The
pungent smoke rose in great, cloudy puffs from a communal fire in the center of the circle of
huts. From his hiding position behind the scrub brush covering, Billy deduced that the
dwellings were made from hardened mud, branches, grasses, and an elongated,
white, stony material not immediately recognizable.
To
Billy, anyway. Auru grunted and spoke softly. “Bone,” he said.
Billy
looked down at Auru, and his loincloth. “What, like right now?”
“Huh?”
Auru blinked. “Bone of big, shaggy, walking ones. Use for shelter.”
“Oh, you mean mammoth bones! I thought you meant…never mind.” Billy looked back towards the village, specifically its inhabitants, all who had long hair, making it difficult to distinguish gender (if such a concept existed among these people). Some of villagers wore skins that covered their bodies, in the form of primitive shirts and britches to keep out the cold. The clothing and dwellings suggested this was a more advanced society than the one from where Auru originated.
Which
did bode well for Billy and Auru, but it was nevertheless wise to
approach with caution. While historical research suggested that early man was not likely to ‘kill first and ask
questions later', there was no telling how the tribe might react to
outsiders.
“Ok,
Auru, let’s—”
But
Auru had already hopped up from his hiding spot, briskly jaunting over towards
a tall individual positioned at the edge of the dwelling space. Probably a
‘watchman’ or guard. Auru stopped. He held his palms open, just like how he had
done for Billy. ‘No rock in hands’.
It was hard to calculate the other man’s
reaction, but he sprung to attention and crept slowly forward, with a gait suggesting a limp. He made use of a tall walking stick for support. Billy
noticed a sharpened stone affixed to its end. It was not just a crutch, but a spear. The kind used to kill mammals.
Which included humans.
Billy
swallowed. He had no choice but to trust Auru on this one. My dating must
have been off. The type of commune here seems more compatible with the late
Gravettian period, but the advanced dwellings and organization structures would
suggest a—WOAH LOOK AT HIS HUGE, SWINGING COCK!
Sure
enough, the loincloth wrapped around the approaching man’s waist was more of a
‘suggestion’ of modesty, doing nothing to conceal the long, anaconda
pendulously swaying in the breeze. While the man was not as thick and sturdy as
Auru, he was still quite toned and muscular.
While Auru had the muscle advantage, his barrel chest and penchant for spine-cracking bearhugs would mean nothing if the guard decided to turn him into a caveman kebab.
Observing
nervously from his hiding spot, Billy watched as Auru ‘sniffed’ the
raven-haired man, who returned by pressing his forehead against Auru’s. Even if
its exact meaning was lost on Billy, it was an intimate gesture. Safe. Billy exhaled with relief.
Auru
pointed to Billy. The spear man turned his head in the direction of the bush,
which was Billy’s queue to slowly rise and perform the ‘open hand’ gesture himself.
He walked forward and tried keeping his eyes above the spearman’s beltline.
“I am Keedo,” the spearman said, clearly, with a certain boyishness in his voice. “Protector of this village.” Keedo was fresh faced, smooth, and younger than Auru.
“Auru,”
Auru said.
“We…we come in peace!” Billy stammered.
Keedo
smiled, but looked upon Billy like he was an idiot. “I…would hope so,” he said,
carefully. Keedo shifted his weight, using his spear for leverage. “Come, I will
show you to Eshana.”
He speaks normally? “We…should probably
do as he says,” Billy said to Auru, who nodded in agreement. “After all, he’s
got a big weapon. And that spear of his looks pretty deadly too.”
Billy
and Auru followed Keedo close behind. The tall guardian walked slow on account
of his limp, but this told Billy several things. For one, if the guy with the
busted leg was the best guard the tribe could muster, it suggested something
about their low reserves of capable bodies.
It also suggested that
Keedo’s people were both cooperative and altruistic. Billy’s favorite anthropology diva, Margaret Mead, wrote that a broken and set femur was
the first hallmark of civilization. It meant that someone had taken care of the
injured, brought them food from hunts, and tended to their wounds until they
were healed. Keedo wasn’t just a prehistoric twunk with a huge cock, he was
also a living, breathing testament to human cooperation.
"Who is Eshana?" Billy asked.
"The Elder," Keedo responded.
While
Keedo led the way, Billy took silent inventory of the objects propped against
the stones and logs. Nets. Spears. Arrow heads. Even a tool remarkably
similar to a boomerang. These were mostly hunting tools. With a dearth of edible vegetation during this colder epoch, the inhabitants of the valley likely subsisted on a meat-based diet of elk, mammoth, reindeer, and
smaller game.
There were very few other people in the village, or at least, very few people outside the mud huts. Most of the women wore coverings, though a few were bare breasted. Children of both sexes staid close to their side, though a few others gathered around men—who were either quite young or elderly, with very little age range between. The villagers watched Billy and Auru with wary apprehension. None of them approached.
Though Billy was eager to observe the villagers going about their daily business, he considered the fact that ogling and gawking at them might put them off, and it was probably for the best not to compromise his and Auru’s situation. In any case, Billy’s musings on primitive man were interrupted by the tell-tale sound of heavy breathing and wet, 'slapping’ noises. Billy turned his head towards a space between two huts, where he watched a long-haired woman on all fours, mounted from behind by a male Keedo’s age.
They were going AT it. Blushing, Billy promptly
looked away, though the two lovers seemed hardly bothered by his and Auru’s
presence.
Despite
himself, Billy blurted out. “Oh, they are fucking.” He looked to Keedo
and Auru, who were unbothered. “Right in broad daylight!”
Keedo’s raised his thick eyebrows. His aquamarine eyes lit up. “Is it strange to you?” he said, without an ounce of judgment. “Does your tribe not...as you say...fuck?”
“Oh
no, we fuck. Just…I think we’re less open about doing it in public. Unless we're at Folsom.”
Keedo
took Billy at his word. "This tribe of 'Folsom' sounds intriguing." Smiling proudly, he pointed to several individual seated
at their labors. “Back there is my
mate, Meeka,” he said. “And over there is my mate, Tii and her mate, Jolu. And
that is my son and daughter over there being watched by Jee and her mate Kika.”
He had easily named most of the villagers outside the huts.
Billy’s
heart was warmed. “Lesbians!”
“We
are a happy people,” Keedo said.
Score one point for polyamory, Billy
thought. “Yeah, I’d say so!”
The
three men had to lower their heads in order to enter the large hut at the end
of the village. Inside was a small fire pit, its embers still glowing. A
hunched figure in a animal skin shawl made a small, irritated noise and rose up from
her position on a grass mat.
“What
is it now?” the old woman croaked. The small bones ornamenting her neck rattled
as she turned towards the newcomers. “Oh.”
The
old woman was very small, and though the skins she wore had long since greyed, she herself was full of color. Her teeth were yellow, cracked, and lacking in
number. Billy saw that her ochre-colored skin was carved with lines, and her
hair was as white as the glaciers in the great valley distance. Her eyes, which were
an almost otherworldly blue, sparkled with knowledge.
She
was the most beautiful person Billy had ever seen.
Much like Keedo, the elder used a long stick—bound with feathers and bird skulls at the head—to
maneuver herself around the fire pit. She examined Billy and Auru closely.
“I
am called Eshana,” she said. “Many-In-Years.”
On
instinct, Auru bowed his head respectfully. “Eldress.” Billy followed his lead
and did the same.
“Yes,
that is correct.” Her eyes travelled between Billy and Auru. “And who may you
two friends be?”
Even
in awe, Billy tried to find his manners. “I’m Billy,” he said to Eshana. Keedo
watched them, carefully, from his position at the entrance of the hut. He was
a powerful presence.
With
a grumpy, yet affable disposition, Eshana shuffled between Billy and Auru,
giving them a keen-eyed observation. “This one seems shy,” she said, tapping
her cane against Auru’s belly. “But strong, and quite virile.”
Auru
smiled. “Auru wish to mate.”
Billy
felt himself turn red. “Wow, it's straight to business with you, huh?”
“Very
well,” Esana said, simply, with a shrug. “But not with gray-haired me! My mating days are over. Thank the gods. But there are many women here who would
make capable mates. And we are in dire need of more little ones, ever since…”
She
trailed off. Billy leaned in, wanting to know more. The Eldress
approached the entrance to her hut and pointed her stick towards a gathering of
women working happily, in tandem, on stitching tanned skins into a suitable covering.
“Perhaps
Uleena would suit you?” Eshana said to Auru. She aimed her cane at the slim
woman in the center of the group, affixing downy fur to the collar of the
tunic.
“Uleena
pretty,” Auru said, earnestly. “Like flower.” He turned, however, towards the
slender, sturdy, young man guarding the hut. “But…Auru want Keedo!”
Keedo
was nonplussed. “You honor me, Auru, but I am afraid I do not mate with men.”
Auru
smiled affectionately at him. “Ah! Then Keedo will be friend only.”
While
Billy remained bewildered by prehistoric social etiquette, Eshana was amused by
Auru’s ways. “Hmmm…it seems this one does not wish to mate with women.” She
shoo herk head, still smiling, but the frustration was plain across her face. “An
imposition, to be sure. But to force one upon another would bring down the
wrath of the Great Mother.” Eshana gestured her adorned cane towards the back
of the hut.
Billy
hadn’t yet noticed the two objects resting on the altar of
mammoth bones. He nearly lost his composure. The two icons, made of baked clay,
were rather crudely fashioned idols: a curvaceous, big breasted ‘feminine’
figure, and her companion, a horned, ‘masculine’ icon with a
prominent phallus. Not even motor-mouthed Billy could come up with the words to
express his amazement at what were, quite possibly, the first true examples of ‘religion’
in human history.
In
any case, Eshana was focused more on the practicalities of Auru and Billy’s
arrival, than spiritual matters. “If you have come to our village, I take it
you are searching for food, or a new tribe. Hmm?”
Auru’s
eyes turned sad. “Auru’s people…gone.”
“I
see.” Eshana pursed her lips together. Billy saw the ‘gears’ turning in her old head. “Well, you
seem a capable hunter. You may yet earn a position in our clan.”
Billy
was happy to hype up his big buddy. He nudged Auru in the ribs. “Oh, this guy
is like the best hunter ever! Right?”
Auru
smiled and pounded his fist against his pectoral (which wiggled upon impact). “Urgh!”
That
seemed to suit Eshana. “Most promising!”
Billy
spoke up. “And I—”
“I
will address you in a moment,” Eshana said curtly, pointing her stick in
Billy’s face. That shut him up. She explained herself to both of her guests. “We
are the Clan of the Bulls, for this is the Valley of the Bulls that migrate
inward with the turning of the moons.”
“Oh,
did you hear that, big-guy?” Billy said. “Literally a village with your name on
it.”
Auru
understood. “Auru,” he said again. He pointed at himself. Then, to improve
upon his meaning, he placed his hands to his head and hooked his fingers,
pantomiming a pair of aurochs horns.
Eshana’s
eyes sparkled like the embers in the fire pit. “Ah, a blessing from the Great
Bull Father!” She turned and acknowledged the ‘male’ idol on the altar.
“To send one of his sons in a time of great need. Then, it is as I saw in the
throwing of the bones.”
Her
statement clued Billy into her position as both elder and diviner, which spoke
to her esteem and rank among the village. He noted the voluptuous, feminine
figure on the altar was larger than her male companion, which hinted at a
matriarchal structure, perhaps one where men were seen more as instruments of
fertility.
Sign me up, Billy thought.
Eshana
brought Billy back to focus by tapping the tip of her cane against the front of
his shoe. “Your feet are most unusual,” she said, wrinkling her nose. She had
no qualms with placing her boney fingers on the chain around Billy’s neck. “And
you wear melted stones! Perhaps you are a shaman?” She cocked her head to the
side, but quickly dismissed the notion. “No. I see not much in the way of
divinity in your eyes.”
She
wasn’t wrong, but it still stung all the same, and Billy was not about to whip out his smart
phone and risk giving these folk a heart attack or radically altering the
course of human history.
Instead,
he wriggled out of his footwear. “Oh, my kicks?”
Keedo
gasped. “HE TOOK OFF HIS FEET!” Fearful, he pointed his spear at Billy.
Eshana
was quick to hold out her hand to assure him. “They appear to be coverings,
Keedo. Be at ease!”
Auru
came to Billy’s defense. “Bil-Lee here from sky!”
“Right,”
Billy said…’til he whipped his head towards Auru. “What!?”
Auru
gave him a look that said, ‘I thought you knew?’ “Yes,” he said again. “Bil-Lee
a sky person.” And, while Billy didn’t quite exactly understand what this
meant, Auru pointing to the two figures in the back was enough of a hint.
Eshana
laughed. “Fah! Sweet Auru, I would know well the messengers of the Great
Mother and Father. While I have no doubt your coming is indeed of great providence, Billy
here is likely from a distant tribe.” She poked Billy’s stomach and biceps. “You seem well
fed, in any case. Are you a hunter too?”
“No.
I…er…” It was difficult for Billy to translate his job (or lack thereof) into a
prehistoric context. “My role in the society I come from...is that I tell the stories of
places, people, and events that happened a long time ago.”
Finally, Eshana’s eyes softened. “Ahhh, a storyteller! A steward of knowledge.” She nodded, approvingly. “A fine role indeed. Though, your tribe must have so many more capable hunters than yourself, if all you do is sit around telling stories..."
Billy
was now beginning to understand that the concept of a disapproving, older auntie
was one that transcended history. “Eldress, how come you and Keedo speak normally, but
Auru here speaks…like that?” He motioned to a very confused Auru,
scratching his head.
Eshana
reeled back, taking offense on the caveman’s behalf. Billy realized he had ‘stepped
in it’ now. “What!? Fool boy! There as many tongues in heads as there are
tribes. Or campfires in the night sky! All of them with a different ebb and flow of
voice. How is it strange to you that this one,” she motioned to Auru, “who is quite intelligence, speaks different? Sounds to me that you need some decent wisdom
beaten into that thick head of yours!”
Wincing
at the verbal dressing down, Billy looked to Keedo for guidance, but the man
turned his eyes sideways. Billy had seen the same exact look on his little
brother’s face when they’d gotten in trouble together.
Before
Billy could prattle off a weak excuse, Eshana raised her stick high and brought
it down over Billy’s head, knocking his skull silly.
WHAP!
Granted
it was an abbreviated black-out, maybe only a few seconds long, but Billy’s
world blinked out of being. Darkness washed in and receded like a turn of the
tides, and when Billy awoke, it was to a painful lump on his head.
“Ughh…”
“Billy?
Hey, Billy are you alright? Looks like she hit you pretty good. Hahaha!”
Head
stinging and vision still blurry, Billy managed to pull his head off the
ground. “I think so,” he said through his clenched jaw. “Who is…talking?
Keedo?” Billy wearily looked around the hut. It was empty, except for him
and Auru.
A
strong pair of hands lifted Billy onto his feet, stabilizing him. “What? Billy,
it’s me.” Auru pressed his face—nearly nose-to-nose—against Billy. “Have we not
been sharing a cave for the last two moons? Hahaha! Here. Maybe you need a reminder!”
SMOOCH!
Auru
fastened his lips onto Billy’s, just as he brought him in for a too-tight hug.
Billy pulled away, coughing, choking on his own saliva (as well as Auru’s) and
trying to breathe.
“Oh, I always forget my own strength,” Auru said, bashfully. He let Billy down. “Are
you okay? I didn’t break anything, did I?”
That smack up the head must have adjusted Eros’s translation magic, Billy speculated. He shook the shock from his head. “A-A-Auru!
You’re speaking like—" He cut himself off, Eshana’s blow to his head still
stinging. “I mean…wow!”
Auru
must have thought Billy was more than a little dim at this point. He crossed his large arms
over his larger chest. “Of course, I’m speaking! I have been speaking to you
this whole time. Why…why are you looking at me like that? Anyways, Eshana told
me to bring you down to the river when you woke up. She’s going to introduce us
to the rest of the village. We better go!”
As
if Billy had much of a choice. Auru grabbed onto his arm and pulled him
(dragged, was more like it) through the door. “Er…right.”
“Maybe
there will be more men like Keedo there.” Auru scrunched up his face, in deep
thought. “You can present yourself to them like you did with me, and I’m sure
they’ll want to mate with us in no time!”
With
a friendly smack on the bum that left Billy feeling raw and red, Auru marched
on ahead.
Billy sighed. “RIP my hole.” He wasn't that concerned with meeting the tribe. He felt safer here in the village than he did when he'd set foot in prehistory two days ago. What bothered him now was Eros's tricky puzzle. If Billy was tasked to be help Auru find 'love', and there were no eligible bachelors here in the village, then what did that mean for Billy's chances at returning home?
Billy suddenly worried if he was going to be on this anthropological 'field trip' for much, much longer than he first thought.
