THE CHOSEN ONES ( PART FIFTY TWO )

Bella and Arvid followed Bess into the cave, she
seemed quite able to climb down into the cave on
her own despite her age.

Arvid and Bella noticed the sudden drop in temperature and shivered.

"You know," said Arvid, "before we go any further
today...I think we need to sleep."

"That's a good idea," said Bess. She took them down
inside and led them to a chamber, there was such an
echo...Bella laughed when she called, "Hello!" and
her voice came back, "Hello, hello, hellooo!"

"Stay where you are, don't call out again," said
Bess, "someone might hear."

Arvid and Bella stayed where they were, while Bess
wandered off. After a while she called, "Arvid you
come here and Bella stay where you are, it's very
dark."

Arvid carefully made his way over to where Bess
was, she told him to get his flint...to make a
flame. She held a thick piece of stick in her hand,
he wondered what she was going to do.

When Arvid had got a flame going, Bess put the end
of the stick to the flame, suddenly there was light, Arvid jumped back in surprise. "How did you
do that?" he said with shock.

Bess took another stick, which Arvid noticed seemed
to have some skin wrapped around it. She lit the
end once again and passed it to Arvid. "These are
torches," she said, "we found them down here, when
we discovered this chamber."

Bella was now able to see, as the chamber was now
lit up. She made her way over to the others.

"Come," said Bess, "let me show you where you can
sleep." She took them to another part of the chamber, where there were many skins, hanging from
the rocks. Bella touched them, they were very damp.

As if sensing what Bella was thinking, Bess turned
to her and said, "Once these skins are warmed up
by the fire, we will beable to use them to keep us
warm, as we sleep."

Bella was not so sure. Then Arvid turned to Bess
and said, "How did you manage to light those torches so quick? I have never seen anything like
that before."

Bess smiled, then she said, "come with me, I'll
show you." She took them to another part of the
chamber, where there were some large cans, she
lifted the lid off of one. Inside there was some
very smelly fluid, it made Arvids eyes smart.

"What's that?" said Arvid with discust.

"I don't know, but quite by accident, our people
discovered, that if you put a flame to it, you
would immediately have fire." Bess lit another
torch.

She led them deeper in to the chamber. Arvid noticed some drawings on the walls. One drawing
fascinated him, it seemed to be of a man, knelt
down before a cross, each side of him, were two
dogs, or at least that was what they looked like
to him.

Above the cross, was what appeared to be a Sun and
Moon, the figure of the man was holding his head
up high. 'I wonder!' thought Arvid, 'if people did
once live here, or was it just a story?'

He asked Bess what she thought. Bess turned to Arvid, "You know our ancestors came here from another earth, many Suns and Moons ago."

"How do you know?" replied Arvid.

"Because," said Bess, "in the caves, my people found tools, that could never have belonged to our
earth, they had come from somewhere else, just like
those cans of fluid."

Arvid turned to Bess and asked her, if she had
heard the tale of the Chosen Ones?

"That's no tale, it's true." said Bess. "The truth
is our ancestors killed our old earth, but some of
the people managed to escape, they found another
planet and produced life on that planet, which is
where our ancestors came from. Then they brought
some people here, to start a new life."

"So," Arvid interrupted Bess, "how did we destroy
the old earth?"

"That," said Bess, "is a mystery, it died with the
Chosen Ones, but there are things we are not supposed to know."

Bella had been very quiet, then she suddenly spoke,
"my Father told me never to talk of the Chosen Ones, he told me it was the past, that we must look
to the future and forget the past."

Bess looked shocked, "we must never ever forget our
ancestors, we should learn that they made mistakes,
that we must never make again."

"And what is that?" said Bella.

"To be happy with what we have and protect each other, to protect our earth, for it's the only home
we have. But as long as these hunters keep destroying, things will get worse"

Bess became weary, "I think the skins will be dry
by now, come we must get some rest, before we move
on."

To be continued .......THE CHOSEN ONES ( PART FIFTY THREE ) | ABCtales