Beyond the Valley of Mist

BEYOND THE VALLEY OF
MIST

A Novel by

William Wayne
Dicksion

Smashwords
Edition

****

Published by

William Wayne
Dicksion

Copyright © 2012 by William Wayne
Dicksion

***

Smashwords Edition, License
Notes

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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

***

CONTENTS

Acknowledgments

Chapters

List of
Characters

Preface

***

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.

***

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

***

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

***

PREFACE

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

***

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.

***

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.