IT WAS A DREAM. IT had to be a dream, and yet ...
I seemed to wake to the soft touch of hands on my body, feeling, probing, examining. I jerked in surprise and opened my eyes. Naked, dark people squatted around me, their deep brown eyes searching mine and roaming over me. We looked at each other for a moment before the hands reached out to feel me again.
"Hey," I said, and pushed them away. The skin was rough, and their fingernails were black and broken. I sat up. The cave was lit, not brightly, but enough to see by. Daylight came from above and to the right, through a low opening. I could also hear water trickling. The people around me spoke to each other, and the language was like nothing I had ever heard. It was musical, and sometimes the speech sounded more like singing than speaking
