The Journey Begins
He was up and about long before the rest of the group, gathering his early morning meal and consuming it in great haste. There wasn’t any point in hanging about, saying goodbye or any of the other things he had thought he should do. The journey couldn’t begin soon enough for him, and as soon as he had finished eating he cleared up his resting place, collected his few belongings and headed off for Mec’s cave, and a new life, he hoped.
Despite his early rising, an even keener Moss had preceded him by some few moments, and greeted him with a cheery, ‘Couldn’t you sleep either?’ and a big grin.
Mec had all their expedition equipment ready in two neat piles, and as they entered the tree cave he came forward to greet them.
‘I so wish I were young and coming along with you two, but someone has to stay home and look after things. He said. ‘Although I sometimes wonder if it’s worth all the effort.’
Mec showed them how to secure their carry belts, and then attach all the items he had prepared for them. The new Greater Cutting Knives were the last items to be handed over, and this was done with some degree of reverence, as they were very special things indeed.
‘If I may, I would like to show you how to use the Direction Finder once more to be sure that you have understood the principle.’ Mec took the little bowl with its transparent top, and placed it on the floor.
‘You see the little black stick with the white blob on the end, it will always point in the same direction no matter where you are. As you can see, it is now pointing in the direction the Greater Sun will take up at midday meal time, and that is the way I think you should go.’
‘If you want to veer off to one side for any reason, then you only have to make a mark on the rim of the bowl, and using the floating black stick you can see if you are going in the desired direction’.
Both Moss and Kel had already well understood the way the Direction Pointer worked, and hid their impatience to get underway out of deference to the older man. Finally fully kitted up, the pair stood outside Mec’s cave, eager to be on their way, but somehow loath to leave the old man.
They could see the longing in his eyes to be joining them, and the loneliness he would feel when they had gone, but there was nothing they could do about it. It was the way things were.
There were a few moments of embarrassed silence, and then Mec came forward, embracing each of the travellers in turn and wishing them well. Just a glint of a tear showed in Mec’s eyes as the pair turned away from him and strode out along the main branch towards the next massive rising tree trunk, away in the distance.
Halfway along the branch, Kel turned to wave a final goodbye, but the Story Teller was nowhere in sight, having returned to the loneliness of his tree cave and his even lonelier thoughts.
The day was young, and Moss broke into a slow trot out of sheer exuberance, following the well worn path along the branch, with Kel in hot pursuit.
Soon the next big rising trunk was reached, and they carefully edged their way around it and were on to the next branch which was a very long one, disappearing off into the wisps of rising morning mist from the forest below.
Two trunks later and the pathway was no more, there being no sign of wear due to feet padding along on the quest for food or anything else.
‘We’d better take a little more care now,’ said Kel, ‘as this branch hasn’t been used by the look of it, and we don’t know if it’s safe.’ Moss agreed, and the pace was reduced to a steady walk, both explorers looking from side to side for anything which might threaten them.
Halfway along the next branch their way was barred by a curtain of Whip Vines, hanging down from the dizzy heights above and forming a solid screen of twitching tendrils, each one capable of dealing a death blow if given half a chance.
‘That’s a good start to our adventure.’ commented Moss, seemingly unperturbed at the sight.
‘It could hold us up for some time, as we will have to cut so many of them down, and then wait for the juice to dry on the branch before crossing the area’ Kel added.
‘Not for very long.’ Moss called back as he reached up with his blade tipped stave, and brought the first of the vines crashing down like a live writhing snake, to slip over the edge of the branch and go twirling and twisting down to the forest floor so far below.
They had cleared a small passageway through the curtain very quickly, allowing just enough room for them to pass the nearest vines without stimulating them into their lethal action of whipping out sideways and encompassing anything within reach.
‘The branch is soaking wet with the juice,’ Kel said, ‘and will take ages to dry.’
‘Doesn’t matter,’ Moss replied, ‘we can still get though. See that big plant over there in the crotch of the main branch and the side one? Well the leaves are harmless, so if we cut some down, pile them up and put them over our heads it will protect us from the dripping juice, and then as we go forward, we take them off one at a time, turn them over and place them on the branch to cover up the juice.’
‘Wish I’d thought of that.’ Kel mumbled to himself as he cut the first
