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“I don’t like it,” said Blake, when they had taken cover behind a boulder.

They had taken a moment, stunned by the appearance of campfire smoke. They saw no other sign of human habitation or activity. They all remarked that the cave entrance was shaped like an old man’s mouth, an elderly chap whose better days were behind him, but he was reminiscing in the pleasure of the oncoming winter of his life. Certain rocks and boulders and shrubs formed the vague impression of a face in contentment, as the old man might be, in delighting in visitors, grandchildren, and storytelling. It puffed away, smoke encircling as from a pipe, then dissipating gently as it wound up and around those same boulders, rocks, and shrubs.

“Well, obviously,” said Alayna. “How long have we been exploring, and only now we find an occupied cave.”

“Maybe it’s a primitive humanoid,” said Abe. The other three stared at him.

“Abe, this isn’t an anime,” Blake said.

“Well, it’s just like in The Morose Alpaca, Season One, Episode 13, when they were setting up the next season, when Nami stumbled into a cave on a mountain. So, yeah, this isn’t an anime, but it’s like an anime.”

“You’re hopeless,” said Alayna.

“Aw, don’t be mean,” Abe said.

“Kids!” Blake said. He lowered his voice: “Dammit, I swear to everything good and wonderful, if I hear about the anime again, I will squeeze your head like a lemon!”

Sano laughed sweetly.

“Anyway,” said Abe, “Nami stumbled into this cave which had a fire in it, but no one around. She hid herself in a dark corner, afraid. All night long she stayed in there, and the fire kept itself going; there was no one to tend it, no stack of fuel near at hand, but it went on and on, never changing.

“Finally, the sun rose, and she could see shadows projected on the wall—"

“Socrates’s Allegory of the Cave,” said Blake.

“What? No! What’s that?” Abe said.

Oh, Stoic, Stoic, Stoic. You disappoint me.

“Your anime was doing a pastiche of the Allegory of the Cave,” Blake insisted.

“How do you know?” Abe huffed. “You don’t like anime.”

“It’s obvious!”

“Now, Blake,” said Sano. “It’s best to let Abe tell the episode plot. Sometimes it’s quite helpful, you know.”

“Fine,” said Blake. “But hurry up. We’re losing light.”

“Well,” said Abe, “Nami saw the shadow of someone outside, and she recognized it as a farmer, because he was holding a sickle. Then another shadow appeared, and she recognized it as a village gendarme, because he carried a truncheon and wore a funny hat. And then she saw the shadow of her beloved friend Abigail, whom she recognized because she loved her and knew her dearly.”

“Huh,” said Blake. “I don’t know how that helps us here, but that is interesting.”

Alayna spoke, “I think it’s a counter-argument to The Cave. No one ever truly sees plainly, but we know in full because of our relationships.”

Sano’s eyes lit up. Abe remarked how similar their eyes were, Sano’s and Alayna’s.

You must have a thing, Stoic.

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“That’s interesting,” said Sano. “Perhaps we never know anything in full, but we know better when we are knit together. The material world is a passing thing, but our relationships: they may endure or fail, but they are known only in the shadow-realm.”

“Okay, that’s enough for now,” said Blake. “Aristotle was a simpleton, when it comes right down to it, you know.”

Now Abe joined the other two to make three, and they stared at Blake.

“He’s the greatest philosopher of all time,” Alayna said.

Blake snorted. “Okay, I propose we make our way away from here.”

“Something’s wrong,” said Alayna.

“Well, yeah, I think we need to get back and bring reinforcements so we can protect each other.”

“No,” said Alayna, “I mean something is wrong right now. Some circuit in me just woke up.” Tears sprang into her eyes. Abe looked and saw that her eyes were bright gold, intensely colored, almost lighted.

She’s on fire on the inside. She is in pain.

“What?” said Blake. “What’s the circuit doing? What’s it saying?”

“I don’t know; I think it’s still in the boot process. I’ve slowed the processes down, you know, with my…with my…medicine.”

Blake stood, looking around, trying to see something. “Where’s the transmission coming from?”

Alayna burst into tears. “Hurry!” she said. “I’m slipping. You won’t survive me…”

Just then they heard it: a whine, terrifying at first, because they didn’t know what it is. Sano suddenly cried out: “It’s a drone!”

It was a drone. They couldn’t locate it for a moment, the physics of the sound wave and the echoes from the boulders and mountainside causing an illocal effect, but then the machine veered, and the doppler effect helped them pinpoint it. All four of them gestured to it simultaneously.

“Please,” Alayna whimpered. “Make it stop, Abe!”

“It’s scanning,” said Blake. “Triangulating. It’s reading Alayna.”

“Kill me,” Alayna said, bringing her voice down into a whisper. “Save yourselves so I don’t have to live with murdering you all.” She twitched and writhed against the growing power within her.

“Nonsense,” said Blake. “Never give up hope.” But then he stood still, saying nothing, doing nothing.

“Should we shoot it?”

“Not sure.”

The anxiety was growing within Abe.

“Why not?”

“They’ll just send another, and they’ll know…” Blake continued to drift in thought. Abe suppressed the rising panic, telling himself that the most important thing was to let Blake think.

Now, Stoic, NOW!

A surge of power burst through the shield of panic and anxiety, transmitting from him. Then there was nothing.

The whine of the drone drew nearer, and they saw it menacing them.

“Did you call it to us?” Blake asked.

“No,” said Alayna and Abe.

Blake spun away from the drone to look at Alayna and Abe. “What is happening?” he asked.

“I don’t know,” said Abe. “Something came out of me.”

“You mean, like, pee?”

“No, a power.”

A grinding sound came from the drone as it hovered over them, as though standing on invisible spindly spider legs.

“That’s the sound of an antenna tuner. It’s retuning. Something went wrong with it.”

The drone made the grinding sound again, followed by a series of electronic clicks. “I’ve heard that sound before,” Blake continued, laughing. “That’s the sound of a malfunctioning transmitter. The standing wave ratio is out of whack, and its protection circuitry is preventing transmission.”

Alayna lay down.

The drone tried tuning itself again, but the same clicking sound followed the grinding sound. It then turned itself, as though disappointed in a lost hunt, as an archer might when a prize elk eludes him, and it buzzed off into the space above a grove of spruce trees downslope, and it began to scan again. They heard the grinding sound as it departed from sight, but Alayna continued to lie still.

“I wonder if the other bionics are receiving it,” said Blake.

image [https://embodimentandexclusion.files.wordpress.com/2024/02/2.14.jpg]

Sano was attending to Alayna. “She’s breathing, but she’s unconscious. I think she won a battle, Blake.”

I think that is the first time we’ve heard Sano call anyone by their name.

“Well, that makes our decision for us, I suppose,” said Blake, sighing. “Into the cave we go. Let’s hope a bunch of philosophers are in there, pretending to know where reality lies.”

“Look!” said Sano, pointing at the cave entrance. Blake hoisted Alayna into his arms, lifting up his eyes to see what Sano was excited about.

The cave entrance had changed.

“Stalactites and stalagmites,” said Abe, in wonder.

No longer was it a welcoming and cheerful old man; no, the entrance of the cave had changed so that its appearance was a snout with long, sharp teeth.

“A dragon…” said Sano, cooing.

Blake surveyed the change. “A friendly one, though,” he said. “So I think. A dangerous friend. It’s a fable, now, Abe, not an allegory. This is putting your head in the lion’s mouth.”

A cold wind blew.

“The mountain says we should do just that, I think,” said Abe.

“Boy, I hate being out of control,” said Blake. “You know? That’s what all the manuals say: ‘if you’re caught in a snowstorm after a plane crash, here are the steps you take to be in control of the situation so you might increase your chances of survival.’

“But here we are, kids: none of this is in the manual, but we’ve survived. I would say luck did it, but just now Abe had the right power for the right situation. I’d say they’re in control of us, but not in control; controlling us in their own internecine battle. We’re a flanking exercise for two warring partners, you know? You know?”

“Yes, Blake,” said Sano. “Should we go in?”

“Hells bells, I guess so,” said Blake. “Alayna’s light, but it’s not like she’s nothing.”

Smoke curled around the teeth, such as they were. The party pushed through the smoke and into the cave. After a moment of wiping their eyes and expelling smoke from their lungs, they found themselves inside a primitive arrangement: a simple campfire, with nothing around it; no pile of fuel, no tin cans, no cooking utensils, just a fire, flickering in a small recess in the mountainside, large enough for a fire to get oxygen from the outside, large enough for four people to crowd inside, but small enough to keep warm.

In that way, it was practically perfect.

“Puff the Magic Dragon,” said Blake, as he laid Alayna upon the ground. He looked around.

“Come on, Sano!” he pleaded. “You’re old enough to recognize that reference!”

“Sorry, no,” she said. “I’m Japanese, remember?”

“Aw,” he said. “You didn’t have Puff the Magic Dragon back in the 70s?”

“Sano is not nearly as old as you,” insisted Abe.

Sano laughed sweetly.

“Hmph,” said Blake, taking Sano’s entire body into his eyes with a quick up-and-down glance. “Well, anyway, Puff the Magic Dragon lived by the sea. This ain’t that. He frolicked in the autumn mist. This ain’t that, either. In a land called Honah Lee. Well, now, I highly doubt that this is that, but maybe we are in a land called Honah Lee, ruled by a dope-smoking cartoon dragon from an old hippie song.”

From the back of the cave, a voice came, the voice of a man whose sweetness was tempered by wisdom. “You’re more right than you know. Of course, not as silly as all that make-believe stuff coming out of the trauma of the Vietnam War.” A small figure emerged from the shadow into the dim firelight. They strained to see him clearly.

“Oh, great,” said Blake. “Another member of the Unexpected Companions!”

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