The Old - 1. The Discovery

#1 THE DISCOVERY

"Hey, wait up Ka!" Go'Xie shouted. Ka'Zief was running up the hill and Go had trouble keeping up with her.

"Not my fault you're slow. Hurry, you need to see this," Ka shouted teasingly back.

She continued running trying to catch up, feeling the muscles in her legs burning. Ka had slowed somewhat, allowing Go to catch up with her. Then at the top of the ridge, she stopped and turned around, beaming at Go.

Go slowed as well, she really didn't want Ka to see how tired she was. She looked up at Ka, smiling back. "So, what's so special about this place?" she said, trying her best to steady her voice.

"It's not this place. It's that," Ka said triumphantly and pointed further over the ridge.

Go stopped and stared, mouth working but no sound coming out.

"What do you think it is?" Ka continued.

Go just shook her head. She found her voice. "I don't know. Small rocks with completely straight edges?"

"But they're not that small, though. Look at the trees. They tower over them."

"You don't think The Old made them?" Go looked at Ka skeptically.

"What else could it be, though?"

They both looked at each other, then back over the ridge. Down on the other side of the ridge, there was a wide, flat bottomed valley sloping down to the ocean. And a little distance up through the forest in the valley, tall, square things came out between the trees. Tall things that could only be rocks of different sizes, all much taller than the trees.

"We should go there," Ka said with a grin. "But we can't let anyone know. The elders would kill us." Go hesitated and Ka took her hand. "It'll be fine. We know this forest, nothing here can hurt us."

"It's not that..." Go began. "What if..." She trailed off.

Ka squeezed her hand. "What if it's The Old, and they're still there?"

Go looked down and nodded. Pulling her closer, Ka held her for a little. then said, "The Old are just stories the elders tell us to scare us. Beings so many you couldn't count them. Not a place in the world left untouched. Well, look around. Where are they?"

"We both know the stories, Ka. They don't make sense, but what else could it be?"

"I don't know," Ka replied, the curiosity coming back to her eyes. "That's why I want to go see it. It would only take a day to go there. We could just say we were going hunting. If we're lucky there might be game to bring back as well."

"Well..." Ka's enthusiasm was starting to rub off on Go, as it always did. "okay... But not today. Deal?" Go looked up at Ka, giving her the best cute face she could.

Ka laughed, that rich hearty laugh that always made Go's insides flutter. Ka kissed her and consented. "okay. Not today. Let's head back. Food will probably be done when we get there."

They walked back, holding hands and enjoying the warm summer breeze. Both wondered what the stones could be, but neither could come up with an idea that made sense.

The camp was a standard summer camp with some large community tents, and family tents spread around. There were around a hundred people in their tribe, and that was one of the largest tribes on the Larion plateau. It stretched from the ocean in the west to the impassable mountains in the east. They were now during the summer the farthest north they had ever been; normally they didn't come this close because most animals tended to stay closer to the center of the plateau, and it stretched a full season's march south. But the tribe had a winter camp halfway near the center where the winter wasn't too harsh.

A boy about the same age as they jumped up as they came to the camp, and stammered a greeting, glancing at Ka but not making eye contact.

"Hey Go, oh and Ka. Hi. You.. uh... get anything interesting today?" He turned a bit red.

Ka smiled back and looked at Go. "Oh hey Aro. No, nothing, just foraging," Ka lied and smiled. "What are you up to?"

"Ah, well... I sp... spears! I'm making spears."

"Nice. But we really were on our way back." Go smiled.

"Yes. Ah... of course. Back." Aro looked puzzled for a moment. "Of course." He looked at the sun then back at Go. "I should too."

Aro started collecting his spears and tools, smiling shyly every time he looked up.

As they moved away, Go leaned into Ka and whispered, "He is so into you, you know."

"What? Aro? No... Is he?"

"Ka. He can't even form a sentence when talking to you. Not to mention his color," Go teased.

"I... no..."

"Wait, is that a blush I see? The Old doesn't phase you, but the mentions of a boy..." Go continued, taking her hand as they kept going.

"I mean, he's alright. But he's, you know, Aro. We've known him all our lives."

Go stopped and looked at Ka, smiling. "You do like him," she said as a statement.

Ka smiled back and answered shyly, "Yeah, maybe a bit."

Go stood on her toes and kissed her. Both girls smiled and headed to the fire by Go's family tent.

Both girls' families were used to them doing things on their own, as they usually did their chores without too much pushing. Go's mom looked up as they arrived and smiled. "Will Ka eat with us today?"

"Can I, Xie?" Ka smiled back.

"Of course dear, you're always welcome. I do need some konberries and some tearroots for the sauce. You know where you can find them?"

"Sure, happy to help. Come, Go, help me find them?" Go nodded and they hurried back into the forest. It didn't take them long to find what they were after and head back.

Then her mother finished preparing the food.

They sat around the fire, eating and soaking up the warmth.

"So, what did you girls do today?" Quen, Go's father, asked.

"Nothing, Dad, just hanging out in the forest. Getting to know the area."

"We were actually thinking we could try a bit of hunting tomorrow," Ka said with a glance at Go.

"Just the two of you?" Quen started. "Where were you thinking of hunting? Ridge is close up north, so to the west is probably better. And--"

"And they'll be fine. They know all they need to know to make it. You've taught your daughter well," Xie finished, patting his arm, and leaning on his shoulder.

"I saw Aro'Suev had just finished some spears, we could probably use some of them as well." Go smiled at her father, knowing that he'd always buckle when both her mother and she tried to convince him at the same time.

"Hmm. Yes... I guess you're right. But try not to stay out for too long, though. You know your mother worries."

"Of course, Dad," she answered as her mother winked back at her.

The next morning they got ready early, had a decent breakfast, and packed what they thought they would need on the trip. They would only be gone for a couple of days, and with the guise that they were going to hunt, they shouldn't have any issues with food.

"We'll need to convince Aro to give us a couple of spears before we leave. Not sure if he'd just give them to us," Go said as they left their tent. "You could just smile sweetly to him, though," she continued, and Ka blushed.

"I... Hey, you're just teasing me now aren't you?" Ka tried to sound insulted, failed, and started to laugh.

Both girls were still laughing as they came up to Aro's tent. Aro was eating and looked up. Hand halfway up to his mouth he froze, smiled, then remembered he was eating. He quickly covered his mouth with his other hand, working desperately to swallow what was already there.

"Hi Suev, hi Ima. Hey Aro." Go smiled. "Can we talk to you for a moment?"

"Uh. Sure?" Aro said as he glanced over to his parents and his father nodded.

"Did you finish those spears yesterday?" Go said as soon as they were outside of his parent's range.

She nudged Ka who made an oomph sound, coughed, and said, "Hi, Aro. Uh. Nice day."

"Anyway," Go continued, smiling. "Spears?"

"Uh... Hi... Yeah. Yes, I finished them. Why?"

"Well, you see. We're heading out to hunt for a bit, and we thought maybe you could help us out with those spears?" Go nudged Ka again, a little lighter this time.

"Yea. Would be nice if you could." Ka smiled.

Aro colored a little, quickly looked back to Go, and said, "Sure, of course. Let me just get everything." He wandered back into his tent.

"Get everything?" Go looked at Ka. "Did he say get everything?"

"Sounded like it. He doesn't think..." But Ka didn't finish that sentence as Aro had come out of the tent, a bundle on his back and three spears under his arm. He quickly said something to his parents that they didn't catch. Then hurried over.

"So. Where we heading?" he said before looking at the girls who just stood there staring. "What? I miss something?"

"No, it's just that we--" Ka started, before Go quickly talked over her.

"You were just so fast. North. We're thinking of going north."

"I wasn't going to--" Ka tried.

"Yes, you were," Go smiled at Ka, "and now it's settled."

They left the camp and started into the forest, and not before Go was certain no one was around did she stop. She turned to Aro.

"We're not actually going hunting..." It sounded a bit like a question. "You see, we saw something."

"Saw something? But not hunting grounds apparently?" He looked at both girls in turn. This news was at least enough for him not to forget how to talk.

"Yes. But it's a good walk away. Probably a day. It's down in the valley," Go said and looked at Ka.

"You'll see as soon as we get up to the ridge. Then you'll understand," Ka said, the memory of the day before rekindling her spark to figure out what they had seen.

Ka started walking again and as the ground started, rising she sped up again, barely keeping to a walk.

The other two hurried up to walk at her side, and as they came to the ridge, the girls both looked at Aro.

He stood there frozen, his mouth open. Go waved her hand in front of his face. "Hey. You with us?"

"I. Wow. What...?"

"We don't know. Go thinks it's something The Old left."

"I... No. I said 'what if'. I didn't say it was..."

"Anyway. We want to check it out." Ka beamed. "We just need to get there... But..." She looked worried as she indicated the drop down from the plateau.

Looking up and down the ridge, there were no visible slopes they could easily walk. To find one they would have to move inland, or they'd have to climb. It wasn't a sheer drop but it was rocky and steep.

"That's at least twenty men high," Aro said, peering up and down the slope. "Do you know if there's a good place to get down?"

"No, we haven't checked the ridge any at all. But inland is our best bet, I think," Ka said, looking towards the sea.

Wandering a bit along the ridge, they could not see any place that was better or worse than others. Coming around a bend they could see that the entire valley slowly turned north, giving them a good view of the ridge, and nowhere in sight was there any place to get down easily.

"We might as well just climb here," Ka said. "I mean, it doesn't look any better at all."

Aro was walked over to the edge and looked down. "Well, it does seem to be a bit shorter climb here. I think the ground down there is a bit higher." He said.

"Yea. I agree," Go said. "Might as well climb here. We'll just have to be careful. It's a long way down.”