‘I think we could, if you’re there to guide us.’ one of them replied, but without much conviction in his trembling voice.
‘Hmmm.’ was all Mec said.
They all stood around in silence for a while, perhaps a little annoyed at the lack of response from the supernumeraries or just because there was little else to say of any great significance after what they had been through.
‘I think we all deserve a little something special after that escapade.’ Mec said as he gathered up his equipment, ‘Come on back to my place and I’ll see what I can find.’
The little gang of monster killers trooped off behind him feeling satisfied with their day’s work, and wondering just what the morrow would bring.
Arriving back at the tree cave, there was a definite taint in the air, and Mec tracked it down to a small hole in one of the side rooms.
‘I think it must connect up with the tunnel in the main branch,’ he said, wrinkling his nose, ‘and I don’t like the sound of that one bit.’ The others crowded in to see what all the fuss was about, and they too agreed that the room didn’t smell as sweet as it should.
‘You’ll have to plug it up or you’ll lose all your friends.’ said Moss, ever the jolly one, ‘Or move home,’ he added as an after thought.
Mec brought out some of the special wrinkled black berries he had offered to Kel on an earlier visit, and was much amused at the look on the faces of his guests as they saw the strange fruit swell up in the water to form a plumptious deep purple sphere, and the look of astonishment when they actually bit into them.
‘The Greater Sun will be fading soon, so I think you should all be going back to your own groups before long as I have a few things to do before I retire for the day.’ It was a command rather than a suggestion from Mec, and as they all respected his authority the party broke up, but not before Mec had told Moss and Kel to return on the morrow.
The journey back to the group was uneventful and they hadn’t been missed. When Kel tried to tell some of them of the days exploits, there was little interest shown, his companion saying very little to back up the tale.
During the time of the Lesser Sun another member of the little group disappeared without trace or explanation, and no one seemed to care. Next day, as the Greater Sun broke through the green canopy above, two more youngsters were born, and so the group’s numbers were sustained.
Kel found it hard to come to terms with this uncaring attitude of his group, to his way of thinking, they were in a permanent daze or stupor and wondered why he wasn’t.
On his way back to Mec’s tree cave, Kel stopped to look down into the hole left in the main branch after yesterday’s removal of the creature and the egg destruction. The stench was just as bad, and a large amount of the trackway bark had been ripped away exposing the bare wood underneath. The tree would repair itself in time, but he wondered what horror would occupy the hole left in it.
Mec seemed his old self again after the trauma of yesterday, and they soon got down to the questions and story answers of old, which as usual, prompted even more questions from Kel.
When Moss joined them a little later, Mec sat them both down to impart a little more of his knowledge and said,
‘There are one or two more tales I think you should hear before you set off on your adventure, the first being about the forest we live in. As far as we know, that is all there is, just forest for as far as anyone has ever gone, with of course the areas of the Death Sands, but according to legend, it wasn’t always so as I shall relate to you.’ He paused, as if wondering if he should go on, settled back on his gourd stool, took a deep breath, and continued,
‘The old legends tell of great areas of coldness, where water goes hard at certain times, and others where it is hard all the time, a bit like the hard water pellets which occasionally fall from the forest top.’
‘What I don’t understand about that story is how could anyone live there if they couldn’t drink because all the water is hard, and therefore how could such a place become known about. But it is only a story, and maybe not all true. If you should come across such a place and have to go into it for any reason, then you will find that the fine fur covering you have will not be enough to keep you warm. One possible thing you could do is to kill a creature which has a thick fur covering, skin it, and make yourselves a covering to keep you warm, it’s only an idea, but may come in useful, should the need arise.
‘And then there is the legend of the lands of fire, what ever that is. It is said to be very hot there, like it is when you go to the top of the forest when the Greater Sun is high in the sky, but even more so. It is said that it is so hot that nothing grows, and there are no trees or even remains of them, just sand and lots of stones. An even more preposterous tale is that in some places the very stones are so hot that they are in a liquid state, like thick water, and flow along the ground.
‘Then there is the tale of great pools of water so big that you can’t see the other side of them, and it is said that the giants travelled over these huge
