Beyond the Valley of Mist (9 page)

“
I will be able to travel in
a few days,” Lox said, “but before we go, we must make bows and
arrows for you and Jok.”

“
Why do we need bows and
arrows?” Zen asked.

“
I will show you what I can
do with those weapons,” Lox responded.

“
Let’s go now,” said Jok. “I
want to see how you can use such tiny spears as
weapons.”

Lox took Jok and Zen to the
river and told them to hide nearby and wait for a deer to come to
drink. They didn’t have to wait long before a buck.

Lox placed the end of one
of the tiny spears against the tie on the bent stick and pulled the
tie in the middle. The stick bent more on each end. He released the
tiny spear, which flew directly at the deer; the stone tip
penetrated the deer’s heart, and the animal died almost instantly.
Zen and Jok could hardly believe what they had seen.

“
Will that tiny spear kill a
man?” Jok asked.

“
Oh, yes,” Lox replied.
“We’ve used bows and arrows in battle for many years.”

“
Will it kill all animals?”
Zen wanted to know.

“Yes, but some animals are
very hard to kill, and you must make the arrow strike in just the
right spot. Sometimes it takes more than one arrow.”

“Could I use a bow and
arrow?” Zen asked.

“
Yes, but we will have to
make a bigger one for you; this one is too small. You are bigger
and stronger, so you’ll be able to pull a larger bow, which will be
more deadly. I’ll teach you how to make and use your own bow and
arrows.”

“
Is it hard to learn?” Jok
asked.

“
No,” Lox replied. “It’s
like learning to throw a spear. It takes a lot of
practice.”

“
Then let’s make one for me
and one for Jok, and we can begin practicing right away. Won’t the
girls be surprised!”

“
I have a wife and two sons
waiting for me,” Lox said. “I’ve been gone for two summers, and I’m
sure they think I’m dead. They will thank you for helping me to
return to my village.”

“
Then show us how to make
bows and arrows so we can get started.” Zen was eager to
learn.

“
We can make the bows right
here. We have everything we need. We will remove the tendons from
this deer and use them to make the ties for the bows. We have to
find just the right kind of wood to make the bow, and then small,
straight pieces of wood to make the arrows. We’ll have to make
arrowheads from rocks and place bird feathers in the ends of the
arrows to make them deadly and fly straight.

“
To make good bows and
arrows takes a long time. We don’t have that much time, so we’ll
have to make do with what we have. We can age the wood by heating
it over the fire to make it strong. We’ll also smoke-dry the deer
meat, so we won’t have to hunt for meat each day, and we can travel
faster. Then we have to make a raft to float down the river. We
have a lot of work to do before we start to the sea.”

“
How long will it take to
make the journey?” Zen asked.

“
It’s a long way. It took us
many moons to make the journey up the river, but we can travel much
faster floating down the river. We should be there before the north
wind blows. I’m eager to see my wife. Before you found me, I had
given up hope of ever seeing her again. She and my sons will be
pleased to greet the people who saved me. The village will hold a
celebration in your honor.”

***

Chapter 12

Taking Lox Home

The river flowed steadily,
and by the end of the first day the raft was approaching the base
of the snow-covered mountains that Zen and his father had seen in
the distance.

“
Father,” Zen told himself,
“here I am standing beside the mountain we looked at. It is not a
cloud—this is for real!”

The base of the mountain
came almost to the river’s edge on one side, and then there was a
gap. Just before the river passed between the mountains, another
river almost as large flowed down a valley along the range of
mountains that extended off to their right. The two rivers joined
just before they went through the pass and then flowed on together,
forming a much larger river.

The valley where the two
mountains joined was beautiful beyond belief, with tall trees and
green meadows, and grazing animals in countless numbers. Among the
animals was a type that Zen and his friends had seen before but
knew very little about.

Lela said in an excited
voice, “Wouldn’t this be a wonderful place to build our village?
The animals would provide all the meat we need, the rivers would
provide the fish, and there’s lots of fresh, clean water for
drinking and bathing.”

“
Oh, yes! And what a
wonderful place to raise our children,” Ador added.

“
Zen,” Lela asked, “May we
go ashore here? Ador and I would like to look around.”

“
Yes, that can be arranged.
We need fresh meat anyway, and this looks like a good place to get
it.”

Zen turned to Lox and
asked, “What do you call those animals with the long heads? We have
herds of them near Lalock, but they run so fast, we could never
catch them. You could probably kill them with your bows and arrows.
Have you ever eaten one?”

“
We call them horses.
Normally, we don’t eat them,” Lox replied. "They can run fast, but
they won’t hurt you. They eat grass. We caught one once, but it
wouldn’t let us ride it. It jumped around so much no one could stay
on, so we killed it and ate it. It was good, but I would rather eat
deer.”

“
Since horses can run so
fast, I would think you would be able to travel great distances if
you could ride them,” Zen said.

“
Yes, there is a tribe of
warriors who ride horses. It gives them a great advantage over us.
They raid our village, steal our women, and then gallop
away.”

“
Do you ever get your women
back?”

“
How could we? The horses
run so fast that we can’t catch them.”

“
We, the men of Lalock, have
learned to deal with that problem,” Zen said. “Maybe Jok and I can
help.”

“
That would be wonderful,”
Lox replied.

When the raft touched land,
Zen said, “All right, girls, let’s go. You can look around while I
kill a deer, but don’t go too far . . . and take spears with you.
You may need to defend yourselves.”

The girls found a small
stream and took a bath. On their way back, they saw an abundance of
fruit and were enjoying picking it and filling their
baskets.

“I think we’d better start
back; we have enough fruit for several days,” Lela said.

“Oh, look,” Ador pointed.
“That tree has lots of fruit that has fallen on the ground. Let’s
pick some more.”

Just as they walked over
the hill, they found a mother horse, with her baby trying to
suckle. After oohing and aahing at the baby horse, the girls found
that the mother couldn’t stand, as she had fallen and broken her
hind leg, so the baby horse couldn’t feed. Ador put out her hand,
and the baby horse tried to suckle her fingers.

“Oh, I wish we could take
it with us,” she cried. “The first big cat that comes along will
kill them both.”

“
It’s a shame, but you know
we can’t take him with us. How could we feed it? And we don’t have
enough room on the raft.”

“
But the little horse is so
sweet; he would make a good pet. I’ll bet if we raised one from a
baby, it would get used to living with us, and would let us ride on
its back when it gets big.”

“
That’s a good idea. We
could catch baby horses—boy horses and girl horses. Then when they
get big, they will have babies, and we would all have horses to
ride. We could ride them to find a way around the Valley of Mist.
If we can rescue our mothers and fathers, they would help us build
our village right here in this beautiful spot!”

“
Sounds great, Lela, but
don’t tell the boys just yet. Let’s think about it. After we have
helped Lox get back to his village, we’ll share the news with
them.”

“
We’d better get back to the
raft. The men will be getting worried and will come looking for
us.”

“
Oh, I wish we didn’t have
to leave the baby horse, but we have no choice.”

The girls started back to
the raft, but they didn't see Zen.

“
Maybe we should look for
him,” Ador commented.

“
All right,” Lela agreed,
“but we must keep the raft in sight. He might already be
there.”

“
No,” Ador replied. “I can
see the raft, and he’s not on it.”

***

Zen was standing hidden in
a grove of trees, waiting for a deer. Soon one came within range,
but he had to drop his spear to release his arrow. Time and
frequent use had improved his skill, and he killed the deer easily,
but then he noticed something out of the corner of his eye. He saw
fire jump from the stone that his spearhead had hit when it fell to
the ground!

Fire jumping from a stone
was such a strange thing that, for a moment, he forgot about the
deer and examined the stone. He had never seen this kind of stone
before. He hit it with his spearhead again, and little pieces of
fire sprang from it again. His curiosity was aroused. He had to
know if there really was fire hidden inside the stone. He made a
pile of dry grass and struck the stone in such a way that the fire
in the stone would land in the dry grass. Sure enough, a tendril of
smoke rose from the grass. He blew into the smoke, and a flame
burst forth. He was elated, knowing that he just made fire so
easily. Then he quickly killed the fire, and gathered up a supply
of the stones to carry back to his companions.

I don’t want Lox to know
what I’ve found here, but I’ll tell my friends about this the first
chance I get
, Zen thought. He knew his
discovery was important and wanted to keep it a secret for now. So
he skinned the deer, wrapped the choice cuts of meat in the skin
with the stones, and hurried to meet the girls, who were walking
toward him.

The girls seemed excited
and were trying to tell him something, but his mind was on the
firestones, and he didn’t listen as well as he should have. They
all returned to the raft, where he gave the deer meat to Jok to
store as he and the girls pushed the raft away from the
riverbank.

As they floated down the
river, Jok and Lox cooked the meat in a area of the raft they had
prepared with green leaves to protect it from burning.

After the two rivers flowed
together, even more streams funneled in. The river became so wide
that the trees on the banks looked small. Also, the land was
getting flatter. Large herds of animals were grazing on the grass;
there were even contented-looking lions relaxing under the shade
trees.

The bows and arrows made
hunting easier, less dangerous, and more enjoyable. Now they had
everything they needed. They could catch fish from the river, and
game on the banks was easy to obtain. Since no clouds covered the
sun, and the heat was becoming intense, they added more animal
skins to make a more protective sunshade.

Crocodiles no longer lay on
the banks, and the fish in the river were almost as long as the
raft. Lox showed Jok and Zen how to make bone hooks to catch some
of the smaller ones. Then he showed them how to prepare fish eggs
to make a delicious food.

As they floated along, the
four friends taught Lox what they knew. In turn, he taught them his
language, so that they could talk to his people.

“
What do you call your
village?” Lela asked.

“
Our village, which honors
Zor, is called Zoran, and we call ourselves Zorians.”

***

Chapter 13

The Village by the
Sea

One morning, after a quiet
night, Zen dipped his hand into the river, took a mouthful of
water, and quickly spit it out.

“
Ugh!” he said and made a
face. “This water is salty!”

“
Yes,” Lox laughed. “That's
because the river water has mixed with sea water. This means we are
nearing the end of our voyage. Let's beach the raft now; we can get
fresh water from a tributary stream.”

***

The next day, there was
water ahead as far as they could see. In the distance was a
village. As the raft drew closer, everyone noticed that the
dwellings were made from blocks of dried mud; some even had
individual dried mud walls surrounding them. Each home had its own
private area in which animals lived and plants were growing. Lox
called the mud-dwellings houses. Jok, Ador, Zen and Lela had seen
houses made of skins, but they had never seen houses like
this.

The raft stopped moving and
was just floating; they pushed it along with pieces of wood called
paddles that Lox had made. The water was so deep they couldn’t get
traction against the river bottom, even with their long spears.
Although the paddles were slow going, at least the raft was moving
toward a walkway that was built out into the water.