Page 29 of Caveman Alien's Touch

“That can’t be good,” Alba says beside me. We’re standing on the upper plateau, looking down. “I hope they will fly around the Mount.”

“They seem to fly pretty well,” I reply, the eerie, dissonant hum from down there making me want to weep in fear. “They could probably get up here if they wanted.”

The Borok men are walking down the stairs again, taking up defensive positions in case the creatures decide to ascend.

Brak kisses Piper on the cheek. “I’ll be right down there, where I can get back up here in two heartbeats. If the creatures attack, scream for me. Then use your sword! But scream first.”

Piper draws her thin, but vicious blade. “I will, my love.”

Finally only the girls and I are up here, along with the old shaman.

“I never thought I’d see those things again,” he creaks, shaking his head as he supports himself heavily on his staff. “I must have been only a boy last time.”

“You’ve seen them before?” I ask, mostly to not have to hear only that hum.

“Only once. They passed by the village I was living in at that time. They didn’t go through it, I hasten to add. No men were stung. But they made an impression on us all. They followed the trail of the skarp, which had also passed some moons before. I assume that’s what they’re doing now, as well.”

That makes a lightbulb go off in my head. “Astrid, help me with this?” I hurry over to Bryar’s parabolic mirror, which she used to scare away the skarp monster.

Astrid helps, and we carry it over to the edge of the plateau.

“It should reflect the light from the sun,” Astrid ponders as we experiment with how to hold it. “But the sun is upthere, and the swarm is downthere. They’re too far apart!”

She’s right. There’s no way to position the mirror so its concentrated ray of sunlight will hit the giant insects.

“Only Bryar could do this, I think.” I put the mirror on the ground and draw my little knife. In a way, this situation is easy to deal with. If those horrors come up here, I’ll just fight until I die. I wish more things in life were that simple.

The wave of creatures crashes against the Mount, humming madly. Most of the great, brown mass turns to the side and continues around the foot of it, then spills over the wall and back into the jungle.

But about a third of the swarm hits the red rock and starts to fly up along it, like a brown ocean wave crashing against a rock in slow motion.

“Damn,” I whisper. “They’re coming for us.”

“Sure looks like it,” Astrid says tightly. “I think they can sense movement or living things.”

Excited yells and war cries rise from the bottom of the Mount, in addition to the deafening, disharmonic hum.

“I wonder where Noker is,” I mutter. “This is not his village. He’s a guest here. He has no duty to defend it. Or the Borok tribe.”

“Does he know that?” Astrid asks quietly, her black eyebrows arching.

“Damn,” I repeat, remembering Noker’s strong sense of duty. “It’s not going to cross his mind, is it? I have to go and get him up here, where he’ll be safer.”

On legs that feel stiff and cold, I go down the first flight of wooden steps to be able to see further down the Mount. There’s a couple hundred tribesmen standing in various spots on the face of the rock, some precariously balancing on small ledges and some standing on the stairs, in intricate positions that shows me they’re ready to defend it to the last. I haven’t always been super impressed by this tribe, but now it looks like they’re ready to stand firm for something important, and they fully intend to fight to the end.

I can’t see Noker anywhere, but the noise from the bottom of the stairs is getting loud.

I spot Brak and tiptoe past him behind his back, hoping he won’t see me. But just when I think I’ve succeeded, he grabs my upper arm and holds me still. “There’s no need for you to go down there, Bronwen,” he growls. “You’re safer up here.”

“But Noker down there!”

“Noker is a warrior, more than any triber. He will keep you safe.”

I have to play the only card I have. It’s a trump card, but it’s going to sting.

“I notice you up here, also safe,” I tell him coldly. “While kind, brave Noker down there, defending when not his tribe. Did you say, ’my clansbrother, come up with me! You guest in village, no need you for defend the tribe not yours’?”

His half-dactyl face falls. “I… he… he wanted me up here! He’s the best warrior here!”

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