The many life forms in the forest awaken very early in the morning. The sunlight is starting to stream through the forest canopy and dance about in patterns around us. Hey, just thought of something… Maeya’s insect repellent worked… no bites! After that thought, I quickly turn my head to see if... yes, Maeya is still with me. She's sleeping on her side facing me. She is so beautiful... turning on my side towards her, I slowly place my left arm around her and just watch her as she sleeps. It seems that I have all the time in the world to just lie here with her.
A couple birds start screeching nearby and her eyes slowly open and meet mine. She doesn't speak a word, but reaches behind my head and pulls me towards her... our lips meet. She gently kisses me and we just look into each other's eyes. I have the same feeling now that I did when I was with her at the feast for Giff and De-nay'. I can really get lost looking into her eyes!
I'd really like to stay here lying with her... holding her so close to me, but hesitatingly I say; well Maeya... I guess we'd better get moving along towards the village. We can bathe there and eat breakfast. "Yes... we really should... We'll see if we can find Sar's father also. We won't need to use the hut, but we can say hello to him for Sar". She steps out of and away from the hammock, finds and places the tie that pulls her hair back, then puts her skirt, then sandals on. She reaches into her backpack, takes out a cloth and a small container of some sort and says, "I'll be back shortly". I finish getting dressed while she walks about fifty feet away. She finds a small amount of ground water near some sort of flowering bushes.
Assuming she has to attend to "needs", I just start rolling the blankets up and taking the hammock down to place in the backpacks. Soon, she returns and I notice that her face looks a bit different. It takes me just a few seconds, but I realize that the red coloring that she has always worn on the corner of her eyes is gone. In its place is a lavender color. I smile, pull her close to me, kiss her, and say... Maeya, you look so beautiful in lavender! She gives me such a beautiful smile!
Strapping our backpacks on, we proceed to walk back to the path towards the village. After about a mile of walking, the path empties into the perimeter of the village. We walk through an area of huts and walk along with other villagers making their way to its main area. Some of the villagers give me the "double-take", but are courteous and friendly. I'm reminded that most of them have never seen me before, even though they have heard about me through their "grapevine." Some of these villagers were undoubtedly at Giff and De-nay's celebration feast.
As we pass through the village, she’s carefully looking at the faces of those around us for Sar's father. "I don't see him yet". Maeya, why don't you just lead us to the bathing area, and we'll see if we can find him later. She says; follow me and leads the way as we walk alongside others that are headed in the same direction... they have their clean clothing with them.
Following the path, we head back into a forested area. A creek can be seen up ahead and the path diverges. She says; you'll take the path to the left; mine will veer to the right. I'll meet you back here. Sure enough, the women part from the men at the dividing of the path. I make my way down to the creek with the other men. This bathing area is a bit further away from the edge where you start to descend. It's quite rocky and one must walk carefully down to the water. We're downstream from the women by about a couple hundred feet. I take off my backpack and set it down on a dry rock. Removing my clothing, I proceed down to the creek and wash it, then wring it out. I go back to the backpack and spread out the washed garment on another dry rock.
Well... back to the water for bathing. There were two other men already there at the time; three of us are just now entering the water. One of two already in the water says, Hello friend! My name is Devun. You must be new here... welcome! "Thanks for your welcome! My name is Zhimm, and yes, I just came to your village only a short while ago. I came from the village to the east of yours." Upon hearing that, the other man next to him says, Zhimm? I knew that had to be your name! I remember hearing about you in the talk around the village. I laugh and say, I hope it was good talk! He says, sure, you are a friend of Sar, and his father lives in this village. "Yes, and I'm looking for him." Well Zhimm. You have found him, he says as he smiles. "Romm"? Yes, Zhimm, I'm Sar's father. I'm very pleased to meet you Romm. I must have missed you somehow at your son Giff's celebration feast. Romm says; I'm surprised that we didn't get introduced, but there were a lot of people at the feast. That sure was a beautiful event! I'm so proud of Giff, and my new daughter, De-nay'! "They make a very lovely couple", I tell Romm. By the way, your son Sar and Terra send their love to you. Well, thank you for passing that along Zhimm. Sar also has a very fine mate in Terra. I wish that Sar and Terra would move back here so I could have one of my son's families here with me. You know how it is though; the women they mate with want to stay with their own families! "Yes, your right, and you see who wins out!" The men bathing laughed heartily at my statement.
"Romm... Sar told me to ask you about using his old hut when we came through your village. We’ll not need it today, but might on our trip back." "We"? He asked. Oh, (my face turned red as I realized my omission), I’m traveling with my mate, Maeya, I added. Maeya! , he shouted out. Maeya is your mate? Oh, why didn't you tell me... we're related now! Where is she? Is she here? "Yes, in fact she's bathing now, up the creek from us!" I'm going to finish bathing, he says. I'll meet you and Maeya in the village. With that, he leaves the creek and gathers his clothing. I chat with the other men as I finish up.
Getting ready to leave, I tell Devun and the other fellows it was nice meeting them, and that I'll probably see them later in the village. I leave the creek, get dressed and make my way to the divide in the path... she's not here. Apparently Maeya is still down at the creek. If she mentioned anything at all about her and I, she’ll probably be detained a bit. If she knew anyone bathing with her from previous visits, her change in "status" would literally be quite visible to those around her. I'm sure they’ll be liberally congratulating her!
Sure enough, she's coming up the trail with several women with her! They’re quite excited, and are chatting non-stop with her as she approaches. Maeya stops walking and introduces me to the women. They are friends of hers that she would get to see occasionally, when her parents would travel to their village. One of them says, Zhimm, we have heard so much about you. Now, we finally get to meet you on such a happy occasion! We are so glad Maeya has such a fine mate! "Thank you for your kind words. I love Maeya very much and I'll take very good care of your friend!" With that, the women smile and proceed to walk in front of us towards the village.
In the village, we meet up with Romm who has been waiting for us. He walks up to Maeya, hugs her and says, Maeya, It’s so good to see you again! I share your happiness with you! I've been talking with Zhimm down at the creek. He's such a good man and I'm glad he is your mate. Is their anything I can do for you while you're here? Do you plan on staying with us a while? Maeya says, we can't stay in the village too long now, but we'd like to have breakfast with you before we move on! "Breakfast sounds like a great idea. I'm awful hungry myself. Follow me"!
Romm leads the way, with Maeya and I following close behind. Romm leads us to his hut, looks in the door, and motions us in. We enter in as he motions to his wife and says, Kara, look who’s here! Kara’s face lights up upon seeing her and she runs toward Maeya and gives her a good hug. “Maeya, it's seems like it’s been so long since you’ve been to our village! I'll bet you were only about sixteen. You know, I caught just a couple glimpses of you when we were at my son’s wedding” … Kara stops speaking and takes a few steps back with her arms folded and her hand on her chin to get a good look at her. In a few seconds she says; you were on the thin side your last visit here, but I see you now have quite the figure of a lovely young woman! I quickly glance at Maeya and can tell that she is embarrassed with Kara’s truthful comment (only because it was said in my presence I’m sure), but she just smiles!
Maeya answers her saying; thank you Kara, I'm doing fine. Mom and dad are also doing well, as are Terra, Giff and Sar. I'm sorry we didn’t get to speak with you at Giff's celebration, but at least we're together now. Kara says, well, everything has worked out anyway. Romm proceeds to set the placemats and utensils for all as Kara sets the food down that she has finished preparing. “Ok, breakfast is in front of you. Eat as much as you wish”.
The four of us begin eating. I can tell Kara is used to preparing food... everything looks and tastes as good as it does at one of the feasts. I'd be willing to bet she is one of the main women involved in the feasts here in this village. Romm speaks up and says, what was it that you needed me to help with Zhimm? "Well, we wanted to stay in a hut here in the village, but circumstances have changed and we really don't need a hut now." He says, so you are not staying, right? Right... we are going to travel on soon after we finish with breakfast. Kara says, so soon? Yes, we are already behind schedule and shouldn't delay any further. Maeya's family would be concerned if we were late returning to our village, as we are going to be gone a number of days anyway.
Romm says; If I may ask, where are you traveling to? "Maeya and I are traveling to the Land of Waterfalls." Romm sits back a bit and says, Oh, that's an ambitious trip! ... it's three more days from here and somewhat of a climb. Fortunately, you can rest at the next village to the west of us before you have to start the climb upward. "That will help", I tell him. We can gather more supplies before we go further up into that land. Maeya and I wish to go because we've heard it's very beautiful up there. Romm says; I've never been there. Most of us in this village haven't either. There really isn't much in the way of sustaining a village there I've been told... it's pretty rocky, but I hope you and Maeya have a wonderful time as you travel there. I guess we'll see you on your return trip. If you need a hut, we'll prepare one for you to rest in. "Thank you very much Romm. Perhaps we'll take you up on your offer." With that, we finish eating and help Kara clean up.
Kara and Romm follow us outside their hut and Maeya hugs and kisses both of them. I tell them; I'm very glad to have met the both of you. I'll be sure to tell your sons that you send your love to them. We strap on our backpacks and wave to both of them as we make our way from their hut. Romm shouts out, we'll see you again as you come back this way!
We take the path out of this village that will lead to the next village. We’re in forest again. She says; I've never been this far away from our village. All this will be new to me.
Later in the day...
Today was pretty much uneventful traveling. Hmm... a thought just occurred to me. Perhaps I'm getting a little "jaded." By that, I mean I'm getting used to seeing so much diversity in the wildlife around me, as well as the incredible display of floral varieties as I move from one location to another. This world is a paradise by any definition of the word, and I've started to become accustomed to its beauty. It's strange how quickly a human gets used to living in a paradise once accustomed to it. It's so easy to take this all for granted. I'm very fortunate to live in surroundings such as this. I have to remind myself that what surrounds me is very rare on Earth, and even what little is left is rapidly disappearing.
You know, maybe that was part of the problem that the human race faced ages ago. They got so used to paradise that it was just taken for granted. When some humans first conceived the idea of individual land ownership and started tearing the land up to suit themselves… clearing the land, it seemed to be of no consequence. There was still more than plenty of paradise left. Gradually, whatever mankind did to the land became just seemed part of "the way it is". Those born into whatever condition the land happened to be at the time, just thought that's the way it has always been. Generations later, the land would never again be the same as it was. Those later generations never saw the beauty and the diversity of life that I'm seeing now all around me. No human, or even multiple generations of humans could see the inevitable changes slowly taking place. It was just too gradual for any one generation to notice that the quality of everything around them was ever so slowly degrading.
As we walk along, something off the path catches Maeya's eye and she says; stop here Zhimm. I want you to observe something. Just off the path about ten feet, she directs my attention to a plant. We detour off the path to the plant she’s noticed. On this plant are a number of orange vegetables looking similar to a tomato. We walk over to it and she says; Look closely at the plant and tell me what you see. "I see a plant growing orange vegetables". Look closer Zhimm. I study the plant up and down carefully and tell her; oh, now I see three worms on the plant chewing up its leaves. They were so hard to see the first time because they blend in so well with the plants color. "Yes, nature has provided a good defense for them so they can be hidden from the birds that would eat them. Those worms are actually creatures that will turn into the beautiful large moths that you can see around us". I say, but if they are so well hidden from the birds, perhaps these creatures will destroy all these types of plants until there are none left. She says, look closer again at the creatures. I take a closer look and say; I see that two of them have things that look like tiny grains of rice attached to them. The grains are so very small that I didn't notice them at first. She says; those tiny grains are the larvae of a wasp that lives here in the forest. The wasp attaches its eggs directly on those creatures, and when the eggs hatch, the larvae will feed upon the creature until it dies. If you look close, the creatures that have the larvae attached are really not doing much eating of the plant at all now. They have lost too much life force to continue chewing up the plant.
There is a delicate "dance of balance" between these life forms. We need the vegetables, but we need the moths and the wasps also. Every creature and specie of plant around us has a function in maintaining the life force of every other life form. I tell her, Amazing! I never would have noticed any of this on my own. "This is a lesson for you to remember. Think about the complexity of the interactions between all the life forms around us, and its delicate balance. There are interactions between the living things going on around you right now that are so much more complex than the simple example I just gave you. You have no idea of the damage to these systems, and ultimately ourselves that would occur if we should thoughtlessly harm the habitat around us. Sometime, remind me to tell you a story of the trees around us". I will Maeya; I'd love to hear it.
We proceed onward…
It's becoming darker now. We have traveled through forest only, so far. There hasn't been an interruption of forest area such as grasslands or lakes. I tell her, I don't see any sign of the village up ahead. I think that since we had a late start this morning, we’ll probably not reach this village either before darkness closes in on us. "I agree, let's move a bit off the path and set up camp".
Moving off of the path, we set up the hammock behind a short growth of bushes. We eat just a little from our provisions, and have some water to drink. We secure the backpacks again and hang them up on the bushes. Reclining on the hammock, I ask her; do you miss everyone back at the village Maeya? "It does seem unusual not to have the rest of my family around. I feel at home in the forest here, but it's a new experience to have someone with me now. My life has changed since we have become mates Zhimm. I mean that in a positive way, of course... but it is different".
Maeya, I want you to know that I don’t want to change who you are. I’ve grown to love you for who you were when I first started taking walks with you, and I love you the way you are now. When we get back home, if you wish to spend a couple days every now and then in the forests by yourself, that's all right with me. I'll really miss you, but you can make it up to me when you return... ok? She gives me such a beautiful smile, wraps her arms around me, pulling me against her as we lay...