After Eve Part #12: Longnec: Plesiosaurus

Part 12

Long-neck [Plesiosaurus

Stern-toes, about his arrival back home, had told me a strange, a very peculiar, if not unbelievable story about a Long-neck [which is, for clarity sake one of those spine-creatures that live in most of the lakes and rivers of our habitat and eat fish for the most part, but they have been known to eat humans, and similar forms of life, and many other creatures that get in their way, or line of travel. They have four-flippers, and in this case it was the one he saw in the Garden, that is, it was one which was close to 30-feet long,--which is a good size one. The ones Ive seen were about 20 to 25 feet. I never go in the water because of them, they got sharp teeth, and a big head, looks approximating to a snakes head with its long body, for a neck; --a spine to go with it, like a human: --what a mixture for a creature, --a snake, fish and human features. They swim in the lakes and can capsize anything floating it seems. In any case, you should know Stern-toes by now, if he can capture a picture in his brain, he wants to see, see and see again. He actually told me the creature came right up to him, I mean really right next to him, out of the lake, slowly and stomping like a monster [and looking like one also, I can just visualize it; he was of course in the Garden of Eve, he had seen the foot steps we have talked about, and now was looking intently in the lake, and yes, here comes a Long-neck, big-eyed, fang-hanging, big lipped water-creature: and yes, he stood kind of dumbfound in front of him as if he wanted to get caressed, or stroked on the head. I asked Stern-toes, what he did, what was he thinking about, and he said,

I embraced him on the head; because I wanted to get a good view of him. And we both laughed until our stomachs hurt.

On one hand, I asked:Are you crazy? and Why, I commented, and then added:

I would had run or hit him with a rock on the head. And we both lau ghed again, and he said,

No need to hit him on the head, only a pat. Unbelievable; and we both rolled on the dirt valley floor laughing as if we couldnt stop, and when we did stop, we cried instead of laughing, because we were too tired to laugh anymore.

Ive once seen the carcass of a dead one, on the shores of a lake, no it was a river now that I think of it, and it had holes in it, the Long-neck had holes in its body. Moss once said that was from eating such fish as piranha and alike. They claw, or bite their way through the stomach, and get out, and normally the muscular action of the Long-neck, will heal the hole up, but I suppose when you got too many inside of you, the pig just couldnt stop eating I suppose, and consequently, ate too much, or possibly too many, and a few got free, killing the creature, free in the sense of digging, biting or clawing their way out of the side walls of its body. I wouldnt go swimming in any lake bigger than my cave; the B anana Cave that is, I told Stern-toes this, and we laughed again.

The wolf-beasts left after a week, getting tired and hungry waiting on a lost cause, that being a hopeful banquet. When Stern-toes did arrive back home we were all so happy, elated to see his familiar face, --he drew some pictures in the sand, one of a huge being, and made long marks all over him, as if it was light, or rays. I couldnt express, like him, exactly what I wanted to say, but I did know one thing, it was the creature, the being, that escorted Eve out of the Garden, I told myself that many times throughout the years to follow. And when I smiled at Stern-toes after he told his story, he knew I knew. As for the many other stories he had to tell, they came out one by one: as time went on. And many times we could not picture what he was driving at, none of us could guess what he was trying to relate, except of course of the Long-neck, but he just told me that one story, and the family, and L ittle-eyes. But whatever the other ones were, he many timeswhen we were joking with himnot believing him, hed stomp his feet like a bull, and dashed recklessly with his feet dragging through the sand as if to say, forget it, and went back to his habitat. Actually, I believed everything he said, I just wanted to laugh some more so I said I didnt.

19

On Top of the Mountain-Caves [Old age creeping up

Stern-toes now climbing the cliff to get to the top, has just made it to the last step and is on the edge of the rocks, he is now wiping off all the dirt from his body, from the long climb upward [I have some water in the container, to wash with laterI mumble to myself, he never did like heights that much. I wish I could fly akin to the birds, but Stern-toes would never like that. Im really happy to see Stern-toes; we hadnt seen much of each other in our life time, when we were of adult age that is. Life has a lot of demands on a person, and we forget we don t live forever, and put off seeing one another as if we got forever to do it, -- you know, we got to hunt, find shelter, raise children and, well, you know, everyones so busy avoiding our neighbors like the People of the Fire, and the Stone-Builders, and Big-chest, no time to visit, and then add pictures upon that list for Stern-toes.

I was always happy to see my brother come back through the cave entrance [back when we were young, and go back to sleep, back in those far off days, those days long ago when we lived with mother that is. He is old now, as I am also old, but he looks in better shape, he lifts rocks and such things to keep his strength up. The wolves and the Wolf-boarsnowadaysare, are even more dangerous than they were back when Stern-toes out run them and hid in the Garden, and they were bad back then, very bad back then, so you can imagine how bad, bad is now.

Now if they [the hunters the ones that hunted the beasts, namely the Stone-Builders, and the People of the Fire, are being hunted, there is no hesitation by the beasts at all to kill them, and the Garden no longer protects anyone. These wild animals that now hunt the Stone-Builders, have even went into their fortress in the winter when they are starving to hunt for them, to eat them; especially when they are sleeping; yes, the animals will come up and eat you as if you were dead, tarring, ripping your flesh off while you scream and try to fight back. They even go into their homes and steal their babies, and eat them quicker than a snake can swallow a man.

I do remember [as I look back now the following morning after he arrived home from the Garden, Stern-toes told me this story again about this happening, and it was all we could do but laugh and laugh until we got sick to our stomachs. And dad thought I was just boasting along with Stern-toes, he didnt believe anyone, or anything. He shook his head and went back up into the tree, like always, scratching his head as if he had something to say but forgot it.

And so, in our life time, we can say, he got to go into the Garden, and I got to see Eve come out of it, and we both got to see that huge lit up creature. But I dont regret it, --that is, not going into the Garden. Hes sitting now beside me, he grunted, nodded his head. He sees my water, I put it in a cut out log, like the People of the Fire used to do, and they now got something called buckets, I suppose Ill end up using those next. Maybe down the road of life, not my road that is, but down the road, --I was going to say the Horde will prosper from that bucket, but you know, there is no Horde anymore. You see what old age does to: it makes you forget.

Short-legs Remembers His Friend

[Short-legs: when I first had seen my friend, Little-eyes [now: many years agowhen I first saw him with Lucia, when they were not yet, quite yet, one anothers official mate, but it was in the makings, Im sure, at that ti me officially speaking : he was bedazzled [her subservient charmbeing in part, a gift for the occasion. What followed of course is, was sweet and hardwith a glazed toppinga tale [of which Ive already narrated. Yet, heretofore, what I remember him for the most was what he lost--, his silent flamboyant-icy; plus the laughing, our laughing together.

I call these new thoughts: conventional wisdom that reflect badly, that is to say, they echo roughly, on the alluring female species and how friendships can flourish if not bitten by this: bedazzled-bug. When he [he being: Little-eyes introduced me to her, to Lucia, the first time, we both knew things would be different in the morning, and they were.

[Short-legs onThe King of the Stone-builders: As I, Short-legs look upon the valley, thinking about the first known dictator of the worldfor I have seen himthe, the one that the Stone-Builders bow to--: I know this is a critical turning point in my world, that now, or up to now, we have all been in or at a Dead End: to speak of. Yet I have no way of knowing what will happen to the new world orderbut if the events of the past represent the future, then to me it contemplates a somewhat less appealing future; --a calamitous one at best. Yet Im sure the world will remain busy in itself, until one replaces another, and another and another. Somewhere along the line, we may all end up back at the Garden.

The Cold North Lands [Land of the Ice Sheets

20

Passing of an Epoch [On the Cliff

[Short-legs It was just a matter of time now for the passing of our era. The Horde was down to an extinction level, they were almost vanished. Sad to say, but I must, what helped was this [in the past: partly due to destructive results in the form of disease by the Stone-builders [who gave it to the People of the Fire, as well as the Horde. It seemed only they, the Stone-Builders were immune, for we, or the rest of the world had not had t he gradual build up of immunities needed to preserve our people. Even the People of the Fire, hitherto untouched neighbors by any disease, were ghastly swaths of death to their diseases; in which often times it came to us by way of them.

And the Stone-Builders had their communities grown into what they called cities; I had not been in one of them, but I had heard of them. I had gained a capacity to understand the sounds of the Stone-Builders, and the gestures of the People of the Fire, not as well as Id had liked to, but pretty well, or should I say, good enough to deduce what Ive seen. Funny, why couldnt I have received this ability in my youthful years, a mystery, like the breathing of air, and letting out of some other kind of inhalation? Maybe this was how it was supposed to be, I didnt know. I had heard Big-chest was still alive and well, and was headed up towards the ice sheets, to the far north. I figured hed out live us all for some odd reason. He had big f eet, and was determined to crush everything in his path, or anything in his sight, should it annoy himand if he could. If anyone could, or was qualified to survive in that climate, it would be him I expect. He had a lot more hair than the people of our Horde had, and so it would keep him warm. Good luck to him I told myself, good luck, good fortune, he would need it; as my brother and I sat on the cliff, looking at the beautiful horizon; --I didnt even know it was beautiful, I just felt it was; him blinking his eye-lids as if he was taking permanent pictures with them.

And here, at this moment, a poem came through my mind, likely the first poem ever conceived:

However it May Be

Illusions or delusions
However it may be,
The sunny world that once was
That once seemed safe
Within the Valley of the Caves,--
Was no more to be?

How long did they live there
Within this dream
[Where history was not born or seen
I asked mysel f this:--
Now vanquished by the new breed;
But it was the end of my dream.

Short-legs Prayer

[Short-legs first realization there is a God within the realm of life and death

Sedate he [he being: Short-legs sits on his cliff above the valley looking up into the heavens, the Northern Lights turn from an aura, sensational red-green and white, to a deep inky, and deeper blue. He sits calm as if music is playing a joyous tune with yellow hues reflecting off the tarnished brown cliff strata. Franked-faced, fresh-colored, he gazes into the night cool air, into the sky. He has never learned how to pray, or to whom, but he looks none the less up, up, up into the sky, as if there is an open window to some supernatural being. He is older now, and his history has told him with fire and due, somethingnot sure whatbut something or somebody more powerful than all the creatures on earth is looking down, out of that window, down unto this very spotthe very spot h e is sitting on. He even feels he can be an antagonist if He so chooses, but a powerful, and loving oneif not downright confusing.

At that hourwhen the still of the nightsubdues a person, the Watcher of the night-sky, He looks down onto his makingsout of his window; He tells the night wind where to go, answering its every call. This is what Short-legs is thinking, as he peers up into the deep ink like sky, on this wind-swept surface of the cliffs he is sitting on, sitting on cross-legged: with soft lights from the heavens, so the Watcher from the window can see him.

Know me by this name, Short-legs, he chants, to insure the Watcher can recognize him. He now talks to the Man in the windowThe Watcher:

No more song or laughter, only the hum of the wild ones, the Stone-Builders, and the People of the Fire, like bees they hum and the time of dreaming of better days are over. He waits for an answer, but none comes, yet the moon is getting brighter, it has so mehow escaped its orbit, so it would seem, and shines a little dim light over the head of Short-legs.

Says he gravely, I come soon, to your window for life cannot woo me anymore, not like it used to; O hurry over these dark cliffs I pray you come, come by way of the garden and seesoon, O soon, for deaths sake; for surely you are the one who has the stars beneath your feet and the heavens above your window, who can harm you, no one. See what the Garden has brought to us, extinction, yes, O yes, cool pleasant was the valley at one time, and here love will stay, there is no word I can make. But let me finish what I was about to say, theythe renegades from the Garden, dragged out of the Garden much pain.

[Short-legs did not really know right from wrong before, possible only love, and kindness, and other such things; sin he did not know before, though he knew of it now, yet he knew not its nature nor why it should be sin. And here, at this moment he could seemingly d ie as willingly as he could live, at this critical juncture, for he had learned sheer worship, and captured unconditional love for his maker, although he could not fully explain it.

Said Short-legs with a worshiping tone: I never knew of sorrow, nor when my friend failed, it wasnt failure maybe because it was always love between us, we laughed instead, so much so, our breasts hurt inside. So I say to He, who has given us so much knowledge these past years, You must also give us peace and rest to deal with the new world order. We never were really sad in the Horde, because others preferred lying to laughter, we just hopped to find peace again, but of course, we never did, not here anyway. These others, the Stone-Builders, and the People of the Fire, in particular the Stone-Builders, are very sad most of the time. I am not sure why, they control most everything; is that not what they want? If so, sadness has a dear price.

O, unto the nights dark sky, deepblue sk y, evenings plight, my love is my companion more so now than ever, among the foes day-light. Night allures me, to You I sayThe Watcher: my sleep no longer gives me rest, and I tell You this so You can help me. For soon I will knock on your window; I think soon we will meet, I shall not weep when I leave, for does winter weep when spring comes? or summer weep, when spring must die? o O NO, THEY DO NOT, THEY dissolve, AS I mustYou know that though, of course You do. So I shall not weep, but hand in hand I shall walk with You, I hope so.

My eyes are tired, I wishI, I wish to sleep, the voice of the wind has stopped, You stopped it I think, so I could sleepthank You. You are now covering up the moon again. You must have a cave where you keep all these things, like clouds to cover the moon, and big hands to stop the winds, and you know, all such things You must keep all these things in this cave, just storing them away for when you need them, and then You throw them o ut your window, as need be. You are much cleverer than all the Stone-People all put together. Its funny I think, do they not know you have a windowand can see them? I hear the thunder of men charging in the distance beyond the valley, another war, or maybe just a battle of a war not won yet, that is what the echoes of the valley-walls, tell me. I have heard their battle cries many times nowthe gloom they bring. This gloom came as I was about to say something before, but I forgot, from the Garden, it came out of the Garden, clanging soundsthis gloom, of what is now called armor. All have left me alone but You. Is that the secret of lifeYou? Gentle Stranger, in the sky, sad words I bring to your window, and the Garden where Im sure love was once, is no more, it is dissolvedlike I will be, it happened when the wild winds blew them out, and a shinning sword was planted within its earth scared all residents to the gardens entranceAlas! Yes, o yes, a regrettable day.

< p>Love came to us you know, that is to say, when we never knew we had loved before, which we had, now we knew what it was called, as I suppose happened in a like manner with the People of the Garden. We all know nowloves past.

[With those last two words, Short-legs fell to sleep.

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Author:: Dennis Siluk
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