Cave Dwellers (18 page)

   As Zaac went thoroughly over the wing, he could find no evidence of harm. He folded it back against the body and started to stretch the right wing out. The adult parents were in the way, preventing him from extending the wing. He did not want to prompt an unwelcome response from them, so he proceeded cautiously keeping his eye on the adults.

   When Zaac brought the wing out, it brushed against the adults’ legs. They automatically stepped back allowing him to extend it fully. A bad scrape could be seen clearly a few inches behind the claw. The scrape was no more than five inches across. Zaac, running his hand tenderly over the abrasion, thought the damage only appeared to be on the surface.

   “What do you think?” Ramira asked.

   “I think that he knocked himself out when he turned and his head collided with the wall.”

   Ramira ran her hand over the wing feeling the fine hairs between her fingers. “What should we do?”

   Zaac left the wing stretched out and stood up, “There isn’t much we can do except wait. I remember reading in science class that over half of lichen species have antibiotic properties. Let’s get some water and clean the abrasions, make sure we have all of the dirt and rock particles out of them. After we clean them, we can pack some lichen over the wounds.”

   Ramira went to get some water while Zaac got some fresh lichen. When they returned, Zaac squeezed a handful of the lichen together to use as a sponge. They washed the wounds until all of the foreign particles were off.

   Zaac went back up and got his fishing line. This was an emergency and he could always make another one for fishing.

   He wrapped a portion around the head of the male determining how much would be required and cut it. Taking a handful of lichen, he compressed it together and tied it over the wound on the male’s head.

   Zaac took another couple of handfuls and compressed them together. He used the remaining string to tie it over the wound on the wing.

   The parents of the male stood back and watched. They appeared extremely agitated while the intruders worked on their young one, but they did not interfere. The younger female stood between Zaac and Ramira and the adult megapetomeinon, preventing any interruptions.

   After he had finished with the wounds, Zaac went to get the jagged rock. When he returned, he dug out several handfuls of dirt. Having Ramira lift up the head, he scooped them into a mound under the male’s beak and gently placed his head on it.

   “Now all we can do is wait,” Zaac stated as he sat back looking over the younger male. “If the concussion isn’t too bad, he should recover quickly.”

   Ramira went over to the younger female megapetomeinon. Somehow she wished that she could convey her sympathy to the bird. She reached out her hand to the younger female’s head. She gently stroked the bird’s head and neck toward her back. She repeated this gentle touching.

   The younger female must have sensed her concern and placed her head on Ramira’s shoulder. Zaac watched in awe at the connection being made. It was a sight to behold. A prehistoric bird bonding with a human. Even though the younger female was not fully grown, she appeared twice the size of Ramira.

   When the younger female lifted her head off Ramira’s shoulder, Ramira placed her hand on the female’s neck. She gave a gentle tug indicating that she wanted the female to come forward. When the
bird responded, she gently led her to the younger male.

   The younger female folded her long legs under her body and sat down next to the male. Ramira sat down next to the female and gently rubbed her neck. After rubbing it for several minutes, she leaned her shoulder against the neck and body of the young female above its folded wing. They both sat there in this position keeping watch over the young male, waiting for him to awaken.

   Zaac looked over at the parents. He thought about doing the same thing to them, trying to console them in some way. Let them know that he was concerned and wanted to help. As he looked into their eyes, he got the impression that they were not the bonding type. Maybe it would be best to keep his distance.

   Taking the remaining lichen, he went back up to the cave, sat by the boulder and started to separate strands. With Zaac gone, the adult parents went to the male. They sat and looked down upon him with an empty expression in their eyes.

   After Zaac got the lichen apart, he tied the ends of the tiny strings together. As he worked, he watched the sad scene below him—the adults on one side with Ramira and the younger female on the other. When he finally got the strings tied, he decided to turn in for the night. Taking one last glance below, he walked into the cave.

20

   Zaac was roused from sleep by a shaking and someone calling his name.

   “Zaac! Zaac! Wake up.”

   He opened his eyes and tried to focus on what was going on around him. Ramira was shaking him, waking him up.

   “I’m awake. What is it?” he asked rubbing his eyes.

   “The male is starting to move.”

   “Wow! That’s wonderful.” Zaac jumped up and rushed out of the cave with her.

   They ran down the incline to the edge of the lake where the male was lying with the younger female
still beside him. When they reached him, Zaac knelt down next to the male while Ramira sat with the female. The young male was trying to lift his head.

   Zaac placed his hand on the bird’s head and gently ran it down its neck speaking softly. “You’ll be fine. Just take it easy.” Of course, I don’t speak historic bird language, he thought.

   Even though the younger male could not understand the words, he seemed to sense that someone was trying to help him and it was not one of his parents. He barely opened his eyes and lifted his head a few inches off of the dirt mound.

   Zaac was still rubbing his head and neck.
“Hey there big fellow. You’ve come back to us. You had a pretty nasty collision.”

   The younger male turned his head and tried to focus on the person with the strange voice. His eyes were still a little blurry from the bang on his head. As they became more focused, he looked at Zaac.

   The female was a little perturbed that he had not noticed her yet, so she let out a small squawk and pecked him gently on the neck. His eyes stayed on Zaac for a few moments, then he turned and saw her. He opened his beak and emitted a squawk back to her.

   The male braced his legs and tried to stand. Zaac stepped away from him allowing him the room he needed. At first his legs were wobbly, but that
quickly faded. But he must have still been a little dizzy for when he tried to take a step, he fell back down.

   He laid there for a minute before trying to stand again. The next time he stood up completely and took a few steps with no apparent trouble.

   Ramira noticing the lichen on his head let out a little snicker. It looked like a sponge puff tied on top of his head.

   Both the male and female megapetomeinon turned and looked at her. They had never heard that strange sound before and it fascinated them. If the male had realized that she was laughing at him, he might have felt more than curiosity.

   The young male, having gained his footing, decided that he was going to fly. He took several running steps, extending his wings and lifted up off the ground.

   His flight was very short lived. The collision must have injured his wing more than they realized, or at least impaired the strength of it. When he was no more than three feet off the ground, he tilted to the right and fell back to the ground. The male laid there stunned, unable to comprehend why he couldn’t do something that was so normal to him.

   The jolt from his fall disarranged the lichen over the wounds. Zaac drew near and he held his hand out waist high with the palm facing downward showing that he meant the male no harm.

   Zaac reached the bird without incident and adjusted the lichen on top of its head, making sure it was over the wound. It was then that the male realized that something strange was tied around his head. He began to shake it from side to side, trying to dislodge whatever weird object was there.

   Zaac reached up affectionately and rubbed the male’s neck telling him, “It’s okay. Calm down. You need to keep that on for now.”

   The soothing tone in Zaac’s voice must have assured the male because he stopped trying to remove the lichen.

   Ramira and the younger female arrived beside them. They watched as Zaac stretched out the male’s right wing and repositioned the lichen on it. As he was retying the string, the male turned his head around and took a playful nip at Zaac’s shoulder and nudged him with his beak.

   Zaac responded by jabbing him back with his elbow and telling him, “You’re in a playful mood. You must be feeling better. But you need to save your playing until your wing heals. Then you can go and do all the playing you want.”

   He knew that the male could not understand him, but somehow it seemed normal to talk to him. Whether or not the male did understand is a matter of question, because he poked him again and looked Zaac in the eye. It was almost like the male was seeing right into his mind.

   In that brief moment, Zaac knew that he and the male had bonded. There was a connection that even he could not fathom. But that connection was briefly interrupted by the squawking of the adult megapetomeinon as they flew off of their ledge.

   The parents circled around the cavern a few times then came down to investigate the condition of their offspring.

   Zaac and Ramira thought that this would be a good time for them to exit the scene and give the megapetomeinon family time alone. They returned to the cave and started fixing something to eat.

   After eating, they went down to the pottery oven and removed all of the pieces they had made. All of them seemed to have turned out alright.

As Ramira looked at Zaac’s sluices, she asked, “What are you planning to do with these?”

   “It’s going to be a surprise,” he replied.

   She gave him a glance but decided to press him no further. She could be patient.

   After taking the pieces back up to the cave, Zaac went to work on his string. He repeated the process of interweaving the strings together. When he was done, he had another string about the length of his previous one.

   Zaac attached it to his bone hook and the other end to his bone fishing pole. He got his small bug pot, caught some bugs and went fishing for their evening meal. After catching a couple of fish, he went to the other side to clean and fillet them.     While he was kneeling to scale one of them, the younger male walked up behind him and poked him with his beak. He watched as Zaac finished scaling the fish and removed the insides. As Zaac was scaling the second fish, the male snatched the first one and took off, chewing it.

   Zaac saw him grab it out of the corner of his eye, but the male was gone with it before he had a chance to react.

  
“Hey you big thief. If you were going to steal one, at least you could have taken the one that wasn’t cleaned.”

   When Zaac returned with the filleted fish, Ramira had a fire built and was cutting up potatoes.

   “You won’t believe what that bird did. He stole one of my fish,” Zaac protested to Ramira.

   “You probably provided the easiest meal he’s had since he started catching his own food.” She smiled up at him.

   “I think we need to come up with a name for them. I believe I’ll call him Rogue. He’s mischievous and very playful. I think the name suits him.”

   Ramira finished with the potatoes and stood looking at the birds with Zaac. “Yes, that name does seem to fit.” She glanced at the female. “I believe I’ll call her Siri. It means ‘a beautiful victory’.”

   They had their dinner by the boulder with mild interruptions from Rogue and Siri coming up to snoop. After they had finished, they walked around the cavern with the birds accompanying them.

   Rogue and Siri played lightly, but Rogue seemed to keep it mild, favoring his injured wing. Zaac and Ramira wanted to join them, but decided against it. They didn’t want to encourage Rogue to play harder than he should.

   When they returned to the cave, Zaac took the sluices that he had made and told Ramira, “I’ll be back.”

   He disappeared into the tunnel that went to the other side. Ramira watched as he came out on the far side of the lake. He did not have the pieces with him. He went to the bone pile and rummaged through it for several minutes before apparently finding what he was seeking. She watched as he vanished in the tunnel again and came out on this side without the bones.

   Zaac walked over to the rock pile and picked out several rocks and carried them back to the tunnel. He made a couple more trips until he had all that he needed. He returned to the cave and got the large bowl and loaded it with coal. Grabbing a small bowl, a water pot, his fire starter kit and some lichen, he set them on top and walked down to the vegetables. He stopped, got the jagged rock, set it on top of the bowl and disappeared into the tunnel again.

   There, Zaac filled the water pot under the falls. He dumped the water in the large hollowed out boulder. Taking off his shoes and socks, he rolled up his pants and jumped inside the boulder and washed it out using the lichen as a sponge.

   “Now my strength will come in handy,” he thought as he jumped back out. 

   Reaching under the huge boulder, he lifted it in the air and tilted it allowing the water to run out. When it was empty, he set it down and dug a small circular hole under it. He surrounded the hole with the rocks and placed the coal inside the circle.

   After he finished with the fire pit, he took the small bowl and gathered some clay. When he returned, he placed the bottom sluice inside the boulder and the second one, overlapping the top of it. Aligning the holes, he secured the two pieces together with a piece of bone that he had selected and stuck it through the holes. Zaac placed the upper sluice overlapping the second one and secured it, too, with bone splinters. The sluices leaned against the wall for support with the top one under the falls.    

   As soon as he had the upper sluice in place, water started running from the falls into the boulder. Zaac quickly got the clay and packed it around the bones to seal the holes so that water wouldn’t seep through.

   While the water was running, Zaac built a fire under it to heat it up. Once that fire was blazing, he built another one in the fire pit they had used to dry their clothes.

   By the time he had both fires going, the boulder had plenty of water in it. He removed the sluices and went to get Ramira. He had a nice surprise in store for her.

   She was waiting expectantly as he walked up the incline.

   “Are you ready for your surprise?” he asked with a pleasant smile.

   “Yes I am!”

   “Follow me.”

   When they got inside, he had Ramira close her eyes before she turned the bend in the passage. This time he led her though she did not really need any help in the dark.

   Zaac halted her a few feet from the boulder, “You can open your eyes now.”

   Ramira was a little perplexed at first. She saw the large boulder with a fire under it, but it took her a moment to realize that there was water in it. Then it dawned upon her what he had prepared for her.

   She turned to him with a bright smile on her face. “Is this what I think it is?”

   Zaac could not help but have a little fun with her. “If you’re thinking that it’s a large rock bath, then you have made the wrong choice. If you’re thinking that it’s a medieval cooking pot to cook young maidens, then you have chosen correctly.”

   “Thank you so much,” she said as she threw her arms around his neck and kissed him. “Now if you’ll excuse me, I have a date with a nice warm bath.”

   “I’ve never seen a girl so willing to be cooked before. I like my young maidens boiled to a nice rosy color.” He turned and left her to her date.

   Ramira felt the water, added a couple more pieces of coal to the fire, took off her clothes and slid in.

   A sigh of ecstasy escaped her lips as the warm water enveloped her. Her thoughts immediately strayed to Zaac. It was so sweet of him to do this for her. His concern for her, doing the little things that made her happy, only increased her love for him.

   With this running through her mind, Ramira took a deep breath as she immersed her head in the water.