Boy of the Painted Cave

Tao makes a camp, building a fire to keep himself warm and ward off predators. He is very hungry and finds food in the nest of a flying squirrel. He takes handfuls of acorns from the nest and eats them. He thinks about his mother, who he can’t remember, and longs to paint a picture of what he imagines she looked like. However, drawing images of people is against the laws of the clan and is believed to offend the evil spirits. Tao wonders why everything seems to be considered bad or wrong: drawing in the sand, painting on a rock, having a physical disability. He wonders about the existence of evil spirits, as neither he nor Kala has ever seen one.

He hears a noise and realizes that the young wolf has found him again. Tao tells the wolf that it must go hunt and return to its pack. As the wolf gets closer to the fire, Tao realizes that a sliver of bone has become impaled in its jaw, preventing it from hunting and eating. Tao creeps up on the wolf and manages to remove the shard of bone. This time, when Tao tells the wolf dog to go hunt and eat, the wolf leaves. Tao is happy to have helped, but he feels very alone once the wolf has left.

Tao sleeps and has a dream of painting the young wolf on a cave wall along with herds of bison and other animals. He awakens in the morning weak from hunger and thinking about his need to find another rabbit. Tao crosses the grassland and comes to a dense, thorny thicket that borders a dark marshland his people call the Slough. The clan avoids the area because they think it is full of demons and evil spirits. Tao almost lets the taboo stop him from entering the Slough, but then he hears animals and pushes his way through the briars that border it. The Slough looks to Tao like any other normal place, not remarkable or evil.

As he moves through the Slough, Tao finds ample food: watercress, mushrooms, berries, mussels, and fish. He realizes this untouched area has an abundance of food. Tao attempts to catch a fish with his bare hands, but he is startled by a sudden loud shrieking noise. He thinks the sound must have been made by an evil spirit and tries to prepare himself to encounter it.

Tao follows the terrifying noise, expecting to find a demon or evil spirit. What he finds is an eagle-owl that is trying to protect its nest and three eggs from the young wolf dog. Tao admires the eagle-owl’s fierceness and bravery. He joins the wolf dog in his attack, and they are eventually able to work together to take two of the eggs from the nest. They share the eggs and continue hunting, working together to catch a total of five rabbits and a pouch full of lemmings. Tao feeds one of the rabbits to the wolf dog, who he names Ram after the spirit of the hunt.

Tao knows he cannot take Ram back to camp with him because the other hunters would kill the wolf dog. He promises the wolf dog that he will come back and scares him away by shouting and throwing stones. He returns to camp, where he drops off lemmings and mussels for Kala before finding Volt to turn in the rest of his catch. Volt tells him that from now on he must stay focused on the hunt and learn from the other hunters. Tao is angry and emboldened by his experience and challenges Volt, saying that he will hunt alone and bring back what he catches.

Volt is annoyed by this and says that Tao is stubborn and doesn’t listen. He says that Tao can hunt alone, but if Tao does not want to be part of the hunters he will only eat when he himself catches something. Tao keeps pushing, saying that they should hunt with wolf dogs like the Mountain people do. Volt claims that only evil spirits hunt with wolf dogs and that they are men and will hunt as men. Tao does not think the hunters will listen to reason and gives up on talking to them.

That night, he sits by the fire outside of Kala’s hut and thinks about the Secret Cavern in the Big Cave of their camp. The Secret Cavern is the place where important rituals take place, and the Chosen Ones paint the walls with sacred images of animals to bring in good luck for the hunting. Tao thinks about his parents, too. He knows nothing about them, but every time he has asked Kala for information, she has told him that he’s too young and that it doesn’t matter. Now, Tao thinks, “he was older and it did matter” (43).

Tao returns to Kala’s hut. Before he can say anything, she steps outside to make sure no one can hear them. She tells Tao that she knows he has been in the Slough because it is the only place nearby where mussels can be found. She tells him she used to go there often, “but that was before the bad thing happened, before it became a place of evil” (46). She refuses to tell Tao what the bad thing was. Tao says it’s wrong that the people are going hungry when there is food nearby, but he knows it would do no good to try to change the elders’ minds about the Slough.

Tao tells Kala that he wants to know about his mother and father. It is important because parentage is something the elders consider when deciding who will be a Chosen One. Kala tells him that he will never be chosen because of the taboos, but Tao insists that he still wants to know. Kala says she will not discuss his father because of something terrible, but she tells him that his mother, Vedra, was one of the Mountain people and was captured during a raid. Despite the clan’s tradition of taking “weak and crippled children” up to the boulders to be eaten by hyenas, Vedra refused to part with Tao. Kala tells Tao that, “again and again they tried to take you away, but she fought like a cave lion, screaming, biting, refusing to give you up” (47). Kala brought Vedra food so she could survive and nurse Tao, but Vedra died during the winter. Tao’s father ordered him to be taken to the boulders and left to die, but Kala rescued Tao and raised him as her own. Tao’s father called this an “evil curse,” but the elders allowed Kala to do it (48).

Kala tells Tao that Vedra was wise and creative and generous. She made many things, like jewelry, headbands, and tools, and would give them away freely. Tao feels a connection to his mother because she was a “maker” (48). Kala says that Tao, like his mother, was always taken by the beauty of the world, and this is what makes him different. Tao is happy to hear this and tells Kala that he will create his own kind of manhood, and if he cannot be a Chosen One, he will find his own cave and live away from the clan and hunt for himself. Kala tells Tao to be careful not to make enemies in the clan. He thanks her and tells her he will bring food back for her often. When he goes back outside by the fire, he discovers that Ram has followed him.

The other hunters hear Ram and try to find him. They believe the wolf dog is evil and will bring a curse to their camp. Tao knows he must find Ram before the hunters do, but he also knows he cannot call out to him without attracting the attention of the hunters. He finds Ram and tries to quietly drive him away, but Ram won’t leave. To save the wolf dog, Tao wraps his foot around his spear and runs through the dark forest, ordering Ram to follow him. The spear-running method allows Tao to outrun the hunters. He tells Ram to go to the Slough and wait for him there, then he returns to the camp and pretends to be angry that he could not catch the wolf dog. Volt says the wolf dog’s appearance is an evil sign.

In the morning, Tao walks until he finds a place with many caves that is far enough away from the camp that he can be independent while still close enough that he will be able to visit Kala and bring her food. He chooses a good cave and spends several days making the space a home, outfitting it with bedding and cooking implements and fire. Then, he makes yellow chalk and black charcoal and begins drawing on his cave walls. He begins by drawing a horse, but he cannot make the anatomy look right. He breaks his chalk and thinks he’ll never learn. He keeps practicing but has no more success and goes to bed that night angry and frustrated.

The next day he goes to the Slough to hunt. He finds Ram there, looking much healthier than he had before. They hunt together and Tao returns to his cave to eat. He notices Ram poised in the mouth of the cave, his body silhouetted by the setting sun. Hurriedly, Tao picks up his chalk and sketches the wolf dog. He discovers that he can draw very well if he has something real to base his images on.