Page 24 of Caveman Alien's Touch

Noker runs so fast it looks like CGI in real life. There’s a confident calmness to his moves that reminds me of videos of cheetahs, and his steps must be three yards long. The distantthunksfrom the targets he hits come with a steady rhythm, like clockwork.

“He’s half dinosaur,” I remind the girls. “He must have special muscle fibers.”

“There’s definitelysomethinggoing on with him,” Alba says. “I’m starting to worry if he’s about to become airborne.”

Noker knocks over the final target and slows down, looking around for more. But there aren’t any. He’s come to a complete stop when the boy hammers on his drum, marking the end.

The girls and I cheer wildly, jumping and applauding and high-fiving and making everyone look at us in wonder.

Noker jogs back towards us.

“Thirty targets!” Sarker’ox yells. “I’ve never seen anything like it! Guest Noker is the winner of the second part of the game!”

The crowd cheers, although not as loudly as they did for Unin’iz.

“Sports have come to Xren,” Piper says. “They already have the athletes and the supporters. Six months from now they’ll have teams and coaches and jerseys. And sponsor deals.”

Alba adjusts her newly patched-up sweatpants. “It’s a better use of those swords than fighting wars.”

Noker comes over, not even breathing hard. “That was fun. It happened so fast, too!”

“That be because you run fast,” I inform him. “I knew you can jump, but also can run? You have strong legs, Noker.”

He slaps his thigh. “It was the new shorts that made it easy, I think. They don’t keep whipping around my legs and getting in the way. Or keep sliding down.”

Several of the Borok men start asking him about his speed and his spear, and soon he and Brak are in the middle of a circle of cavemen, chatting happily.

“I think you wereriiiight,” Alba singsongs. “He thought the shorts would make him run faster, and so they did. You should be a mental coach, Bronwen.”

“Sure, but who will coach the coach?” I ask, not concentrating on what I’m saying because Noker is looking happy and I love seeing it, as well as the indecent way he wears those shorts.

“Then we proceed to part three of the game of penk!” Sarker’ox announces. “The obstacle course. For that, we must go outside the gates.”

We follow the cavemen out of the village and into the semi-darkness of the jungle. I’m not super happy about this, because the jungle is still dangerous. But we’ll be in the middle of a whole tribe of cavemen, so I guess it’s not as bad as being here alone.

“We won’t be able to see them for most of the race,” Piper observes. “They’ll be in the jungle nearly the whole time.”

“Not the best spectator sport,” I agree. “But it’s very caveman-ish.”

“Meanwhile, where’s Astrid?” Alba asks, looking around. “I thought she wanted to see this.”

“She’s with Shaman Melr’ax,” I tell them. “He may be training her to do his job. When he… well, he’s old.”

Piper and Alba stare at me. “He wants Astrid to be ashaman?!”

“I don’t know,” I admit. “It was just something we talked about. I doubt she wants it.”

“That may actually not be a bad idea,” Alba says slowly. “She needs something to do, besides staring at the wall.”

“The third part of penk is very simple,” Sarker’ox says when the crowd settles down. “The contestants start at the same time. They run the whole course. The one who finishes first is the winner.”

“There are tribesmen in the jungle,” Brak tells us. “Noker and Unin’iz must pass them all. There can be no shortcuts.”

“What are the obstacles?” Piper asks.

Brak grins with his scary mass of dactyl teeth. “The jungle!”

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