Great Cave Bear

Spring came like it always did, with fits and starts. A warm day with melting, followed by a snowstorm and, more melting. It was on those warm days with water dripping off the trees and the sun on Tor's neck and back penetrating the cold that had settled there from a long winter of discontent, warming him somewhat attempting to content him enough to stay.

But Tor's discontent continued to grow like a fever. He needed to get moving. The urge to find his mother overpowered any urge to stay and build a new clan around these strangers who had become familiar by simply sharing a lodge that had been his family's, but no longer felt that way.

As he carved two notches on his life tree, Tor realized he was changing, too. Even in the relative inactivity of winter in the lodge his muscles had grown and he was taller. Hair was now growing abundantly where it hadn't before. Turning from nearly white blonde to a dirtier yellow. Some of it even black and curly down there. Using sharp obsidian knives, the girls enjoyed cutting this hair, but he still felt them too young to be thinking of any kind of mating with him. Another reason for him to leave and avoid any temptation.

The ice left the river, but not before jamming and creating flooding that came right up into the encampment. Everyone had to scramble to move food and furs to higher ground so they wouldn't be soaked and thereafter, rot. It seemed the gods always had something new in store for the wary and the unwary. The wary could react and save the day. The unwary often were hurt or worse, lost their lives.

But the flood subsided as quickly as it rose when the ice dam broke free and the water suddenly rushed away before returning to the Rine's normal flow. At this time of the year its water bracingly cold, but welcome after a long winter without being able to bathe except by rubbing snow on bared body parts. 

Tor was shivering when he came out from his first spring bath into the warm morning sun, but felt refreshed like he hadn’t before. Thad, Zan and Kyth had tried to join him, but found the water much too cold. Jumping in momentarily, screaming, and then, running back out, shivering, into the same morning sun to dry off and warm up

With the spring came the smell of flowers blooming, leaves unfurling from buds on the tree limbs and birdsong bringing to life the forest and all that it offered. Time to say his goodbyes and go up river. Once again resuming Tor’s search for his mother and where she went.

Although he promised he would be back, he didn't promise, when--unknowing. Tor had a premonition that he wouldn't come back for some time. It was a long way upriver to search all of the tributaries. But he didn't know exactly what that meant. He would have to find out.

There was a going away party where they consumed the best parts of that buck and everyone expressed their concern about his leaving. But there was no stopping Tor. The fever to move on and find out was too great. He had to leave.

Early the next morning, before everyone had awakened, Tor slipped out of bed and loaded Tsen for a journey that he gladly seemed to anticipate. Shin, likewise, seemed eager to get on the trail after being cooped up so long in one place. He wanted to run with the pack like Tsen wanted to run with the herd.

That day, they put the encampment far behind and by nightfall, finding a limestone overhang and some easily cut spruce branches, Tor made a warm camp against the chill spring air. But each day got warmer and eventually, he was able to ride bareback both on Tsen and himself, once again.

With the river full of fish and arriving nesting ducks and geese, Tor did not go hungry; he feasted on the bounty before him. Eating, but two meals a day. One in the morning when he rose up warm by the fire to fill his belly, and then, after he had made a shelter for the night, refueling again to a warm fire before going to sleep.

Occasionally, wolves would come in having smelled Tor’s food cooking many miles distant. Even Shin and Tsen, in the pack's collective mind, as easy food to capture and kill. But each time, after a small skirmish with a triple threat and tall one spewing deadly arrows; after losing one or two of their own, would retreat to find easier prey to hunt.

It was nearly a moon before he came to another encampment. Shin had alerted him in his unique way that there was someone ahead, and very soon, he smelled campfire and knew that Shin was right. Fortunately, the night before, Tor had found wild boar diggings and had set some snares.

Before they came upon the scene that morning, they heard a wild boar screaming in anger. Upon reaching the clearing where the digging took place, the boar was clearly hanging from one hind leg securely noosed and dangling 4 feet off the ground where the whipping sapling had flung him. Saving an arrow, Tor slit his throat with his knife and caught the blood draining from the beast in a pot so that he and Shin could drink it. Gonads cut, too, for delicacies and strength.

They soon came upon a scraggly group of ten individuals who had been completely flooded out by the river and were trying to recover their camp, completely destroyed. They feared Thals and hid from him behind their half restored shelters, until Tor hailed them and held up the head of the wild boar as a greeting offered to them. He also had three large pike caught up close to the bank with his hands that morning while bathing.

They spoke his language. There were only two children, boys. And the majority, six of them, were white hairs, so the clan had little chance of growing. Like other clans, they were pleased to see Tsen. But unlike other clans, they seemed to know of him and called him, "Hors." Over a feast of roast pork and smoked fish, they began to confer, Tor and the elders.

Unable to hold back anymore, Tor asked the burning question. "Did you see a woman and others come through here in the circuit of seasons two falls ago?"

Ald the lead elder, answered. "I don't know. Those of us you see here were on a winter preparation to a shrine as part of our fall festival, bringing offerings to the god of the caves where our ancestors came from and where we stay every winter. When we returned here, all we found were these two boys." He ruffled the hair of one of them sitting next to him. His eyes filled with tears and his voice quavered before he finished telling.

"All of our best young men, killed. Our women raped and killed. Our girls gone-- taken. What kind of men would want to do this? Were they Thals?"

"I don't know. They weren't Thals. I am a Thal. My clan was devastated, too." thoughts came to Tor's head of how he had gone on raids with his father and other clan members for three notches challenging clans along the way and taking young girls for trade and brides. Were we violent? Yes, but not in a way that killed everyone. We killed only those who fought us. Tour was rationalizing and he knew it. Better to be diplomatic.

Ald sensed that something was wrong and thought he would change the subject. "A Thal even saved us once. It was well before most of our youngsters were born. You see, the cave where we have traditionally spent the winter was overrun by a monster and we did not know what to do."

"What kind of monster?"

"The monster drawn on the walls of our sacred cave like your hors and other animals at our winter sanctuary from the cold. The great bear had moved in just before the snow fell with all of our provisions being raided and no way that we could challenge it. So big and so strong. When it stood up, the beast was twice my height and my spear seemed hopeless to defeat it along with our arrows. We tried twice and failed. Some of us were mauled by its great claws. Died of their wounds."

"But who was this Thal you speak of?"

"Like you, he came when we needed him with five others. Big, strong hunters, unlike our clan of smaller people. He said he was hunting for his clan downriver and had come this far because they had hunted out the area around where they lived through the winters. Seeking new hunting grounds.

"When we told him of our plight, he and the others agreed to help. We took him to our sacred cave even though it was not something we rarely shared with strangers. But we were hungry and didn't want to spend the winter cold in makeshift shelters rather than our sacred cave.

"He and the others followed us to the cave. We entered and fired a mighty salvo of arrows into the bear as he confronted us by standing before us tall. The arrows didn't seem to bother him except as mosquito bites. He violently ripped them away with his claws, blood flowing like water. And then, he charged. We all ran except for the Thal leader. He stood his ground and planted the butt of his spear deep in the floor of the cave as the mighty bear rose up again and then came down as if to take the man's head in his jaws and rip it off."

"You all ran? What happened!"

"Your leader's spear was stout and long. Requiring a strong man to carry. He aimed the spearhead directly into the open mouth of the bear as he came down fast from full standing and the spear penetrated the roof of the great bear's mouth and ran into his brain, killing him almost instantly as he nearly fell on the brave warrior."

"What happened after that?"

"We split the fat meat from the bear and we gave that brave man the skull to take home to his clan. We never saw him again. I guess that hunting was good and they never had a need to come to us again. Come to the cave with us in the morning and I will show you our drawing we made to depict that great accomplishment your kind did for us."

By this time, Tor was reeling from his thoughts and blurted out… "I think that man you are talking about was my father! That great bear skull is mounted over our lodge I just left a few short suns ago. Unfortunately, two full sun circuits ago I was with him on a raiding party when he was cowardly killed by an old man in his sleep. I miss him almost every day.

"But others were killed, too…some my family. I, alone, escaped and made it back here only to find everyone dead except my mother who may have escaped in this direction." Memories with bad thoughts brought tears to his eyes that Ald and the others clearly saw.

Tor didn't sleep much that night. Thoughts of his mother and father haunted him.

Instead of leaving the next morning like he planned, Tor joined the survivors as Ald led everyone a short distance along a heavily traveled trail to where several caves pierced a limestone cliff. The entrance to some of the caves were heavily stained from woodsmoke of long occupation.

The sacred cave was harder to get into. They had to use torches after a short distance when it narrowed and Tsen could no longer follow. Later, the cave opened up into a large hall with evidence of many fires and the walls a kaleidoscope of drawings that only could be described as hunting stories or dreams that the ancients wanted for fertility and feast.

There were large beasts with long hair and teeth that grew all the way to the ground and then back up, the kind he had seen as part of the lodge like the ribs of some great beast, but not bone. There were herds of horses like Tsen, ibex, aurich like Tor killed in the Valley of the Po, beasts with horns on their noses, and all manner of deer that he had never hunted. Most notably a regal giant that looked something like an elk but had antlers that were so large and spread from side to side that it was hard for him to understand how they could move through the trees.

There were cats much larger than the lynx that he was familiar with but rarely saw. Some of them striped or spotted. And wolves. Always wolves around the edges. He could see Shin in their outlines. And there were people. Some decorated, some not. Who made these pictures even Ald could not tell him.

"Over here," Ald motioned… Holding his torch up close to a newly drawn image in red ocher like many of the others. "Here is our depiction of the battle and the death of the great bear by the man you claim is your father."

Although Tor could see that the hero's shape was larger and more muscled than the others behind, he did not recognize his father in the drawing clearly made by someone not as skilled as some of the other drawings.

Before long, their torches grew dim and they had to leave the sacred site. Once outside, they quickly returned to the encampment. It looked almost hopeless to restore the place.

As Tor was about to leave and share his goodbyes, he announced to everyone present, "I would recommend that you not try to rebuild here, keeping your sacred site even more hidden. You should follow the river down. Within one moon, you will reach another people, a peaceful people, with girls needing boys that you can merge with and develop a whole new clan."

Ald bemused, replied, "Wise words, young man. We will consider them greatly. As I look upon our devastation, I see nothing but sorrow. Perhaps we do need to start over somewhere else."

Copyright 2021 © Ronald W. Hull

2/9/21