Turn Around -2-

The cave was in a rock wall about three times his own height above ground. He discovered it when he climbed the tree which hid the entrance, to collect some eggs he had spied in a King Fisher bird's nest.
The cave was roomy, providing an entrance area and, just around a corner, a large space just right for him and his family. He climbed down, using the sturdy branches of the fig tree, and went to bring his mate and their three off spring.
"This is a good place" she indicated, more by her smile than by her words.
He was proud of her praise and returned her smile with his own.
The cave was inaccessible to marauding predators and promised to remain their own space, not co-occupied by kiss 'n kin.
At first sight he had called her 'lada' meaning 'song' or 'melody' and she was happy, now to have a name of her own.
While he was the stronger, she was the quicker and more dexterous and so they shared in the labour of bringing their few belongings and some dried food supplies up the tree and into their new abode.

Both had seen fire before, when lightening had struck a lone tree and the grassland was engulfed in burning.
and they enjoyed eating what sometimes was left as charred remains of a ground hog, too slow to escape.
If only he could make fire himself. When-ever and where-ever he needed or wanted it.
Then, one day he saw a large rock falling from the wall and a spark flew when it hit another rock on the ground. It took no time before he was able to make a spark by hitting rock on rock.
It was Lada who gathered some dried lichens and some very dry moss and indicated to him that he should try and make a spark while having the stone surrounded by this lichen and moss.
With determination he attempted it again and again. Then, all of a sudden,  it worked and a slight whiff of smoke curled upward and was followed by a small flame. Tiny twigs and small branches, followed by larger branches and then large pieces of drift wood, they found down by the river, enabled him to control the flame according to his want and need.

When the rainy season started and the nights turned chilly he sometimes allowed the 

fire to stay on as he and his family enjoyed the warmth.

He knew nothing about carbon monoxide.

So when one night low pressure air hung over the valley

 and the smoke created by his wonderful discovery could not leave  his rock wall abode

neither he, nor Lada, nor their three children  ever woke up again.

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Bertstravels