The Promised One

by David Alric

  After they had gone Lucy asked Queenie about the Crater of Antiquity.

  ‘The soarquills and the arboribane call this place a crater because they can see things from on high which others cannot,’ said the monkey. ‘My own kin know only that there are two valleys in this place: the Valley of the Mighty Ones and the Valley of the Ancients; the thunderquill must lie in one of these. They are many, many sunsleeps from here but the arboribane will guide our path.’

  As soon as the boat was moored on the bank, the monkeys took off into the trees to find food, and to jump and climb after their long hours sitting restlessly in the boat. They looked just like a class of children rushing from their classroom to spend playtime on a climbing frame. Lucy had read how their prehensile tails acted like a fifth limb but now, seeing them swinging and scampering through the trees, she fully appreciated for the first time what this meant in practice. The tail was used in effortless combination with the arms and legs as they swung and climbed and jumped, and Lucy was spellbound by their agility and acrobatic feats.

  Lucy looked in wonder at the forest through which they must pass and wondered how on earth she would manage. Immensely tall trees such as fig, teak, kapok and mahogany towered into the sky through the canopy. Other trees making up the canopy itself formed a second layer, and beneath them an incalculable number of vines and lianas, some thicker than her leg, hung down like a green curtain. Among the shrubs and bushes on the forest floor grew ferns and lichens interspersed with lilies and orchids, and mushrooms and mosses growing on fallen and decaying branches. The ground was teeming with life. Beetles of every description, termites and millipedes feasted on the organic litter of dead and decaying wood and leaves and were feasted on in turn by centipedes, spiders and scorpions. As she watched, the coati sniffed and suddenly unearthed a two-metre-long earthworm from beneath the carpet of leaves. Lucy glanced away – she didn’t think she wanted to watch what would happen next. She looked at the wall of green before her and wondered about the journey they had to make. At the edge of the river, where light could penetrate right down to the forest floor, the dense tangle of jungle growth formed a forbidding and apparently impenetrable barrier. As if reading her thoughts the queen monkey spoke:

  ‘This is not a land that is suitable for the dainty steps of the Promised One. We have arranged some help for you. The hippophant draws nigh.’

  Just as Lucy made a mental note to tell her sisters and Paula, her ballet teacher, of her ‘dainty steps’, the bushes parted and the strangest creature Lucy had ever seen appeared. It looked like a very large pig or a very small hippopotamus. Mainly black in colour but with a white back, it had an elongated snout that looked like the beginnings of an elephant’s trunk. It stood almost as high as Lucy and was very, very solid in shape. It stepped back and trembled a little as it saw the panther, but Lucy spoke immediately.

  ‘The junglefang will not harm you while I am here. Thank you for coming to help me.’

  The tapir knelt on its forelegs and said: ‘I am told that I am the first creature in all of countless aeons to bear the Promised One on my back. It is something that shall be wondered at for all generations yet to come amongst my kin.’

  The queen monkey then told Lucy to sit astride the shoulders of the tapir and the entire incongruous party set off through the jungle: the Promised One on the tapir with her loyal coati scampering alongside, her marmoset on her shoulder, the black panther stalking majestically behind, the chattering monkeys swinging through the trees, the fearsome harpy eagle flying above the canopy, occasionally swooping down through the trees to check on the progress of the strange caravan, and the condors, unchallenged masters of flight and sight, directing the expedition from on high. The tapir moved effortlessly through the undergrowth. For such a large and apparently lumbering creature it was remarkably agile and seemed by instinct to know where the green curtain would part to admit it with its precious burden. The journey for Lucy was quite enchanting, particularly as she now knew her father was alive and she was able to enjoy the experience. She felt as though she were being transported through a series of green mansions, each with a new sight to thrill the senses. As they moved further into the forest the animals and birds that would normally have fled from humans and the predators in their party could sense the mystical presence of the Promised One and, as they gathered for a glimpse of Lucy, she passed through what must surely have been one of the most spectacular wildlife gatherings of all time. She was reminded vividly of her dream in bed back at home when all the creatures of the earth had come to pay her homage.

  A multitude of monkeys scampered and swung through the branches and vines above them, and slow-moving, upside-down sloths struggled to get into a suitable vantage point. On the jungle floor an astonishing variety of birds seemed suddenly to find they were going the same way as the party: jungle turkeys, scarlet ibises, white herons and ducks. An ear-shattering blast of noise came from a group of trumpeter birds, standing in a row as if on parade and delivering a trumpet fanfare for a visiting empress, and, with every new spectacle of the pageant that unfolded, Lucy felt a pang of regret that Clare and Sarah were not there to share this amazing experience.

  Towards evening the ground began to get marshy and the tapir had to pick her way carefully to remain on solid ground. Soon, however, the ground became completely waterlogged and eventually opened into a lake.

  ‘There is always water here; it wells up from the ground in this place,’ said the tapir. ‘Hold tight for I must swim. You need have no fear, the Dreadful Ones will not harm me while I bear Thee. Hold on to my ears, O Radiant One.’

  Lucy held on as requested and was astonished to see what a powerful and expert swimmer the ungainly-looking beast proved to be. Several caymans slid silently into the water from the surrounding marshy edges but none came near. Eventually they reached dry land again and resumed their passage through the dense jungle. Soon they reached a ravine where the ground fell away steeply but the tall forest trees rooted in the sides of the steep valley still grew to a dizzy height across the chasm with long ropes of lianas falling down out of sight. The tapir knelt and asked Lucy to dismount.

  ‘I cannot cross this place,’ she said, ‘but the arborikin will take you.’

  Lucy wasn’t quite sure what this meant but she was soon to find out as she embarked upon the most exciting experience in her life – an adventure far more exciting than the rollercoaster she had been on at Alton Towers theme park, or the skiing holiday she had gone on with the school last year. After courteously asking her permission, Queenie removed Lucy’s glasses and then a troop of monkeys took hold of Lucy. Clutched by a dozen hands and tails she was swept off into a breathtaking flight across the ravine, the band swinging from liana to liana and branch to branch, and sometimes flying through the air unsupported until agile limbs made contact with another green curtain of vines and branches. The speed with which they moved, the death-defying distances they jumped and the narrowness of the gaps through which they continued to pass, despite their unusual burden, left Lucy breathless with a mixture of fear and exhilaration and when, eventually, the tree-high traverse of the immense gulf was accomplished, Lucy knew that she would give anything to repeat the experience.

  Soon a new tapir appeared, another female, and after respectfully greeting Lucy she knelt to receive her burden for the next stage of this amazing journey. Lucy noticed that her coati was still with them – she must somehow have crossed the ravine on her lightning feet – and was sitting behind her on the tapir, and her little marmoset who had clung to her like a limpet during the arboreal flight across the ravine was now sitting contentedly on her shoulder.

  Every now and then they stopped and the monkeys brought Lucy fruit and nuts to eat. The nuts were always cracked for her by a scurrident; the rodents seemed able to open the hardest of nuts with a single bite. The monkeys also showed Lucy how to find fresh water trapped in the bromeliad plants which grew as parasites in the forks of the forest trees and which look
ed just like one of her mother’s house plants. Remembering Grandpa’s book she was careful to check their contents before drinking. As night fell the monkeys gathered soft ferns and leaves and made a bed upon which Lucy could lie. She lay between the forelegs of the panther and felt utterly secure in the embrace of the unchallenged queen of the Amazonian jungle.

  The next day they climbed higher and higher and soon came to a plateau where the trees were fewer in number and where the soft, moist forest floor gave way to volcanic rock. Far above the great condors floated effortlessly on their immense wings, after the bustards the heaviest flying birds in the world. Throughout their journey the harpy eagle had passed tirelessly up and down through the forest canopy to guide Lucy and her companions in the direction indicated by the all-seeing eyes of the condors in the sky, and now, as the forest thinned, Lucy could see them again, tiny black dots circling endlessly in the blue sky.

  Soon there was agitated chattering among the monkeys and the reason was soon apparent. The rocks upon which they stood were rent by a giant crevice which ran as far as the eye could see in both directions, a geological fault that completely barred their progress. The fissure was about two metres wide and creeping to the edge on her hands and knees Lucy shuddered as she peered down into inky blackness. She threw a stone into its seemingly unfathomable depths and though she strained her ears she was unable to detect any sound of its landing. The panther coiled itself like a spring and leapt over that ghastly crack as if it were a join between paving slabs on a suburban pavement. She turned and looked at Lucy and the animals as if expecting them all to follow. Lucy’s heart started pounding. She was good at long jump and thought that on the school playing field, with a sandpit to land in, she would comfortably jump the distance. But this was very different.

  She looked back to the forest. The nearest trees were too far away to use to bridge the gap – even if the animals could gnaw one to the ground. She felt her mouth beginning to dry with fear but then, to her immense relief, Queenie spoke.

  ‘Nothing, O Promised One, shall put your life at risk while you are in my care. Rest here awhile and all shall be well.’ And with that she disappeared with some of her troop back into the forest while the remainder foraged for a while and brought her food. The panther sprang gracefully back and looked back into the jungle as if uncertain as to what the monkeys were up to.

  Within an hour the troop reappeared and sat looking expectantly towards the undergrowth. Lucy noticed that they all stayed close to her, even though she was alongside the panther, and wondered what on earth was about to appear from the forest. Soon a large, black, diamond-shaped head appeared through the ferns to be followed by a seemingly endless body that eventually slid clear of the bushes and moved effortlessly towards Lucy, its greenish-brown skin shining with large black spots in the brilliant sunshine. Lucy knew that the great stranglekin must be an anaconda, for she had read about these creatures in her book about jaguars and other denizens of the Amazon. The giant water boa grew to a greater size than any other snake on earth and the creature now gliding towards her must have been one of the largest of its kind. It was over ten metres long and its girth at its maximum thickness was almost a metre – the size of a good-sized barrel. This was an animal that could swallow whole a calf or a cayman. As Lucy gazed in awe at the monster, a second, almost as large, emerged from the bushes and slid alongside its companion. The larger of the two spoke to Lucy. The anaconda’s voice was not quite like any animal voice that Lucy had heard before. It was clearly reptilian and in that respect reminded her of the alligators, but it was in some subtle way more refined and its long, drawling delivery somehow reflected the immense, sinuous length of the creature itself.

  ‘Welcome, O Promised One. We are honoured to help you bridge a gap.’ The snake glided effortlessly over the chasm to the other side, then turned and came back until the thickest part of its body lay across the gap. The second snake moved in beside the first, head to tail, so that their bodies lay together like two giant cables; it would have been impossible to slide a piece of paper between them, so snugly did they fit together. The queen monkey leapt on to one of the snakes and a second monkey on to the other. The queen turned to Lucy:

  ‘Walk behind us and hold our tails, Promised One. All will be well.’ Lucy climbed on to the living bridge. The skin of the snakes was smoother than she had expected, and dry; not in the slightest bit slippery. She could feel the immense muscular power holding the two bodies together and knew that there was no chance whatsoever that she could fall between them into that dreadful abyss. She was over the bridge in a few seconds, the marmoset as always on her shoulder, followed shortly by the coati who scampered across in an instant. One or two of the bolder monkeys also used the snake bridge but most simply leapt over the gap, preferring to stay as far as possible from the great serpents which could swallow them whole for breakfast. Soon the party was back in thick forest once again with Lucy on the back of yet another tapir. She was growing to love these gentle animals and their hoofed feet seemed magically to find the easiest and safest way through the tangled undergrowth.

  In the late afternoon there was great excitement as the vanguard of monkeys who had been constantly scouting ahead under the guidance of the harpy eagle returned to report that they had reached the Valley of the Mighty Ones. Lucy was agog to know what the Mighty Ones could be. She knew that the great mammals of Africa were not to be found in the Amazon, and what on earth could be mightier than the tapirs, jaguars, caymans and anacondas she had already seen?

  After dismounting she followed the queen monkey who suddenly stopped and prevented Lucy moving forward. Peeping over the animal’s shoulder she realized the reason why. They were standing on the edge of an immense cliff and she could see across a vast valley to a sharp, high ridge on the other side. The monkey prevented her from looking at what lay below as the edge was crumbly and Lucy saw that some loose stones dislodged by the queen’s paws disappeared soundlessly over the edge. The monkey turned and spoke.

  ‘There is a great precipice, O Promised One. My kin have gone in both directions to find a path down. The Brilliant One now sinks below the earth so we should stay here for the sunsleep and enter the valley tomorrow.’

  Lucy lay in the nest of leaves the monkeys prepared for her as usual, and fell asleep almost immediately, worn out by the long and eventful journey.

  16

  Into the Valley of the Mighty Ones

  In the morning Lucy woke in her nest, high above the valley, to find that both the scouting parties of monkeys had returned. They chattered to the queen who turned to Lucy.

  ‘There is no passage down, O Promised One, but there is a place where the precipice is not so high. That is where we shall go.’

  Lucy remounted her trusty tapir and they trekked westwards with the morning sun behind them for twenty minutes. Then they went downhill a little way and came to a rocky outcrop clear of trees. The monkey led Lucy near to the rim of the crater and she gazed in wonder at the spectacle before her.

  ‘The arboribane says the thunderquill is here in the Valley of the Mighty Ones,’ she told Lucy. ‘It is as well, for the Valley of the Ancients lies far yonder, beyond those hills –’ she pointed to the horizon, ‘– and it would have taken us many more sunsleeps to reach it.’ She stopped and suddenly pointed down into the valley. ‘Here are the Mighty Ones below us.’ She pointed to the crater valley and Lucy gasped. In the distance on the plain below she could see the black shape of a creature as big as the tree it was stripping. It was so far away that it was difficult to estimate its true size, but from where Lucy stood she guessed it must be as big as an elephant.

  ‘What is it?’ she said, realising the instant she had asked the question that there was no logical answer, for it was a creature she did not know and the monkey would only have her own name for it.

  ‘It is one of the Mighty Ones,’ said the queen simply. ‘Its kin are to be found nowhere except in this place and none of my kin nor any of
the forest creatures knows of a time when they did not exist here.’ She paused and turned to Lucy. ‘But now we need your help, O Promised One. Nothing except a crawlipod or a fledgiquill can descend to the valley floor and that is where the three Tailless Ones are living. Even the mighty wings of the soariquills have not the strength to bear you down. We know that the Tailless Ones can think of things that we cannot and we hope you can find a way down.’ Lucy peeped down from the rocks. The place the monkeys had found was indeed the lowest point on the rim of the visible crater, but it was still a sheer drop of thirty metres – about a hundred feet – to the plain below.

  Lucy sat down and thought hard. What they needed was rope and the nearest rope was hundreds of miles away – but was it? In a flash she thought of the thousands of lianas they had pushed their way through and swung on during their journey. They hung like cables from the tallest trees and looked immensely strong.

  ‘I have an idea,’ she said to the queen, ‘but it will take much work by your kin and others.’

  ‘Your wish is our command!’ was the immediate reply.

  Soon sharp teeth were gnawing through six of the longest and strongest lianas that Lucy could find in the adjacent forest. A party of monkeys was gathering straight sticks and saplings and another group was finding supple reeds, strong grasses and the petioles of palms to act as ties.

  Lucy tied a harness around the tapir so it could drag the severed lianas from the forest to the rocky plateau above the crater rim. Under Lucy’s instruction the first two lianas were laid side by side like a miniature railway line separated by the width of a ladder rung. Another two were laid at the ends of the first with sufficient overlap to be tied securely, and the final two were added in the same way, bringing the total length to almost three liana lengths. The sticks and saplings were broken or bitten into ladder rungs and Lucy then showed the monkeys how to tie them to the lianas. She checked every knot herself and by mid-afternoon they had constructed an immense flexible rope ladder. Two more lianas were obtained and the ends of these were tied securely with loops around the base of the nearest trees. The other ends were tied to the top of the rope ladder which the tapir then pulled to the edge of the cliff as Lucy and the monkeys fed the bottom end steadily over. When the entire ladder had been lowered the monkeys surged forward and swarmed down – they reached the crater floor in less than a minute – the first of their kind to have entered the crater alive since time immemorial.