“A while,” Chele admitted. “Now, keep moving. The faster we move, the sooner we arrive.”
And so they went, one step after the other, up and forward. The suns changed, and still, they walked. The hours blended into one torturous block of time without beginning or end. They snacked on dried fruit and pieces of jerky as they walked. Addie was thirsty but she held off on drinking her Timpho grass juice to avoid needing to relieve herself. Her feet ached despite the protection of her boots, her legs felt wooden from fatigue, and her chest and back muscles were on fire from the strain.
When she thought she couldn’t possibly take another step, the passage abruptly widened and the ground leveled off. The tribe navigated one last sharp incline and emerged into a valley. No, not a valley, more like a shallow gap surrounded by mountains, but it was vast and it was… breathtaking.
As people tiredly shucked belongings from their backs and lowered to the ground to rest, she stood transfixed, her sack weighing heavily at her shoulders, her exhaustion temporarily forgotten.
“What is this place?”
“The Caves,” Chele replied, busy helping Oh’na untie her load.
“The Caves,” Addie whispered reverently.
Once more, Planet Zero was a stranger to her. This place was like nothing she’d ever seen, nothing like she’d ever imagined.
The folds of gray stone subsided giving rise to another variety of rock lining the inside of the valley. It looked like golden granite or quartzite, with veins of the silvery and slate gray and muted garnet and clear opal streaking in every direction. It was a magnificent sight. And every gently sloping wall sported caves, dozens and dozens of them, large and small, at multiple levels, some shallow where the inner wall was easy to see, others deep, their black mouths wide, the tunnels running into the mountain’s belly.
Addie’s legs buckled and she sank onto the ground, in awe of the landscape. Her ungraceful landing was cushioned, and with surprise, she realized that there was some vegetation in this valley. Moss grew, patchy and thin, on the ground. Low-slung fluffy bushes in muted fall colors of dusky green and rusty orange decorated crevices here and there. There wasn’t much of green growth, but the valley was not barren.
The tribe made camp, and Addie fell asleep as soon as her body touched the pallet, too tired to even think about exploring the place, but in her sleep, she became a bird, and she flew over the beautiful golden valley, darted in and out the restful caves, and clean mountain air washed over her gently. It felt like home.
???
Exploring, however, had to wait. The next day brought chores as the tribe settled in for a while, curbing Addie’s intense desire to sightsee.
“Soon,” Chele promised her, “you can go. Don’t get lost!”
“I won’t go in deep,” Addie promised. “How long are we staying?”
“However long it will take the High Counselor to commune with the old.”
From Chele’s vague explanations, Addie gleaned that the High Counselor would meditate and spend time in solitude inside the caves seeking guidance from above. The For people didn’t worship a deity, so Addie wasn’t sure what spiritual forces he was going to appeal to for the wisdom he so sorely lacked, but whatever it took.
“He will enter the Caves of the Sacred Scrolls and absorb their wisdom,” Chele shared with her in a reverent whisper.
“Absorb it?”
“Yes. The Caves speak to those who understand.”
Chele didn’t provide any more details than that, and Addie could only surmise that there were inscriptions in the caves that Chemmusaayl could read, and Chele, conversely, couldn't.
People settled in a temporary fashion, out in the open, arranging their belongings in a circle. Women went about setting out pallets and preparing food; men explored the area to make sure no unexpected danger lurked nearby. The Cave Valley was peaceful, but it didn’t hurt to stay alert.
As she worked, Addie kept looking around, taking in the beautiful sight of the multi-hued rock bathed in the golden sunlight. Even the shadows were golden.
The valley was thrown with rock formations of golden stones veined with colorful streaks that reminded her of semi-precious opal, jade, clear quartz, and agate. People’s mood was as sparkly as the crystals that surrounded them.
At night, there were conversations and laughter, and even some mild tussling games among younger warriors whose ability to recuperate after a grueling march seemed nothing short of miraculous. Even Illied shook off some of her sorrow and smiled shyly at the young warriors.
In the morning, Addie woke up early.
“What? Has something happened?” Oh’na mumbled next to her, groggy from sleep.
“Sleep, Oh’na. I want to take a little walk over to the caves, that’s all.”
But it wasn’t like Oh’na to stay put and let interesting things happen without her.
Together, they climbed a rocky slope and reached the opening of the nearest cave.
