As they started their walk back home Teone found herself disappointed that she had not had a chance to exchange words with Jared, in fact she couldn't even seem to be able to catch his attention. These thoughts quickly left her head, though, as they came closer to their dwellings and could see and hear the beasts on the ground level fighting at the opening to their path down into the canyon. The group sped to their stalagmite home and helped Joshua and George up the wall as they scampered to safety. Once they were back inside the cave and fed a good meal by the others, Teone found herself consumed with the image of the shiny object that George had held in his hand. She wanted to ask him, but he and Joshua were deep in discussion with the elders about what had transpired and how to proceed. She looked briefly over to Sally, Sidney and Patricia to see if she could get some support to approach, but they were quite happy to sit and soak up the adulation of the crowd.
So as usual she moved to her solitary place at the door of the cave, stared up at the darkened sky and tried to understand these recent events.
Things were happening so fast, she didn't really have a chance to consider them. She was used to long hours of repetitive boredom, or having nothing at all to do. All they had in the cave was what they needed for bare existence; a large pot to cook food in, some rough tools of stone and wood, some pelts for clothes and sleeping and a few odd bowls and cups for eating. There wasn't even enough for everybody, they had to share and take turns with everything.
Personal ownership was unknown to them. Everything they had they owned as a group. They ate in shifts because there was much fewer dishes than people, and if a child outgrew some piece of clothing it was passed on to another. If someone's clothes ripped beyond repair, it was taken apart and combined with something else to make something useful. There were no toys, no books, . .. nothing outside of bare minimum survival. As Teone sat in solitude thinking of what she had encountered and learned already today, she realized that there must be more to existence than staving off starvation and sleeping on a hard ground.
Again she became aware of other aspects of her consciousness that she had not known before. Of thoughts lingering in the back of her mind that she had not taken notice of previously. But they must have always been there, because it seemed such a familiar occurrence to be thinking like this.
"How odd," she thought "that it takes something new happening to realize the dimensions of how things have always been that i had not noticed."
By the time she was tired and ready for bed, the leaders of her delegation and the elders were still deep in discussion.
"This is kind of a rip-off", she thought to herself and she climbed onto her pile of pelts, "it was my discovery and my idea and now they're taking over and not even telling me what's going on."
She fell asleep grumpily to the continued sounds of murmured discussion around the fire. In her sleep she voyaged to worlds she did not know, realities she had never seen. She considered ideas that never occurred to her in daytime, and saw images that would have fascinated and scared her. But it all seemed so normal and usual during sleeping time, and since she worked hard all day she slept soundly through the night.
When she awoke she was still grumpy, and few of the others were yet stirring. She sat in her spot and looked about herself, seeing the collection of people she had known all of her life differently than she had before. The light cast on her understanding by the new people she had met changed the way she perceived of the familiar faces. When she got up she noticed that Sally seemed to have bonded with the twins, Patricia and Sidney. While Joshua and George had also moved their sleeping arrangement, closer to where the elders huddled together every night. "Hmph! everyone's got a sense of belonging except for me", she muttered to herself as she chewed on some leftover stew from the day before.
She was just considering spending another day on the canyon bottom by herself when suddenly George was beside her, "Come Teone", he said quietly. "The elders want to speak to you."
She was so annoyed she briefly considered refusing, but her curiosity got the better of her and she followed George back into the cave. The elders and Joshua were waiting for her.
"Teone," the Grand Elder spoke deeply, "you have a special role to play in our new existence. Not only because the other community was your discovery, but because you possess the special combination of wits and physical prowess."
She was not expecting such praise and blushed in embarrassment.
"We have much work to do", he continued, "and we have not yet decided precisely how to proceed. But we want to start you on getting ready for the trials ahead right away."
Teone's interest grew as he continued.
"We are in agreement with the other community that some effort must be made to exist on the ground surface if our race is going to have any chance of survival. The weakest and youngest are going to move over there immediately, out of the constant danger of the hulking beasts that prey on us. That way they can at least get down to some fresh air whenever the acid river is not running."
Teone thought that this sounded like a good idea.
"As well, our two camps are going to start preparing a unit to move up to the ground surface, do a survey, and try to find some safe place for us all to live together. Would you like to be involved in this effort?"
Teone nodded vigorously.
"Good, I thought you would. But you must be prepared, and to do that you must learn from Joshua and George the secrets and old ways of our people."
Teone was intrigued. She had never known that there was the kind of ceremony that she had witnessed yesterday, and it had never occurred to her that there could be anything useful to be learned from these ‘old ways' that everyone spoke of with such fondness.
She blurted out the first thing that came to her mind, "What was that shining object that George and Joshua showed to the other delegation yesterday?" she asked.
"All in time, Teone, all in time," spoke the Grand Elder, and he turned her attention to Joshua and George who were waiting to begin her instruction.
Although she wanted to ask more she went along with them.
Teone briefly looked at the two. Joshua she had spoken to in the past, at times. He was thoughtful and experienced, and always seemed to be able to help her come to a solution for any problem. She considered him to be one of the few intelligent and sane people of their group; but he was a decision-maker rather than a person of action, so her interest always ended there. George was almost a stranger to her; she never saw him doing anything, and he always seemed to be stuck on the coat-tails of the Elders and their groups. She had always considered him somewhat wimpy and irrelevant. But now, as they made their way across the cave, she decided to put her pre-conceptions away. Things were different now, and as far as she was concerned, whoever wasn't a drooling idiot might have something valuable to contribute.
They retired to a quiet corner of the cave with their own little fire, away from the bustle and excitement of those who were packing up and getting ready to move out and the rest who were helping them.
"Our people have had a long and distinguished existence on this world", began Joshua as George nodded in agreement. "This harsh life that we now know is relatively recent. The stories that you have heard but not wanted to listen to are all true, although somewhat exaggerated. Not long ago there was a great and terrible war, a clash between our people and some others -those foreign to this world - that came down from the skies and wreaked havoc, death and destruction on our forebears. Their weapons basically wiped out our race – until yesterday we thought that this tiny group was all that was left – and did irreparable damage to our planet. The water supply was poisoned with some very concentrated toxins, to create the bizarre acidic walls of water that you see rage below us intermittently. Before that the water flowed in one cohesive unit, calm to the touch and sweet to the taste."
Teone gasped in surprise! Imagine, actually being able to immerse yourself in water!
Joshua continued, "The races from other worlds didn't stop there. They assaulted the surface of our world from the skies, pounding us with bombs and weapons that we had never known before. Some where impossible to detect, but they did terrifying things to the animal communities; altering and mutating them into the raging behemoths you see today. Almost entirely everyone was killed, and the grandparents of this small group that you have known all your life finally gathered together at the border of this canyon. The canyon was being quickly worn away by what was then a constant torrent of acidic water. Eventually the torrent slowed to the occasional floods you know today, but then the full effects of the mutation of the animals took hold and even more people were lost to the predators. Our grandparents fled down into the relative safety of this canyon and tried to hold on to as much knowledge of the time gone past as they could. That they instilled into the parents of our current Elder leaders, who now try to pass it on to all of us."
Teone was bursting with questions. "Why did those other races do this? Why did they want to kill us? Where did they come from? What do you mean ‘from the skies'? Why couldn't we defend ourselves?" Teone stopped when a warning glance from Joshua cause George to raise his palm towards her.
"I cannot answer all of those questions right now, there is too much to do. But I will say this: Our people were strong and illustrious. They held great knowledge, wisdom and power. Our world was rich with resources and treasures, and our people dwelt upon in peace, harmony and perfect co-existence with the plant and animal life native to here. The other races wanted to get some of what we had for themselves, but we would not give it to them. To fight was unknown to our people, for so long they had thrived in cooperation and agreement with each other that there was no need for weapons or any defences at all. They refused to give in to the demands of the outsiders, and gave good and sound arguments as to why this was to be so. They thought that that would be the end of it, but the outsiders gathered their forces up in the sky and launched a brutal surprise attack on our people. The mentality was ‘if we cannot have it then you cannot have it either' and the massive destruction that followed was inconceivable to our people. So they were completely defenceless and unprepared, and our planet was basically destroyed."
Teone was stunned. She just thought that this pitiful life she had always lead was just the way it was, and the stories were some kind of escape from the harsh existence. She didn't know that there was actually something better. She turned to George to see if this was really true, but she didn't need to ask. The serious expression on his face was enough to let her know that it was.
George said quietly, "When I was a very young boy, my great-grandfather was still alive. He used to tell me every day what life was like before the wars, what he used to do, how he used to look, how things used to be here. For all of my life I have carried the knowledge that our people were once great and strong, and this world was once green and plentiful and beautiful. That is why I spend most of my time in this cave, because I cannot bear to see the devastation and the destruction that has happened."
Teone's heart almost hurt to see George tell her this, and she resolved herself right then to do whatever she could to make life better for the youngest of the children.
"What is my job going to be to help with this cause?" she asked them both fiercely.
