Read Online Zan-Gah: A Prehistoric Adventure by Allan Richard Shickman - Free Book Online Page B

at the top of a rise, so he walked there to get some, then to eat, and to rest. From this higher level he could see for a considerable distance, mostly high grass, but in the very direction he had been heading he saw—what he had not seen for days—a winding row of trees. It looked as if he had found Nobla again—the fork he had not taken.
    It was almost night when he approached the trees, but enough light remained to observe a strange circumstance. Every branch of every tree was covered, even to the lofty tops, with a broad-leafed vine. Late as it was, it was a ghostly sight. They were enveloped and almost swallowed by this invader, so that they looked more like dark green hills or mounds than trees with branches and leaves of their own. Zan was a little frightened at this unfamiliar sight, but Nobla was in all probability on the other side of it, so he pushed the vines aside and entered the cradled emptiness. It took a moment for his eyes to adjust to the dimness. With amazement he made out a spacious dome above supported by the nowvisible branches—for looking up it was still a little light, whereas darkness surrounded him like smoke in the lower reaches of this sanctuary.
    Zan decided to go no further. He leaned against the slightly sloping trunk of a sycamore and began to doze. He was profoundly tired and he would be safe here, hidden from stranger eyes. But was he mistaken or did he hear something rustling in the bed of fallen leaves? And now a whimpering sound! What was it? Startled and affrighted, Zan reached for his spear—and felt something warm. It was a human foot! Zan almost fainted when, as he grabbed the ankle, he heard a wild scream of fear. It was a child, judging by the voice and the smallness of the limb. Whatever or whoever it was, it continued to scream in sheer terror, as if a wild animal had seized it in its jaws and would certainly devour it alive.
    It was absolutely dark now, and Zan, unable to see, and afraid to let the small being go for fear that it would bring others, grabbed the child in his arms and tried to comfort it. He gently hushed it, stroking the forehead soothingly and assuring the child that all would be well. The terrified child was trying to bite Zan, and it was a long time before Zan could calm the youngster and convince this intruder that there was no danger. Eventually the child slept, exhausted by the powerful emotions it had experienced, and Zan slept too.
    Zan was awakened the next morning by the sound of the waif searching his sack for food. He looked at him for a moment, seeing that it was a boy about two years younger than himself. When the child became awareof Zan’s glance he was alarmed and darted off, but Zan caught him and again calmed him down, offering a piece of roasted meat left from the day before. The child, ugly, ragged and dirty, was hungry to the point of starvation. Zan tried to talk to him as he ate but the boy spoke a different language. Yet his speech was not so different from Zan’s that he was impossible to understand at all. Indeed, Zan had at first thought the boy simply had difficulty speaking clearly. In time Zan was able to convey his own name and learn the other’s, which sounded like “Rydl”. At first the lad had been reluctant to tell his name, as if it might give Zan power over him, but in time he came to trust Zan a little. It took a good deal of effort for either to make out anything the other said. Zan tried to tell him that he was in search of his twin brother, and to inquire whether he had seen him, but Rydl seemed unable to comprehend “twin,” and that was that.
    This Zan did learn: that Rydl was of the wasp people, and lost for many days. At first he was a runaway, but when he had decided to return he had lost his sense of direction and traveled farther and farther from home. The poor fellow had stayed alive by eating insects—beetles, ants, and grasshoppers. Zan immediately determined to