Letters from a Caveman, Part 2: The Great Food Hoard

Letters from a Caveman Part 1: Time Travel
Letters from a Caveman Part 2: The Great Food Hoard
Letters from a Caveman Part 3: The Dwelling of the Lost
Letters from a Caveman Part 4: The Tribe of Hunters
Letters from a Caveman Part 5: The Shaman
My Lost Two Weeks and Blog Hijack

Hello again my tribe.

I have a chance to communicate with you again, since the woman is inside the tiny waterfall in which she washes daily. She uses this communication tool often, so I must act swiftly. She is indeed a skillful worker of its magic. She seeks many pictures of garments and uses a small, stiff piece of hide to work magic I do not understand.

I have not heard from you since my last message and this has made me very sad. I am hoping that you are making plans to find me or collecting the ingredients for a powerful spell to bring me back.

My tribe, I must tell you about a place I went to with the woman before the last moon. And I must tell you about the way we travelled there. First, she led me out of the dwelling to a place that contained many sleeping animals. I somehow knew that these animals were used for travelling in the same way as we sometimes jump on the backs of wounded prey for sport and are carried some distance. But I could not understand why these beasts remained dormant.

The woman led me to one of the beasts and gave me some new piece of magic from her hide bag. It resembled a bracelet with many large teeth. I knew I could use bracelet to bring the animal to life but my fear was so great that I was unable to act. The woman became angry and snatched the bracelet from me.

My tribe, when I tell you that for many minutes I was unable to use any words either of our own language or the language of my adopted body, I would not be telling a lie. For at this point we climbed inside the bowels of this great animal, which began roaring as the woman used the bracelet’s magic. The beast fled its sleeping herd with great haste with the woman and me still in its belly. The greatest magic of all was that the woman was guiding the animal with her hands, as though gripping its throat. And for the long time the beast was running, it did not once fight with the many other beasts we passed on the strange plains we travelled through.

The woman guided us to another sleeping herd beside a vast dwelling, a hundred times greater than any in our village. When we left the animal it whimpered and I wondered whether she had wounded it with the force of her hands during the journey.

My tribe, what we discovered in that great dwelling was so amazing to me that once again I was unable to speak. The first thing I saw was a thousand fruits, berries and roots, of many colours, piled high and cleaned. It was as if the tribe who dwelled there had foraged the whole world for a year.

Beyond these piles there were many rocks, each as high as a tall man. There were grooves and ledges on the sides of these rocks where flat-sided objects of many colours had been placed.
I knew that we would be able to take food from this place and appease the tribe who lived here with the woman’s small piece of magic hide. But I still became very concerned. They would surely become angry when we took their food when we had not brought whole hides or tools to exchange for it. My tribe, we know only too well that our own Shaman’s magic is not accepted by other tribes.

The woman found a huge basket, woven from the toughest twigs I have even known and began taking the fruits from the great piles. She did this using other, smaller baskets that were like water but not wet, so that I could see the fruit inside!

My tribe, I told you I do not have much time, but I must tell you about these fruits. For they are bigger than any I have seen before and when I began eating them, the taste was so good I was unable to stop. It was like the honey we discovered many seasons ago, except unguarded by the painful bees. The woman was, once again, displeased by my behaviour. I knew it would anger the tribe of this village, but my hunger was so powerful I was unable to resist.

The woman has begun asking me whether I have an illness. I cannot not find the words to explain what I have explained to you, so I tell her that I do not have an illness, which does not please her. My tribe, I must tell you that this woman commands me to do things in the manner of an elder. If she lived in our own village I am sure she would by now have been cast out.

The woman moved the animal basket to the rocky area and began taking the flat-sided objects. I saw that a man was guarding the flesh of dead animals in a corner of the dwelling. I went to him and asked what beasts he had slain to hoard such an amount of meat. This seemed very funny to him and he told me he had not slain the beasts himself. I asked if this was because he is lame. This did not amuse him and he asked if I wanted any of the meat or would instead be leaving. Then the woman arrived and commanded me to follow her. As I have told you, it is in her nature to do this.

I was angered, knowing that I must soon punish her for her behaviour, but when I looked at her I saw many demons in her eyes and I swallowed my anger and was silent. As we know, the village of another tribe is no place for such a dispute.

The woman used her magic piece of hide to appease the tribe whose food we had stolen, and guided the great beast back to its sleeping herd. During this journey, she told me that we must never buy meat from that tribe because it contains poisons. My tribe, I told you that I have knowledge that has come from nowhere about these foreign tribes and villages and strange magic. But there are some things I am unable to understand. Does this food-hoarding tribe mean to kill us with poison because we have stolen their food? Did they use poison to kill the animals and this has spoiled the meat?

I must end my message here, for the sound of the waterfall has ceased and the woman will soon demand to use this tool. I will communicate with you again soon.

Letters from a Caveman Part 1: Time Travel
Letters from a Caveman Part 2: The Great Food Hoard
Letters from a Caveman Part 3: The Dwelling of the Lost
Letters from a Caveman Part 4: The Tribe of Hunters
Letters from a Caveman Part 5: The Shaman
My Lost Two Weeks and Blog Hijack