Chapter 18 – Thumbs up (2/2)

Natural disasters?

Man-caused calamity?

Or both fell on the tribe?

At the end of the fresco on the stonewall, there were a lot of palm-sized pictures in various styles. Take the one on the upper left for example; it had a spider resting on its net. Or the one on the right end, there were plants like bamboos or something. In one picture, there was even something as a mask, it was so creepy to look at…

In those pictures there were plants, animals, and many things that went beyond Shao Xuan’s wildest imagination.

Just as Shao Xuan fixed his attention on those frescos, he heard someone calling for him.

“Ah-Xuan! Come quickly, Ah-Xuan! Uncle Ge is here!”

The other kids had no interest in the depth of the cave. For all those years they lived inside, aside from coming to a certain place to poop, they never went into deeper places. Those parts were never their thing and they got over it once they had gone once into the depth of the cave. Therefore, the kid calling for Shao Xuan did not go towards him, but shouted directly at him.

Coming back to reality, Shao Xuan realized that today was indeed the food delivery day for Ge.

This time, Ge also brought three days worth food at one time. When Shao Xuan saw him, he still had quite some snowflakes on his coat that hadn’t melted yet. However, Ge cared no more about the snow, but kept staring at those vents with the ice blocking them. He played around with the stone plate in his hands as he stared, and obviously, he hadn’t expected that something like that was stored in the cave. Ever since he was in charge of food delivery, the cave had always been dark during wintertime. In the past, he had heard from someone else that there was similar stuff in the cave, but he never thought the kids would use it. In addition, since it was messy and chaotic in the orphan cave, he did not bother to do anything more. Nevertheless, unexpectedly he saw that they used them here today.

Shao Xuan asked the other kids to help “unload” the food. Now with a sufficient food supply, the kids in the cave did not act like old times, where they fight over everything, especially when it came to food. Hearing Shao Xuan’s words, all the kids came to help, and then Shao Xuan distributed the food to different groups. He was no more his worry after the food was distributed to group leaders, for they would decide how to distribute to different people.

That day, Shao Xuan did not let Ge to leave immediately. Instead, he asked him to tell stories about the tribe to the kids. Ge did not have any other plans after the food was delivered anyways.

Shao Xuan merely wanted to learn more information from Ge, and see if the stories in Ge’s description could tell him a thing or two about the frescos in that stone wall. It was too bad that Ge’s stories were no different from the stories he heard from Lang Ga in the past. He did not get the information he wanted to hear.

Shao Xuan drew something on the wall with a carbonated branch. He knew that Ge had glimpsed at his picture and saw what was on it. However, he acted all the same, with no abnormal behaviour. Obviously, Ge did not know what the picture was.

What Shao Xuan drew was just one of those varied pictures that were on the right side of the stonewall of the stone room. Ge was considered as an experienced warrior in the tribe, and he did not recognize that picture. Shao Xuan sighed at heart, for it seemed to be very difficult if he wanted to know more about the things in the fresco.

At the end of the fresco on the right part of the stonewall in that room, under those various pictures, there was a sentence. However, Shao Xuan could not connect them to a whole sentence because he did not know a few words in it.

Even though Shao Xuan could speak the language fluently, he was not familiar with many words and letters. He planned to ask for the help of that old hunter, the next time when the old hunter came. Shao Xuan will ask him about the meaning of those words, and learn them all when he had the opportunity.

About ten days later, that old hunter finally came down the mountain again and showed up his face in the cave again.

Seeing that there were so many changes in the cave, he was shocked and surprised to know that these kids in the cave had made much progress. He was quite pleased, so he took out another animal skin roll, ready to teach something new.

In the spare time of teaching, Shao Xuan consulted a few words from him, not all the words he asked were from the stonewall. He mixed some other words in, because Shao Xuan did not want to raise the old hunter’s suspicion.

However, it turned out that Shao Xuan had thought too much. The old hunter had high interest in teaching, and nothing else. He merely assumed that Shao Xuan had seen those words from somewhere, and then he taught him one by one, quite patiently and eager.

After that, the old hunter even praised Shao Xuan, “Those words are written down well, with a certain momentum! You will turn out to be a brave warrior!”

Shao Xuan smiled about it and did not reply. The words that were praised were from the stone wall. He copied them, so even though they were not exactly the same with the original ones, they carried some of the original charm and style, because they were copied.

Judging from that, the one who left those pictures and words on the stonewall in that room should probably be a warrior, a tough and strong one.

After the old hunter had left, Shao Xuan copied all the things in the old hunter’s newly left animal skin roll, so that the kids might review from time to time. Then he went to the stone room again.

After mastering those words, Shao Xuan finally understood the meaning of that sentence.

“One day, we shall return to our previous land. Glory is still in the fire, and the fire of scorching horn will never be put out.”

After that sentence, there was a big word – “Zan”. Perhaps that’s the name of the master of that stone room, and the one who carved all those pictures and the sentence.

The final sentence was deeply carved into the wall, much deeper than any other picture, especially the last few words. From that, one could easily see the intense emotion of the person when he left the sentence on the ground.

Even though Shao Xuan still did not know why it was painted by stone powder, he felt appreciative to get the opportunity to see them. In addition, he admired the one who left those words for him to see.

From that sentence, it was easily implied that his situation or the whole tribe’s situation was not good, or even depressing. But they did not give up.

Even if the situation was in despair, it meant that hope was still there as long as one was still alive, as long as the tribe was still there.

Shao Xuan held the carbonated branch, and drew a simple image of “thumbs up” behind the word “Zan”.