His destiny,to return to the caves of our ancestors-2

His destiny,to return to the caves of our ancestors-part 2

fiction
edward w pritchard

Austin slept comfortably in the large system of caves. He was vacationing alone, without his wife for the third time again in Madagascar. He enjoyed the Country's biodiversity and was fascinated by the caves and the troops of lemurs. Each time he returned to the Island he was spending more and more time in the elaborate systems of caves. He felt at home and at peace here and it seemed like where he was meant to be. Tonight Austin was sleeping alone in a large system of caves near Ambalaked with a small fire and an expensive sleeping bag.

The lemurs usually ate insects. A large troop had caught the scent of a lone human in the cave and were resuming the ancient battle. Human ancestors including chimpanzee and early humans had been hunting lemurs to extinction for hundreds of thousands of years. Lemurs in isolation in Madagascar, the only location of the last remaining lemurs left on the planet, had been fleeing from humans for tens of thousands of years.

Lemurs didn't eat humans but in rare instances, never historically recorded, they would attack a lone human if humans were in their caves. In myth and stories humans often remember these attacks as being done by demon spirits in the ancient sacred caves of Madagascar.

Austin awoke to the sound of a screeching whistle coming from many parts of the cave at once. Standing and gazing by flashlight into the darkness he saw the eyes first. Twenty or more pairs of eyes. Seconds later the small animals were upon him. Swinging the flashlight as a club Austin easily overpowered the small lemurs.

Sharp teeth and claws surrounded Austin and slashed at his lower legs. Confident animals climbed up toward his neck and throat and began to bite and claw at him. The animals quickly left the dead human fearful of retaliation by others.

The troop raced back toward the human habitations and began vocally to call and taunt in what sounded to humans as a cross between a high pitched whistle and the aggressive call of a large whale.