Just a Little Later With Eevo and Sim. Henry Shykoff

the Flint Works Cave, where he now spent most of his time. Once inside, Seer asked, "Did you have any trouble crossing the sands? I'm glad that you didn't come about three hands of days earlier. We had a terrible windstorm. No one out on the sands could have survived it."

      "We were caught in it," Dedu said. "We were already crossing the sands when it started." He went on to tell about Shim's ankle and their being separated, right up to Sim and Eevo finding Mee with the wolf. Sim described taking the child to her mother, but not entering the hunt camp because of the wolves. "We spent another two hands of days waiting for Shim's foot to improve. Today we made our way here."

      "But what did you do for water during and after the storm?" asked Seer. "I just don't know how you survived."

      "We had a good supply of water," Shim continued the story. She brought out the bags, the ones Sim had suggested be made. Seer looked at them and then at Sim. He looked at the spear that Sim was carrying and the axe that hung over Dedu's shoulder.

      "Did Sim also make these?" he asked. "Tell me all about it."

      The story of what had happened while Dedu and Shim had been away visiting Seer was recounted. As the story unfolded, Seer became ever more impressed.

      "It is given to some people to find one or, if very fortunate, perhaps two truths," he said, "but you two between you have uncovered so many. I thought that I would teach you, Sim, but it is I who will have to learn. I can help you especially in working with flint. I can give you some of what I have learned, from others and from my experience — things that age has taught me. Other than that I can only say that you, the two of you, have changed the ways that people will live.

      "Eevo, your discovery of how a fire can be created is probably the most important discovery ever made. As for the wolves, I have dreamed about something like that, people and clever animals becoming one family. That partnership may be as important as fire."

      Six Seer, The Elder

      A creative person! Seer could hardly believe his good fortune — and his daughter's son! He needed to see more.

      "Now, Sim, I want to see your knives and spears. But first I really need to see that axe."

      Seer examined the weapon and its bindings. He checked the ridged, sharpened edges and the feel of the axe in his hand. "Very good," he concluded. "Now let me see your spears and knives." Seer examined each with great care, then turned to Sim and asked, "How did you break your flint stones to make your edges? The points of the spears are all sharp but of different shapes and sizes. You've done well to make such useful instruments, but I can show you how to make them so that they are more alike. Your spears will have better balance and, although not as sharp, the points will last far longer. Did you just break the flint and use the sharp fragments? That's what I did, always bruising and cutting my hands."

      Sim laughed and admitted to doing just that. He told how in frustration he finally broke his first flint by hurling it against a rock. Seer said that he had broken his by putting it on a flat rock and then hitting it with another flint piece. Both had shattered, leaving him with some pieces he could use. How proud he was then to have done so!

      "After I had my sharp fragments, I went to a clan near the one where I was born. There I learned from their old flint worker by watching him. He taught me something about flint knapping. Now you too have come to an old flint worker. We tool-makers must pass on our skills to those who come after us. What made you try to make tools?"

      Sim knew he had found a teacher, someone he could talk with and share ideas. "We needed a knife. I knew a little about it from the knife Dedu used, the one you made for Mother many years ago. I tried to imitate it but couldn't. But I did get three sharp-edged pieces that could be used for cutting. When my fire-hardened spears did not penetrate the skins of some of the animals we were hunting, I knew that the tips had to be sharper. Because I had knives, I could shape the spear shafts from straight dry wood, instead of just using saplings. I could make notches to hold the flint heads. Once I tied the heads on tightly with wet rawhide, I had a spear."

      "That's it exactly!" exclaimed Seer. "One tool leads to another."

      Before leaving the cave with Sim to find some hammer stones, Seer checked his supply of flint cores. He found one about the size of a human head. Sim had never imagined using a flint stone as large as that. But he noticed Seer was having difficulty finding things in the dark corners of his cave. Sim was concerned. How could he bring some light inside?

      "This is exactly what we want," said Seer, noting Sim's look of astonishment at the size of the flint. "Small pieces are far harder to work with. This will break to give us good flakes. Watch this."

      Taking a piece of leather and folding it into a pad to protect his thigh, Seer placed the flint against the pad. Then, taking his hammer stone, he hit the flint at an angle. A large flake of flint, about the size of an oak leaf and as thick as one's finger, sheered off. The break left a smooth, slightly concave surface. Again he struck off another flake much the same size and shape as the first.