The Valley of the Ancients

by David Alric

  Sure enough, the wrecked remains of the abandoned drugs plane were still visible, its wheels sunk into the trenches dug by the animals, the tail charred from a lightning strike and the fuselage now becoming overgrown with creepers and seedlings.

  The camp huts had been dismantled, so they erected their tents on the airstrip near the plane and sat round a campfire for their evening meal. It was a fine evening with a full moon and they sat chatting late into the night against a background of never-ending noise from the surrounding jungle as the creatures of the night played out their eternal drama of survival of the fittest.

  As Clive looked at the dying embers of the fire he was reminded of the forest burning and the other forms of deforestation they had witnessed on their flights.

  ‘If the forests are disappearing at this rate,’ said Clive, ‘then how long can they last?’

  ‘Not long,’ said Richard. ‘An area the size of a small country is being destroyed every year and if that carries on, the bulk of the Amazon jungle will have disappeared within the next generation or two. This has serious implications for the future of the planet because of global warming. We are sitting in the middle of the greatest rainforest on earth and, as you know, trees remove carbon dioxide from the air and produce oxygen.’

  He paused and looked at the young people. ‘Do you all know about the greenhouse effect?’

  ‘Well … yes – but remind us about it,’ said Clare and the others nodded.

  ‘As you all know, a greenhouse is a house made of glass for growing plants,’ Richard began. ‘The glass lets light in from the sun, but stops much of the heat from escaping. This means the greenhouse gets warmer than the outside world, so you can grow plants in it that would die in colder conditions. The situation with the earth is much more complicated than this, but the term “greenhouse effect” has been used to try and give a general idea of what’s going on. The earth is surrounded by its atmosphere and some of the gases in the atmosphere, especially water vapour, carbon dioxide, methane, nitrous oxide and ozone, make it act in the same way as the glass in a greenhouse. Light and other short-wave energy coming in from the sun passes through it easily, but when some of this energy is radiated back from the earth as longer-wave infra-red radiation, only some of it can get through into space. Most of it is reflected back to the earth as heat, making the surface of the earth warmer than space. The so-called “greenhouse” gases act like valves; they let light in but they don’t let all the heat out. Without this greenhouse effect, evolution, at least as we know it, would never have occurred and the world would be too cold for humans ever to have existed.’

  ‘So, isn’t it a good thing?’ asked Lucy. ‘Why is there a problem then?’

  ‘The problem,’ Richard continued, ‘is that for a very long time the concentrations of greenhouse gases have remained reasonably constant or changed only very slowly, and life on earth has developed and adapted to suit the conditions that have existed during this period. Human activity, however, has increased the amounts of several of these gases in the atmosphere, one of which is carbon dioxide, and most scientists think that because of this the earth is getting warmer – that’s the global warming you hear so much about. This may have serious effects on the climate, on the sea-level, and on plants and animals throughout the world, some of which may not be able to adapt to a warmer environment.’

  ‘But surely,’ asked Clive, ‘if the trees absorb the carbon dioxide when they grow and then release it again when they die and rot down the whole thing is in balance? The actual amount of carbon in the atmosphere isn’t changing.’

  ‘True,’ said Richard, ‘but there are two important things to bear in mind. The first is that, as you say, if trees die and are replaced at the same rate throughout the world then, on average, the total amount of carbon “locked up” in the trees remains the same and that vast quantity – billions and billions of tons – is not getting into the atmosphere. The trouble is that we are destroying trees faster than they are being replaced, so less and less carbon is safely tucked away in the biomass and more and more is escaping into the atmosphere. As the Amazon rainforest is by far the largest on the planet, its destruction will release untold quantities of carbon dioxide. The second point, however, is even more serious. Massive quantities of carbon trapped within trees and other living things over millions of years in the past never got back into the atmosphere when they died. It got buried in the earth and, as a result of different geological influences over vast periods of time, turned into different kinds of combustible materials – coal, peat, gas and oil. We actually call them “fossil fuels” as if they were created for our benefit to use for heating, lighting, transport and all the other things we do. The atmosphere as we know it is in a balance that formed while all this carbon was safely tucked away under the earth. We are now burning coal and oil at a prodigious rate and releasing carbon dioxide back into the atmosphere as a greenhouse gas, which is disturbing that balance. And it’s not just coal and oil,’ he added. ‘Peat was formed from trees that lived 26,000 years ago. At the Royal Geographical Society’s recent international meeting it was announced that burning peat bogs in Indonesia, set alight by farmers clearing land, are producing almost one seventh of the world’s total fossil fuel emissions. That isn’t even benefiting anyone and I think it’s nothing short of criminal.’

  They all sat in silence for a while thinking about what he had said.

  ‘The animals believe that I am going to help them,’ said Lucy eventually, ‘and from what you’re saying it sounds as if the most important thing I could do would be to sort all this out. But it’s all so incredibly complicated. Where would anyone begin?’

  Richard smiled. ‘I think you’re certainly right about it’s being one of the most important ways in which you could help your animals, but how you go about it is something that a great many scientists and politicians would dearly love to know. What’s important is that you’re focusing on it and nobody knows yet how you might be able to use your extraordinary power in the future. And now, I think, we’ve done enough of setting the world to rights for one day. We’ve a big day ahead of us tomorrow and it’s time to turn in.’

  The tents were equipped with mosquito netting, but to be sure of an undisturbed night Lucy instructed all the scurripods and crawlipods in the locality to leave everybody alone during the night. It had been a busy and exciting day for them all and soon they were all fast asleep, secure in the protection from all creatures afforded them by Lucy’s unique gift.

  In the morning Lucy announced that she would organize breakfast. Clare and Clive looked puzzled – especially Clare, who couldn’t remember Lucy ever actually getting a meal ready in her life. Richard, Helen and Julian grinned; they had seen Lucy in action before and sure enough, she soon stood gazing silently into the forest with the faraway look in her eyes that they all knew to mean that she was ‘talking’ to the animals.

  Within a moment or two, there was a crashing sound in the nearby trees and a troop of spider monkeys swung to the ground and scampered towards Lucy.

  Clare and Clive stepped back in alarm – the large black monkeys looked quite threatening as they boldly approached the humans. One of them had a baby on her back, its tail wound firmly round her. Then one of the animals suddenly raced ahead of the others and leapt into Lucy’s arms. To Clare’s utter astonishment, she saw that the creature was wearing a pair of green spectacles.

  After a few moments the monkeys disappeared and Lucy turned to the others.

  ‘They’ve gone to get our breakfast and will be back shortly – it’ll only be fruit and nuts, if that’s OK.’

  Clare, still recovering from the shock of what she had seen, eventually managed to stammer: ‘What … what was that monkey doing giving you a hug – and how on earth did it come to be wearing spectacles?’

  Lucy laughed. ‘I’m so pleased she’s still alive. That’s Queenie, the monkey who helped me to find Daddy in the lost crater and those are the specs I told you abou
t at home – she always wanted to wear mine, so when I left I gave her a pair of her own. I never thought, though, that I would ever see her again. She must wear them all the time – did you notice that she had little marks on the side of her nose where the fur has got rubbed away?’

  ‘Actually, no,’ said Clare with a smile. ‘My attention was focused more on your hugging a monkey with glasses than whether she had marks on her nose!’

  They all laughed and then sat down on some logs to await the return of the monkeys while Helen started to brew some coffee over the campfire.

  ‘And now,’ Lucy announced as they all settled down, ‘I have a favour to ask you all.’

  Everybody waited expectantly and Richard eventually prompted her.

  ‘Well, go on; what is it?’

  ‘I’ve been thinking about this a lot,’ said Lucy, ‘and I’m sure it’s the right thing to do. I don’t know if the animals in the valley will remember me, and none of us knows whether the animals in the other valley will have ever heard of me or even be able to speak to me. I think it would be really useful for us to have some animals with us that can help us and if it’s OK, I’d like to ask Queenie and her daughters to come with us to the crater – if Sophie’s fit to fly that is; she was the one with that cute little baby.’

  The others looked somewhat taken aback.

  ‘You mean …’ Julian eventually stammered, ‘that we take them in the plane as part of the group?’

  ‘That’s exactly what I mean,’ said Lucy with a grin. ‘The only downside for you all is that they’ll have to squash in the back of the plane, but once we’re there, they won’t affect you at all – they’ll look after themselves and could be very helpful.’

  ‘Well, I think it’s a great idea – if the monkeys don’t mind being squeezed up next to us,’ said Richard, to everybody’s amusement. He had seen first-hand on their previous adventure the wonderful symbiotic relationship that existed between Lucy and the monkeys and he trusted implicitly her instinct to make them part of the expedition.

  ‘Is everybody happy then?’ asked Lucy, looking around. Just at that moment the monkeys returned, laden with the most delicious fruits imaginable and went to each member of the party in turn, offering them whatever they wished.

  ‘I think the answer to your question is a definite yes,’ said Clare, munching into a succulent yellow fruit that looked like nothing she had ever seen before, ‘if only to get a breakfast like this every day!’

  But Lucy was looking again into the bushes, oblivious to human conversation. Soon a small rodent appeared and started to crack the nuts that the monkeys had brought.

  ‘It’s an agouti,’ said Lucy. ‘Lots of them helped me last time and when I got home I looked them up in my animal book. The animals call them scurridents and they seem to be able to crack any nut on the planet with a single bite!’

  Clive shook his head in admiration. ‘You’ve certainly got everything worked out, Lucy, and I think everybody agrees that you should invite the monkeys along. Go for it!’

  During breakfast the younger monkeys had disappeared to play in the trees but Queenie remained, sitting contentedly at the side of the Promised One she had never expected to see again. Lucy now turned to her and the others watched in wonder as they communicated.

  ‘I have a great boon to ask of thee,’ said Lucy. To the other humans she appeared to be completely silent.

  ‘Speak thy will, O Promised One,’ replied Queenie.

  ‘This is a great favour I request. The paterpromise, my sister and my other companions, some of whom you already know, now set forth to seek the creatures that live in the Valley of the Ancients. I would dearly love to have thee, thy daughters and thy daughter’s baby by my side on this quest. It means that you would have to fly near the Brilliant One in the thunderquill.’

  The monkey did not pause, nor did she call back her daughters to consult them.

  ‘To have served thee once was a privilege bestowed upon few animals in creation. To serve thee twice would be an honour beyond all description for me and my kin. Sophiekin can come for the arboribabe no longer clings underneath her; he is now large enough to sit on her back and will be no trouble.’ Queenie hesitated, then continued a little nervously.

  ‘Speaking of this little one, I now have a boon to ask of thee in turn. Sophiekin would be greatly honoured if thou wouldst bestow a name upon him. He would be the first of his generation to feel thy favour and would be revered among all arborikin till the end of his days.’

  Lucy smiled. ‘Of course he should have a name. I shall call him Kai for that is the name of a toy arborikin that belongs to my own sister, Sarah.’

  ‘Thank you, O Promised One, Sophiekin will be forever in thy debt.’ She paused for a moment, then continued. ‘But now to other things: when do we depart? For there is a small task I must complete before we leave this place.’

  ‘Soon,’ said Lucy, ‘but there is still some time and we will wait until you return.’

  She turned to the others as the monkey scampered off into the trees.

  ‘They’re on,’ she said and continued with a grin, ‘their only stipulation is that, as Sophie and Clio are a bit shy, they don’t want to sit next to any of the men on the plane.’

  Everybody laughed and they set to work breaking camp and loading the little plane for the final leg of their journey. As they did so Lucy walked to the edge of the forest and called:

  ‘Hear me, O great arboribane! I seek thy help!’ Soon a dark shape swept out of the trees and came to perch on a nearby log.

  ‘Speak thy will, O Promised One. It is many moons since thou departed hence.’

  Lucy realized with delight that this was the very eagle that had guided her to the crater on her previous expedition. That made life much simpler. ‘I go now with my kin to the Crater of Antiquity and I would like you also to go there.’ She remembered that the eagle had been reluctant to fly into the crater because of the powerful and unusual air currents around its rim and hurried to reassure him. ‘I know that it is dangerous for you to fly into that place and ask only that you come to its edge, at the place I climbed down.’

  ‘I know it well,’ replied the eagle. ‘What wouldst thou have me do?’

  ‘Only to come for a short while each day as the Brilliant One rises from his sleep. If I have need I will call up to thee with a message to take to all those creatures who live where the Great River passes into the Great Salt. This should be done by many fledgiquills in turn for it is many leagues away. There is a wolfkin there who will heed this message. If I need thee not I will come before I depart from the crater and bid thee farewell.’

  ‘It shall be done as thou bid.’ The eagle was a creature of few words but Lucy trusted him absolutely. His great wings clattered as he rose and flew west towards the crater.

  When Lucy returned to the others they had almost finished loading and Clare was just teasing her for bunking off, when Queenie reappeared. She was carrying what looked like a small bundle and, as she approached, Lucy suddenly gave a squeak of joy and rushed to meet her. As the others watched, the little bundle leapt from Queenie into Lucy’s arms and then climbed on to her shoulder and started to lick her ear. Richard saw Clare and Clive’s mystified expressions and smiled.

  ‘It’s Michelle, her pygmy marmoset. We never thought to see her again; no wonder Lucy’s so happy – she absolutely adored her.’ When Lucy rejoined them, Clare could see why. She had never seen such a cute little creature before and as the tiny monkey hopped from Lucy into her outstretched hands she was astonished at how light it was. She closed her hands round it for a few seconds and laughed in delight as the tiny face, surrounded by a little mane like a miniature lion, peeped out through her fingers.

  ‘Oh, I wish she had a twin sister who’d come and sit on my shoulder,’ she said as the monkey sprang effortlessly back to her usual perch on Lucy.

  ‘I expect she has,’ laughed Lucy, ‘but Michelle’s very friendly and I’m sure we can share h
er attention.’

  Seeing the marmoset reminded Richard of Lucy’s other special forest friends and he asked her about Melanie, the black panther, and Katy, the coatimundi. Lucy’s face fell a little.

  ‘Queenie says she’s called Katy but there’s no answer. She hasn’t seen her for months and thinks she may be dead. She does see Melanie from time to time – in fact she saved Queenie’s life on one occasion when Queenie was being chased by a puma, but she goes away now and then and isn’t around at the moment. I suppose I should just count myself lucky even to see the big monkeys and Michelle again when you think about how dangerous all their lives are.’ As she spoke Queenie tugged at her shorts.

  ‘If the thunderquill can wait a little longer there are three others who would greet thee: the Dreadful Ones who pulled thee along the Flowing One and the hippophant who bore thee for many leagues through the forest.’ She led Lucy towards the river. Clare and Clive were curious and followed the pair, but stayed a few steps in the rear, slightly apprehensive at what the next surprise would turn out to be. To their astonishment a tapir was waiting at the edge of the bushes near the river bank. On seeing Lucy approaching it hurried towards her and nuzzled her affectionately. Lucy then climbed on its back and it carried her for the remaining few yards to the river’s edge. Clare and Clive started back in horror as the surface of the water suddenly boiled, thrashed into a white foam by gigantic black tails.

  ‘Lucy, look out!’ Clare called. She couldn’t help her instinctive reaction but realized immediately that this was just another dramatic scene in the ‘Lucy Show’. Soon she was utterly absorbed at the sight of two caymans emerging from the swirling waters and lumbering up the mud to Lucy’s feet.

  ‘Your sister really is something else,’ murmured Clive as he shook his head in disbelief at the sight of Lucy gently patting the fearsome monsters on their snouts.