In his sleep, Grok could hear the grunts and snorts of other members of the tribe. He watched them awkwardly dancing around a fire and clobbering over each other at times. He saw Chaka trip over her foot and land face down on the ground with a loud thud, barely missing the fire. How could he resist such elegance and grace? He was about to get up and join the jamboree, but then he woke up.

He could still hear them outside of the cave, but they were not celebrating. They were arguing and fighting. It was the members of the Food Gathering Committee. But why weren't they out hunting and gathering? With the journey coming up ahead, the tribe would need all the food they could get. What could they be fighting about? Grok looked around the cave. Others were sitting up too, watching the mouth of the cave and listening to the ruckus.

"HA GA BA DOOO FIN NAAAAAAA!" shouted Pagdo, the biggest and toughest male in the tribe. The fighting seemed to stop, and for a moment there was silence. Then many different voices started grunting their objections, and soon the pushing and hitting resumed.

Ha ga ba dooo fin naaaaaaa? Grok thought. How bizarre! They had seen a huge animal... built like a tiger, with the skin of an elephant instead of fur. It had the fangs of a crocodile, and the ears of something with huge pointy ears! That was much stranger than any animal Grok had ever seen. He listened more closely to the hullabaloo. Pagdo was insisting that the animal was sacred and should not be harmed. But the rest of the tribe seemed to think it was a blessing from the gods, sent to them as a grand feast before their long migration.

Grok wondered if the other strong males would overthrow Pagdo. He wondered if he would ever get to see the Giant Saber Tooth Sphynx, and whether he would be so lucky as to survive that encounter. He wondered what would happen to Pagdo's female if the other males killed him.

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