Greenways

by D. B. Reynolds-Moreton

  ‘But what could melt stone?’ asked an incredulous Kel, running his hand over the smooth glassy surface, ‘It looks as if it has turned into a liquid, run down a little and then suddenly gone hard again, but that’s surely not possible.’

  Moss looked in a pensive mood for a while, and stroked the smooth glassy runnels of fused artificial stone.

  ‘Mec said we would find a lot of things that would be strange and unfamiliar to us, and this is one of them. I think this is a thing made by the giants of long ago, and something has happened to this end of it, as it is different to the rest.’ he paused for a moment, ‘The Death Sands are not far away. Let’s check the Direction Pointer to see where we are compared to the point where we turned back earlier on.’

  They set the little bowl down on the floor, and the black stick swung around several times before coming to rest.

  ‘It’s as I thought,’ said Moss, ‘the Death Sands must be over there,’ pointing with an out stretched arm, ‘and this side of the place faces in that direction, so I think the Sands have something to do with this runny looking stone here.’

  ‘It must have been a greater hotness than the Greater Sun could ever produce, even on a very hot day, so what could it have been?’ Kel was now getting interested in the matter.

  ‘I don’t know, but Mec did say something about the Great Lights, perhaps they were very hot, and did this.’

  ‘Like the Streaky Lights we see in the forest top when there is a storm.’ said Kel, trying to relate the situation to something he knew.

  ‘Possibly, but maybe even stronger. You’re right, there is something about this place which doesn’t seem right, perhaps we’d better leave it now and go on our way.’

  They retraced their steps until they came to the branch they came in by, and returned to the more familiar surroundings of the forest.

  Using the Direction Pointer to make sure they were still on course, the pair set off to hopefully circle around the edge of the Death Sands, and then continue their journey south.

  Two days later, while trotting along an unusually long branch, Moss called a halt.

  ‘Can you hear that?’ he asked, ‘It’s almost like the noise a storm makes, but it doesn’t stop. I can feel it in the branch, through my feet.’

  The branch was vibrating very slightly to the rhythm of something in continuous motion and even the very air seemed to tremble as they looked around to see what was causing the disturbance.

  ‘I’ve also noticed this branch is getting very much thinner as we go along it, but as it doesn’t move it must mean that the other end has joined up to a rising trunk somewhere.’

  ‘I hope it has.’ rejoined Kel, not looking forward to retracing their steps for such a distance.

  They continued along the trembling branch for a while until something made Moss stop again in mid stride. Silently pointing to large bulge in the branch and very quietly said,

  ‘Snapper Bag, and it’s big. I’ve never seen one this size, although I know they come in all sizes, shapes and colours.’

  Before them, completely blocking their progress was what looked like a large piece of the main branch, which had humped itself up into a ridge.

  ‘We can’t get past that,’ said Kel, ‘there’s not enough space on either side of it to get by safely.’

  ‘We’ll have to move it then.’ Moss replied, more in hope than anything else.

  ‘Our Story Teller once said that someone had actually been swallowed by an extra large one of these, and his friends took a great risk by going around the back of it and slitting it open, dragging him out and throwing him into a very large Water Plant which was nearby. It saved him, and he lived on to a good old age, but was completely bald. The juices inside the Snapper Bag had dissolved all his hair and it never grew back again.’

  Kel gave him a look which is usually reserved for tall stories, but Moss seemed quite adamant about it.

  ‘One thing in our favour, they don’t usually have teeth, just a bony rim around the edge of their mouths, so unless it can get a good grip on a large portion of one of us, we stand a good chance of escape should we get too near it.’

  ‘Just what do you have in mind?’ asked Kel, thinking the worst.

  ‘Well, we can’t risk going past it, to go back will take up a lot of time and energy, so we’ll just have to move it somehow.’

  ‘How can we possibly do that? It’s far too big to push of with a stave, even with two of us pushing.’ Kel was still a little worried as to what Moss had in mind, if anything.

  ‘I can see only one way of getting rid of our friend, and that’s to get him to take some bait on the end of a vine, and having swallowed it, try and jerk or pull him off the branch. I know he’s a lot heavier than us put together, but I can’t see anything else we can do.’

  They both stood there, staring at the Snapper Bag, and the Snapper Bag stared back, without moving.

  Moss went back up the main limb of the tree to look for a suitable vine he could cut down, while Kel went up a side branch searching for anything which would do for bait.

  The vine was easily procured, but bait suitable for the Snapper was almost non-existent, as neither of them had seen any living creatures for some time, except the barrier in their path.

  ‘Don’t suppose it would go for a large fruit?’ asked Kel.

  ‘I doubt it.’ Moss replied, as they lay in wait for something to past them, ‘That means we need living food.’ he added.

  ‘Perhaps we could annoy it enough for it to grab the end of the vine.’ Kel suggested, ‘I don’t think they move very fast, at least the ones I know about don’t.’

  ‘That’s worth a try,’ Moss responded, ‘let’s do that.’

  They threw the end of the vine towards the Snapper, hitting it across the snout, but all they got for their trouble was a blink from one eye, the Snapper making no attempt to grab the vine as they had hoped.

  They both walked back some way from the seemingly lifeless barrier to their progress, and sat down.

  ‘We shall have to find something large and bulky to attach on to the vine and then one of us will have to jab the little beast on the nose with a bladed stave enough to hurt, and when it makes a grab for it, the other will have to try and drop the loaded vine into it’s mouth. Having taken the bait, we should be able to move it, as I doubt if it can bring it up again once having swallowed it.’

  The hunt for something to add to the vine only turned up some gourds, so they had to settle for them, attaching the ball-like pods in a small bunch as firmly as possible.

  Moss looped the baited vine over the end of his stave and Kel advanced with the other stave held at the ready to jab the obstruction on the nose.

  Several jabs later and no sign of the creature making a move to take the bait, they were ready to give up the attack, when Moss had another of his good ideas.

  ‘We’ll have to make the bait a little more interesting for it, so let’s rub the gourds on our bodies so some of our scent sticks to them, and he might think it’s a meal after all.’ The gourds were rubbed over their sweat glands until their skin felt sore, and were then reattached to the vine.

  Once more the pair advanced on the log like creature, but before they began to attack it Kel stopped short and said,

  ‘If we loop the vine over that side branch and then pull it, the Snapper will be dragged over to one side of the branch, and maybe over the edge.’

  ‘I like that idea.’ Moss said as he threw the end of the vine high up into the air, and watched in satisfaction as it snaked over the branch above their heads and then end fell back almost into his grasp.

  ‘Right, here we go again.’ he added, and with that they both advanced once more towards the creature.

  Two sharp jabs on its snout did the trick, the cavernous jaws flew open, Moss swung the baited vine across the toothless maw and the hard edged lips smacked shut, the bait safely inside.

  Kel dropped his stave and ran over to the free end of the vine
, taking up the strain until he could be joined by Moss, who had tripped over himself in his eagerness to jump back from the monster.

  Together they heaved with their combined weights, doing little more than causing a slight movement of the creature’s head from side to side.

  ‘We’ll have to climb up onto that small branch overhead, and then jump off holding the vine, that should jerk him over to one side of the branch.’ said Moss.

  Getting up to the required branch proved a little more difficult than they had anticipated, but they made it in the end, and prepared to do their death-defying leap to the main branch below.

  ‘Don’t forget, if we miss the branch, don’t let go as we should swing back after a while.’ and with this cheerful offering from Moss they both leapt out into space, the vine suddenly snapping taut, and the snapper being jerked almost to the curved edge of the main branch.

  ‘One more go should do it.’ said Moss, but before he could begin climbing up again, Kel stopped him with a hand on his shoulder.

  ‘I’ve got a bad feeling about this, I think we should cut and attach another vine to ourselves, so that if the other vine breaks, we won’t join our friend over there hopefully doing his flying exercise.’

  ‘That’s a good idea.’ said Moss, and went to cut another vine, one end of which was tied off tightly to a side branch and the other around their waists.

  ‘Now comes the tricky part,’ said Moss, ‘we’ll jump once more, but this time we’ll have to let go of the vine, because if he goes over the edge, we’ll be shot up into the air and could land anywhere.’

  They climbed up once more, took a deep breath and dropped. This time the front end of the snapper was lifted right off the branch and as it tried to regain its balance by swinging its rear end round, it rolled over the curved edge of the branch and began its long journey down to the depths below.

  As the snapper plummeted down, the vine fairly sang as it raced over the branch above, lifting the two on the other end off their feet before they had a chance to let go. As they sped upwards and were about to hit the branch above, the vine snapped under the strain, and they too were on their way down. The safety vine to which they had attached themselves brought them to a sudden jerking halt, squeezing the breath out of them as they dangled freely in space, slowly swinging to and fro.

  ‘If we build up enough swing, we should be able to get back onto the main branch.’ Moss finally managed to gasp.

  Like a pair of youngsters at play, they gradually built up enough momentum to swing themselves over to the main branch and a safe landing.

  To prevent themselves swinging back out again, they grabbed a handful of Prickly Sticks, as these were the only things within their reach.

  Having regained some degree of dignity after dumping their adversary overboard, the next task was to extract the thorns which they had picked up from grasping the Prickly Stick plant.

  ‘That’s as close to imitating a flying lizard as I ever want to get.’ Kel said, spitting out yet another thorn.

  ‘Well, at least we can get going again.’ said Moss, having completed his thorn extracting exercise and looking around for something to eat.

  After a quick meal, and a long drink from a nearby Water Plant, the two were on their way again, the branch getting ever thinner as they went.

  ‘I’ve just realized something.’ called Kel, who was several paces ahead of a more cautious Moss.

  ‘Look down below, I think I can see the forest floor, it certainly looks like it, and the light is getting stronger as if we were going up into the next level, which I don’t think we are. Therefore the forest must be getting shorter, so perhaps we are approaching the edge of it.’

  ‘Not only that, but the deep rumbling sound is getting louder, so there’s something new out there.’ Moss’s voice had an edge of excitement in it.

  Before them, thin spirals of mist were drifting through the branches, obscuring a clear view of what lay ahead, while the branch they were on seemed to go on for ever, twisting and turning its way through the forest.

  ‘We shall have to slow up a little, as it is getting too narrow for my liking.’ called Moss, who had taken the lead. ‘And the mist is getting even thicker,’ Kel added, wondering where it came from.

  At long last the rising trunk of a vast tree loomed up ahead of them, and both gave a sigh of relief having found the point where their branch joined up with the rest of the forest again, providing a resting place for the coming night.

  Several branches broke out from the main trunk, forming a safe platform on which to rest, and it was a weary couple who settled down to eat and prepare for a good sleep, having spent most of the day on the move, and some of it under extreme exertion.

  Kel, ever the curious one, had gone out onto one of the branches on the far side of the trunk, and called back to Moss, ‘Come and look at this, you wanted something different, and you’ve surely got it.’

  Ahead of the pair, seen dimly through the intervening leaf-laden boughs, was a massive cliff rising up towards the top of the forest. Only small portions of it were visible through the gaps in the greenery, but the overall continuity of it was obvious.

  ‘If you thought the other stone place was large, how about this.’ said Kel as Moss drew up alongside him, pointing towards the gigantic uprising of stone.

  ‘Maybe this is where the forest ends, and some of the other lands Mec was telling us about begin.’ offered Kel, eager to get Moss’s view on the matter.

  ‘It could well be, but he didn’t say anything about these huge stone places, or anything like them.’

  ‘I can see through the tree tops over there, and the air above is a pink colour, I hope this isn’t the hot place he was talking about, we can’t go there.’ Kel had a disappointed tone to his voice, as he could foresee them going back to Mec with very little accomplished.

  ‘Let’s take a rest now, the light is getting less, and the whole thing may look different in the new light of the Greater Sun when it is high above us.’ and with that, they returned to their resting site.

  As there were no giant leaves to cut down in the vicinity to form a shelter, the string of Tinkle Stones was strung up to guard against any strange creatures creeping up upon them during the time of darkness, and then they settled down for a well earned sleep, taking it in turns to keep watch, as usual.

  A tired Kel was kept awake by the strange sounds of the night as various monstrosities went about their business.

  After the time of the giants, Earth had changed at a greater rate than ever before in her long history.

  The vast amounts of energy which had been released caused huge volumes of water to vaporize, forming a cloud mass which reached from ground level right up into the stratosphere, blocking out all sunlight.

  Weather patterns which were normally considered to be fairly chaotic, were even more so after the holocaust, with raging storms causing vast flash floods, sweeping away considerable amounts of the softer land masses into the now soup-like turbulent seas. Wind velocities in excess of two hundred miles per hour were not uncommon, while the enormous electric charges built up by the speeding cloud masses brought about lightning displays the like of which had never been seen before, although there were not many about to witness them.

  The intense radiation permeated just about every living cell structure, bringing about DNA changes at an ever increasing rate, although most of the mutated forms resulting from this bombardment didn’t survive for very long.

  Some did, however, and it was from these new species that the slowly recovering earth was to be populated.

  Eventually, after a very long time, the skies cleared, and as the ozone layer had been depleted almost to zero, cosmic radiation from the now very active sun spots bathed the earth, causing even more opportunity for nature to rearrange her DNA patterns, bringing about yet more mutant forms, only the strongest and most able surviving.

  Where forests once stood composed of single trees standing proudly beside
each other, the high winds decreed that only trees which could join together forming a solid group would be strong enough to withstand the onslaught. And so Kel’s world came about, in time.

  For a while the forest was bathed in the darkness of night, and then the Lesser Sun climbed the heavens, casting its silver beams upon the forest canopy, some of which filtered down to give the apparentcy of life to the writhing twists of the gyrating mist wraiths.

  As the coolness of the dark time deepened, the mists thickened, blotting out most of the forest detail so that only looming indistinct shapes remained.

  Only the deep rumble of something large and heavy, constantly on the move remained the same through the night, and had done so for a very long time.

  The deep black of night gave way to greyness, and then as dawn broke, Moss gently woke Kel saying in a hushed voice,

  ‘I think there’s something out there, and it might be looking for the first meal of the day.’

  They strapped on their carry belts, picked up the bladed staves and cautiously crept around the massive tree trunk to see what lay beyond.

  The mists had thinned a little, but not enough to see very far into the greenery between them and the great stone cliff.

  And then they saw it. A dirty grey coloured worm like creature of gargantuan proportions was slowly humping its way along a branch towards them, two pitch black slit eyes glaring out malevolently at them above a salivating wrinkled mouth which slowly opened and closed.

  ‘Quick, this way!’ yelled Moss, jumping across a small gap between two branches, ‘it can’t follow us along here.’

  With Kel in hot pursuit, Moss raced along one of the thinner branches which they wouldn’t normally have used, to reach the rising trunk of the next nearest tree.

  ‘Now where?’ from a shaking Kel.

  ‘Just keep still and watch.’ replied Moss.

  ‘Where do we go from here?’ asked Kel, looking around anxiously for some means of escape.

  ‘We stay put, look at the branch just down there. It’s had a side shoot at some time which has died and rotted out, this should have weakened the main branch, and with a bit of luck, it won’t take the creature’s weight.’