Helix and the Arrival Read online

  Towards the back of Veldo’s cave is a stack of tablets. ‘Do you keep any sacred tablets here?’ I ask.

  ‘Sacred tablets?’ Veldo says with a snorting laugh. ‘Are you, like, kidding? Speel would never let me keep the sacred tablets. They belong in Rockfall.’

  ‘Have you read them?’ I ask.

  Veldo looks around the cave, as if the answer is hiding beneath a rock. ‘I’ve read, like, some … some of the best ones.’

  ‘As in …?’

  ‘Like, the one written about Fleg and Fler,’ he says. ‘That’s a classic – especially the bit with the talking claw-gripped fork-tongued vulture. Have you heard the story?’

  ‘Of course I have. It’s all I ever hear about in Speel’s Learnings.’

  ‘Learnings? Why are you doing Learnings? You’re just, like … like …’

  ‘I know,’ I snap. ‘I look younger than I am, all right?’

  ‘Sorry,’ says Veldo, twiddling his fingers.

  ‘I’m twelve years old and soon I’ll be passing my Arrival,’ I say, trying to sound like I mean it.

  Veldo can tell from my wavering voice that I don’t really believe what I’m saying. He looks upwards, as if he’s just discovered a new cave painting on the roof of the cave. The only noise is a tick, tick, tick coming from Mason chiselling away behind us. To cut through the awkwardness, I decide it’s a good time to ask a favour of Veldo.

  ‘There’s something I’ve been meaning to ask,’ I say.

  ‘Yar, go ahead – ask.’

  ‘Could I borrow the blue rock? Just for a few days.’

  I’m expecting him to say ‘no’ – after all, he’s only just met me. But Veldo sways back and forth and considers my request. ‘Only for a few days?’

  ‘Yes, only for a few days, and I promise I’ll take good care of it. I’ll return it as soon as I can. I just need to show it to someone.’

  ‘Yar, all right,’ says Veldo, a little uncertainly. ‘But please make sure you, like, take good care of it. It’s one of my most precious things.’

  ‘I promise I will.’

  ‘All right, here you are.’ He hands me the blue rock. ‘Now let me get you those writing skins.’

  I roll the rock between my hands. It’s smooth and definitely not of the mountain.

  Veldo helps me tie the skins to my back. I take as many as I can, but there’s still a small pile remaining.

  ‘Don’t worry,’ he says, ‘you can, like, pick these up when you return with my rock.’

  I say farewell, happy to have met him, and begin the long walk back to Rockfall.

  It might only be Newstone, a place I always knew of, but I feel my world has grown a little bigger.

  I make it back to Rockfall as the sun is setting over Land’s End. The light is soft and the evening is cool. Most of the folk are in their caves, huddled around a fire.

  Before heading home, I decide to deliver the writing skins to Speel. They are weighing heavily on my back, so I want to get rid of them.

  I twang the single-string bandi-twang at the entrance to Speel’s cave. It’s much less impressive now that I’ve strummed the three-string version in Newstone. I’m hoping that Speel doesn’t answer my call, so that I’ll be able to leave the skins at the entrance and return to my cave without talking to him. Just as I’m about to drop the skins, turn around and begin tiptoeing away, I hear him say, ‘Come in.’

  I enter his cave and see him sitting with Korg the Magnificent in front of the main fire, showing him something written on one of the tablets. I stop at a distance, unsure whether I should approach any further.

  ‘Helix has travelled to Newstone to collect writing skins for me,’ says Speel to Korg, squinting with his one good eye.

  Korg looks at me, stooped with the skins. ‘I think you can put them down now,’ he says, with his soft, croaking voice.

  I lower the skins to the floor of the cave.

  ‘Is that all of them?’ asks Speel, looking up and down at the pile of skins.

  ‘Actually, no. I couldn’t carry the full load, so I’ll have to return for the others.’

  ‘Very well,’ he says, unimpressed.

  ‘Well, I’d better be going,’ I say, turning to walk out. ‘Lots to do. Still got to sharpen my flint knife, polish my club, straighten my spear –’

  ‘One moment, Helix,’ says Korg. ‘Sit down by the fire. It has been a long time since we talked.’

  By the look on Speel’s face, he would rather have me gone. But I walk slowly to the fire and sit cross-legged on one of the thinner skins reserved for guests like me.

  Korg is propped high on top of a pile of thick skins, sitting tall with a straight back. He is old – very old, by caveman standards. Some believe him to be as old as fifty. There are rumours of some really old folk living on the Dark Side, but apart from Korg, no one as old as fifty lives in Rockfall or Newstone.

  Korg looks into the fire and says to me, ‘What do you think of Newstone, Helix?’

  My voice feels small and feeble as it leaves my lips. ‘I think it’s … different.’

  Korg nods slowly. ‘What of your Arrival, Helix? Are you prepared?’ he asks. This close, I can see how long and thick his beard is – the grey wisps flow all the way down to his waist. He is wearing a loincloth made of bison skin, which means that it must be many years old.

  ‘Yes, Korg, I’m prepared,’ I say. What else is there to say when Korg the Magnificent asks you about your Arrival?

  ‘I’m glad to hear it,’ says Korg. ‘It is an important step in a young person’s life.’

  I reply with a throaty noise. It’s neither a ‘yes’ or a ‘no’.

  Speel looks up as if he’s just remembered something. ‘Did you retrieve the sacred rock from Newstone?’ he asks, with a smirk lurking behind his beard.

  ‘Yes,’ I say. ‘Do you want to see it?’

  Speel’s smirk disappears and is replaced by a look of surprise. ‘Yes, I’d be most interested to see this rock,’ he says. Then to Korg: ‘Helix owes me some homework – a sacred rock.’

  ‘Wonderful,’ says Korg. ‘Sacred rocks are one of my favourite objects.’

  Speel is waiting for me to come up with an excuse like, ‘Sorry, a vulture must’ve swooped down and plucked it out of my pocket,’ so when I remove the perfectly round, dark-blue rock from the pocket attached to my belt, Speel’s beard, along with his jaw, drops. His one eye bulges in its socket, and I’m half-expecting it to pop out of his head and bounce across the cave floor.

  ‘Here it is,’ I say.

  Speel sticks out his palm, demanding to see it.

  I pass it to him. I can tell he’s suspicious.

  ‘Very interesting. I have never seen a rock like this before.’ He looks at it some more, turning it rapidly between his fingers. ‘You didn’t mention the gold veins when you first described it,’ he says.

  ‘I didn’t want to brag,’ I say. ‘And anyway, it was hard to see the gold veins when the stone was wedged in the crevice.’

  ‘Yes … I would have expected a rock wedged in a crevice to be marked with scratches …’

  Now he’s getting really suspicious.

  ‘Um … I’ve been polishing it. I used a rock-gerbil skin and boar fat. It’s come up really well, don’t you think?’ I’m even impressing myself, now.

  Speel is scowling. He smells a cave rat.

  Korg looks to be taking an interest, too. The thick brow above his eyes is scrunched tight. ‘Pass the rock to me,’ he says to Speel.

  Speel and Korg stand, and pass the rock between them. I follow them and rise to my feet. Korg studies the rock closely. After a time, he looks across to me and says, ‘You say this came from the mountain, Helix?’

  ‘Yes,’ I say, hoping for an end to their questions.

  ‘It is not a rock of the mountain, but of the river. And not of the shallow flood plains but the deep water.’ His eyes glaze over like the water itself. Who knows what he’s thinking. I guess fifty years of living
means he has lots of memories stored away in his head.

  ‘How do you know it came from the river?’ I ask him.

  Korg hesitates a moment before saying, ‘I’ve seen lots of rocks in my time, Helix, and this one is rare and definitely of the river.’ He passes it back to me. ‘Thank you for showing me such a fine rock. It is a thing of memories.’

  A thing of memories? What does that mean?

  ‘It’s my pleasure,’ I say.

  ‘Take care, Helix.’

  It’s the next morning and the usual routine is taking place. Mum has made some kind of meat-on-a-stick for breakfast. Dad and I are sitting beside the fire rubbing sleep from our eyes. Sherwin is pretending to be asleep with a skin pulled up over his head.

  ‘So tell us all about your trip to Newstone yesterday,’ says Mum.

  ‘Well, I met Steckman on the way –’

  ‘Steckman!’ she snaps.

  Perhaps I shouldn’t have mentioned Steckman. Mum is angry with him for trading goods with Dad.

  Steckman offers something called ‘craggit’. It means that when you’re unable to trade for your goods, you can still make purchases, you just owe Steckman for what was traded, plus a bit more. Last month alone, Dad built up a craggit bill equivalent to three mountain-bear skins. There’s no way Dad and Sherwin will be catching three mountain bears any time soon. If ever.

  ‘I don’t want you speaking to Steckman,’ Mum says. ‘That man’s getting rich thanks to your father’s gift of collecting useless items.’

  ‘That’s not fair, my sweet,’ says Dad. ‘Everything Steckman’s traded to me has been worth it.’

  ‘A spear without the pointy bit? I’d call that a stick!’

  ‘It’ll be well worth it once I find the right arrow flint.’

  ‘And a boar tusk. What are you planning to do with that?’

  ‘Carving, that’s what. It’s my new hobby.’

  ‘And, stupidest of all, the weel.’

  Dad sticks his finger in the air as if to make a point. ‘Steckman says that weels will become the greatest invention ever.’

  ‘Why?’ says Mum.

  ‘Um … You can use it for … for transporting stuff … You know.’

  ‘It’s got six sides,’ says Mum.

  ‘I know,’ says Dad. ‘Steckman did admit there’s still some work to do.’

  I decide to help Dad out by changing the subject. ‘So Newstone is really different to Rockfall. Maybe we can do a caveswap there one day,’ I suggest.

  ‘How many times do we have to go over this?’ says Mum. ‘Why would we want to go somewhere else? This cave has been in our family for as long as I can remember.’

  ‘And how long is that?’ I ask.

  ‘How long, Jerg?’ says Mum.

  Dad leans on his fist to think. ‘At least since your great-grandfather Herb was around – and probably even before that. Did I ever mention to you that Herb was friends with Korg the Magnificent when they were boys? Before he became Korg, when his name was Crev.’

  ‘No, you didn’t!’

  ‘Yes, they were quite close friends by all accounts.’

  ‘What happened to Herb?’ I ask.

  ‘Went out hunting one day and never came back – was probably taken by something big,’ says Dad, trying hard to imagine what something big would look like.

  ‘But he was friends with Korg?’

  ‘Herb and Korg used to get up to all sorts of mischief together when they were caveboys, or so the story goes. They would disappear for days into the woods and beyond.’

  ‘And beyond? I can’t believe you’ve never told me any of this! They went beyond the woods?’

  ‘Yep – across the river, to the lowlands, Land’s End and beyond,’ says Dad. ‘Great stories, Herb used to tell. Herb and Crev, adventuring through the unknown.’

  Sherwin has risen from his slumber and is sitting beside me with his skin wrapped around his shoulders.

  ‘Sounds pathetic if you ask me,’ he says. ‘The sort of stories you’d expect a madman from the Dark Side to tell.’

  ‘Why’s it pathetic?’ I ask. ‘Why can’t someone from the mountain cross the river?’

  Mum and Dad stare at me as if I’ve just suggested I marry Sherwin to fix the fact that he will never find a wife. Sherwin hits me on the back of my head with his open hand.

  ‘Ow!’ I cry.

  ‘I don’t know how you’re going to pass your Arrival,’ he says.

  ‘I don’t know how you’re going to find a wife,’ I say back at him.

  Sherwin starts scrunching his fist in preparation to punch me. Luckily, though, he’s distracted by voices from the entrance to our cave – it’s Ug and Saleeka.

  I go and greet them. Ug is carrying a heavy club and Saleeka a spear.

  ‘We’ve got a surprise for you,’ says Saleeka. ‘We’re going to take you somewhere.’

  ‘Where?’ I say. ‘Are we going to visit a new rock shelf?’

  ‘Not exactly,’ says Saleeka.

  ‘We are going to take you into the woods,’ says Ug, nodding as if he’s doing me a huge favour.

  ‘The woods,’ I say, louder than necessary.

  Mum, Dad and Sherwin come to the entrance. ‘Take him – he’s all yours,’ says Dad. ‘He could do with a trip to the woods – might toughen him up a bit.’

  ‘What about your breakfast, Helix?’ says Mum. ‘You need to eat something. How will you get bigger if you don’t eat?’

  ‘See – I can’t go,’ I say. ‘I haven’t eaten my breakfast. And if I don’t eat my breakfast I won’t grow big and strong.’

  ‘I could always wrap it up for you, son,’ says Mum. ‘There should be a spare wrapping skin here somewhere.’ She goes off and comes back with meat-on-a-stick rolled in a skin and tied with a strap leaf.

  ‘Looks like you’re ready to join us,’ says Saleeka, grinning from beneath the tangled mess of hair hanging over her face.

  Ug and Saleeka are serious: they want to take me to the woods.

  ‘So when you says the woods, you mean …’

  ‘Do not worry – just the high woods,’ says Ug. ‘We will not go too far.’

  The high woods are close to the Common Way and contain a mixture of boulders and trees. They’re not dark and enclosed like the middle and low woods and much closer to the mountain than the river.

  ‘Come on. You need to get used to the woods before your Arrival,’ says Saleeka.

  ‘I know, I know,’ I say.

  ‘So are you coming?’ says Ug.

  ‘Yes, I’ll come,’ I say, kicking the dirt.

  I leave the cave following close behind Ug and Saleeka. I’ve brought my spear. It’s the same spear I’ve owned since I was five. It’s a cavekid’s spear.

  I don’t know what to expect. All I know is that the woods are a place I’ve feared since I was old enough to think for myself. And whenever I’ve ventured there, I’ve felt like I don’t belong.

  From Rockfall, we take the Down Path through the woods. It’s a path used by hunters and is the quickest route down the mountain through the high woods. It continues into the middle woods, and then to the low woods, where the bigger creatures lurk.

  Of course, we won’t be going deep into the woods today. Ug and Saleeka specifically said the high woods, and I plan to keep them to their word.

  Saleeka leads the way, bounding forward as if she’s invincible. I follow close behind Ug. Once or twice I step on his heels and he turns around and glares at me.

  After a while, I realise that the woods are starting to become less rocky and more woody. The land is changing its skin from the grey of stone to the green and brown of trees and shrubs. I look about me. The path has thinned out to the point of disappearing – we’re not on the Down Path anymore – and we’re walking on a soft blanket of hill moss. Looking behind me, I can see the slope of the woods heading back uphill to Rockfall. At least, I think I can – the land slopes and falls much less predictably than it did at the start of our
walk. The mountain cliffs have disappeared from view. They’re hidden by the treetops that rustle and whisper in the wind as if they’re keeping a secret.

  ‘Wait. Wait! Wait!’ I say. ‘Just stop.’

  Saleeka and Ug stop and look at each other as if they’re confused at my protests.

  ‘I don’t like this. We’re moving too quickly. It’s as if you’re trying to take me somewhere I don’t want to go.’

  ‘Helix, there’s nothing to be worried about,’ says Saleeka.

  ‘Where has the Down Path gone?’ I demand.

  ‘A caveman should not need a path to navigate through the woods,’ says Ug, resting his heavy club on the ground.

  I look upwards, searching for the sky between the trees. A claw-gripped fork-tongued vulture passes in front of the sun. The vulture squawks as if to say, ‘I can see you, Helix. You look even smaller than normal down there in the woods. Small and tasty …’

  ‘Helix, are you coming?’ asks Saleeka, as she starts walking again. ‘There’s no point venturing into the woods if you’re only going to tramp around the highest parts. Anything worth hunting is further down the mountain.’

  ‘Now the truth comes out,’ I say. ‘You were never just going to take me to the high woods. There was always another plan.’

  Ug and Saleeka look at each other. ‘We are doing this for you, Helix,’ says Ug. ‘It is to help you pass your Arrival.’

  ‘Think of it like this,’ says Saleeka. ‘We’ll walk a bit further – not too far – until we get to some proper woods where the beasts lurk. It’ll be perfect hunting practice for you. There are plenty of small- and medium-sized creatures in those parts – hill hogs, forest goats, tree cats – and none of them is too hard to stalk and kill. Helix, this is your chance.’

  ‘All right,’ I say. ‘How much further do we need to go?’

  ‘We are close to the middle woods,’ says Ug. ‘Once we are there, we can start looking for game.’

  I say nothing and turn my mind away from thinking about the act of killing another creature. My logical self tells me it’s all for the best and will help me to become a caveman. The other part of me says that I can’t throw a spear and have never caught anything bigger than a rock gerbil (which I released).