Skinwalker – Seventeenth Chapter
A random place, somewhere near the Kawatche Caves
Pete and Clark raced down the dirt track, Rory refusing to participate and instead just enjoying herself. The trail split into two and Pete went to the right, Clark to the left. Rory followed her brother down the left fork.

Rory saw her brother shoot over a small dirt hill, hanging in the air for a moment before landing gracefully. Before she reached the hill however, there was a thud and a crashing sound from the other side.

"Clark!" she yelled, simultaneously stopping the bike and jumping off of it, zooming over the hill at superspeed. "Clark!" she yelled again, going over a tree and stopping just in time to prevent herself falling down a large hole. She peered into the hole, but couldn't see anything.

"Clark!" Rory screamed, terrified.

Rory? came the question from her mind. She calmed down and thought, Oh thank GOD, don't ever scare me like that again!

Yeah, Rors, I won't. Hey there's like all these caves down here – it's really cool!

Rory heard a dirt bike roar behind her. "Hey Rory! What happened?" yelled Pete.

Pointing to the hole, she called back, "Clark fell down the hole."

"What?" he said, closer now and confused. Leaning over the hole, he called, "Clark, man! You down there?"

"Yeah, Pete, I'm fine!" Clark called up to them.

"Hey, you gonna need help or can you jump your way out?" Pete yelled.

"I, um, Pete, I have company down here! And I did fall like 150 feet…" he trailed off. Rory heard him say something like, "Funny guy, huh?"

"As long as you're okay, Clark," Rory called.

Rory heard some more murmured conversation and decided to see who Clark's 'company' was. She used her power to read Clark's mind. Looking through his eyes, she saw a beautiful Native American girl, carrying a torch.

Does she have a name? she asked her brother.

Kyla, came his reply.

"Oh, my God," Kyla said, looking over Clark's shoulder. Rory noted that she looked quite similar to Lana – the same skin colour and high cheekbones. Kyla walked past Clark, shining the torch onto the wall.

Clark turned, asking, "What is it?"

"It's the legend of Numan and his sister, Shumam," she said, awe in her voice. "My ancestors have passed down this story for generations."

The wall had several primitive-looking drawings on the wall. One depicted a man and a woman falling from the sky, while another showed a man shooting fire from his eyes and a woman with blue sparks coming from her fingers.

"They said it had been written in the earth long ago," Kyla continued, "but nobody knew where until now." She turned to Clark, eyes shining. "Thank you."

He shrugged, embarrassed. "Sure, no problem."

"You don't understand," she said earnestly. "My grandfather's been searching for this wall his whole life."

She turned back to the wall, shining the torch on the walls again. "It was prophesied that Numan and Shumam would fall from the sky in a rain of fire." She shone the torch on the picture of them falling from the sky. "They say that Numan will have the strength of ten men, and be able to start fires with his eyes, while Shumam will be able to run faster then the fastest animal alive and be able to heal wounds with a touch." Kyla shone the torch on the other drawing of the man and woman.

"It probably sounds silly," she realized, looking down.

Clark shook his head, and said, "Not to me."

Or me, added Rory in his head, still listening.

"I've got to tell my grandfather about this," Kyla said, excitement obvious on her face. "Come on, I'll show you the way out. Try and keep up." She turned and began to walk out.

Clark took one last look at the pictures, excitement on his face too. He began to follow Kyla and Rory was just about to leave when Clark stopped at another wall.

Clark? What's the – Then Rory saw the wall.

In the middle was an octagonal groove, just like the one in the spaceship.

Storm Cellar, afternoon

Clark, Jonathan and Rory looked at the spaceship. Clark's eyes hadn't been playing tricks on him – the groove in the ship was identical to the one in the wall of the cave.

"It's an octagon, Clark. I'm sure it's a very common shape," Jonathan tried to assure his children, as well as himself.

"Okay," Clark admitted, realizing the truth in his words, "but what about the story?"

"Exactly. How many people fall to earth in a 'rain of fire' and can shoot fire from their eyes? Or heal with a single touch?" Rory asked him.

Jonathan looked at them. "Guys, I understand how important it is for you to figure out where you came from, but those drawings could have a hundred different interpretations."

Clark pulled a cloth wrapped object from his pocket. Unwrapping it, he said, "Dad, you pulled this from the spaceship just before it closed." He showed him the piece of metal with alien symbols all over it.

Jonathan looked at it warily before saying, "I don't see what that has to –"

Rory interrupted, her face alight with excitement. "Dad, the symbols on the metal are the same as the ones in the cave. Kyla's grandfather has been studying the legend of Numan and Shumam for years. Maybe he can read it."

"I want you two to be careful what you tell these people," Jonathan said sternly.

"Dad, if they can tell us who or what we are, it's worth the risk," said Clark.

"We don't know anything about Kyla, or her grandfather for that manner," Jonathan said, trying to keep hold of the situation.

"I know. That's why I asked Clark to ask them over for dinner," Rory said cheerfully.

They laughed at the expression on their father's face and left, talking excitedly about their origins. Jonathan took one last look at the spaceship and said quietly, "If you take my children away from me, then so help me God..." He trailed off, not knowing exactly what he would do. He told the spaceship so, adding on the end, "but it would be extremely bad."

Then Jonathan turned and walked away.

Kent kitchen, night
Joseph, Kyla, Clark, Jonathan and Rory all sat at the table while Martha took their plates.

"According to the legend," Joseph began, his voice deep and rich – perfect for storytelling, "a man came from the stars and fell in love with the mother of our people. Out of that forbidden affair, the Kawatche people were born."

"Do you know which star he came from?" asked Clark, trying to disguise his eagerness.

"The legend only tells that he left one day and flew back into the sky, promising that he would send two others," Joseph told them, eyes crinkling at the corners.

"Numan and Shumam," breathed Rory.

He nodded impressively, saying, "Of course, that was five hundred years ago. They're a little late."

Kyla looked at Clark, smiling at him. He smiled back.

"You're not from around here, are you?" The question was directed at both Clark and Rory. Before they could respond, Martha interrupted.

"Actually, they're adopted. Biological siblings, we think, but not biologically ours."

"These, uh, these symbols, they seem to make up some sort of alphabet," Clark said, trying to get the conversation back where he wanted it.

"That's the really weird part," interjected Kyla. Clark smiled at her again, noting the way the light sparkled in her eyes.

"Our people don't have a written language," clarified Joseph. "I've seen a symbol here or there on artefacts, but never in a pattern before."

"So you don't know what they mean," Rory said, disappointed.

"Grandpa's studied a lot of ancient languages," Kyla said to her. Addressing the group at large, she said, "I'm sure with some time he can decipher what the symbols are."

"If Luthor doesn't get to them before we do," grumbled Joseph.

Clark turned to look at his mother. "Mom, maybe you can talk to Mr. Luthor."

Joseph looked up in interest. "You know Lionel Luthor?" he asked, speaking directly to Martha.

"Know him?" Rory said, stopping her mother. "Mom is his executive assistant."

Martha looked at her children, hesitant. "I'll do what I can, but it just isn't that easy guys." Rory gave her the puppy-dog eyes look, but Martha still tried to explain herself. "The situation isn't that black and white. That complex will create a thousand desperately needed jobs."

"And you think that's more important than these caves?" Clark asked, somehow managing to combine disappointment with just the right amount of anger.

Martha didn't have an answer to that, and Jonathan took the opportunity to ask, "So, um, does anyone want coffee with their pie?"

Same night, just after dinner – Kent barn loft
Clark stared up at the sky, remembering wistfully the time when looking through his telescope had merely meant wondering if there might be life on other planets. Now, however, he knew for sure that there was life on at least one other planet out there.

He lifted his head and turned, starting when he saw Kyla, watching him with a small smile on her face.

Gesturing to the telescope and feigning casualness, he asked her, "You want a look?"

She walked towards him, saying, "I kinda like seeing it with my own eyes."

She walked past him to the window and he smiled.

Turning and walking up behind her, he said, "So these legends, you don't think they're like Venus and Apollo and all those other myths?"

"Just cause something's a myth, doesn't make it not true," she said, still not facing him. "Here." She took his hand in hers and pointed his finger at the sky. "Do you see that bright one right there?"

Clark nodded even though she couldn't see.

"If you follow the stars around it," she continued, "it makes the shape of a wolf's head." She put his hand down onto the window sill and rested hers on top. "See how one of the eyes is missing? Our ancestors say that there used to be a star there. That's where Numan and Shumam came from."

Clark stiffened a little. Trying to act casual, he said, "What happened to it?"

Kyla turned to face him and said mysteriously, "You tell me."

Clark just looked at her, confused and she continued quietly, "You and your sister are the ones that fell from the stars."

Clark stared at her, completely shocked. Denials spun through his head, but his main thought was, How does she know that?

Kawatche Caves, the next day
Kyla climbed up one of the cave walls as Clark shone the torch onto it, making sure she could see. She stopped and looked closer at one of the drawings.

"The pictographs are a lot more detailed up here," she called down to him.

"What do they say?" he asked.

"It promises that one day Numan and Shumam will protect the entire world," she said, a little awed. Suddenly the ground shook a little and Clark glanced around in alarm.

"Luthor's bulldozers," Kyla said, angry. "It's been happening all week."

"I don't know if it's safe for us to be here right now," Clark said, cautious and yet at the same time wanting to know more about his heritage.

Kyla wasn't paying attention. "Oh Clark, get up here. You have to see this."

Clark put the torch on the ground, making sure the light still shone at the wall and climbed up to where she was.

"What is it?" he asked.

"It's Ziget," she said. Clark gave her a confused look and she elaborated, "He's like a brother to Numan, and he would do anything for both him and Shumam."

Clark looked at the picture she was pointing to, and it depicted a creature with two heads.

"Legend has it," she continued, "that one day he'll turn against Numan and Shumam, and together they'll be the balance between good and evil." She smiled. "Of course, it's not really a balance if it's two against one, but the legends say that Shumam cares about Ziget very much before he turns on them, and even after it's been proved again, and again, that he is evil, she still believes there's some good in him."

Who's Ziget, I wonder? Clark thought as he stared at the painting. If I'm Numan, and Rory is Shumam… Pete sprung into his head for a moment but Clark quickly dismissed the thought.

Whoever he is, we'll work it out, he thought. We always do.

Kawatche Caves, the day after that other one(God, there's so many of them.)
Clark, Rory and Lex walked through the caves, torches in hand. Clark had told Rory everything he'd found out about Numan, Shumam and Ziget. Now they were just here to show her so she could learn, and Lex so he could save them from his father.

"Not that I don't find the dank stench of a cave invigorating," Lex said dryly, "but why'd you bring me down here?"

"This is the first time I've been down here too, Lex," Rory reminded him gently.

"I wanted you – both of you – to see them for yourselves," Clark answered. "This is what Joseph,

Kyla and I are trying to protect."

"Incredible," breathed Lex, shining his torch on the drawing of Numan and Shumam falling from the sky. "These may be more impressive than the caves at La Scalle."

"Joseph and Kyla are trying to get a team down to authenticate them," Clark added, trying not to seem too eager.

Lex turned to watch the siblings move around the cave, wearing a sceptical look on his face. Rory looked up at him and they gazed at each other for a moment before Lex asked, still not looking away, "So you're doing all of this for some cave paintings?"

"I'm doing this because I think it's important to understand the past," Clark replied, looking over at Lex. Rory immediately looked away from him, feeling slightly guilty for some reason. Clark's eyes flicked between Lex and Rory before settling back on Lex. "Don't you?"

Why do I feel like I missed something? Clark wondered, making sure Rory could hear him. Oh, that's right – I did!

Oh, shut up,she replied crabbily.

"Looks like a fascinating story," Lex said, interrupting them much to Rory's delight.

"Makes you wonder if the people who drew these paintings thought that we'd be here a hundred years later looking on," Rory replied, fighting the urge to look at him again.

Lex glanced over his shoulder at her, then back to the wall. He noticed the octagonal groove that Clark had seen on his first day there and touched it. Clark was busy on the other side of the caves and Rory was refusing to look at him. "Somehow, I think they did," he said, smiling.

He turned away from the wall just as Clark turned to look at him. Eyes shining, he said, "Lex, these caves are a part of our history. Saving these paintings might be the most important thing you'll ever do."

Rory looked at her brother, then at Lex. "What do you think, Lex?" she questioned quietly in her melodic voice.

Lex looked at Clark, then at Rory. Not breaking eye contact, he replied, "Maybe more important then anything we can imagine."

A/N I apologize (again) for taking so long. I got a whole heap of assignments and exams are coming up this week too, so I'm gonna be busy for a while. It's the Easter long weekend which is the only reason I was actually able to get this done, and I probably should have studied instead but hey.

Also, Shumam is Rory. Obviously if she wasn't written into the Kawatche legends everyone would be suspicious. I've also picked out a Kryptonian name for her which you'll find out in the next chapter, Rosetta. AND I may not have mentioned this earlier, but Smallville returned in Australia to 10 HD (which we have) and the sixth season just finished, so yeah.
Xx.maddy-sparx.xX

P.S. I'll try and update a hell of a lot faster than these last few times. Once again, sorry!