Morning finds her asleep on my shoulder while I'm looking up at the tree canopy above us. I wonder how much farther it is to the last village, and assume that it's not too far away. We made pretty good time yesterday. I whisper in her ear... Maeya... time to wake up! She opens her eyes, and I say "Good morning" as I pull her close and squeeze lightly. Stretching a bit, I sit up in the hammock, next to her. She sits up also, smiles at me, and just looks around and yawns. I tell her, "Up you go... sleepy head!" as I take her by the arm, lifting it up, and pulling as if to lift her up. She quickly jerks her arm back and throws her shoulder against me. She knocks me off balance, and to avoid falling, I grab her by the arm but it's too late... the motion of us on the hammock causes one of the tie-points to give way, dumping both of us on the forest floor! She lands on top of me laughing, so I take her by the arms and roll over with her, straddling her. I start laughing also and say; so you want to play rough eh?
I proceed to tickle her on her sides until she can hardly speak, she's laughing so hard! She tries to say, "stop", but I say; No, you started it! After a few seconds, I stop tickling and lean over her as I look into her eyes, and give her a kiss. She wraps her arms around me as I lay my head alongside hers... I love her so much! ... "Well Maeya, I guess we ought to be moving along"... I help her get up, we get dressed, and I take down the hammock. We pack everything into the backpacks and carry them in our hands by the straps as we walk back to the path.
Walking on, we find a creek up ahead. I suggest; "Let's see if we can bathe here instead of waiting till we get to the village." Walking up to it, we see it's deep enough for bathing. Making our way down to the creek bed, we set our backpacks aside. We disrobe and make our way into the water. We spend about ten minutes in the water washing up. Stepping out of the water, drip-drying in the breeze, we chat for about five minutes. Getting into her backpack, she applies her makeup. We get dressed and move on.
Walking along for another half hour, we finally see the end of this part of the forest... a clearing is before us. She says; maybe the village is just up ahead! Soon we emerge from the forest into the perimeter of another village. We observe that the hut area is on the opposite side from us. There are just a few people around now. Most likely everyone is bathing or eating breakfast in their huts. She says; I don't really expect to see anyone I know. Perhaps we can stop someone and ask for directions. "Good idea, I reply; there maybe more than one path going westward, but only one may be the one we're looking for."
Walking to the other side of the village, we see a woman standing outside her hut. As we walk up to her, Maeya says; "Good morning, my name is Maeya, and this is my mate, Zhimm". Would you tell us which path to take to the Land of the Waterfalls? The woman replies, Nice to meet you Maeya! My name's Shura. I’ve heard of you and Zhimm here in this village, but I didn't think we would ever meet! I also didn't know you were each other's mate. Maeya says, we have been together only a couple days now, and are traveling to the Land of Waterfalls. We could sure use some help with directions. Shura says; come step inside my hut and I'll give the both of you something to eat. "Sure"... and we follow her in. She motions us to sit... places a mat in front of us and gives us each a bowl of sibannac pudding. "This will fill you up for the journey ahead"! We eat and chat with Shura for about twenty minutes or so.
Afterward, she offers us some fish, and other dried foodstuffs, which we gladly accept, since ours ran out earlier. Opening our backpacks, I tell her; Thanks very much for your hospitality Shura! Maeya and I appreciate the fish. It’ll be a tasty and filling meal for us as we travel to the waterfalls. "Oh you're quite welcome and by the way, be sure to take the middle path on this side of the village. That path will lead you to where you’re going. After several miles on that path, you’ll start noticing that the forest is thinning... gradually you’ll realize that you’re traveling at an incline. Just keep following the setting sun and you’ll arrive there. You’ll know when you’re there". Maeya says, thank you so much Shura for everything! Is there something we can do for you before we leave? "No, my mate will be along shortly to help me, but thanks for asking!" We strap the backpacks on and wave to her as we leave. As she said, we take the middle path and enter the forest again. We’re well fed now, and should be able to travel a good distance.
Later in the day...
We've noticed that the forest is starting to thin, and the sunlight is getting brighter on the forest floor. Instead of the blanket of plant matter on the floor of the forest we're used to, the covering of the leaves are getting thinner and I notice that the soil content appears to be changing. I'm not seeing the rich deep black soil I'm used to; instead it's becoming more clayish and a bit sandy. We arrive at a small creek, and I say to her, Let's fill all the water pouches. I don't know if water will be plentiful the further we go. Taking our backpacks off, we grab the spare water pouches, filling them from the stream. While filling my pouch, I notice some small yellow flowers growing at the base of a fallen tree nearby me. After filling my pouch, I walk over to the tree and pull off a couple of the small flowers and place them in an unused food pouch in the backpack.
We continue on...
Of course, Shura was correct. After several hours of walking, we can feel and also see that we are climbing in altitude. Looking behind us, we can see the top of the forests' trees for several miles. Before us is what I would call hilly terrain, somewhat rocky, but not devoid of trees or plant life. In fact, there are still many small mammals running about and occasionally we spot deer-like creatures and bears with small cubs. She says; let's stop and take a break. We take a seat and open the backpacks…eating a small amount of fish, and some of the nuts and fruit that Shura had given us for our journey. So far, I don't think we'll go hungry, as I have spotted nuts, vegetables and fruit growing all along the way.
Just thinking about our earlier conversation, I ask her, Maeya, would you tell me about the trees now? "Sure, this situation will teach the same lesson that the vegetable plant did, but cannot be seen with your eyes. It demonstrates a higher level of interaction beyond that first simple illustration.
There is a constant struggle between the tree life and insect life. The insects want to use the insides of the trees for food and shelter and the trees wish to survive. The insects use secretions from their bodies to communicate to others of their kind and direct them to the trees that are weak and can be used for food. The trees respond as they are attacked and give off substances that carry through the air to alert the other trees of their kind around them. Those other trees will produce foul tasting substances that make them unappealing to the insects.
Again, it's a continual dance of balance between the needs of the life forms involved. This sort of activity also takes place in thousands of similar life forms that must interact with each other... again, all in a delicate balance between life and death. If we carelessly disturb this balance we’ll be overrun with one specie to the detriment of other life forms, and ultimately ourselves. We’ll lose the wide diversity of life forms that support even our own lives in ways we have yet to comprehend. Even this example of the trees that I have told you is still so very simple.
There are many more levels of interaction, each one so much more complex than the next. At this time, I can't comprehend levels of interaction very much higher than my example of the trees, but I do know they exist". How do you know these things Maeya? "The Life Force that moves upon and through every living thing in this world places this knowledge within my inner being". Maeya, I don't know what to say other than I am awed and humbled at the complexity of what is taking place around us. We are but as children in this world. She added, that's why we should tread as lightly upon this world as we possibly can as our lives pass through it. Because we understand so little of the complexity of the interconnected life systems here, we dare not harm them. To do so would be to harm future generations and ourselves. Our children deserve nothing less than what we have enjoyed while we’ve had our temporary physical existence here.
As dusk is approaching, we decide to make camp. This time, we just stretch out a blanket, sit and chat, and watch the sun go down. There's a beautiful view of the sunset before us, as we can see nearly down to the horizon. We're captivated watching large flocks of different types of birds flying over the tree levels as they disappear into what are undoubtedly several scattered lakes. It's starting to get dark, so I get out the other blanket and roll it up at our feet. Lying on our backs, we watch the darkness descend around us. She says; this is really a wonderful place to spend the night. I've never seen the land from this perspective before. I tell her; Yes, it is quite a beautiful view but we're still climbing in altitude. We should reach the Land of the Waterfalls by tomorrow. I think that this view will pale in comparison to what you will see tomorrow. She smiles and says, Yes, I'm sure you're right!
We watch the stars start to appear as the reddish glow from the sun quickly disappears beneath the horizon. I can hear the sounds of what could possibly be owls stirring, preparing themselves for a night of hunting. After watching the stars for a while, we're so sleepy, so we kiss and turn in for the night...