Page 60 of Caveman Alien's Touch

“Theflastbush,” Noker says and takes one green leaf between his fingers. “It likes to attract other bushes to grow with it. I don’t know why, but you see them here and there in the jungle.”

I pull a leaf off the bush and smell it. “Are they used for anything?”

“Not the flast bush itself. But it likes company of all kinds. Often we find leaves or roots that are good to eat or to use for other things.”

I pick several different leaves and flowers and crush them in my hand, so I can smell them. Four of them are promising.

“I see you no longer taste first and smell later,” Noker says with a crooked smile. “I think that’s progress.”

“Yes, I am much smarter now. This time, I wantyoutaste first. Try this.” I give him a leaf. “Only a small bite. Do you have alcohol nearby?”

He puts the whole leaf in his mouth and chews. “One leaf is usually not too dangerous. Oh… wait…” He starts coughing and choking, clutching his throat.

“Spit it out!” I urge, terrified I’ve given him some kind of deadly poison.

He smirks and chuckles, clearly totally fine. “This one is not bad.”

I slap his arm lightly, relieved. “Hey, no joking like that! I thought you die!”

“Try it yourself,” he says and takes another leaf from my hand.

I gingerly taste a leaf of the same type. It’s kind of spearmint-y, which might come in handy. If nothing else, it might work as some kind of breath freshener.

We taste another two leaves, finding them tasty in a spicy way, but nothing too special. But the last one makes my eyes widen. “That’ssweet!”

Noker chews the leaf, then picks several more off the plant and chews on them before spitting them out. “Almost too sweet. I’d prefer an overripe fruit to this.”

To a caveman who’s never had any food with sugar in it, the leaf must taste sickeningly sweet. To me, it’s more like stevia. And that’s more than I could ever hope for. “Let’s get as much of that leaf as we can, and then dry it,” I suggest. “It may be useful for many things.”

We pick about thirty leaves off the bush, from different twigs and branches to not destroy the plant. Returning to the camp, I find a suitable space on the rocks to dry the leaves on, holding them down with flat stones.

The sun is setting, and the clan is chatting happily on their platforms, cooking meat from the Borok pack that Noker brought.

He’s sitting down on the rocks, looking up at the camp.

I touch his scaly head. “Are you all right? You usually don’t sit down.”

He looks up at me with bloodshot eyes. “Just a little tired.”

“You working all day,” I tell him as I pull him to his feet and drag him to sit down on the platform. “Now time to rest.”

Climbing up on the platform after him, I grab the right rope and pull. It’s heavy to start with, but once I get going, the smart pulley system helps a lot.

We zoom past the other platforms and all the way up to the treetops. This is even higher up than in the old camp, and the air is cooler and fresher up here. The sounds of the jungle are now definitely below us. I carefully fasten as many ropes as I can, noticing that there are two more now. That way, the platform can be held almost perfectly steady, only moving with the tree and not with each little motion we make. It feels more like a floor.

“You did that for me,” I purr, sitting down beside Noker. “So I would feel safe.”

“Feeling safe is important,” he rumbles. “We all feel safer now that the camp has been moved. Hear the clansbrothers? They feel so safe now that they talk almost without lowering their voices. They’re not afraid of attackers.”

That’s true — there’s a constant murmur from below us.

I get busy with the little stove, lighting it and preparing meat to grill. “Brak and Piper be surprised when they get to the old campsite and is gone.”

“They know where it went,” Noker says, hiding a yawn behind one hand. “And it’s the first time we move the camp without Brak’s help.”

I find seasoning and coat the meat in it. “Perhaps it’s good for him to see that the clan can get by without him.”

There’s no reply. When I turn to check, Noker is curled up on the platform, fast asleep, his head fan a relaxed blue.

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