CHAPTER FOURTEEN
The group of ponies grazed in the open, leisurely nipping the grass and grinding it to mulch with their strong teeth as they plodded methodically towards the huge tree at the edge of the bank above the river.
The three animals twitched and flicked their tails, reminding the small birds on their backs they knew they were there but were prepared to tolerate their tickling dances as they sought insects among the coarse hairs. More birds hopped through the grass at the side eagerly snatching insects scattered by the heavy hoofs digging their hard nails into the earth. The grass was thick and often the birds could be seen flapping into the air just above the top of the leaves and stalks, hovering a moment and then dropping out of sight again, only to reappear shortly after and repeat their aerial acrobats.
The ponies were quite small and a light brown in colour, each in fine form with full belly and straight back. Their paths were such that from time to time they met in pairs, and on a few occasions one would bristle quickly, raising its head high and playfully kick up its hind heels before bucking a few paces away to continue its concentrated feeding.
Elsewhere ion the fields other animals fed or cavorted. A small family of rabbits stayed close together, sniffing the air repeatedly and twitching their whiskers in between bouts of nibbling at succulent ground cover. A large eagle glided overhead, floating on warm air currents, wide wings braced straight out from its sides with long feathers fluttering at the tips. The eagle was in its hunting formation but had eaten not long before so the rabbits below were safe for now.
In the distance the calling sounds of birds broke the silence, but while the rabbits froze momentarily the ponies continued their slow progress towards the tree that towered over the high bank beside the river. Its trunk was rough and gnarled with age. The canopy of leaves cast a permanent shadow in the wide perimeter that held the lush grass at bay and ensured a clearing littered with leaves. The river had worn away the cliff over the years so that the tree now stood at the very edge with thick roots trailing down the bank to the sand where they again burrowed into the earth.
Two of the roots formed the basis of a sturdy ladder which had lengths of vine fastened as stepping rungs. It was joined at the top level with the floor of the valley by another ladder made entirely of vine which reached up into the tree and a wooden platform across three massive branches. At one end of this platform was a shelter constructed of smaller branches, dry grass and mud. It was a tree house, home for the four Leaf Children for the last two weeks. They had set about building it the day after their arrival in the valley and completed it the day after that.
The first night had been spent on the sandy shore. When they had woken after their sated sleep it was late afternoon and with the dying sun the temperature was starting to drop. Rather than risk the open of the valley the children had rekindled the fire and elected to huddle around its warmth through the darkness. By morning there was no doubt in their minds that if they were to spend any time at all in the place, and that was looking increasingly likely, a more solid shelter was essential.
The tree had been chosen for a number of reasons. It was near to the river and its generous supply of food. They would be off the ground which was still uncertain. Also they had quickly recognised the descending roots of the tree could be wisely used. Finally the dense foliage of the tree protected them from the elements to a certain extent. But not entirely. So they had fashioned their tree house on the platform made from sticks and tied with vine across the tree branches. It was almost two days before it was ready. Dry grass was tamped between the cross sticks and then more was spread on top so that a soft warm bedding covered the floor. The mud mixed with the grass made wind proof walls and did the same for the roof.
Their home measured about six meters long and four meters wide and was a single room, each corner of which was occupied for sleeping. In the middle rocks and stones had been laid to form a base for a small fire to be used for cooking fish over. The children drank only cold water from the river as they had no container to heat it in, and a hole in the roof allowed the smoke to empty out of the room. By the middle of their first week in the valley the children had settled in and had begun to explore the land further afield.
They discovered the animals were unafraid of them and showed curiosity rather than fear but still kept their distance. Birds continued to fly in and out of the huge tree and the smaller, cheekier varieties would sometimes land on the platform cocking their heads sideways to try to see what the new arrivals were doing. It was not long before this became a regular occurrence and the children encouraged it by leaving tiny bits of fish for the birds to feed on.
Fish was almost their sole diet. There were berries to be found and some trees bore tangy yellow fruit but there was no other meat to be had. The children decided not to try to kill any small animal and even if they had it was doubtful they would have been able to as they had no weapons to speak of. So each morning Jordon and Venki had gone down to the river and within an hour had been able to return to the tree house with six good sized fish. They were scaled by rubbing rough stones over their bodies and then lightly cooked before being wrapped in moist leaves and hung from the ceiling. At midday three of the fish would be fully cooked and the rest would become the final evening meal. There was no special nutritional reason for doing the food this way. It was simply more convenient to catch them first thing in the morning than later in the afternoon. And for some reason the flesh was meatier with a slightly smoky taste if they were cooked twice. Each day only six fish were taken from the river for this was all they required. By adding a few berries each time and sharing one or two of the larger fruit the children had more than enough food to satisfy any hunger pangs.
This had been daily routine for the past two weeks and the four children had then ventured out to explore their new world. Each day they returned and sat comfortably in their tree house as the sun slowly dissolved over the horizon and discussed the day’s findings. The valley was very large and no matter in which direction they headed the scene around them was one of beauty, harmony and freshness. Not once did they see violence, cruelty or destruction. The tall grass waved mesmeric. The trees shimmered and stood proud. The whole valley was bathed in a soothing warmth that seemed to wash over even the creatures that walked the land or flew in the skies. It was idyllic. Perfect. The nature of the imagination. The children were free to go where they pleased without any hindrance, and they too caused no disturbance to the land or its inhabitants. For the past weeks they had simply enjoyed the valley to its fullest.
As the ponies now approached the shaded clearing around the tree they veered around it, keeping in the light, until they arrived at the edge of the bank above the river. There was a careful lifting of heads before casually turning about and beginning to feed again, heading back into the open.
In the tree above them the Leaf Children sat cross legged on the platform outside the shelter. They had been watching the approaching animals as they ate their first fruit for breakfast after Jordon and Venki had completed their morning catch and prepared the fish for the meals later in the day.
“Where to today then?” asked Fallon swallowing the last of his berries. “Any suggestions?”
“I don’t know,” Gabrysia answered. “We’ve been in every direction, some more than once as you know.”
“Short of staying out overnight I don’t think there’s any more we can cover,” she added. “Personally, I don’t like the idea of sleeping under the stars. Even though it’s very peaceful everywhere we’ve been and we have had no reason to fear anything, I think it would be unwise. You just never know.”
“I agree,” said Fallon again. “If anything did happen we would no way of defending ourselves.”
“Perhaps that’s what we should be doing then.” Venki was watching the ponies as they continued feeding, their regular feathered passengers perched on their backs.
“We’re not going to have to live here forever are we?” asked Jordon. “We’re going to go home to the forest aren’t we?”
Gabrysia smiled at the youngster. “Of course we are. We just haven’t found a way out of here yet, that’s all. And until we do we have to make sure we can defend ourselves.”
“Look,” said Fallon. “We can’t go back the way we came in. we know that now. And so far we haven’t been able to see how we can get back to the forest from this valley.”
“We’ve been out a fair way,” interrupted Jordon.
“I know that. But obviously not far enough. Obviously we have to go further to see exactly where we are in relation to the forest.”
“But which way? And how far? No matter how far we walk the valley just seems to go on and on. There seems to be no end to it.”
“I don’t think there is an end to it,” stated Venki. He had been sitting quietly, picking at his fruit without appearing to pay much attention. In fact ever since they had been in the picturesque valley he had gone through each day, not unhappily, but almost by rote. He still had not recovered his talkative high spirits which disappeared in the tunnels and though he joined in the forays and carried out his tasks, he had kept pretty much to himself.
“What do you mean Venki?” Gabrysia asked. “There has to be an end to it. Somewhere.”
Venki lifted his head and looked straight at Gabrysia. “Where?” he said. “You mean out there? Over there? Or that way?” and he pointed in the three directions they had already explored. The only way they had not gone was across the river, but even from where they were sitting in the tree they could see the plains stretched unbroken to the horizon. There was no forest there.
The most puzzling thing the children had found was not where they were so much as where they had come from. On their second day in the valley they had returned to the cave entrance. The ladder lay in a heap on the floor of the cave and the ceiling overhead was so dark it was not possible to determine really what was above them. Then when they had gone outside and explored the land around the cave they found only a plain. Having come from a maze of tunnels and having climbed down, not up, more than once, the last time down a very long ladder, they expected to find themselves at the foot of extremely high cliffs or mountains. There was a hill of sorts but behind and around it were only fields that extended as far as the eye could see. There were mounds and trees and dales but certainly no forest, no Dead Place. In short what they discovered was impossible. It defied all rational reason.
Venki now drove his point further. “Well? Where do you suggest we look?”
When there was no immediate response he went on: “Right. There is no way. Is there? We’ve looked everywhere and found nothing. Even around the cave. Only more plains. And that scares me half to death. What we have seen is simply not possible. Considering now we got here and where we cam from there must be a mountain over there and the desert and the forest behind it. But none of them are there.”
He glared at the others and then finished: “We are in another world.”
“What do you mean another world Venki?” Fallon was a little short tempered. Mornings were never his best time but he had been starting the day even more glum lately. And it had a lot to do with Venki’s sullenness.
“I mean another world,” Venki replied. “Not the one we know as ours, but another one.”
“Oh that’s stupid,” blurted Fallon. “What do you think we did? Walk from, our world all the way to a distant galaxy that also has air and fish and horses and looks perfectly natural? Come on, be sensible.”
Venki glared at Fallon for a few seconds then dropped his eyes and began toying with his berries again. He offered no further comment.
But Gabrysia rose and walked the few paces to where he sat. she dropped down beside him and asked quietly: “Go on Venki. I’m listening. Tell me what you really think. Where do you think we are?”
He did not answer, but imperceptively shook his head slowly from side to side.
“Please Venki,” Gabrysia said. “Come on, explain it to me. I don’t understand what happened to us. I do know that we can’t use normal common sense to find the answer. So there must be some other explanation, please tell me what you think.”
The boy looked from his fruit to Gabrysia, back to the berries and finally back to Gabrysia. “I mean it,” he said. “I really think we are in another world.”
“Where? How?”
“I don’t where exactly. And I think the how is too incredible but there is no other way.”
“Then how?”
Venki paused and after a quick glance in Fallon’s direction he said softly: “I think the ladder from Torpah took us into another world. Another dimension.”
Gabrysia started: “Another dimension? What do you mean?”
“If we could climb back up the ladder, which we can’t I know, we could be back in the tunnels. You see, I believe the ladder took us through a hole in time, or space. We’re here alright. And the forest and all the other places are here too. But on a different level. In another dimension.”
“Oh really,” broke in Fallon. “That’s rubbish. You don’t honestly believe that. It’s impossible. You don’t even know what another dimension is. So how can you say we are in one? What’s wrong with you?”
Venki retorted: “Well, where are we then Fallon? Can you tell us? Can you explain things?”
“I don’t know where we are. But we are not on another planet or in some mysterious dimension where everything is here but we just can’t see it. That’s too much.”
“Where then? Where’s the cave we came out from?”
“Up there.”
“And we climbed down into it right? So where’s the mountain and all the tunnels and the forest and the desert? Where? Can you show me?”
“Well, they must be there…”
“But they’re not. We know that.”
“I know, but…”
“We’ve been to the top of the hill and there’s nothing there. It’s simply a hill with a cave in the side of it.”
“Don’t keep saying that,” Fallon said. “I know that. I can see too you know.”
Venki shrugged and once more concentrated on moving the berries around in one hand,. He pushed them into a pile in his palm and then one by one he picked them up and dropped them over the side of the platform, to the ground below. When they were all gone he slapped his hands together and wiped them as if they were damp. Springing to his feet he gave his hands a final wipe on the back of his breeches and said: “If we’re going to be here a while I’m going to prepare to defend myself.” With that he swung himself down the ladder and started off towards a clump of small trees about a hundred meters away.
“What was he talking about Gabrysia?” asked Jordon. He had stood quietly to one side while Venki and Fallon had crossed words, but now he sought explanations. “What’s a dimension? Why can’t we find our way back to the forest?”
Gabrysia put a comforting hand on his shoulder and said: “We’re not quite sure where we are Jordon, we seem to have lost our bearings somewhere along the way and Venki thinks we might have to stay here for some time before we’re found or we can find our own way out.”
“How long?” asked the youngster.
“If you believe him,” said Fallon, “it could be forever.”
“Fallon please,” said Gabrysia. “Don’t make it worse than it might be.” She turned to Jordon again. “It could be a few days or weeks but there’s no need to worry because we will find a way. In the meantime, I think we should prepare ourselves. Why don’t we go and see what we can do.”
“But we will go home won’t we?” said Jordon. “We will see the others again won’t we?”
“Of course,” answered Gabrysia. “Now come on. let’s go and see what we can do. Coming Fallon?”
The three of them climbed down out of the tree and without thinking set off after Venki who had reached the small trees and was standing with his hands on his hips studying them. As they approached he reached out and pulled a slender sapling towards him. Forcing it down to the ground he held it with one hand while he stamped on it with his foot about a third of a meter from the ground. It splintered and when jerked hard it came free in his hand. Holding it up he examined it then put it to one side and scanned the trees again. He grabbed a second one and repeated the action, breaking it near the ground and lay it next to the other one. A third soon followed. When he was satisfied he picked them up and started back towards the river.
“What did he do that for?” asked Jordon. “What does he want them for?”
“I thing I know,” said Fallon. “Come on, get a few each.”
Sometime later, with five more small tree trunks, they joined Venki on the river bank where he sat on the sand with his legs stuck straight out. He had one of the saplings between his feet and with his hand he was stripping all the leaves off it. The other two already lay beside him. When he finished he lay it next to the others and got up and walked along the beach, head down, looking left and right. About thirty meters away he bent down and picked up a flat stone about the size of his hand. When he returned the other children were busily stripping their saplings.
Venki squatted on the sand and with one of the sticks in his left hand he thrust one end into the sand and lay the other end on his left shoulder. Then he began rubbing the stone down the wood away from him. The rock was flat and had one edge sharper than the other. Next he turned it around and again using the sharper edge of the rock he began honing it towards him. Gradually the sapling started to become pointed at one end.
“It’s going to be a spear isn’t it?” said Jordon loudly. “You’re making a spear aren’t you?”
Venki grunted without looking up and kept rubbing the stone along the wood. Then other children had finished stripping their sticks and Fallon and Gabrysia went looking for suitable stones to work the wood into pointed spears.
Until midday they worked on the young trees. Eight lay beside each other on the sand, all smooth and sharp. The splintered ends of the shafts had also been evened by chopping with a stone and then rubbing long and hard against a big flat rock in the side of the river bank.
“Do you think they’ll work?” asked Gabrysia.
“Not yet,” answered Fallon. “We have to dry them and make them hard. Right Venki?”
Again Venki grunted, but then he added: “We can do it down here. No need to go up into the tree. Bring some wood and we’ll do it straight away.”
While Fallon collected a pile of dry wood that always seemed to be washed up by the river Gabrysia and Jordon watched closely as Venki held the sticks under water. He kept them submerged by standing on them and watched Fallon build the pyramid of twigs and get the fire started with the flints they kept handy. When the fire had been under way some time he picked up the sticks and carried them over to the fire. He sat and held one over the flames, high so it was only the heat that reached the wood and not the raw flame.
The others did likewise watching and copying Venki as he slowly twirled the stick in his fingers. Gradually the wood darkened and Venki removed it and went and soaked it again in the river. Once more he returned and started the process over the fire. The children did this five or six times until they were satisfied. When they had finished they examined each spear. They looked hard and strong.
“Leave them out in the sun for a few days,” said Venki. “That’s the best we can with them now.” He got up and looked around the group. “Shall we eat before we move on to the next job?”
“Oh please,” said Jordon. “I’m starving.”
Fallon clapped the youngster on the back and pushed him towards the ladder. “So what’s new,” he said and they all moved off leaving the hand made spears lying on the sand in the sun.
In the days that followed the Leaf Children made and collected an arsenal that would have outfitted a group three times their size. However, the work served a dual purpose. It kept them occupied as well as took their minds off the proposition put by Venki, and it taught them skills they had never had to master in their friendly forest but which would stand them in good stead in unfamiliar situations. The rudimentary wood spears were only the first of many weapons and implements that would grow in workmanship and expectation as the hours of labour passed.
At the outset though the spears quickly proved a failure. On the first occasion they were tested the children realised they were a dismal disappointment. Over distance they floated lightly on the air and landed flat or tail end first. When cast only a few meters into the ground the point simply broke. It did not take long for the children to see their morning of toil had been for nothing. The continuous submersion of the spears under water and then the careful twilling over the fire had done nothing to toughen the shafts. Ultimately the spears or what remained of them were kept in the tree house as a means of frightening off curious climbing animals or large birds that landed on the branches and eyed the hanging fish.
After the failed test practice in the field Fallon had approached Venki and demanded to know what made him think the combination of water and fire would make the young saplings more resilient. Venki had just shrugged and said something about “it it worked for steel I thought it might work for wood too.” Having witnessed his sweat go up in smoke, so to speak, Fallon wondered if the principle would really apply to metal. And he vowed to think more carefully before following Venki’s example too quickly in the future.
Their second attempt at weapon making was also a failure the first time around. To be precise it was their first taste of defeat because it happened while the spears were being dried out in the sun before their testing. The weapon was a bow and arrow. Once again a sapling had been wrenched from the clump of small trees and hacked into length of about a meter. Branches from a larger tree were broken off and sharpened with the stone. Then notches were rubbed at both ends of the bow. Finally some vine was cut and tied to the sapling. It looked like a bow and the branches, complete with nicks in the blunt ends for the bowstring to fit into, looked like arrows. But it didn’t work. None of the children could stretch the vine. It was too taught and at the same time the bow refused to bend. A thinner more flexible bow was made, one which could be bent by Fallon and Venki grabbing both ends in their hands and pressing in. But when an arrow was fitted and the vine stretched it snapped.
“Damn,” cursed Fallon. “Either we can’t bend the bow or when we can the vine breaks. We’re useless.”
Not to be beaten a third bow was fashioned. The bow was even thinner and the vine slightly thicker. This time the bow bent and the vine held. But the arrow floated through the air and landed only twenty paces away. And the bow held its curved shape with the vine dangling untidily.
“To heck with this,” said Venki. “I’ve had enough. I’m going for a swim. You can keep trying if you like but I need to cool off.”
The children were more successful with the next weapon they made. It was a sling and as Fallon said: “If we can’t make a sling that works we might as well give up on everything.” Once again they went to the vines which grew in the trees and cut various lengths. They had no leather for the pouch which the stone would rest in, but they did have material. Strips were torn from tunics, doubled over for strength, and then holes were made in the ends through which the vines would pass. Again narrow strips of material were ripped from clothing and used to bind the ends of the vine doubled back after being threaded through the pouch. Then a rounded stone was found.
“Go on Fallon,” said Jordon. “Try it out. See if you can hit that tree over there.”
The tree was a large one with a bulbous trunk about forty meters away with its foliage spreading out like a giant umbrella. The trunk itself was devoid of branches, was smooth and shiny and was to be the target.
Fallon placed the stone in the pouch and held it steady as if weighing it. He swung it back and forth testing the balance. Gradually the swing arc widened until Fallon swung it around in a clockwise motion. When he released one end of the vine the stone flew fast and hard – and straight past the tree, missing it by a good six meters.
“Great,” said Venki. “Thank heavens it’s a stationary tree and not a charging, zigzagging enemy bent on slaughtering us. Mind you, if it was you may well have laid him flat in mid zig or mid zag.”
Fallon was about to protest it was his very first attempt with a sling when Gabrysia spoke up: “You show us Venki. Demonstrate how it should be done please. Then we can all practice.”
Venki held back a moment but he had been trapped by his own criticism. Now he had to have a go, gingerly he took the proffered sling and Fallon even handed him a nice round pebble of the right size. “Yes, here Venki,” he said. “Show us how.”
Of course, Venki’s shot would also have laid out an oncoming foe. But like Fallon’s he would have had to be weaving his way in attack and he would have had to have the added attribute of being about five meters tall as the stone flew high in the air and crashed into the leaves at the extremity of the tree’s canopy. A squawking bird flapped out of the tree not far from where the stone hit and Jordon cried: “Fantastic. I think you hit it. Great shot.”
Fallon and Gabrysia burst out laughing and it was not long before all four children were roaring and slapping each other on the back.
“Snipers had better look out,” said Fallon. “Dead eye Venki is at large.”
Venki stopped laughing and in mock seriousness said: “That’s not all. Anyone sneaking up on the flank is in for a hard time also. Fallon’s got eyes in the side of his head and can hit anything on the edges.”
“In that case,” said Gabrysia wiping tears from her eyes, “we’d better hope we are never attached from the front at ground level by people or normal height. If we are, we’re done for.”
Despite these initial disappointments the Leaf Children persevered and slowly mastered the means of making basic, if not elaborate, weapons. They had at least one sling each and enough clubs to batter an entire civilisation to a pulp before they would have to make new ones. Bows and arrows never worked but shortish stout spears were ideal for digging up yams and dislodging stones that were suitable as sling shot. Sharpened flat stones became worthy knives though because they killed no animal they were mainly used for slicing off lengths of vine and sharpening stabbing spears that would also never be used for the purpose they were designed. So while the arsenal of the Leaf Children looked impressive at first glance a longer more critical examination revealed it to be plentiful but generally ineffectual. Their comic self-criticism was absolutely correct. If they were attacked, even by the Drongs, they could hardly rely on their slings and sticks though they could be some help. Any more sophisticated foe would have little to be concerned about.
The children spent day after day exploring the land around their tree house and became familiar with the animals and birds that shared their world. And pleasant it was. The peace and tranquillity continued without anything more disruptive than a frisky bickering of the ponies or a screech of a hunting bird as it swept down on some small rodent which was careless for a last fateful second. At first it was an idyllic time for the four, but slowly it became unusually oppressive. The uneventful quiet was too persistent, too perfect, too unnatural.
The children had been drawn closer together and the irritating quirks of the first few days had been overcome and the four were not firm friends who accepted each other’s differences and helped when a listening partner was needed. There was no leader as they lived and worked as a team, exchanging opinions, asking views and questioning personal proposals that one or more felt were unsuitable at a particular time.
Venki had regained his exuberance after the dismal demonstration with the sling. Fallon’s suppressed antagonism had dissipated altogether and the two boys were now almost dependent on each other’s company.
Gabrysia had relinquished her title as head of the family for all intents and purposes, though if one was to look and study her closely she retained a slight air of, not superiority, but something almost akin to an observer who was not actually experiencing the events of the days as they passed, but was on the outside watching on and not interfering in a way that would change the natural course of things.
Young Jordon seemed to have matured considerably. He was no longer the child who had to be constantly guarded. As with the emergence of a baby to a toddler he had learned to walk, as it were, to reason and to challenge. Still he needed to be curbed but he was not one of the group who played his own role, one he did with more maturity and common sense with each passing day.
So it was that the four Leaf Children entered their fourth week in the beautiful countryside where there seemed no change, but little that was stimulating and challenging.
“I don’t agree,” said Venki as they sat on the grass floor of their hut eating their morning breakfast. On the platform outside two small green birds picked at fish crumbs in rapid head pecking movements while a larger brown bird perched motionless on a nearby branch watching them with piercing yellow eyes. He had already had his daily pickings and would soon fly off not returning until the same time the next day.
“Why not?” asked Fal