not very successful – the deer moved too quickly.
It was obvious that we were expected to join in. We could outrun any of the Stinkers, but were hopeless with the clubs, so we chased. Sam was better at this. He seemed to lose himself in the hunt. No trace of his hornet injuries. I think Ivy’s leaves had saved his life.
The plain had looked flat, but dips and hollows filled with stunted trees and prickly bushes made chasing hazardous. I ran after a small deer, and fell headlong into a vicious thorny bush. The Stinkers howled with glee. The hunting provided as much entertainment as it did food. As I picked myself out of the bush I noticed a strong stale rancid smell. I’d smelt it before, but I couldn’t remember when or where. The painful thorns made me forget the smell. The hunt went on.
Lunch meant ripping apart one of the fresh deer.
‘Are you going to eat that?’ Sam gagged as I picked up a chunk of raw bleeding meat.
I shrugged and took a bite. Sam soon joined me.
By the end of the day we had five dead deer and one deer skin to take back to the camp. Crow threw the largest one over his shoulder and carried it with blood dripping down his back from the dead animal.
As we returned the sun started to sink behind the hills, shadows lengthening as the day cooled. It was very quiet.
Crow led the way, often looking back – pleased with himself. I was plodding on, still picking thorns out of my arms. We neared the forest. Too late, I remembered where I had first noticed that smell – in the sniffer’s cave. I could smell it again. Almost at the same moment a shadowy form leapt from a deep hollow, shot past me and hurled itself straight at Crow and the dead deer on his back, smashing him to the ground. The beast was a smaller live version of Crow’s cloak, but it still had long curved tusks and huge paws. It pinned Crow to the ground and tore at the deer. The other Stinkers ran away squealing, dropping deer and clubs.
Sam, nearest to Crow and the beast, grabbed one of the dropped clubs. Screaming and yelling he charged. The animal would never have seen anything like an angry Sam running at it with a club. It looked up and its yellow eyes glared at him. Sam didn’t falter. The beast roared, its huge pointed teeth glinted in the last rays of the sun. Sam still didn’t stop. He raised his club and screamed even louder. With more of a whimper than a roar, the animal turned and ran off. Sam still didn’t stop and would have kept going if I hadn’t sprinted after him and tackled him to the ground.
‘Good move Sam but I’m not sure what you were going to do when you caught it,’ I laughed and Sam joined in. Getting up from the thick grass, we found Crow uninjured, but frozen with fear.
I pulled him to his feet and Crow recovered, shouting: ‘Haarfer! Haarfer!’ this time he yelled at Sam, flinging his arms around him and dancing about. The other Stinkers slunk back, appearing amazed to see their leader still alive. I wondered how they’d managed to kill the other sniffer, they seemed so scared. How had they done it?
Crow made them carry Sam on their shoulders. I hoped this would change things and we’d get more chance to talk to David Tregarthur. Talk to him and find out the truth. But first this was going to be another drunken night after the hunt.
Much later Ivy told us she had discovered how they made the drink near to the dead mammoth remains. She saw them throw roots and plants into water filled pits and scoop out liquid a few days later. The pits bubbled with a thick scum on the surface. Sometimes the pits doubled as a toilet.
Before we joined the Stinkers, Ivy had time to talk. ‘They didn’t let me get near to David, but I think I’ve found out something. There aren’t any children. I wondered if this was some temporary camp and they’d left the children somewhere else. I couldn’t understand what they were saying to each other. The women seem to do a lot more talking than the men. I tried ‘babies’ but they went blank. I tried using my hands and pretended to cradle a baby. That started them off. All of them gaggling away. Then they started poking me and looking very excited. I think they thought I was telling them I was pregnant or something.’
‘You’re not?’ gasped Sam.
‘Of course not, you idiot.’ Ivy looked at Sam and he reddened with a muttered, ‘Sorry.’
‘Anyway I managed to convince them that I wasn’t pregnant and they all went quiet and started sobbing. I tried to find out more but they wouldn’t say anything. Eventually one of them said ‘Ass’ and copied the baby cradling that I’d done. Then you lot arrived back all triumphant and the women disappeared quickly. There’s something going on that I don’t understand.’
‘We need to get some answers from David,’ I said. ‘And now that Sam has saved their chief I guess we may have a better chance.’
I was right. Before the night’s celebrations got started David was led from his hut and
sat down next to me.
‘All of it,’ I pleaded. ‘And quickly before they change their mind and put you back in your hut.’
It was much later before we made it back into Crow’s hut and I was able to tell them what David had said. The Stinker party continued without us.
‘David says that Crow thinks all male leaders who look like us are called Tregarthur – it just becomes Haarfer when he says it. Alice became Ass and that’s what he calls Demelza.’
‘So I’m an Ass too,’ said Ivy.
‘Guess so,’ I said, not thinking. ‘As we know, David’s father has been coming here for ages. It’s been his project, studying this tribe.’
‘How did he come and go?’ asked Sam spreading his hands.
‘David said he used the tunnel but I’m not absolutely sure. What he said didn’t sound right. I don’t trust David at all, but I don’t think he knows all the answers.’
‘Stuck here forever then,’ Ivy muttered in the dark and Sam slumped back onto his fur skin.
‘What about the earthquake?’ Sam sat up. ‘What did he say about the earthquake?’
‘David said he didn’t know anything about earthquakes. He said there hadn’t been one when he came through to this place. This was his first time. But it had been a while since his father had come here and I had a feeling that the tunnel isn’t always open.’
‘Did you believe him?’ Ivy said.
‘I just don’t know.’ I stopped for a minute. Wondering how much of the truth was still missing. I kept thinking about Mum. ‘They met up with Crow and their dad was expecting all sorts of partying but everything seemed to have changed since he came here last. They were all miserable and fewer of them.’
‘That explains it ...’ Ivy trailed off. I stopped and looked at her. ‘I’ll tell you when you’ve finished,’ she said.
‘I didn’t get much more from David before he was taken away again. He said the same thing he told us before, how Alice and his father escaped. He was left here with my mum and tried to escape as well but injured his leg.’
‘What happened to your mother?’
‘David says she fell over a cliff when they ran, but I don’t even think that’s the whole truth.’ I thought that he’d probably abandoned Mum and tried to leave on his own. Something much worse than falling over something. Part of me didn’t want to know. ‘David said he’d get Crow to take me to the place where she was buried. It’s a way from here, where they first camped.’
‘That doesn’t feel right,’ Ivy said. ‘That doesn’t fit with her promise. How could she make a promise if they were running off? There are just too many questions.’
‘We’ll just have to try again tomorrow,’ I said as Crow returned to the hut, crashed to the floor and started snoring almost immediately.
‘Just one other thing,’ I said in more of a whisper. ‘David said he built the bridge. Apparently he’s some sort of engineer. He said he built it and hoped they’d let him go. He sounded quite proud of himself for building it. I’m sure he is, but I’m also sure that he was lying.’
‘I’m not going to say it,’ Ivy whispered in return.
‘What?’ said Sam.
‘We’ll probably never know.’ And Ivy had said it. ‘But just back to the babies. I think that’s the clue. That’s something to do with why David is stuck here and something to do with the promise.’
‘Go on.’ I wanted the answers.
‘I don’t know any more. I need to ask David some more questions.’
Crow rolled over and growled. We stopped talking and tried to sleep.
The Promise
-14-
Early next morning with grey light just starting to reach the huts, I woke to prodding and Crow pulled me out. No one else stirred. Crow motioned for me to be quiet, not by holding a finger to his lips but by clamping his hand across my mouth – effective if a bit brutal.
We headed off towards the mountains. I guessed we were heading for the grave, so David must have done something. I didn’t know how I was going to deal with this. I was so angry with Mum for leaving, but I didn’t want her to be dead.
Crow was almost at a run for nearly an hour and my breath came fast by the time we stopped to rest by a small stream. A few minutes later we were off again. I wondered how Crow managed to be so bright after partying last night.
Our route took us away from the heavily wooded area to the steeper mountain slopes and we entered a valley lined with huge black sharp pointed rocks; the shadowy shapes towered over us. The valley sides became steep and narrow, crowding in, the rocks above blocking out the light.
Then we arrived. It was just a mound, a pile of stones in a heap. Crow stood back leaving me beside the grave but I didn’t know what to do. If Sara or one of the others had been there I guess they’d have tidied it up and found some flowers, made some sort of headstone. But this felt too unreal. For a start I didn’t completely believe Mum was buried here. David could have lied about that as well. We weren’t near any cliffs, she couldn’t have fallen here. I didn’t want to stay. I needed someone to be there with me. I wished Jenna had come; now I was all alone in this crazy place with some caveman who couldn’t even talk. How could I make any sense of this?
I turned and saw Crow standing in front of an opening in the rocks. The way he was standing made me think he didn’t want me to see something. I walked towards him. He held up his hands to stop me. Part of me wanted to attack him. What did it matter if he killed me now?
But I didn’t attack. I just slid to the ground and the tears flowed. I couldn’t hold it together. Tears and great heaving sobs. I felt this was the end. Even if we got out of here what would that mean? I had no life left, no family. I guessed Miss Tregarthur had been plotting to take me away.
This wasn’t the brave leader I tried to become or someone from a drug dealing family of thugs. I was Alvin in a mess beside the supposed grave of my mum. Was I crying for Mum? It felt like I was crying for myself.
Crow clearly didn’t know what to do. He was hopping from foot to foot. It was too strange, almost made me forget why I was so upset, but I looked at the grave and that started me off again. At one point he tried to pat my shoulder in a rough caveman sort of way. Then when he saw I wasn’t stopping he tapped me again and pointed to the rocks. I think he’d decided to let me see what was in there in the hope I’d come round. So with a couple more awful sobs I wiped my face, stood and headed for yet another cave.
Light shone through a crack high above the entrance and a shaft of sunlight lit up one of the cave walls. In the light, I could see roughly drawn pictures. Fantastic scrawled outlines in red and yellow and black. Pictures of animals and people like Crow hunting them.
‘Like something in a museum,’ I must have muttered out loud. Crow grunted and rattled off something along with a lot of pointing and waved me closer.
Now I could see that many of the animals had been labelled in the same handwriting we’d seen in Alice Tregarthur’s notebook. The writing was faded but I could still make out the names of the animals – sabre-tooth tiger, deer, mammoth. Underneath the names were a series of strange words that didn’t make sense.
I tried to read: ‘Gn ... aa ... cth.’ The strange mixture of letters grated in my throat.
Crow gave a strangled shriek, fear showing in his face, and then he said something like ‘Gnaarch,’ almost as though the word was magical. I could see that each animal was labelled with something probably like the names Crow and his tribe used for them. I tried a few more, each time being slightly corrected by Crow. With each word Crow seemed to shrink as though I’d had found some strange power.
Then I saw something very different. On a ledge there was a plastic box. Something from a different time, a different world. I lent towards the box. Crow’s arm reached out and held me back. I turned and saw tha
t the caveman looked almost terrified. As though the box was dangerous. Crow’s grunts sounded a warning but this time I shrugged him off. I guessed this was what Crow was meant to stop me seeing. I was sure this had something to do with David.
‘I’m going to open it.’ I knew Crow wouldn’t understand but I said the words with as much force as I could. Crow stood back. I think I had frightened him by reading the animal names. I picked up the box. The plastic looked almost new, so out of place here.
Pulling off the lid I saw another notebook. Much bigger than the one I’d found with Mary. It seemed to be a sort of diary. I had to read it there. I tried, but Crow wouldn’t let me take it away. It took ages. Then I needed to get back to Sam and Ivy, to tell them what was in the promise. And to do something about David.
Just before we left my eyes caught another cave drawing, not of any of the animals I’d seen here but of a small dog and labelled Smut without any translations. I said a silent thanks to the dog for his tin of food.
Trapped
-15-
Returning to the camp, David was the first person we saw, standing outside his hut. Crow grunted something quickly to him.
‘What?’ David shouted and he turned to me. He could see I knew everything. ‘He shouldn’t have shown you,’ David stuttered. ‘That cave, the plan. I know it looks bad but ...’
I just stared back at him and was going to walk on past without speaking until David called out again: ‘She did it for us. She’s my sister. If you were older you’d have done the same.’
I walked on, still hearing David trying to make Alice’s promise sound better. I was shaken by the suggestion that I might have done the same. I might never have been a good person but this was crazy.
Tregarthur's Promise Page 13
