Page 5 of Caveman Alien's Touch

My mind spins. How could this delicate creature survive in the jungle for years? She looks completely unsuitable for it. What would she do if she met a rekh? If an irox came swooping down at her? If an outcast spotted her? She’s so defenseless it makes me want to laugh in disbelief, but it also makes me want to put her in a cage and hang it inside another cage and then hang it all from a tree, so nothing can harm her. I have a strong urge to stay with her always and keep her perfectly safe.

Certainly she and the other two lived underground, and avoided the worst trouble that way. But it must have been a terrible life. Now she lives with the mighty Borok tribe, so perhaps being almost caught in my trap was a good thing for her. And perhaps it would have been an even better thing for me if shehadbeen caught back then.

I follow Bronwen along the outside of the wall until it gives way to the sheer, flat side of the red Mount. She stops and points to the rock, where a deep, wide trench has been carved out of the ground itself. It must be where the giantskarpmonster passed. It scraped along the Mount with its great body, pushing away a good amount of dirt and laying bare a big part of the rock.

“There,” Bronwen whispers and points. “I see it before when walk past, but not know what is.”

Where the rock has been scraped bare, the red gives way to white stone, in much the same way as the totem wall inside the village. And just like the totem wall, someone has painted on it.

I look around quickly, making sure we’re not being watched by predators. Then I kneel down and take a closer look.

The painting is clear and colorful, in blue and green and a dark red. There are circles and shadows, but nothing resembles a Big or a Small or a man, the way the totem wall figures do.

And yet nobody would paint these things for no reason.

“Very strange,” I say when I get back up. “I’ve never seen anything like it. But I haven’t been to many villages.”

Bronwen nods. “Is strange. I not show to any. But why paint?” She bends down to see it closely, supporting her hands on her knees.

“I don’t know,” I admit, my heart beating faster because her behind looks even better like that. “The only one I think may be able to tell us what these paintings are is Shaman Melr’ax.” I’m annoyed I can’t be of more help. It must be disappointing to her to show me something and me not being able to help or even take a guess. And I don’t want to disappoint her.

Of course the time might come when she will know everything about me. When that happens, I can only hope that her revulsion won’t ruin things between her tribe and my clan. Because while all Foundlings are different from the tribers and the women, there is such a thing as beingtoodifferent.

Brownen turns to face me and shows me those dark eyes. “I not know him. You can help?”

“I can,” I tell her, relieved to not becompletelyuseless. “We’ll go to his hut together.”

3

- Bronwen-

Noker is a giant, just as big as Brak and bigger than most of the cavemen in the Borok tribe. He’s all muscle, with sky-blue tiger stripes all over him. His thighs and hips are immensely thick, looking like tree trunks that flex like many bundles of steel cables, each as thick as my own thighs.

His eyes are deeply set and shine like yellow searchlights. With his sharp, protruding jaw and fangs he will never be a model, but his face is full of character and lived life. As a Foundling, that life must have been tougher than most. And that on a planet where just surviving is a major challenge at the best of times. His scars speak volumes, and I wonder if he doesn’t have some deeper scars that can’t be seen so easily. I get a feeling he’s someone who keeps secrets.

Even for a Foundling, he must stand out. A tall, thin, fan-like feature stretches across his head from ear to ear, like some dinosaurs had back on Earth. Its colors change, but it’s mostly striped in blue and red. It must be the reason he doesn’t have any head hair, but rather a network of thick, irregular scales. Like Brak, his Lifegiver must have been contaminated by a piece of a dinosaur. As a result, he’s even more scary-looking than Brak, who is a half dactyl and has the teeth to prove it.

Of course, it’s not as if that answers anything about how it’s possible for someone to be part dinosaur and part caveman. Those Lifegivers are extremely strange and a bit creepy. But I guess it’s the only way for babies to be born on a woman-less planet, so I won’t judge.

Noker keeps looking behind him, as if to make sure I’m safe. And I’m sure I am. He doesn’t have a sword on him, but he carries a long, heavy-looking spear and he looks deadly enough just by himself. With those bright yellow eyes, his half-dinosaur nature shines through and partly makes me want to run away in a panic, partly makes me want to get to know him alotbetter.

That last thing must come from something ridiculously primal in me, something that’s really concerned about me keeping my genetic line going into the future.

I stop by a bush and pick a small, arrowhead-shaped leaf off it. “Noker, what is?”

He stops and looks behind him. “That is the leaf of apekerbush.”

I rip the leaf in half and ball the pieces up to sniff them. “They are used? For food?”

“I have never heard of anyone using thepekerbush for food.”

The leaf doesn’t smell of much except vegetation. “Not boiled? Or dried?”

He shrugs his massive shoulders, making it look like an earthquake on a small planet. “We don’t use them.”

Still I put a couple of them in the pocket of my threadbare hoodie. Maybe the Borok tribe knows if those things can be used. Spotting another bush, I pick more leaves and ask the same question. Again Noker says he doesn’t know any use for them.

“Sorry to annoy,” I say as I pocket those leaves, too. “I not outside village for a many days. And I want to make food from Earth. Need things that tribe not have.”

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