The Thinking Rocks (32 page)

Lork had seen the look
on Gennos's face change as he looked past him.  He twisted around and
peered at the shore, nothing different there, just trees.  He grunted and
continued to try to keep the dugout moving upstream.

From their hiding place
Cano and Dola watched as the dugouts moved upstream.

Lomasi and Morf were
just rounding a curve in the river, the current was slack here and the dugout
glided silently forward.  Both men rested their pole for a few
moments.  Then they both noticed deer at the edge of the river
drinking.  Lomasi gripped his spear thrower, and softly told Morf to take
the smaller of them, and he would take the larger.  Quickly and silently
the hunters took up their weapons and cast their spears at the deer.

The larger
deer was a female and she had lived a full life by depending on her senses of
smell and hearing.  Her sense of smell was of little help in this situation,
for the gentle breeze was blowing downstream and away from her. 
Contrarily, the whispers of the spears in flight were a distinct and unnatural
sound.  Instinct caused her to bolt away before the spear could land where
it was aimed.  She was fast, but not fast enough to escape being
hit.  The spear past through her lower stomach and then stuck in the
ground.  She bounded away leaving a light trail of intestine and half
digested food.

 Her
fawn was not as lucky. Morf's spear flew true. It penetrated the fawn just
behind the front leg and past into her heart. She was dead even as she leapt to
follow her mother.   She landed roughly and tried to regain her feet,
but she had no strength and couldn't rise, it was all over in another breath.
She died before she had a chance to fear death.

 The smile on
Morf's face faded to a blank mask as Lomasi scolded him for making him miss his
shot.  "You were to throw at the same time as I did. By throwing when
you did, you caused us to lose most of the meat we need.  Not only are you
a poor hunter, you are a poor follower.  I have no idea what I can do with
you. You are not only useless, you are hopeless."

Morf wanted to tell him
that he was wrong.  Lomasi's spear had struck the large deer before his
had landed in the fawn. He knew that if he argued it would only make things
worse.  Lomasi was so used to belittling others when he failed, that he
actually thought he was as great as he said he was.  All failure was
someone else's fault.  If you didn't agree that it was your fault, he
would knock you down to prove it was your fault.

Lomasi directed Morf to
help bring their dugout alongside the other dugout. Lomasi told Lork, "We
will pull the dugouts up on the shore over there.  "This fool and
I," he pointed to Morf, "will go look for the wounded
deer."  He looked to the shore where they were to land and picked out
a suitable tree.  "Tie them to the tree and then get the deer we
killed and bring it back here.  Have her clean it while you start a
fire.  We will be back with the other deer soon.  We will eat and
then continue up the river."

Lork nodded his
understanding.  He was quietly amazed at how easily his dugout maneuvered
to shore.  He tied the prisoners under the watchful eyes of Lomasi before
moving off to retrieve the fawn.  He watched Lomasi and Morf leave. 
He was thankful it was Morf who had to be the one that had to go with Lomasi
and not him.  I was a fool to come on this trip with him, he
thought.  He promised himself that this would be the last trip he would
ever take with him. He didn't know at the time how right he was.

While Lork was
retrieving the fawn, Gennos told Na'pe about seeing Cano on the shore. 
"He will come for us soon.  Watch for a signal or some sign from him
or Dola.  This will be the time we escape."  She nodded her
understanding.  She smiled as she reached into her breechcloth, "You
will need this."  She removed a small piece of leather. She unwrapped
it and handed it to him, it was the cutting stone that she had hidden.

Lork returned to find
the prisoners still tied securely with blank hopeless expressions on their
faces. They were staring at the ground.  He walked over to them and untied
Na'pe. He tied the noose around her neck and led her to the fawn.  It was
then he realized that he should have tied the noose around her neck before he
untied her; it was a good thing Lomasi wasn't around to see the mistake. 
He growled at her to start preparing the fawn for cooking.  He tossed her
a cutting stone to use and then moved away as she started to remove the
hide.  He had let the noose fall to the ground and turned to gather the
wood for a fire.

Although it looked as
though Na'pe was only concerned with cleaning the deer, she was busy searching
the brush for signs of Cano and Dola.

They were watching the
campsite from deep cover.  They had watched Lomasi and Morf leave to trail
the wounded deer.  Cano whispered to Dola "They have little chance of
finding that deer, I hope she leads them on a long chase," he paused and
then continued, "This may be our only chance to get Gennos and Na'pe free.
We must find a way to get them away from Lork."  He sat thinking for
a few moments as they watched Lork gathering the wood for a fire.  "I
have an idea," he said, "We will hide here and have Na'pe bring Lork
to us.  We can overpower him and then escape."

Dola looked at him and
said "How?"

"I will signal
Na'pe to come here, and when she runs past us we will get him. You find a heavy
stick and hit his legs as he runs by, and I will strike his head. We can tie
him up and then take the dugouts."

Dola nodded and quietly
looked around for a suitable weapon.  He found a stout branch that was
almost as tall as he was, it was heavy, but he could swing it.  He found a
secure place with room to swing and then crouched low in the brush.  He
looked over at Cano who had discarded his spears and was selecting a large
stone as a weapon.  Cano nodded his approval of Dola's hiding place, and
then he found himself a place across from him.  Cano waited until Lork was
facing away and then stood and motioned to Na'pe.  She didn't see him at
first.

When she looked up and
saw him her stomach tightened up.  She looked over to where Lork was
gathering wood and then back to Cano.  She reached up and removed the noose
from her neck. She looked back to Cano.

Cano pointed to her and
then motioned to her to come quickly.  He pointed to the way he wanted her
to run.

She understood and leapt
to her feet and rushed toward Cano.

Cano saw her start
toward him and then he dropped out of sight. The ambush was set.

Lork heard a sound and
turned as Na'pe dashed toward the brush. He dropped the wood he had gathered
and rushed over and snatched up his spear thrower.  He quickly fitted a
spear into the notch and drew back to make the cast.  It was an easy shot.
But fear or maybe common sense, kept him from casting the spear. He dared not
cast the spear.  If he killed her, Lomasi would be enraged at the loss of
another prisoner and take it out on him.  If they returned to their camp
with only some baskets and one cripple, they would be laughed at.  On top
of that, they had lost a man. Lomasi would make his life miserable.  She
must be brought back alive.  He lowered the spear thrower and rushed after
her.  She was quick, but Lork knew that her attempt to escape was futile.

He gained on her rapidly
and was close behind her when she reached the brush.  She was going to pay
for this attempt at escape.  He smiled to himself about how she was going
to pay.  Lomasi wasn't here to stop him from doing what he was going to
do.  It had been a long time since he had a woman.

Dola swung the branch
with such force that it knocked Lork's leading foot out from under him as it
broke the shinbone.  The blow carried on into the rear foot and knocked it
off the ground with a crunching noise.

Lork didn't feel the
pain in his legs, but he found himself falling.  He thrust his hands out
to break his fall and lost his grip on the spear thrower and the spear. 
The short shaft of the spear twisted away and the butt of the spear wedged into
the ground.  The point of the spear was pointing up and it pierced his
skin first, then his heart, before exiting from his back.  He tried to
take a deep breath and found that he couldn't.  As he slid to a stop, he
rolled over and saw Cano standing above him with a rock poised to come crashing
down on his face.  His last thoughts were, there has to be a
mistake.  Cano was dead, he couldn't be here.

Cano saw the life leave
Lork's eyes. He still wanted to mash the rock down on his face, but he knew it
was futile.  He lowered the rock and then looked to Dola.

Dola sat looking at
Lork, and then he looked up to Cano.  "I killed him," he said
with a tremor in his voice.  He was fighting back tears, “Why----?"

Na'pe reached down to touch
Dola's head.  "It’s not your fault. He would have killed you without
a thought.  He and Lomasi believe they can do what they want.  He
just paid for his mistakes.  Lomasi's turn will come."  She
turned from Dola to Cano, and then she said softly, "And I will be there
to see it."

He nodded to her and
then said, "We must hurry, Lomasi and Morf may return soon."

Dola started to follow,
but then he remembered something.  He turned and ran back to Lork's still
form.  He knelt and rolled him over and the opened the leather pouch he
carried.  He quickly searched it and removed the saber tooth fang that
Lomasi had taken away from him.  He placed it in his breechcloth and then
hurried back to his friends.

They arrived
just as Gennos finished cutting himself free.  He smiled at them all and
then said to his brother, "You don't look so bad for being dead."

Cano came
forward and gave his brother a hug.  "Well I had to come back to take
care of my big brother."

Gennos gave his brother
a hug back, but said, "We must get away quickly, which dugout should we
take?"

Cano replied, "We
take them both, that way they will have harder time following us."

Na'pe ran over and
picked up the partly cleaned fawn and deposited it in one of the dugouts. 
Gennos smiled at her and said, "Good thinking, we can use the
food."  They quickly pushed the dugout with Gennos and Na'pe out into
the current. Cano and Dola followed in the other dugout.  Swiftly they
poled them into the current heading downstream and around a bend in the river.

As the dugouts rounded the bend Lomasi and Morf emerged
from the woods empty handed.  Lomasi expected to find a fire burning and
the smell of roasting meat.  Instead he saw, no, it was what he didn't
see, that caused a rage to explode in his chest.  The dugouts were gone.
He looked to the river and just caught a glimpse of a dugout rounding the
bend.  He could not see any trace of Lork

.

The two
dugouts moved swiftly with the muddy current.  The occupants of both
dugouts were happy to be free, but apprehensive.  The smell of freedom was
in the air, but it was tainted because they knew Lomasi would follow. 
They had to travel as quickly as possible to get far away.  The river was
helping in their escape, but it wasn't straight.  It seemed to fold back
upon itself, and then to fold back upon itself again in the other
direction.  They kept to the center of the river, and had to keep a watch
for rocks and sunken logs. To become stranded in the river would mean death. 
They knew the danger that lurked in Lomasi's spear thrower.

Gennos and
Na'pe's dugout was in the lead, and Cano and Dola's was following a short
distance behind.  The little wolf sat in the center of Cano's dugout
scanning the riverbanks and sampling the scents of the land and the
river.  There was little talk; they knew the danger that was still close.
They were just beginning to savor the taste of freedom again.

If Lomasi had been in
one of the dugouts he would have been amazed at how much the prisoners had
learned about navigating and steering the dugouts. But he wasn't and he was
livid in his rage.  How had Lork allowed them to escape?  When he
found him he would pay for their escape.  Why are they doing these things
to me?  Fools surround me; I can't depend on anyone.  Even the
simplest things can't be done unless I am there to be sure they are done
correctly.  He looked over at Morf who was standing quietly off to the
side waiting to be blamed again for something he hadn't done.  "Come
quickly and be quiet, we must cut them off before they can complete their
escape," he snarled.  As he moved off he shifted his grip on his
weapons in anticipation of their use.  Morf followed quietly

Lomasi and Morf had only
traveled a short distance when they came upon Lork's body.  Lomasi stopped
and looked down upon the body silently.

"They killed him
with his own spear; I wonder how they did that." Morf said.

 Lomasi didn't look
up, but said, "They didn't kill him, he was killed by
stupidity."  He looked over at Morf and said, "He was a fool. A
woman and cripple should never have been able to get one of his spears and kill
him with it."

Morf didn't
respond.  He had liked Lork, and now he was gone. He silently wished it
was Lomasi lying there, and then he and Lork could have gone home. Another
thought crossed his mind, if they kept up this chase, who would be the next to
die?