Chapter 35

“Fred don’t I have another visitor coming this afternoon?”

“Yes Bob, Olnafot is coming in with Harlou and his group who went after the trees. They have quite a few trees with them as well. They are just now coming out of the canyon mouth by the stream. They should be here shortly.”

“Thanks Fred, I’ll go talk to Tocla and then greet Olnafot when they come in. See ya later Fred.”

I told Tocla that we would be leaving early in the morning as I had to get back and go hunting. By the time I finished talking with him Harlou was escorting Olnafot into the main cave. Olnafot was a big man, probably 6’-4” and probably about 300 pounds, not an ounce was fat. He walked with a funny gait like he had to sway his upper body to each side to move his feet. It wasn’t far but his head moved about six inches each step. I had thought that all Neanderthals were short and stocky, not tall & stocky. Oh well, time to meet and greet.

“Welcome Olnafot, welcome to our camp; I am Bob the leader of this camp. I see you have met my son Harlou, Fretail, my mate, Tovar and Sancret. Did you have a good journey? Come talk to me while we have a meal fixed for you. I know Harlou and the others have not eaten yet.” I led Olnafot over to the nearest bathroom so he could clean up while I explained the facilities to him. He marveled at the sink and especially the toilet.

“Where does the water go? I can see it come from the rock, but where does it go from there.” I explained that there was a hole in the floor at each device and the water went into the rock to be cleaned and then back into the ground to be used again. I let him have some privacy and told him to come back to the main cave when he was through and we could talk of his message from his leader Grunto.

As Olnafot returned to the cave, Barbara was bringing out a plate for him and a lemonade drink for each of us. Olnafot looked around at all the people doing various things; weaving smoker racks, some of the smoker work that was going on. Keryon was looking over the trees Harlou had brought back and had stripped the bark off one and was cutting the tree into thin strips. He said, “You have a nice camp here, many people, not like me though.”

“No Olnafot, you are the first of your tribe of people to come here. But you see that my people do not treat you differently, they may look at you because you are so much bigger than them, but that is natural. You are a big man, bigger than even me. Is all of your tribe big like you?”

“No Bob, only Grunto, Thorf, and myself. All the others are much shorter, more like him,” as he pointed to Tovar. “But all our people are big like me, only not so tall. We have watched your camp since you arrived from the sky. We were hunting on the plateau over there,” and he pointed to the plateau by the second canyon. “We hear big thunder and then you and woman are in meadow. We watch for many days to see you work to make good camp. Most of our people go home but two of us stay and watch you. We are small tribe, we have few people, and it is hard to hunt close to camp. We must go further to get meat. You have good camp and we would like to join, but not sure we be accepted. Grunto send me to see if we can come.”

“Olnafot we would welcome you here, there would be no problem. We have plenty of people to help, I am a very good hunter, and we have many of animals near here that we can kill for food. We can also get fish from the river and there are many roots and berries as well. I have ways that we can store food for a very long time so we can stock up for winter and not have to hunt during the snows. We have a lot of room here for many more people to come and stay. But before you go back I want you to stay a couple days so you can see we would welcome you and your tribe.”

“That would be nice. We have a small cave where we live in winter, but now we live in huts like those below. I can stay in one of those if you will allow me to.”

“Olnafot, that is not necessary. We have room for you to stay in here, if you want. I will show you to a room for your stay. We will be getting a new camp to come here in two days time. But we have many rooms, enough for everyone.” I then show Olnafot to one of the first rooms in the last corridor and then to where the bathroom was in that corridor. I showed him a kitchen, but said that we ate in the main cave. He marveled at the large rooms and space allotted to a family. I said that the unmated men were on this corridor at the end and that the unmated women were on the other end. He thought that was a wise decision.

“Bob, I believe that we will be very happy here. Your people are very nice. I noticed that the men we came back with all deferred to your son as the leader of their party. He does not look like a man yet, but they defer to him as if he was. Is this because he is your son or why?”

“Olnafot, you see Harlou is but 9 summers old. He will be 10 soon, and he led his mother and 2 sisters here to me after his father was killed by a very bad leader of their camp. They wandered for days with very little food, he had only a flint knife for protection and gathering food. When they came here to this meadow, he stood up to me and would not let his mother and sisters close to me or Barbara until he knew I was a good man. Since then, when I have had to leave this place, he has guarded those I left behind and I have taught him many things I know about being a warrior and a man. A while ago I declared him a man in my eyes because of the responsibilities he has taken upon himself and those I have thrusted upon him. He has shown me that even though he is not fully grown, he is a man and should be treated as one. When the other tribe came here they saw a young boy who acted like a man, worked like a man, and spoke like a man. To them he was a man, just not quite grown up yet. Everyone in this camp now see him as a man. He is growing rapidly, both in size and maturity and everyone can see that. When I send him off on a job, they see him as my representative and defer to him as their leader. They see the man in him and respect that. It is not so much that he is my son; but that he is a man, and they can see the future leader in him.”