At the meeting, Elizabeth met two other vampires for the first time. They were introduced to her as Cal and Ren. These two were brother and sister. Both were half Neanderthal, but she thought they were very human looking. They were both upright and had no prognathism. The only thing unusual was that they were very broad, like football players, and had brow ridges a little too pronounced. Other than that, they could easily pass as modern humans. Cal looked to be about twenty and Ren around thirty (though Elizabeth knew they were probably much younger when they became vampires). Cal had on a brown hoody and an old pair of jeans. He looked like a typical young man. Ren was not what Elizabeth would have expected of a female camper. She wore a knee length, off white dress and gold sandals. Elizabeth wondered why she packed clothes like this for a camping trip to an island. And then she remembered that she too had packed dresses. And she had packed them for no other reason than she sometimes felt like wearing a dress. She wondered if Ren had been relaxing in her pretty dress and gold sandals when Joe gave her the news. Either way, she was happy to see such normal looking people. Kyla was a wild woman in furs, Joe looked like a monster, and Aaron, though she loved him, would always be a little creepy to her.
Curiously, Gar was missing. Or maybe not so curiously. Elizabeth had a strong feeling Gar was still upset with Aaron for not allowing him to have her.
"I bet it was Gar," Aaron said bitterly. "He's the only one not here."
"Just because Joe didn't find him that doesn't mean it was him," Ren stated.
"What about the aliens? The last time we saw Arthur, he was being abducted. Wouldn't they be the prime suspects?" Elizabeth questioned.
"I don't think so," Kyla said. "I've never known space aliens to harm anyone like this. I think it's more likely that Arthur, somehow, arrived back on this island and was attacked."
Joe grunted to get their attention and then signed something to the rest of the group.
"I don't think so," Aaron said. "Arthur was clumsy, but I think it is highly unlikely that he fell. I think we should all be safe, stick together, and look for Gar as a group. He's a wolf. He can't have gone far. He can't swim off the island like Joe or Kyla."
"I disagree about everyone sticking together," Kyla said. "Marnie and Lyle can't possibly go with us. It's too dangerous. I won't do that to them."
"They can stay here," Aaron countered.
"No, that's also too dangerous. What if this is Gar's doing? What if he comes here and decides to finish Arthur off. They won't stand a chance against Gar. I won't leave them alone."
"Why don't we leave Cal," Ren suggested. "His animal is a giant lion. He can protect them all from Gar."
"I'm fine with whatever people here want to do," Cal said. "If you want me to stand guard then I'll stand guard."
Joe was sitting at Kyla's dining table and he pounded on it. Everyone looked over to him and he began signing.
"Joe wants to stay behind to watch over Arthur and I agree," Aaron said turning to Elizabeth. "He's a medicine man trained during the Paleolithic. But he was also trained as a doctor in California during the 1800s. Don't ask me how that happened. The wild west was a lot wilder than Joe, so they could handle him treating patients with those fangs."
This surprised Elizabeth, but then she remembered Joe's kind eyes. He certainly had the bedside manner to be a doctor.
Everyone agreed that this was the best course of action. Joe would tend to Arthur and Cal would stand guard. Cal morphed into a prehistoric lion, far larger than any modern day lion, right before their eyes and curled up in the living room. Elizabeth had not been prepared for the sheer size of him and gasped. Aaron pulled her close and they walked out the door with the others.
The group decided that they would spend the whole night looking for Gar if they had too. And they would start on Gar's property. While they were walking to Gar's plot of land, Elizabeth decided to make conversation.
"I'd like to ask you all a question," she said. "How did everyone get their names? Or did they have many Joe Newman's and the like during the Upper Paleolithic?"
"My birth name was Renin," Ren answered. "I've altered it over the millenniums to fit time and place. The same goes for my brother. His name was Caldo, but he goes by Cal. We use the last part of his first name when we need a family name. So, when we are out in civilization, he's Cal Doe and I'm Ren Doe."
"I was always Kyla," Kyla said. "And my last name is always changing. But when I need official documents or a bank account, I tend to use the last name Stone. It's because I'm from the Stone Age." Kyla smiled with pride. To her, being from the Stone Age was an honor. It meant you were tough and knew how to survive under extreme conditions.