CHAPTER SIX
They had walked nearly three hours northeast, they’d passed the nut tree they’d found the previous day and had seen more of the Macaque. Aiden knew they would need to set a trap or practice, because they were going to become a mainstay. They came to a small clearing and Aiden pointed over to a low rise that held a rock formation. He pointed and smiled.
“I saw this just before we found the soapberries. Let’s go take a closer look. We can take all the stuff we’ve found and if it is a good cave, we can call it home.” He grinned at Sarah, whose cheeks were flushed pink.
“Good, I’m about tired of carrying all of this.” She laughed. He grinned at her, she’d picked up more plants and tubers. Her arms were full and her backpack bulged as did his. They climbed steadily, and finally made it to the rock formation. It was quiet here, there were stunted scrub bushes around the rock face, along with saplings and heavy long grasses. They walked around the rockface, moving around stands of low trees, saplings and pushing past the bushes. There was a tall thin crack in the rock, they could see it above the dense bushes. Aiden took off his backpack and looked at Sarah.
“Okay, I think there might be an opening here, see that crack up there, it looks like it goes all the way down, keep an eye out for snakes.” He grinned at her, he pushed some of the branches and split the leaves and looked through. He looked back and waggled his eyebrows and slid farther in. He started shaking his body wildly and screaming, he heard Sarah cry out and pulled his head back out grinning. “Just kidding.” He laughed.
“You god damn asshole, you scared the shit out of me.” But she was laughing at him and her face was bright red, matching her hair. She shook her head and gave him a hard shove. He sniggered once more then turned and put his hands on the branches to separate them. He pushed and shoved, and made his way into the crevasse. He felt a sharp poke on his ass and laughed. He backed out and looked at Sarah.
“Is that a stick you poked me with or are you just happy to see me?” He laughed and she again turned bright red. “Looks like a good-sized cave. Let me make a fire, and I’ll make up a couple of torches and we can go in and look around.”
“Oh good, hopefully it’s empty and no bats.” She grinned, dropping her load onto the ground. She sat down and watched him. She added small sticks as he got it going. He had made a fire starter with a stick and a length of cord he had filched from the main camp. He had invoked the age-old finders/keepers maxim and had grinned.
He worked it back and forth quickly and she blew gently. She then added some pine needles she’d brought with her. Soon smoke was rising up and then small flames licked up and consumed the pine needles. He could smell the resin released from them. Soon, a good fire was going. He retrieved one of the pine branches that was now aflame, and Sarah latched onto his beltloop and followed him in.
Aiden grinned to himself as he went forward, pulling Sarah along. The cave went in about five feet before it opened up, they both stood for a moment quiet and listening to the silence. Aiden lifted the torch high, he looked up and the ceiling of the cave only went up about ten feet and no bats. They went in farther, he could still feel Sarah’s hands on his jeans.
He waved the torch around and looked down at the ground. It was sandy. They moved around and there were no other openings or crevices. It wasn’t small, but it also wasn’t huge. It looked like the cave went back about thirty feet, and they moved slowly. It sloped downward near the back. It was about twenty feet across though it was hard to determine with the irregular shape of it and some areas came in low.
It didn’t smell like animals had been in there, he raised his torch to some of the lower walls and saw cracks in them, some several inches wide, some nearly a foot wide. He set the torch near one of the cracks and saw that the torch flickered wildly. This told him that air was coming in. That was good, they could easily set up a fire pit here and not have the cave fill with smoke.
The ground was fairly level but here and there, were rock formations jutting out of the cave floor. He was glad the cave wasn’t dank or wet, that could mean mold growth, and he’d not want to breathe that in. All in all, a very good cave for their purposes.
“I think we’ve found our new home.” He said grinning down at her.
It took about an hour to bring their things in and clear out enough of the heavy bush to make more light come into the crack at the front of the rockface. They also brought in more wood for fire and set several fires at each end of the cave to light it up. They used the cracks to set the fires under, it was spread out enough to ensure lighting within.
He watched the smoke filter out and was pleased he’d been right. It was a natural suction. They dumped their backpacks of their contents, and
