The Cave (3)

"If I remember correctly, exploration is the job of shamans and not us hunters." To everyone's surprise, it was Ahuli who came forward to help Zok, "Once the shamans determine the difficulty of the cave, only then do the tribesmen move into the cave according to the intel provided by them. But now you're tellin' Zok to do that for you? He is not even a proper hunter yet! Him going in alone would be suicidal."

No one had ever seen Ahuli raise his voice before against anyone, let alone the respected shamans. Nor did they know why Ahuli had gotten protective over Zok all of a sudden. After all, not long ago he used to hate Zok just like his father did.

"I understand what you are trying to say, great hunter Ahuli." The Shamanka turned to face the young man, "But this cave is particularly... strange. As a hunter like you would know, these caves that spawn under the watchful eye of Okun are often marked with various patterns drawn all over them. We Shamans do not go inside the cave to determine the difficulty but we do so after carefully analysing the markings on the outer walls from afar. The lighter the markings are, the harder it is to clear the cave and obtain the riches and artefacts from it."

"Yes. We are well aware of that." Ahuli nodded, "But-"

"Thus, this exploration you speak of hasn't been our duty in a long long time, unlike what you said. Instead, the tribe had always been doing that for us."

"So, just tell us about the difficulty of the cave and be done with it. Just like you had been doing till now." Ahuli shrugged his shoulders and to Skah surprise, the tribesmen were actually agreeing with Ahuli.

"That is the cause of our dilemma, great hunter." The shamanka joined her hands together before looking up in the heavens, "It would seem that Okun is taking a test of our faiths. As there are no markings on the outer walls of the cave!"

The moment the shamanka uttered those words, the crowd was sent into a frenzy. In the two decades, the zukira had been in the wilderness, they had been forced to clear a lot of caves filled with monsters. The only reason for doing so was that the Caves served as a breeding spot for a variety of monsters. If the tribe did not get rid of the monsters residing inside those caves, it would eventually lead to a catastrophic event the called Stampede.

When a stampede occurs, an unimaginable number of monsters charge towards the Zukiran settlement causing a rampage. They destroy anything and everything in their path without discrimination. During the starting days of Zukira in the wilderness, the stampede was the prime cause of death there.

It wasn't like the tribesmen did not know how to fight. It was just that the Zukira simply didn't have the tools or the weapons required to counter the stampede. Until one day the shamans allied themselves with the Zukira and helped them take care of the caves by providing them with the knowledge they lacked. Essentially, the shamans were the ones who taught Zukiras the art of taming beasts.

The tribe was in such desperate need of a way of survival, that they didn't even bother asking the shamans how did they get their hands of such knowledge. Instead, Skah told them since the shamans were the messengers of Okun, the godly diety must have provided the shamans with that knowledge. And the tribe immediately believed his explanation.

Either way, as mentioned before, the caves were known to have markings that only the shamans knew the meaning of. The shamans then deciphered the meaning behind those markings and then informed the tribe about it. But this was the first time the shamans had said there were no markings on the cave. While everyone was panicking, Ahuli was the first one who realised something.

"If the walls don't have a marking then that would mean-"

"The markings are so light that we can't even see it." Shamanka completed what Ahuli wanted to say, "That's why we need the help of the tamer who tamed the greatest beast, to scout out the area and returns to us with crucial information."

Everyone started nodding in agreement with the Shamanka but not Ahuli.

"If the markings are so light that we can't even see it, then doesn't that mean that the cave itself is more dangerous than any other cave we have ventured into till now?" Ahuli quickly came up with a comeback, "Rather than wasting our time to send Zok to scout the area, we should gather the warriors and send everyone in to fight whatever's inside."

However, this time no one came to Ahuli's aid.

"Son," Skah spoke after a moment of silence, "The cave is difficult to clear is the reason why we need to get adequate information about it first. We can't just send everyone in without knowing what is inside of the cave. But what we can do is... send a couple of others with Zok. That way, we can make sure that the information gets back to us. In the meantime, all of us would be prepared to immediately launch an attack. Does everyone agree?"

The tribe broke out in chants and yells which drowned Ahuli's pleas. It was set in stone now, Zok would have to venture into the unknown with two other people whom the Shamans had already picked. Sera and Taheton, an orphan man about Ahuli's age who had hated Skah and his family for unknown reasons.