Beyond the Valley of Mist

By William Wayne Dicksion

A tribe of stone aged people lived in a village of caves carved into a sandstone cliff by a stream that flowed into a valley shrouded by a perpetual mist. The village was called Lalock, and the Lalocks called the Valley of Mist the valley of death, because a few people entered the mist but none returned. The Lalocks worshiped fire, but they were unhappy because the wicked High Priest ruled with an iron hand and sacrificed anyone who defied him to the fire.

Before girls could marry, they were required by religious law to submit to the priests until they become pregnant. If they refused, or if they failed to get pregnant, they were sacrificed to the Fire God. Two young stone age couples want to marry, but the priests will not permit it until they have impregnated the girls.

The two young men refuse to share their loved ones with the priests, so the four attempt to escape into the Valley of Mist by floating down the river on a log raft. They face uncertainty and death in search of a better life. Does the valley have another side? And what horror must they endure to reach it, and if they find the other side, what will they have to do to survive?

• Language: English
• Publisher: William Wayne Dicksion
• Release date: Jul 31, 2012
• ISBN: 9781476186900

William Wayne Dicksion

William Wayne "Bill" Dicksion was born in Wewoka, Oklahoma, the descendant of pioneers of the early American West. He grew up steeped in the lore of their adventures. Writing is his way of sharing the stories he remembers and enjoyed. He has traveled extensively and is educated in science and literature. He and his wife live in Hawaii, where he does his writing.

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BEYOND THE VALLEY OF MIST

A Novel by

William Wayne Dicksion

Smashwords Edition

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Published by

William Wayne Dicksion

Copyright © 2012 by William Wayne Dicksion

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Smashwords Edition, License Notes

All rights reserved. This ebook is licensed for your personal enjoyment only. This ebook may not be re-sold or given away to other people. If you would like to share this book with another person, please purchase an additional copy for each person. If you are reading this book and did not purchase it, or it was not purchased for your use only, then please return to Smashwords.com and purchase your own copy. Thank you for respecting the hard work of this author.

All rights reserved. No part of this book may be used or reproduced by any means, graphic, electronic, or mechanical, including photocopying, recoding, taping, or by any information storage retrieval system without the written permission of the publisher except in the case of brief quotations embodied in critical articles and reviews.

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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

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CONTENTS

Acknowledgments

Chapters

List of Characters

Preface

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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.

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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

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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

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PREFACE

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

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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.

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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.

These animals are not after us, Mo said. They’re after the meat that’s on the fire. But look! They’re afraid of the fire and now they're going away.

If we could stay behind the fire, or keep the fire between us and those animals, we would be safe, Dank noted.

Tulu nodded. If we could have the fire at the openings to our caves, the animals wouldn’t bother us, and we could sleep without being afraid.

Yes, I think we should take the fire to our caves, but how do we get it there? Ogle asked. Let’s watch; maybe we can find a way.

They watched the fire for a long time and noticed that if they kept feeding it more dried wood, the fire would continue to live, but if they didn’t, it would start to fizzle out.

One of the men picked up a piece of burning wood. When he dropped it on another piece of dry wood, an amazing thing happened. A new fire started right at that spot!

The men were happy with their new find. They repeated the process, and the same thing happened again.

Goot had a clay pot for carrying water, and when he was busy examining the fire, he set the pot on a dry log. The fire ate the log, but not the pot. Goot didn’t want to lose the pot, but he was afraid of the fire. As the fire ate the log that his pot sat on, the pot tipped over. Quickly Goot recovered the pot with a green stick, but all the water had spilled out into the fire, and the pot was now dry.

But a piece of wood had fallen into the pot, and was still burning. So they added more wood to the pot and the fire continued to burn.

Mondo said, This is amazing. We can keep the fire alive in the pot by giving it wood as we carry it to our caves.

Having watched the fire all day, the five friends were getting tired.

Ogle remarked, Those animals are afraid of the fire. So, if we put the fire all around us, we can sleep right here on the ground . . . The fire will guard us.

They made a circle of dry wood around themselves, started a new fire, and went to sleep.

During the night, they awoke to a scream. A lion was dragging Goot away into the night! They had neglected to give new wood to the fire, and it had died during the night, leaving them unprotected. They wanted to rescue their buddy ol’ Goot, but it was dark and they were afraid.

I sure hate to loose ol’ Goot, Mondo muttered. He was a good hunter, and his wife and kids will miss him.

They had made a big mistake. It was too late to help Goot—all they could do was run to the trees and climb, out of reach of the other animals.

If the fire is going to protect us, someone will have to stay awake and give it wood to eat, Mondo said.

Yes, Dank agreed. That is a very important job, and someone will have to be designated to do it. It’s too bad we have lost Goot, but the fire is dead also.

We have to find another fire, Ogle said.

I have seen smoke before, but I didn’t know what it was, Dank said. I think we can find another fire—we can smell smoke a long way off.

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The four men searched for days, and finally at dusk late one afternoon, they saw flashes of light beyond a row of hills.

Perhaps that flash of light has struck a tree, and knocked fire out of it, Ogle suggested.

They hurried toward the light, but it took a long time to climb over the hill. By the time they reached the tree, all they found was a burned spot in the forest and an old log that was still smoldering.

Maybe if we give it new wood to eat, the fire will wake up, Tulu said.

But that just created smoke, which bothered their eyes. Mondo tried to chase away the smoke by waving his hand at it. Then to his amazement, the fire sprang to