Chapter 12

There was at first a sense of cheerful bravado accompanying Glade and her company as they paraded across the savannah with the Knights' village receding ever further into the distance. They were sure that once they were back under the canopy of the great forest, their ordeal as slaves for the shaven-headed warriors would become nothing more than an unpleasant memory. However, as one day followed the last and there was still nothing on the horizon ahead that resembled the forest Glade so yearned for, she wondered, as did the others, whether they had been reckless to have fled the security of village life.

Every day, Glade and her companions had to seek food, shelter and, most difficult of all, fresh water. This was a task for which the Knights in their company were the most capable. They instructed Glade in the life-saving skills of sucking dew from leaves and grass in the early morning, of puncturing succulent but treacherously spiked plants for their moisture, and of laying animal hides down at night to gather the morning dew. Few of Glade's companions had any experience of hunting the fleet-footed deer and antelope. It was frustrating to be surrounded by so much game that no one knew how to trap or kill. There was so much food on the hoof, in the air and in the trees, but most of it remained beyond the reach of the hungry Forest People. There were zebra, gnu and antelope that were too fleet to outrun. There was also rhinoceros, elephant and giraffe that only the foolhardiest hunter would dare approach.

Sunset brought blessed relief from the oppressive heat and gave the refugees an opportunity to rest, but it also awakened the predators whose bright eyes reflected the flames of the fire around which the travellers huddled.

The novelty of being out in the open air initially enflamed the Forest People's libido, but this caused disgust and discomfort amongst those from less promiscuous tribes so out of respect Glade's tribe had to temper their ardour. There wasn't, for instance, much group sex given that there were so few who would participate. Glade restricted her choice of sexual partners to Tree Shrew and the happy trio of Macaque, Dignity and Fern. Other Forest People were similarly restrained. Only the few remaining Knights rivalled their lack of inhibition. For the first time in her life Glade became aware that sexual promiscuity was rather less prevalent amongst the tribes of the world than she'd previously imagined.

Nevertheless, even the delights of Tree Shrew's penis began to pall, especially as he was becoming too fatigued for physical activity. Soon the troop was spending the nights huddled together for company rather than engaged in sex. While unbroken savannah continued to extend in all directions, Glade became increasingly convinced that they were irretrievably lost. No one knew the exact way home and the few signs they used to navigate by, such as the height of the sun at midday and the memory of their original journey, were far from faultless.

"I'm not sure we even want to go to your forest," complained Baobab, a man from another tribe. "Why can't we just settle down by a stream or a lake somewhere?"

"How can we find food in such a place? What can we eat?" wondered Fern.

"There's plenty of game in the savannah," Baobab continued. "What's so wonderful about forest animals?"

As the days passed by and the complaints became more vocal, Glade became afraid that the group might fall apart. Only the Forest People were adamant that their destination had to be the forest and that no other was acceptable.

At long last, there was evidence on the horizon that the travellers' arduous trek might soon be over. It was Tapir who first saw a line of green spreading out in front of them, although it was at rather an unexpected angle to the direction that the troop had been walking. As they excitedly adjusted their march towards this hopeful sign, it became ever more evident that it was a long expanse of tall trees from which could be heard the agitated clamour of monkeys and forest birds in the highest canopies.

"Home. Home. Home," chanted Glade. Her stride got ever longer and a warm glow grew inside her. Soon she would once again be sheltered by the benevolent forest spirits and could feast on the trees' rich fruits.

"Is that what a forest looks like?" asked Dignity, who strode beside her and squeezed her hand. "All those tall trees! Are there demons in the shadows?"

"Not at all," said Glade, who enthusiastically proceeded to recount all the delights of the forest she had known so intimately for all her childhood. The rich pickings on the forest floor. The shelter from the sun's incessant heat. The shadows that protected her eyes from its glare. The tangle of branches and leaves that kept large predators at bay.

It was dusk when the troop finally arrived at the forest edge. They eagerly rushed beneath the overhanging shadows of the trees, glad to be away from the oppressive heat and the ever-watchful eyes of lions and prairie wolves. Dignity and the other Knights were rather more apprehensive, as were those from other tribes. The forest was very dark and its noise at night was different to but no less intimidating than that of the open plain. When fires were lit, the shadows of the forest loomed much closer than they did under the shrubby trees of the savannah.

Dignity retreated into the comforting arms of Glade and Macaque, relishing their tongues and teeth on her dark skin, less from desire than from the need for familiar company. Tree Shrew fucked Fern by the fire. Her cries of passion made well known her relief of at last being free from the unending flat plains, but Glade could see no reciprocal delight amongst those taller, shorter, darker or flatter-faced people whose tribes had never before entered a forest where not even the moonlight, let alone the light from the stars, ever bathed the foliage.

However, when morning came and sunlight filtered through the canopy to the fern and moss covered ground, a dreadful realisation came to Glade as it did to the other Forest People. These trees were not the ones with which she was familiar. The cackling monkeys were not ones Glade had heard before. This may be a forest but it wasn't the forest she'd once known so well.

"What does it matter?" Venerable reasoned imploringly. He was the Knight whose family had been spared because they'd treated their slaves relatively well. "This is still a forest. It's as good as any."

"You don't understand," said Tapir. "It may be a forest, but the spirits who safeguard us don't abide here."

"I'm sure the spirits of this forest will be as kind to us as those of our forest if we treat them with respect," remarked Macaque, mindful of Dignity's exhaustion.

The troop wandered through the overarching foliage with a sense of trepidation. How different would this forest be? There were mushrooms and fruits and nuts. Many were familiar, but some were not. They knew enough not to experiment randomly with the benison of this forest. Just as in their native forest, evil spirits could lurk in the most seemingly harmless fungus or within the flesh of the most tempting fruit. But which was blessed and which cursed? Above their heads, the beady eyes of forest birds and monkeys inspected them. They sometimes cracked into mocking cries that frightened the Forest People as much as their companions, as they were so unlike the calls they distantly remembered.

After a day of wandering through the thick vegetation, their pace slowed by those who hadn't learned the way of walking over the treacherous twig-strewn forest floor, the troop at last came upon a clearing through which flowed a wide-open river. It wasn't a very wide river. It was narrower than most of those that flowed through Glade's ancestral forest. It was clear and not at all muddy. It was too shallow for hippopotami, Glade noticed with relief, but not so much that a crocodile mightn't be lurking under the water. Nevertheless, it was evident that the Knights and the other tribes-people were immediately cheered to emerge from the forest and once again see their shadows.

"This is perfect," remarked Baobab with a grin. "There's water to drink. Stones we can use for tools. And we're not likely to be pounced on by leopards or bears."

"And look!" said Venerable, pointing at a pair of antelopes that were drinking by the river. "There's also game. What we can't get from the river, we can still get from the forest."

"We should set up a village here," said Venerable's wife, Modesty, holding their two-year old child close to her bare bosom. "It's much nicer here than where the chimpanzees and gorillas roam."

The Forest People were aghast, Glade amongst them. None of them had known village-life before they were enslaved and they'd never considered this to be a life to which they should once again get accustomed. Glade had assumed that their troop would settle down to live a life rather more like what they had once known: one of ceaseless wandering through the forest taking of its bounty as they went and settling down each night in a new and yet comfortingly familiar grove.

"Are you sure that's what we want to do?" asked Tapir nervously.

"Of course it is," said a newly emboldened Venerable. "We can make of this river bank a village where our children can wander freely without being attacked by baboons, where we can fashion our weapons in the clear light of day, and where we can walk without scarring our feet on the forest floor."

The traditional way of life of the Forest People had no appeal to those from other tribes. However, as this forest had a quite different character from the Forest People's ancestral home they weren't altogether at ease either.

"I think we should explore the forest further," said Fern, whose gaze returned to the comfort of the dappled woodland whose trees were still so tantalisingly close.

"But we can also put down a settlement here," said Glade diplomatically. "We can do both. The forest is ours to do with it what we will. We've not seen signs of any other people living here. We can live by the river and sleep here at night. But we can also wander abroad and discover what riches the forest has to offer."

It was to Lady Demure and her astute political skills that Glade owed her newfound skill of proposing solutions that appeared acceptable to everyone, but it was still too soon for her to admit this even to herself. She was gratified to see that even Tapir was satisfied by this compromise.

"After all," she clarified, "those who wish to wander forever in the forest can do so and still be part of the same company that lives by the river. There is surely bounty in the forest that can be brought back and shared with everyone."

This appeal to the Forest People's tradition of working together didn't allow any possibility for dissent.

"Well, let's find out what there is!" said Tapir with resolve. He trembled with anxiety at the prospect of spending much longer in the open where lions and hyenas might roam unhindered by the dense foliage.

Alas, it soon became obvious to Glade, Tree Shrew and those others who accompanied Tapir that not only was this a forest different in type to that which they'd known so well but also in extent. It took them less than half a day to walk from the river to one edge of the forest. It took rather less than that to reach the forest's other edge. This was a forest defined by and dependent on a river that carried its attendant foliage along the open savannah upon which no other forest could be seen.