Greenways Read online

  Gripping the edge of the giant leaf, he heaved himself up to its edge and leaned over to slake his thirst in the cool sweet water. Some of the water plants were true giants, and he and his group had often bathed in them on hot and sticky days, just to get cool again.

  By the time that Kel had made his way back to the group, it was getting quite dark, and he had to take extra care on the last leg of his journey crossing from one tree system to the next, as some of the linking branches were quite thin.

  Some of the younger ones had already settled down for the night, and finding anyone wide awake and interested enough to hear of his exploits was just as difficult as ever.

  He still couldn’t understand why such a cavalier attitude was adopted by the other members of his group to any dangers or things of interest he mentioned, it was almost as if they didn’t care, and yet their survival depended upon the latest information of any new threats being relayed to them as quickly as possible.

  In the end Kel gave up, and he too found a snug spot to sleep through the night, but not before putting his little collection of tinkle stones around the area, hanging them from nearby branches so that if anything should creep up on him while he slept, the stones would be disturbed and hopefully wake him up. Funny, he had shown the others how it worked, but he remained the only one in the whole group to use them.

  Food down in the lower levels must have been getting a bit scarce, for during the night something large and well muscled with large saucer like eyes crept up to the group, and with one swift blow from a powerful fore paw, crushed the head of one of the group, flat. A slight whimper was the only sound, followed by the soft rustle of the retreating beast with its meal.

  The time during which the lesser sun didn’t shine through at this level was their most vulnerable, as creatures which couldn’t stand the light found it quite acceptable to come up to see what there was to eat, and yet they took no precautions. Kel couldn’t understand that either.

  Next morning, as the greater sun broke through the heavy canopy above, there was only a blood stained smear to show what had happened in the darkness of the night, and that was fading fast as a variety of small insects hungrily devoured the food bonanza.

  The trail led to one of the main trunks, and a few smudges and scratch marks on the bark showed where the creature had slithered down to the depths below.

  When Kel pointed out what had happened, no one except the nearest relatives of the missing group member seemed overly perturbed, and the incident was soon forgotten as the early morning food gathering party set out to find the first meal of the day.

  Kel felt he was different to the others of his group, and found it difficult to come to terms with that difference. He really cared what happened to all of them, while they just went through the rote of taking precautions against the perils of the forest. This was something he must mention to the Story Teller, as he may well have an answer for the dissimilarity he felt, and an explanation for the others apparent indifference to the dangers around them.

  A small party of them were asked to harvest some more staves for the group, and Kel went along to help as he quite enjoyed stave gathering. They trooped out of the main area where the females and younger ones usually stayed until midday, and made their way across several main junctions of the larger branches to where an old tree had at last succumbed to the ravages of time, and crumpled to the forest floor deep below them, leaving a brightly lit area in which the stave plants thrived in great abundance.

  The party had split up into threes and fours, working on their own chosen clumps, and Kel, the youngest of his group, took over as team leader. No one seemed to mind, and they took their orders from him without question, cutting the poles from the main plant as he indicated his choice. He once wondered what would happen if he suddenly said ‘Jump off this branch,’ and wouldn’t have been too surprised if they had done so.

  Kel was just about to say that they had collected enough staves, when a yell from the party next to him cut through the air, causing a flurry of various flying creatures to take flight and several other oddities to scurry for cover.

  One of the group had turned around too quickly and hit one of his fellows in the chest with the sap dripping end of a stave. The unfortunate was clutching his chest, trying to remove the sticky juice and getting it on his fingers.

  ‘Lay down quickly.’ yelled Kel, but the sheer terror of the situation had paralysed the recipient of the sticky deadly juice, and he just stood there yelling. Kel took a couple of quick steps forward and kicked the unfortunate’s legs out from under him, sending the body crashing down onto the track.

  ‘You two, wet his chest, quickly!’ yelled Kel with a voice of authority.’

  ‘But that will ....’

  ‘Do it, now!’ he almost screamed back at the hesitant onlookers. Unfortunately, most of them had emptied their bladders either at early morning ablutions, or while treating the ends of the staves they had cut, so it was some moments before anyone was found with enough of the necessary fluid and the ability to release it.

  Eventually one of the group managed to produce a rather pathetic dribble, and then two members of another team who had been working on the fringe of the stave clumps came forward with a plentiful supply.

  Grabbing a bunch of leaves, Kel managed to remove most of the sticky white juice from the left hand of the man now writhing on the track, while the two standing over him did their best to direct a wavering stream of steaming urine onto his chest. Kel wetted the man’s hand and then told one of the onlookers to continue to keep it wet, while he inspected the rest of the body for signs of the juice.

  Luckily, it was only the chest and one hand which were contaminated, and Kel waited patiently for the juice on the man’s chest to congeal enough to pull it free without getting stuck to it himself. It had already turned a dark amber colour, and the groans of the man on the track were turning to cries of anger as the enthusiastic couple spraying his chest took their eyes off the target to see what Kel was doing, and were in effect giving him a general bath.

  ‘All right, that’s enough,’ Kel said, ‘it should be hard enough now.’ The two sprayers moved back, while Kel removed his lesser cutting knife from its pouch and bent over the man on the trackway who was now being held down by the arms and legs following Kel’s shouted instructions.

  ‘All of you gather around, watch, listen and remember what I’m about to do,’ Kel said with a ring of authority in his voice, ‘it’s important that you remember this, and tell all the others who go out to gather staves.’ There was dead silence, and all eyes were on him as if he had just made the greatest pronouncement of all time.

  ‘I’m going to cut the lump of congealed juice free from the hair on his chest and then try to pull it off. At worst, he will have a bald patch where the juice has reached the skin and stuck, and a very sore chest for a few days, but at least he won’t be dead.’

  With that, Kel began to cut the hair surrounding the now hardened juice, and eventually managed to prise up one corner so that he could get a firm grip on it.

  ‘This is going to hurt a little, perhaps a lot, but you will still live and it will heal in time.’

  For the recumbent figure on the trackway seeing the lesser cutting knife, Kel with a determined look on his face and the thought of immediate surgery on his chest, it was too much, and renewed his yelling.

  ‘Hold him down tightly.’ Kel shouted, trying to make himself heard above the din, and a pile of bodies descended on the prospective patient, pinning him flat to the path.

  Kel took a firm grip on the patch of hardened resin, and with one swift jerk ripped it free of the man’s chest, taking with it a goodly portion of skin and the attached hair.

  The ensuing scream rent the otherwise quiet forest air, sending the remainder of the local creatures scurrying for cover at a speed they weren’t used to, several missing their footing and subsequently dropping to the depths below.

  The patient had now passed out,
and was lying still and peaceful on the branch, a red patch of raw skin oozing blood and trickling down the side of his chest. Kel went over to one of the side branches and rummaged about for a while, returning with a bunch of a soft moss like growth, and thrust it between the top of the patient’s legs.

  ‘Wet this.’ he said to the whimpering creature on the trackway, who had now regained some degree of consciousness, but his bladder had emptied when the patch of solidified resin had been pulled off, and it didn’t look as if there was any left.

  The patient finally found the strength to sit up and begin complaining, he wanted to wash off the copious amounts of urine contributed so generously by his companions. The stave collecting party broke up, most carrying the harvested staves back to the main group, while three joined Kel and his irate patient, who set off looking for a large water plant.

  Apart from the odd complaint from the one with the sore chest, the group plodded on in relative silence, the slap slap of their feet on the smooth bark of the pathway being the only sound. Kel wondered how long it would be before the whole incident would be forgotten, and little, if anything, learnt from the experience.

  A sharp plop broke the otherwise stillness of the forest, as a large yellow wobbly fruit fell from above, and burst open just ahead of the little band of travellers. With one accord all heads looked up to find the source of the gift, for the wobbly fruit was not abundant in this part of the forest, and was greatly prized by all.

  The vine from which the fruit had dropped was suspended from a branch high up in the canopy, and well out of their reach. Normally, only fruit actually picked from the vine was eaten, as when it had matured enough to fall of its own accord, it had fermented to the degree that two of them would put the average consumer into a state of euphoria, and reduce leg stability to a level that was down right dangerous, hence its name.

  There was no way they could reach the suspended fruits without a tedious climb up into the higher canopy, but a few of the over ripe fruits had fallen onto patches of thick moss which was growing on the side of the trackway, and these hadn’t burst open.

  The temptation was too much for them, and all hurried forward, eager to secure a helping of one of the most pleasant flavours provided by nature.

  ‘Only one fruit each.’ Kel called out, knowing full well he was wasting his breath, but felt he should make the effort anyway.

  The patient had consumed four of the delicious yellow fruits, and had ceased to complain about his chest as the joyous little band helped to support him on their way to the nearest large water plant.

  By the time they had located a plant big enough to dunk their companion in, the fruit had taken full effect, and Kel had great difficulty in preventing the other three from heaving the patient straight into the huge bowl like pool of water without first fishing out the snapper.

  ‘Oh come on,’ cried Kel, ‘remember the drill for water plants. You must remove the Snapper before you drink, let alone dump our friend in the pool.’ The other three abandoned their attempts to launch their companion into the pool, and stood giggling.

  Eventually a twig was found, dipped into the pool and the Snapper extracted from its watery home. The one who had the Snapper on the end of the twig waved it in front of his companion, who promptly ran off, the twig waver following close behind.

  ‘Come back you fools.’ yelled Kel.

  At which point the snapper had somehow wriggled off the end of the twig and was now somewhere on the trackway.

  Both the chased and chaser returned to the water plant a lot faster than they had left it, and looked suitably frightened, glancing around them wondering where the snapper had got to. After a stern ticking off from Kel for their dangerous behaviour, they checked the pool again for Snappers, and then helped the patient, who by this time was on the point of going to sleep, into the pool.

  The sudden submergence in the cool water of the plant pool returned the patient to a sufficient degree of consciousness to begin complaining again. Kel finally lost his patience with the whole affair, slashing the base of the plant pool with his lesser knife.

  The giant leaf split open at the base, and the contents roared out in a raging torrent, nearly washing the four bystanders off their feet. As the water pressure dropped, the patient shot out of the now enlarged split in the leaf, and if Kel hadn’t been so quick in grabbing him, he too would have joined the huge volume of water which was now cascading down in a shattered silver stream to the forest floor below.

  This turn of events tended to sober them up a little, and it was a more circumspect little party who eventually returned to the main group, the patient now adorned with a patch of urine soaked soggy moss strapped to his chest, and with the promise from Kel that it would heal up in time after a visit to Mec for medication.

  The Quest

  Remembering the Story Teller’s invitation to visit him again, Kel partook of the midday break for food, and then left the main group to their own devices. He was as bored with them as they must have felt at his constant chiding and suggestions for a better and safer life in the forest.

  The red marker was still in place as he passed the point where he had baited the creature beneath the trackway yesterday, and he felt tempted to try and bait it again for something amusing to do, but then thought the Story Teller’s tales would be far more interesting, and left them it to wait for something or someone else to come along.

  Mec welcomed him like an old friend, and they were soon deep in conversation about the morning’s events.

  ‘It was bright of you to suggest using urine soaked moss for that poor man’s chest, where did you get the idea from?’

  ‘I don’t know,’ replied Kel, ‘it just seemed the right thing to do at the time, somehow.’

  ‘That’s interesting. It is the right thing to do in circumstances like that. But the most interesting thing is the reason behind it. Urine is pure, and contains no fungus spores or anything else which might harm you, so if you have a cut, it is the best thing to wash it clean with.

  ‘There are many things like this which would benefit you to know, and if you are willing, I will relate them to you.’

  The usual fruit selection was passed to Kel, and they both ate in silence for a while, Kel having the feeling that Mec had something on his mind, and would no doubt come out with it when he was good and ready.

  ‘I have often thought of late,’ said Mec at long last, ‘that you’re not happy staying within your group, just stumbling on from day to day. You find it boring, unfulfilling. Am I right?’

  ‘Well, yes,’ said Kel, ‘I haven’t given it much thought, I must admit, but come to think about it, you are absolutely right. I am fed up of trying to tell them how to improve their lives, but they just don’t seem interested. They don’t seem to mind if they do stupid things which could endanger them. I don’t understand it at all, can you explain it for me?’

  ‘Well yes and no.’ Mec wasn’t being awkward, he just didn’t know how much to tell Kel, and how much he would understand.

  ‘I think I shall have to tell you some more of the old stories, and see how much of them you understand. From that I shall be able to judge how much to tell you of what I know, and have heard. There is a big difference between legend and the stories I have, and somewhere in the middle they merge, so one is never too sure what is true and what is just an old folk tale which has been passed on down through the ages, and no doubt altered on the way.’

  ‘Would you rather I asked the questions I have in mind?’ asked Kel, somehow knowing Mec wouldn’t.

  ‘No, I think I’ll stick to doing what I know I do best, and we’ll see how we go from there.

  ‘The first story is about the trees. According to the old legends, the trees were not always as tall as they are now. Back in the old days of the giants, that’s if they really existed at all, the trees were said to be only as tall as ten to fifteen giants standing on each others heads, and were usually no bigger around than about six giants holding
hands around their girth.

  ‘Each tree stood on its own piece of ground, although the branches of one tree may have touched the next, they didn’t join together as they do now. Each tree was a separate thing on its own, and this is maybe the reason why they didn’t grow so tall, as the wind would have blown them down.’

  ‘You could liken it to a small group of people. If they were all standing together without touching each other, it would be easy to push any one of them down, but if they were all holding on to each other and you tried to push one over, you couldn’t do it because the others would support that person. It’s the same way with the trees we now have, but, according to legend, it wasn’t always so.

  ‘Now, as soon as a branch touches another branch or main trunk, they join up. In effect, this means that the forest is really one huge tree with lots of main trunks going down to the ground beneath. This gives it tremendous strength, and as they need the light of the greater sun, they keep on growing up to reach it.

  ‘Another interesting thing, the giants are supposed to have cut down certain trees, and then cut them up to make things, I don’t understand that myself. But then, there are many things about them I don’t understand!’

  ‘We cut the stave plants to make our staves from, so maybe it was something similar with the giants.’ said Kel.

  Mec hid his little grin, this young man was catching on fast. Maybe he was right in his choice, after all.

  ‘The next story also concerns the giants. They are supposed to have made things, as you do, like the staves, but these things the giants made were huge, and powerful by all accounts. It is said that the things which they made led to their downfall in the end.

  ‘They are supposed to have flown in the air like some of the flying lizards and the huge birds which live in the top of the forest, but I don’t see how that’s possible. And another strange tale, it is also said that they could float on water, and went great distances on it, but we know that water pools are only quite small really, and can be walked around without much trouble.’