Helix and the Arrival (13 page)

I wake to the sound of footsteps in my cave. The stone ledge I slept on has left me with a sore side. The little sleep I did get between lightning and thunder was dotted with confused dreams where I told everyone the truth about the river people and saving Ugthorn.

As I open my eyes, I notice a figure in front of me: a white-haired girl …
the
white-haired girl! There is a look of pride on her face as she stares down at the woven basket she is holding. Slowly she strokes the skin covering what I assume are her meatcakes.

‘Good morning!' she says, in a voice that sounds like it's almost about to break into song. ‘You must be Helix!'

‘Hi,' I say, rubbing my eyes.

‘Steckman asked me to give you this.' She passes me a writing skin with a note written on it.

Dear Helix,

Sorry I am not here to greet you this morning, but I have had to leave for the lowlands. I hope your friend's father gets better. Sorry that I cannot help.

Yours, Steckman

PS Porgo grunts hello.

‘Is everything all right?' says the white-haired girl.

‘Not really,' I say. ‘I wanted to talk to Steckman again. But,' I add, remembering the tablet, ‘at least I've still got –'

I look down by the fire for the tablet. It's gone.

‘There was a tablet by the fire and now it's gone,' I say to the girl. ‘Do you know where it is?'

‘I didn't see a tablet,' she says. ‘How about a meatcake instead?'

I climb down from the ledge and look around the cave. Someone has taken it. Who would have done that?

I run past the girl and out into the open. The rain has stopped, but the ground is sodden. I find the cave belonging to the old woman and Spud.

‘Hello, is anyone there? It's Helix.'

The old woman appears, with Spud close behind her. ‘You again,' she says.

‘There was a tablet in the cave that I slept in last night. Do you know where it is?'

‘Do I know where the bablet is? What's a bablet?' She looks around, confused, to her son Spud who is scratching his giant shoulder.

‘Tab-let.' I say it slower this time.

‘Smablet? He's making words up again,' she says to Spud.

‘T-ab-let!' I say one more time.

‘Tablet?'

‘Yes,' I say, letting out a sigh of relief.

‘Why didn't you just say it properly the first time?' she says.

‘I … I'm sorry for mumbling,' I say.

‘Whatever was in there belongs to the Dark Side,' says the old woman, turning around sharply and walking back to her cave.

‘But it's really important,' I call after her. ‘I think it might have belonged to my great-grandfather Herb.'

‘Herb?' she says, turning to face me.

‘Yes. Did you know him?'

‘You've outstayed your welcome, boy, and it's time you went.'

‘You knew him! He must've come here –'

‘Spud! See that the boy leaves.'

Spud grabs me with his strong arm and drags me to the Common Way.

‘Leave,' he says, and flings me forward. I land on the ground, face first in a puddle.

I stand up, dripping wet, and begin to walk back to Rockfall.

‘Wait,' comes a voice from behind me. ‘Take one of my meatcakes with you.'

I remember Rex's advice and keep walking. Fast.

The trail back to Rockfall is flooded, so I end up sloshing through puddles for most of the return journey. I stop at Krike's cave, or the Cavern of Pong, as I think of it now, and fill one of his empty bladders with suup. Once the bladder is full, I leave quickly, wanting to get back to Rockfall as fast as I can.

When I arrive in Rockfall, my first thought is to stand on the speaking rock and call for everyone's attention. ‘People of Rockfall, there is something I need to tell you. For all these years, you have been living a lie. The mountain, the lowlands and the world beyond are not as you've been led to believe …'

But then I remember the whole reason I went to the Dark Side in the first place: Ugthorn, and that there's a chance he can be saved with the right medicine, proper medicine from the lowlands.

First, though, I find Mum so I can let her know I'm safe and well. When she sees me, she runs forward and embraces me in a tight hug. ‘Where have you been?'

‘Um … I had to fetch Krike's suup from his cave. Then the storm came and it was too dangerous to return, so I stayed the night.' I don't like lying to Mum, but the whole finding-a-tablet-on-the-Dark-Side-and-wanting-to-save-Ugthorn story would be too difficult to explain right now.

I hold up the bladder.

‘What's in there?' Mum asks.

‘I don't know, but it smells bad.'

She grabs it from me and pulls out the stopper. ‘Sweet heavens,' she says, scrunching up her face. ‘It's some kind of fermentation. Is that a bat's ear floating around inside?'

‘I'd better go and give it to him,' I say.

I find Krike asleep beneath a thick panthera skin. I clear my throat loudly and make some coughing sounds to wake him up. He slowly opens one eye.

‘Did you bring me my suup, boy? If I have to eat another mountain vole, I'll jump in the river.'

‘Here,' I say, handing him the bladder.

He reaches out to take it from me, but the movement sets off some sort of reaction within him, as a sound like a bison horn being blown reverberates from beneath his loincloth. He pops the stopper from his drink bladder and chugs down three or four gulps of the horrible-smelling brown liquid.

‘Ah, that's better … A hearty meal at last.' He follows this up with a burp.

‘Krike,' I say to him, making up my mind, ‘I'll be busy today so you'll have to look after yourself.'

I leave him to his own stench and go to the Ledge, where I know I'll find Saleeka. Sure enough, Saleeka is there, still brooding over her marriage-to-be to Sherwin, the most ineligible bachelor on the mountain.

‘I've made a discovery and I have a plan,' I say.

‘What do you mean? What discovery? What plan?'

I decide she needs to know about the discovery of the tablet first. It's my best chance of getting her to listen to my plan.

‘You need to promise me that you won't tell anyone what I'm about to tell you.'

Her eyes light up a little. ‘Do you have a secret?'

‘Yes. But it's the secret of all secrets, so I really mean it. You can't tell anyone,' I say, holding my stare into Saleeka's eyes. The worst thing that could happen right now would be for everyone in Rockfall to find out about the tablet – I'd be summoned before Speel, making any chance of saving Ugthorn almost impossible.

‘I promise, Helix. I'm like a rock when it comes to secrets.'

I tell her all about my trip to the Dark Side, how my original plan was just to find Steckman, but that the storm forced me to stay the night, which led me to find the tablet containing the adventures of Herb, Vedgar and Crev.

At first she doesn't believe the part about the tablet and shouts questions back at me to try to undo my story. For each of her questions, though, I have an answer, and after a while she can sense that I'm telling the truth.

‘What are you going to do?' she asks.

‘Nothing,' I say.

‘Nothing?'

‘Nothing for now. I've thought about this. What was written on the tablet will have to wait. Are you ready for my plan now?'

‘As ready as I'll ever be,' says Saleeka, still a bit shocked from hearing about the tablet.

‘Before we do anything about the tablet, we first need to help Ugthorn.'

‘Help Ugthorn? How?'

‘You know how I said that I went to the Dark Side to find Steckman?'

‘Yes.'

‘The reason I was looking for Steckman was to ask him for medicine to help Ugthorn. I know he trades medicine from the lowlands to folk on the mountain, and I know the medicine works. But he refused to help – said that if anyone found out he would be banished from the mountain.'

‘I don't doubt it,' says Saleeka.

‘Which brings me to my idea,' I say. ‘I want to cross the river and ask for medicine to help Ugthorn.'

Saleeka's jaw drops and I can see all the way to the back of her throat and into her disbelieving brain.

‘You're kidding, right?'

‘No, I'm serious. Krike's medicine is useless, and from the tablet we know now that the river people are friendly – or were once, at least.'

Saleeka is shaking her head. ‘Do you remember what happened to you last time you went to the river, Helix? And can I also remind you that you hadn't even crossed the river, you were just looking in its general direction.'

‘I know,' I say, ‘but what choice do we have? If we do nothing, Ugthorn will die.'

‘You keep saying “we”, Helix, as if I'm with you on this. I'm not!'

‘But why not? Don't you want to help your friend's father live?'

‘Of course I do. And if I could help him, I would. But to cross the river would mean being put to death. And anyway, it is up to the heavens whether Ugthorn lives or dies.'

I throw my hands in the air. ‘The heavens. Why does it always come down to the heavens when someone's uncertain about something?'

‘Some things are out of our hands, Helix.'

‘Like what? Like you having to marry Sherwin? Maybe we should just put that down to the heavens and say it's meant to be.'

‘No. That's different,' she says, narrowing her eyes at me.

‘How is that different?'

She avoids my gaze. Her lips are tightly drawn. The stubborn Saleeka is back.

‘Cross the river with me, Saleeka,' I say.

She stares at me with her mouth open wide, as if there's a big bone sticking out of my head. ‘Helix! They hate us and we hate them. That's the way it is and it's not going to change.'

I stand up and look down at her with my fists clenched. ‘Do you know what your problem is?'

She looks straight into my eyes, challenging me to tell her. ‘What? Say it.'

‘You're so wrapped up in how terrible your life is that you've forgotten there's a whole other world of suffering out there, a world with people like Ugthorn, the father of our friend Ug, who will probably die because he didn't get the right medicine. Don't help then, Saleeka. Keep complaining about your miserable life and your horrible marriage-to-be. Good luck with it all. I'm sure you and Sherwin will make a fantastic couple and the heavens will give you everything you deserve.'

‘Are you finished?' she says.

I turn my back on her and climb down the mountain.

As I'm walking back towards my family's cave, the announcement horn blows, summoning everyone from Rockfall to the speaking rock. What's so important that there needs to be a Gathering? Maybe Korg is going to announce the birth of a hairy cavebaby. Or perhaps he's going to tell us that the store cave is running low (thanks to my family's constant use of it). Then I think of something more obvious – Sherwin and Saleeka's marriage-to-be. That must be the reason for the special announcement.

Why now!? I need to find Ug and tell him everything. Surely he'll agree to venture to the lowlands with me in search of medicine for his father.
I make my way towards the speaking rock. Hopefully Ug will be at the Gathering.

Mum and Dad appear, followed by Sherwin. They stand behind me. I look around and see that Ug, his mother and the Uglets are here. They form a tight group on the other side of the rock. Ugthorn is obviously still in their cave, too sick to move and nearing death.

Korg is helped up the steps of the rock by Tor. Speel stands beside the rock below Korg, with his hands clasped in front of him, looking very serious. His lone eye scans the crowd.

Nearly everyone from Rockfall's twenty or so caves is here now. Eighty or ninety sets of eyes look up at Korg, wondering what's so important that he needs to say it from the speaking rock.

‘Folk of Rockfall,' he says, with his croaky, dry voice. ‘Soon will be an exciting day for our people as we mark a special time in the lives of two of our younger clan members.'

Just as I thought: Sherwin and Saleeka are going to have their engagement proclaimed. I look behind me and see Mum and Dad, each with an arm around Sherwin, waiting in anticipation for Korg to announce the marriage-to-be of their first son.

Korg goes on. ‘As you are all aware, one of our bravest hunters is unwell. Ugthorn was wounded some days ago by a sabre-tooth. Ug, his son, will no doubt go on to become a caveman and wield the same spear and heavy club that his father did. But, for now, his father lies gravely ill, and with poor prospects of recovering.'

I glance over to Ug and his family. There is suffering in every part of them: the blankness of their stares at Korg, the slump of their shoulders, the way the Uglets won't leave their mother's side.

‘With this in mind,' says Korg, ‘I have decided to move the day of Ug's Arrival forward from the traditional date, which is the summer solstice, to tomorrow. This will allow him to shine in the presence of his father and attain full caveman rights before Ugthorn passes to the heavens.'

I can't believe what I'm hearing. Korg is pretty much predicting Ugthorn's death.

Ug is looking down at the ground. His face is frozen like stone. I wonder how he feels about having to complete his Arrival at such short notice. I don't think he'd be nervous. If anyone is destined to be a fully fledged caveman, it's Ug.

Korg is still talking. ‘And as we are shifting the day of Ug's Arrival forward, young Helix, who is also coming of age, will be tested as well –'

What?

Korg's mentioning details now, but I'm only catching threads. ‘Starting tomorrow … venture into the woods … return with your offering … final spoken test …'

Dad has an arm on my shoulder and is shaking me. ‘Did you hear that, son? Your Arrival has come early. Are you excited?'

Excited? No. Melting into a caveboy puddle of fear and dread? Yes.

Tomorrow, everyone in Rockfall will be clapping and cheering as I head off into the woods with my too-small spear, looking to kill and haul back a beast of some kind. I never thought I'd say it, but at this moment in time I'd be glad for a hungry claw-gripped fork-tongued vulture to swoop down from above, clasp me in its giant talons and fly away back to its nest. As long as it finished me off quickly (as opposed to nibbling away at me for days or, even worse, swallowing me whole and then vomiting me up for its babies), I'd be happy.