In the beginning, the cave people were few in numbers, living
together as a collective and cooperative society of hunter-gatherers.
Tevjek and his family seated by the entrance to their cave, had
finished their evening meal. The large quantity of wine that Tevjek had
consumed with his meal, on this festive occasion, began to take effect on
his senses. The self-hypnotic inducing qualities of the wine, made by a
process involving the fermentation of honey and hemp seed, served to
bring out the creative nature in Tevjek, as well as in other members of
the tribe, who would partake of it. Tevjek rose unsteadily to his feet,
his sense of balance somewhat impaired from the effects of the wine. His
mind however was focused and deliberate, as he made his way towards a
separate cave a short distance away. The opening of the cave faced the
waters of the lake below.

On this, the longest day of the year, Tevjek had many hours of
daylight left in which to work on his nearly completed drawing
begun about 30 days ago. The breeze from the lake ruffled his dark
shoulder-length hair, as he stood facing a section of the cave wall just
inside the cave entrance. There with a sharpened piece of charcoal held
between the thumb and forefingers of his right hand, Tevjek would draw
these tiny shapes. Big, burly, broad-shouldered Tevjek drawing such small
pictures, was an incongruous sight to behold. His little drawings of
human and sometimes animal features and various other body parts, would at
the completion of the drawing however, culminate in a mosaic-like
full-sized figure of an animal or a human. Various parts of the figure
would, in addition to being covered by a network pattern comprising
miniature images of the full-sized part, be further highlighted by the
natural coloration inherent in the mineralized sections of the cave wall
upon which he drew.

Tevjek's completed drawings depicted scenes of mostly happy people
surrounded by the healthy looking, majestic horned animals that they
hunted for their meat and hides.

It was a relatively peaceful and contented period of human
prehistory. But it was all about to change.

Thousands of light years from earth and located in the bright band of
the heavens known as the Milky Way, was a double-star system comprising
one sunlike star and its invisible black hole companion. Orbiting the
star system was a life supporting planet, much like earth with regards
to size and period of rotation. The humanlike inhabitants on this planet
were technologically advanced, and were exploring their neighborhood of
space including the region of their sun and its black hole companion. They
were utilizing space probes as well as sophisticated personal guided space
craft, thousands of years prior to the time of Tevjek and his people's
appearance on earth. After the first probe returned from its exploratory
mission of their neighboring black hole's hyperspace region, the aliens
began to venture into this region aboard specially designed space-craft.

By travelling at near light speed, they were able to utilize the
space-time warp, peculiar to that of this rapidly rotating, electrically
charged black hole. This hyper-space region was in effect a time machine.
More and more aliens began taking time trips in this region of space. It
became a major recreational activity, in which they would travel back in
time and observe first-hand various prehistorical events that had
occurred during their planet's biological evolution. During a recent
period of their planet's evolution, they discovered a direct ancestral
linkage, that had evolved into humanoids of gigantic proportions,
comparable in size to the earth-born Tyrannosaurus Rex dinosaur. Their
huge ancestors also exhibited monstrous-looking head and facial
characteristics which moreover, bore a striking resemblance to some
of the Demon/Gods having been incorporated into their highly ritualistic
religious practices.

Time-travel to this period of their planet's evolutionary history, became a special attraction for its alien inhabitants. Many of the aliens upon returning to their planet from these excursions,however would subsequently experience psychosis, diagnosed as having been brought on by direct observance of their monstrous-looking ancestors. Revulsion of those grotesque images, as incorporated into the minds of these mentally disturbed aliens, translated into a collective negative psychic energy. This energy comprising a part of the
electromagnetic spectrum, radiated outwards from the planet. Along with
reflected light energy, it would travel through space and eventually
reach reach other star systems and planets thousand of light years away
including the planet earth. Moreover, the magnetic field strength of that
planet had reached a low point to due its undergoing a reversal process of
the North and South magnetic poles. This, unbeknownst to Tevjek and his
tribe would allow this negative psychic energy from space to reach the
planet's inhabitants.

Tevjek turned and tossed in his sleep. Suddenly his upper body rose
from his bed of soft animal skins. He let out a muffled shout as he came
awake, turning towards his mate Tam, where she lie beside him.

"Bad dream?" asked Tam, turning her head, looking questioningly at
Tevjek, from her prone position.

"Another one", he replied. "I've been having these recurring dreams
of monstrous-looking life forms, for the last 30 days now. Some of these
monsters are almost human-looking."

"The children and some of our neighbors have also been talking about
seeing strange looking monsters in their dreams," said Tam.

"I see where you've placed a barricade in front of the cave in which
you draw," she continued, changing the subject.

"It has taken me much longer than usual to complete my latest
drawing. I should have it completed by this evening. When I complete it
I would like to have as many as possible of our tribe's members have a
look at it. In the meantime I'd like to conceal it from the children,
for it would probably scare them. The drawing is beginning to look like
the monster I've been seeing in my latest dreams."

Later that summer evening as the sun was beginning to set, Tevjek,
Tam and several other members of their immediate family were standing in
front of the cave wall looking at Tevjek's completed drawing. About
30 other adult members of the tribe stood around outside the cave
entrance, making sure not to block the light entering the cave from
outside, awaiting their turn to have a look at Tevjek's drawing.

"It's much larger than all the others," was Tam's first comment. The
top of the drawing was as high above the cave floor, as Tevjek's long arms
could reach above his five and one half-foot frame. The drawing was about
as wide as it was high. The shading varied from a charcoal black to the
light grey coloring of the cave wall. The drawing was of a horned-headed
figure with a wolf-like face, fangs bared. The body was human-looking with
the arms crossed over a hairy chest, and the hands clenched into fists. The
figure had claws instead of toenails, at the end of its hairy feet.

Hovering above the head, was a circular outline of yellow ocher. Suddenly
the setting sun lit up the section of cave wall and the drawing. The round
yellow-colored circle above the figure took on a bronze hue like that
of the full moon during a lunar eclipse. Various aspects of the horned
figure, hitherto unnoticed, were highlighted by the reddish light of the
setting sun.

"Look at those red eyes!" exclaimed Tam, referring to two small
circular outlines of red ocher representing the eyes of the figure.
"What's that strange looking object to the left of its head?"
she asked Tevjek, referring to a disk-like shape suspended in space.

"I've been seeing many of those type of objects in my dreams
lately," he replied.

Tevjek's uncle and cousin were engaged in an animated conversation
about the moonlike object at the top of the figure. One of his aunts,
whose attention had been focused on the figure's exposed private parts,
let out a shriek and appeared on the verge of collapse. Hearing the
commotion coming from the cave opening, the tribal members nearest the
entrance could contain their curiosity no longer and began pressing
forward entering the cave. Tevjek emerged from the cave with Tam and his
aunt, forcing his way against the crush of bodies seeking to enter.

"The cave can only accommodate a few of you at one time!" he shouted,
but they choose not to heed his warning. His cousin and uncle who had also
managed to force their way out against the oncoming rush of bodies joined
them.

"That moon in the drawing seemed to be calling to me in some way as
if demanding my attention and reverence, in return for which it would
secure my success as a hunter," said the cousin to Tevjek's uncle.

"I felt as though the sun was trying to signal me through those
shining red eyes in the wolf-like face," responded the uncle. Tevjek
hearing his cousin's and uncle's remarks became quite disconcerted.
In his brooding contemplative mood, he paid scant attention to the chaos
taking place behind them, in and around the cave. Those individuals having
been pushed to the back of the cave began experiencing difficulties in
breathing the stale air, and sought to push their way towards the
entrance. There, they were blocked by those standing wall to wall
looking at the drawing. Tevjek could hear shouts and muffled curses,
as he and his family walked away from the cave.

Tevjek resisted a strong impulse to look at the full moon that night,
as he stood outside the cave, which he shared with Tam and the children.
He was much too wound up to sleep as he reflected on this evening's
events. The crowd in the cave had disbursed shortly after the last light
from the setting sun's reflection off the lake had left the cave in darkness.
Tam, exiting their cave, joined him just before sunrise.

"What was that howling sound I heard just before dropping off to
sleep last night?" she asked her mate.

"Moon-worshipers," responded Tevjek shaking his head. "Two elders
both women, trampled to death, and one of our young hunters killed in
a fight with his neighbor," he continued, recounting the night's casualty
rate.

"The one killed insisted upon paying homage to the sun, while the
other kept insisting the moon should be the object of their devotion," he
added, in response to Tam's questioning look.

On a level area 50 yards away from where they stood looking towards
the lake, they could discern a number of their tribe, adding additional
material to what looked to be a mound of antlers in the fading moonlight.

"Sun-worshipers," said Tevjek. "From what I can see, they intend to
go the moon-worshipers one better, by making an offering of burnt
elk-horns."

Tam shook her head in bewilderment, wondering what was happening to
their community. She reflected upon how much simpler life had been, when
the only thing they venerated, was the memory of a deceased ancestor.
Tevjek's spirit had long since departed from his physical self. He
had lived a long and purposeful life, subsequent to his tribe's first
encounter with the Alien's thought patterns. He had watched the disruption
of a way of life, in which the primary purpose had been to deal with the
challenges and demands inherent in the natural order of things.

He had guided his people through the earliest phase of their religious
awakening, and the turbulence associated with this abstract
awareness within themselves. Much of his time had been spent in
arbitration of disputes between the various warring factions into which
his tribe had fragmented by worshipping different Gods.

Now free to travel anywhere in space-time, he took pleasure in
observing his descendant's technological prowess down through the ages,
coping with each new challenge as it came along. Unlike their
Alien neighbors of the double-star system, the black hole member of
which had eventually cannibalised their sun, leaving them and every
other lifeform on their planet in the dark, and moreover freezing to
death, Tevjek's earth-born descendants appeared to be destined to survive
and prosper. This, hopefully in spite of recent developments, such as a
hole in the planet's Ozone layer, drug use in the Olympic Games, road
rage, rap music, political correctness, Hetzbollah, Ariel Sharone and
the extinction of the Golden Toad of Costa Rica.

THE END

Copyright c)2000 C James Johnson