The Thinking Rocks (29 page)

As he stood thinking, he
noticed one of the "cracks" on the walls silently moving down the
wall.  He flipped his last rock at the wall and was horrified to find that
the wall was literally crawling with snakes.  They were living in the
cracks and holes that he needed to use to climb.  If they were that thick
on the walls he could see, then they would be on the wall under the
ledge.  He felt sick.  One snake was frightening, but a dark cave
full of snakes gave new meaning to the word fear.  How can you escape or
fight what you can't see?  He had to get out of the cave; he knew it was
only a matter of time before he was bitten.  He moved slowly toward the
dark wall of the cave.  He could climb the wall and possibly be bitten or
stand in the dark and be bitten. He stopped when he felt he was near the dark
wall.  He knew that he had to climb, but the fear of death was
strong.  He couldn't bring himself to put his hand out and search for a
handhold in one of the snake holes.  He felt his knees begin to
shake.  I don't need this now, he thought.  He tried to stop his
knees from shaking, but they shook more. Then he realized that the ground was
shaking.  It became difficult to stand, but he was afraid to steady himself
by reaching out to the wall.  He could feel and hear a deep groaning,
coming from the cave walls. Dust began to fill the air and small rocks started
to fall.  He looked behind him and it appeared as if the walls of the cave
had come alive.  Snakes started dropping from the cracks and dents in the
walls. A faint plopping could be heard over the rumble of the earthquake as
their bodies fell to the sandy floor of the cave.  The ground was shaking
more violently and the snakes were raining down. Cano could feel them crawling
over his feet in an effort to escape the earthquake.  A large snake fell
across his head and shoulder before falling to the cave floor.  It was
gone before he could realize and react to the danger.  The snakes appeared
to be more intent upon escape than in biting.  The floor was a slithering
mass alive with snakes searching for escape. 

The rumbling seemed to
be fading; Cano knew he couldn't stay where he was.  Maybe this was the
chance that he needed.  Surely there were fewer snakes in and on the wall
then there had been. Maybe they were all gone from the wall.  Maybe
not.  He had no choice; he took his spear and scraped it across the
surface of the wall.  He was hoping to find handholds that didn't have
anything occupying them. He scrapped higher on the wall.  Still no sound
other than that of the spear.  ‘It’s now or never,’ he thought.  He
started climbing the wall.  After he was up off the cave floor he felt
safer.  The confidence he felt evaporated as quickly as it had come. If a
snake can crawl down a wall to escape, it surely can climb up a wall.  He
knew then that he needed to get to the ledge as quickly as he could. 
There were many handholds, but each of them could hold scaly death.  He
climbed slowly, first probing and scraping with the spear and then feeling with
his hands.  He was able to support most of his weight on his legs, as
there were ample footholds.  He was nearing the ledge when a snake struck
at the spearhead.  Cano had been probing for a handhold and found an
occupied crevice.  The snake’s strike carried its body out of the wall and
over his head.  Its tail struck his back on the way down.  Cano hung
there, trying to determine if he had been bitten, then with a sigh of relief he
resumed his climb.  He could hear the snakes below hissing and the buzz of
multiple rattles.  He was almost to the ledge when he encountered another
snake.  It struck at the spearhead, but quickly withdrew. The power of the
strike on the spear had almost knocked it from his hand.  The snake was above
him and in the dark.  He had to get past it if he was to reach the
ledge.  Cano moved the spear lower and then moved it back to the area of
the wall were the snake had struck before.  It struck again.  Cano
needed an idea and he needed it now.  He was close enough to the ledge to
grab it, but if he did the snake would bite him.  The snake might not be
the kind that killed with his teeth, but then again it might be.  He
couldn't stay hanging on the wall and he couldn't get by without getting
bitten.  His only choice was to kill the snake he couldn't see.  The
snake was much faster than he was.  It was hidden and could attack when it
wanted. Slowly an idea started to form.  It would be difficult, but it was
all he could think of.  He put the tip of his spear just below where he
thought the snake's den was.  He quickly poked the point up and jerked it
back down, and then he rammed it back up with all of the force he could
summon.  The snake struck when it first saw the spear tip appear, but it wasn't
fast enough in retracting its head. Cano impaled it when he rammed the spear up
the second time.  The snake went into convulsions and twisted the spear
away from Cano's hand as it fell to the cave floor below.

Cano hung there trying
to catch his breath.  Slowly his breathing returned to a normal
rate.  He could see the edge of the ledge silhouetted by the light from
above.  He might be able to reach the edge if he could stretch far
enough.  He would have to let go with one hand and try to reach it. 
He took a deep breath and holding on with one hand he reached for the ledge. He
was able to reach it, but now he was committed.  He would have to let go
of the wall, swing out and grab the ledge with his other hand.  Without
thinking about it too long he did it, and almost fell.  When he tried to
get a grip with his second hand he got hold of loose stones and lost his grip
with that hand.  He hung there by one hand, twisting over the snakes
below.  He wiped his free hand on his chest and then quickly reached for
the ledge again.  This time he got a good grip.  It was then that he
thought of something he should have thought of earlier.  What if the ledge
is not a ledge, but just a slopping surface?  He felt a deep despair; it
had all been for nothing.  This was the end.

 
He was starting to loose his grip when suddenly he saw
Ceola's face in his mind, she smiled and then motioned for him to come. He hung
there for a few moments more, stunned by what he thought he had seen.  A
feeling of peace seemed to flow over him; he brushed away his feelings of
failure.  He knew he could do what needed to be done.  He took a
breath and then pulled himself up so that he could see if the ledge was big
enough for him to climb onto.  When his head cleared the edge he could see
it was quite large and there was light to see.  He pulled himself up and
then got one of his arms on the ledge.  He found a crack that he could get
his fingertips into and was able to pull himself higher. Finally he was able to
get a leg over the edge. He twisted and pulled with all of his might and was
able to crawl onto the ledge and roll over on his back gasping for air. 
He lay there getting his breath back and thinking about Ceola.

Searching for Light

He was still shaken from
seeing Ceola's face; he knew then that he would have to see her again.  He
wasn't sure when or how.  Death had been very near and the thought of her
had saved him.  He would have to think about this more when he had the
time.  Death was still near and he had to do something about it now. Cano
lay looking at the ceiling of the cave.  Back away from the ledge he could
see light shining in through a circular hole.  After he had gathered his
strength, he stood and looked around. No Snakes!  He gave a sigh of
relief; they must not be able to get here because of the ledge and the angle of
the caves walls.  He stood and walked toward the light.  He was
disappointed when he got there, the hole letting in the light was too high up
to reach.  The walls of the cave curved up to the opening, but there was
no way to climb to it.  The walls curved the wrong way. He looked around
for something he could use to climb to the opening.  There were no rocks
he could move.  The only thing in the cave was a pile of sticks against
one wall.

When he moved over to
the pile he found that they weren't sticks.  He had found the skeleton of
a man.  He was surprised, but not frightened. He knelt and looked at the
bones.  They were still connected as they had been during life.  The
person had been about the same size as he was.  Cano noticed that one leg
had a bone broken.  As Cano thought about the broken leg, whoever this
person was he must have fallen through the opening in the ceiling and broken
his leg in the fall.  There was no evidence of any food that been eaten in
the cave.  He must have starved to death.

As Cano looked around he
saw some objects near a wall.  When he knelt to examine them he found a
strange thing.  It was a cutting stone made from a peculiar shiny black
rock.  The edge was very sharp and a part of it was covered by
leather.  When he picked it up the leather crumbled and fell away. 
It had to be very old.  At first Cano couldn't understand why it was not
covering the whole cutting stone.  The he realized that it was there to
protect the hand when it was being used.  Cano liked the idea and knew
that Gennos would be interested too.  As he sat there on his heels, he saw
something else that was odd.  There was a small pile of short
spears.  The spears were even shorter than those used by Lomasi. 
They also had small feathers on one end and a point on the other end.  He
picked one up to examine it.  The feathers flecked to dust as he touched
them.  The point was made from the same black stone as the cutting
stone.  On the end with the feathers there was a notch cut in the shaft at
the end.  Strange, Cano thought.  It must have something to do with
the throwing-stick. He looked among the items near the skeleton.  He
couldn't find a throwing-stick, but he did find a piece of wood that had a
twisted piece of rawhide tied to each end.  He looked at it carefully, but
couldn't understand how it could be used to throw the short spears.  He
found that the rawhide would fit into the slot in the end of the short spears,
but he still couldn't understand how they worked.  Maybe, he thought, the
throwing-stick had been lost when the man fell into the cave.

Cano sat looking at the
remains of the dead man.  Would he have been a friend or someone like
Lomasi?  There was no way to tell.  This man had lived and
died.  Maybe, thought Cano, this is the way my life will end.

He was hungry and
thirsty. Looking around he didn’t see anything that he could eat.  He saw
a movement off to one side of the cave.  He reached over and picked up one
of the small spears, and then crept forward carefully.  What he thought
was an animal was the light shining off of a small puddle of rainwater. 
It must have come in through the opening in the ceiling, during the
rainstorm.  He knelt and lapped at the water with his tongue.  The
water had a bad taste, but it was wet and he needed a drink badly.  He
soon drained the small puddle.  He felt better, glancing over at the
skeleton he thought, that was a bad way to die.  Starving to death, in
pain in a dark hole in the ground.  He must have been here for quite some
time before he died. 

He sat down next to the
dead man to think.  How can I get out of here?  I can't go back the
way I came, sure death waits there.  There is no way to dig my way out
through solid rock.  The only way to escape seems to be through the
opening in the ceiling.  But, there is no way to do that or the dead man
would have found it.  Cano was dejected.  He had come so far and now
it would end here.  Gennos and Na'pe would end up as prisoners for
life.  Dola may be able to find his way back to the Clan.  As he
thought about the Clan, his mind flew back to Ceola.  He missed her. He
still wanted to be with her.  She would probably become Bana's mate. 
A thought came to him.  If Gennos was gone, he could return to the Clan
and have Ceola.  He had not been forced to leave the Clan.  Gennos
was the one who was forced to leave.  Cano quickly rejected the thought,
he felt guilty for having thought it.  This was his brother he was talking
about.  My own blood.  He had to get out of this cave.  Others
were depending on him.  But how was he to get out?

As he sat there
thinking, he looked at the wall of the cave in front of him.  It looked
strange.  The wall was smooth, but it had some odd markings on it. 
Cano moved closer for a better look.  He had never seen anything like
it.  The dead man must have made the marks.  It looked as though they
had been scratched on the wall with a stone.  Looking around he found a
broken spear point made of the same black rock, at the base of the wall. 
Cano wasn't sure what he was looking at.  The marks appeared to have been
put there for some purpose.  He studied one of the scratchings
intently.  There was a round mark at the top and a mark below it, there
were also other marks coming off the lower mark.  It looked like sticks
connected to the round mark.  What can it mean, he thought?  It had
to be important; a man that was in pain and dying didn't make these marks just
to pass the time.

He looked at some of the
other marks on the wall.  There were many twisted lines below the first
markings.  They were twisted like snakes Cano thought.  The idea
startled him.  Could the lines on the wall mean snakes?  Maybe. 
He looked again at the first figure.  The marks on the round part were in
different positions and were the same shape except one of them at the
bottom.  It had the line bent.  He looked over at the dead man. 
Slowly understanding dawned on him.  The dead man had one leg bent where
it was broken.  He looked at the marks on the wall. That was it!  The
marks showed a figure with a broken leg.  Cano was amazed.  What a
great idea.  The marks say something without words.  He couldn't wait
to tell Gennos about this.  He would be interested and have lots of
questions.  He looked back to the wall with renewed interest.  The
man figure had something in front of him; it was a curved line that had a
straight line touching each end of the curve.  Cano had no idea what it
was.  In front of this marking was a straight line that had a point,
similar to a spear, he thought.  Farther along the wall was what appeared
to be an animal of some kind.  It had lines coming out of it. 
Spears! They were sticking out of the animal.  The first figure was facing
toward it.  Cano's mind was racing; this was a message left by the dead
man.   The dead man had been a hunter and had broken his leg; he was
near many snakes.