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
