Beyond the Valley of Mist Read online

  BEYOND THE VALLEY OF MIST

  A Novel by

  William Wayne Dicksion

  Smashwords Edition

  ****

  Published by

  William Wayne Dicksion

  Copyright © 2012 by William Wayne Dicksion

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  Smashwords Edition, License Notes

  All rights reserved. This ebook is licensed for your personal enjoyment only. This ebook may not be re-sold or given away to other people. If you would like to share this book with another person, please purchase an additional copy for each person. If you are reading this book and did not purchase it, or it was not purchased for your use only, then please return to Smashwords.com and purchase your own copy. Thank you for respecting the hard work of this author.

  All rights reserved. No part of this book may be used or reproduced by any means, graphic, electronic, or mechanical, including photocopying, recoding, taping, or by any information storage retrieval system without the written permission of the publisher except in the case of brief quotations embodied in critical articles and reviews.

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  Other novels by William Wayne Dicksion

  Sagebrush

  Puma Son of Mountain Lion

  A Man called Ty

  A Button in the Fabric of Time

  A Brief Moment in Time

  Legend of the Lost

  Danny

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  CONTENTS

  Acknowledgments

  Chapters

  List of Characters

  Preface

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  ACKNOWLEDGMENTS

  Many people contributed to this writing, and I would like to acknowledge their contributions.

  This novel, Beyond the Valley of Mist, would not have been possible without the help of my wife, Millie. She traveled with me and assisted in doing research. Her editing and advice on content was indispensable.

  My daughters, Sue Brooks and Peggy Toelken, gave me encouragement.

  My son William Donald gave me an empty book and suggested that I fill the pages.

  My niece Geri Tsuzuki urged me to write my stories for others to read.

  In addition, I want to acknowledge my late sister, Dr. Naomi Watrous, for believing in me, which gave me the courage to write.

  Tom Koki added meaningful content to the story.

  Linda Jay Geldens, my manuscript copyeditor extraordinaire, also edited my other book, A Button in the Fabric of Time.

  Caron Wilberts did the proofreading.

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  CHAPTERS

  Chapter 1 Finding Fire

  Chapter 2 Thousands of Years Pass

  Chapter 3 Temple of Fire

  Chapter 4 Zor

  Chapter 5 Lalock, Valley of Mist

  Chapter 6 Zarko

  Chapter 7 The Escape

  Chapter 8 Entering the Valley

  Chapter 9 The Rapids

  Chapter 10 The First Night

  Chapter 11 Lox

  Chapter 12 Taking Lox Home

  Chapter 13 Village by the Sea

  Chapter 14 The Rescue

  Chapter 15 New Village

  Chapter 16 The Burning Mountain

  Chapter 17 The Return

  Chapter 18 Lor and Ren

  Chapter 19 Killing the Fire God

  Chapter 20 Journey Home

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  CHARACTERS (in alphabetical order)

  Beyond the Valley of Mist

  Ador …. Girlfriend of Jok

  Arber …. Wise one’s friend

  Berk …. Father of Ador

  Cam …. Leader of the men who were to be sacrificed to the volcano

  Dant …. Father of Ren

  Dar …. Father of Lela

  Den …. Member of Cam’s party who was sacrificed to the volcano

  Gar …. Leader of the Village by the Sea

  Gordo …. Father of Jok

  Jadora … First girl child born in Lelador

  Jok …. Boyhood friend of Zen

  Lela …. Girlfriend of Zen

  Lor …. Girl who was to be sacrificed to the Fire

  Lox …. Man from the Village by the Sea, rescued by Zen and party

  Lynn …. Mother of Zen

  Mar …. Man from the Village by the Sea

  Mondo, Dank, Tulu, Ogle, Goot …. Men who first discovered Fire

  Nadd …. Member of Cam’s party

  Negg …. Half-brother of Zen

  Ome …. Newly elected leader of the Village by the Valley of Mist

  Pen …. Priestess

  Ren …. Boy who was to be sacrificed to the Fire

  Tag …. Builder at the Village by the Sea

  Tur …. Father of Lor

  Zarko…. Father of Zen

  Zela …. First boy child born in Lelador

  Zen …. Leader of the small band of escapees

  Zor …. Wise One

  The Villages:

  Lalock …. Village near the Valley of Mist

  Lelador .... The new village

  Zoran .... Village by the Sea

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  PREFACE

  This story is not, nor is it meant to be, a serious study of human development. It is fiction.

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  In the dim, distant past, humans lived much like animals. Some scholars who studied the advent of man came to the conclusion that, other than noting the difference between light and dark, primitive people had little concept of time. Their language consisted of grunts and gestures. By gesturing, they could indicate the difference between one, a few, and many. At night, they slept huddled in trees and caves, then ventured out each morning to hunt for food. Their diets consisted of fruit, nuts, plants, and grubs. They used sticks, rocks, and bones for tools. If they caught an animal, they ate it raw.

  This story, Beyond the Valley of Mist, begins much later, but still it takes place hundreds of thousands of years ago. Humans have advanced to the point of tying stones to the ends of sticks, which they use as clubs or crude axes. They have developed a limited language and they have curiosity, the beginning of learning. This story is about learning.

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  Chapter 1

  Finding Fire

  At the beginning of the Stone Age, humans were just beginning to live on the land rather than in trees. Mondo, Dank, Tulu, Ogle, and Goot were men from the Lalock clan. They were strolling through an unfamiliar area, walking upright on their short, heavy legs with a waddling gait. Their deep-set eyes looked out from under the craggy brows on their sloped foreheads. The men had hairy bodies and long, sinewy arms that enabled them to climb trees almost as well as monkeys. Although they constantly watched for animals, they were not hunting animals; instead, they were watching for animals who wanted to eat them.

  The five men entered an open area where grazing animals had cropped the grass close, leaving a meadow with a few large boulders lying around. Trees surrounded the meadow and dead branches lay all about. The hot sun was bearing down.

  Mondo said, “Let us rest in the shade of that big tree and eat this rabbit we caught.”

  “I’m hungry. But look!” Ogle said as he pointed ahead. “What’s on the other side of that tree? Something is crackling and causing the tree to glow! I’ve never seen anything like that before.”

  “Me, either,” said Dank. “It smells strange. Let’s look a little closer.”

  They moved slowly, with a combination of fear and curiosity.

  “Whatever it is, it sure is hot,” Tulu chimed in. “And I think it's eating that dead tree.”

  “I didn’t think any creature could eat a tree,” Ogle replied, holding his club tighter in case he had to defend himself.

  “Well, that thing sure is,
” Mondo said in a whisper. “Let’s hide behind these rocks and watch.”

  Ogle was frightened. “Maybe we should climb a tree.”

  “It wouldn’t do any good,” Tulu remarked. “The creature would just eat that tree, too. I don’t think it wants to eat us; I think it wants to eat wood.”

  “Oh, look,” Dank said. “It has eaten the dry grass the tree was lying on, but the green grass is still there.” His eyes grew big with wonder.

  Mondo, being the more cautious one, said, “Let’s watch it for a while; I don’t trust that thing.”

  They waited, but nothing happened. After a while, Dank, being the adventurous one, said, “I’m going to poke it with my spear.”

  “All right, but don’t do anything foolish. No telling what it might do,” Mondo said.

  As they got closer, Ogle observed, “It sure is hot, but it doesn’t seem to want to eat us. You are right, Tulu, it’s only interested in eating that tree.”

  Dank poked it with his spear. It glowed where he poked it and seemed to get angry.

  “Look, it’s eating your spear!” Goot exclaimed. He hit the creature with his stone axe, and little pieces of light flew up and bit him on the arm, causing him to drop his axe.

  Then the thing started eating his axe!

  “I’ve never seen anything that would eat both a spear and an axe,” Tulu cried out.

  “Look! It’s only eating the wood portion of the axe,” Mondo pointed out. “Let’s give it more wood and see what happens.”

  They threw dead branches into the creature's mouth, and Goot threw in a green branch as well. The green branch caused the strange odor to increase.

  “I don’t think it likes green wood, but look what happens when I throw it a handful of dry grass,” Mondo remarked, as they watched the creature get excited and shine even brighter.

  “It sure ate that dry grass quickly. I think it prefers dry grass to wood,” Goot observed.

  “What should we call it?” Dank asked.

  “I don’t know,” Goot said. “I don't think anyone has ever seen one of these creatures before. We could call it Mok; ol’ Mok was hot-tempered like this, at least before that lion ate him.”

  “I don’t think we should call it Mok,” Dank laughed. “He might be offended. Let’s call it 'fire,' and what is rising from it 'smoke.' That’s more exciting.”

  “All right, fire and smoke,” Goot agreed.

  Fire was a frightful thing. When Mondo touched it, his skin puffed up and was painful and red.

  “That fire will punish us if we treat it with disrespect,” Goot noted. “Let’s give fire this small rabbit to eat.”

  “Look, fire is eating the rabbit,” Dank said, “and notice how the smell changes. The meat smells so good, it’s making me hungry.”

  By using green sticks, they pulled the rabbit from the fire and tasted it. It was tender, much better than before they threw it into the fire.

  Next, the five men killed a deer and put it into the fire. The meat smelled so tasty, it brought dangerous animals around that snarled and growled at one another.

  The men ran and climbed a tree, but the animals didn’t chase them.

  “These animals are not after us,” Mo said. “They’re after the meat that’s on the fire. But look! They’re afraid of the fire and now they're going away.”

  “If we could stay behind the fire, or keep the fire between us and those animals, we would be safe,” Dank noted.

  Tulu nodded. “If we could have the fire at the openings to our caves, the animals wouldn’t bother us, and we could sleep without being afraid.”

  “Yes, I think we should take the fire to our caves, but how do we get it there?” Ogle asked. “Let’s watch; maybe we can find a way.”

  They watched the fire for a long time and noticed that if they kept feeding it more dried wood, the fire would continue to live, but if they didn’t, it would start to fizzle out.

  One of the men picked up a piece of burning wood. When he dropped it on another piece of dry wood, an amazing thing happened. A new fire started right at that spot!

  The men were happy with their new find. They repeated the process, and the same thing happened again.

  Goot had a clay pot for carrying water, and when he was busy examining the fire, he set the pot on a dry log. The fire ate the log, but not the pot. Goot didn’t want to lose the pot, but he was afraid of the fire. As the fire ate the log that his pot sat on, the pot tipped over. Quickly Goot recovered the pot with a green stick, but all the water had spilled out into the fire, and the pot was now dry.

  But a piece of wood had fallen into the pot, and was still burning. So they added more wood to the pot and the fire continued to burn.

  Mondo said, “This is amazing. We can keep the fire alive in the pot by giving it wood as we carry it to our caves.”

  Having watched the fire all day, the five friends were getting tired.

  Ogle remarked, “Those animals are afraid of the fire. So, if we put the fire all around us, we can sleep right here on the ground . . . The fire will guard us.”

  They made a circle of dry wood around themselves, started a new fire, and went to sleep.

  During the night, they awoke to a scream. A lion was dragging Goot away into the night! They had neglected to give new wood to the fire, and it had died during the night, leaving them unprotected. They wanted to rescue their buddy ol’ Goot, but it was dark and they were afraid.

  “I sure hate to loose ol’ Goot,” Mondo muttered. “He was a good hunter, and his wife and kids will miss him.”

  They had made a big mistake. It was too late to help Goot—all they could do was run to the trees and climb, out of reach of the other animals.

  “If the fire is going to protect us, someone will have to stay awake and give it wood to eat,” Mondo said.

  “Yes,” Dank agreed. “That is a very important job, and someone will have to be designated to do it. It’s too bad we have lost Goot, but the fire is dead also.”

  “We have to find another fire,” Ogle said.

  “I have seen smoke before, but I didn’t know what it was,” Dank said. “I think we can find another fire—we can smell smoke a long way off.”

  ***

  The four men searched for days, and finally at dusk late one afternoon, they saw flashes of light beyond a row of hills.

  “Perhaps that flash of light has struck a tree, and knocked fire out of it,” Ogle suggested.

  They hurried toward the light, but it took a long time to climb over the hill. By the time they reached the tree, all they found was a burned spot in the forest and an old log that was still smoldering.

  “Maybe if we give it new wood to eat, the fire will wake up,” Tulu said.

  But that just created smoke, which bothered their eyes. Mondo tried to chase away the smoke by waving his hand at it. Then to his amazement, the fire sprang to life. Mondo showed his companions. They tried waving at the smoke again. The wind excited the fire, which become more active. The four friends realized they had to take good care of this new fire, or it wouldn’t last long enough to get it to their caves.

  “If we take care of the fire, fire will take care of us,” one of the men wisely said.

  He placed a burning branch in the clay pot and gave it wood to eat while they carried it all the way back to Lalock, where they showed the people their new discovery. The Lalocks were frightened at first, but after a while, learned that the ire would not harm them unless they touched it . They began to realize its possibilities and were amazed at the wonderful find the four men—actually, five--had made. Goot had been dragged off by a lion.

  The people were taught how to care for the fire and why it was important not to neglect it. They designated a man to care for the fire and called him “Keeper of Fire.” The awesome responsibility of keeping the fire alive was so important that the others provided for all his needs. If he failed in his assignment, however, the Keeper of Fire would be put to death. He did have to sleep
sometime, so he was given an assistant.

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  Fire was so powerful. It could do wonderful things if they cared for it, but could bring death if they neglected it.

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  Chapter 2

  Thousands of Years Pass

  Many generations came and went; people stood taller and walked straighter. They looked more like modern humans. Their arms were not as powerful because they didn’t need to climb trees. They walked long distances, so they developed long legs. Their sloped foreheads and heavy brows gave way to heads capable of containing brains large enough for reasoning. They could think complex thoughts and express them orally.

  They made better weapons and improved their tools. With better spearheads, the men could bring down larger animals, and that meant more meat for their families. The skins of the animals were processed for clothing and warm bedcovers.

  Women wanted the best hunters for their husbands because the best hunters could take better care of them and their babies.

  People began to ask questions: How far is it to the end of the earth? Where does this river come from? Is there another side to the Valley of Mist?

  Some asked even deeper questions, such as: Where did we come from? Why are we here? Where do we go when we die?

  Every living thing dies, but was that the end? Is that all there is? To know that was beyond their ability, so they looked for someone or something who was smarter and more powerful.

  ***

  Men competed to see who could throw their spear the farthest, with the greatest accuracy. The best hunters and warriors became their leaders.