Trekking On

By Robert Turtle

Nama and her family have felt the sting of betrayal and can no longer hope to live and work with their former associates the swamp primates. In search of a better future, they trek away from the riverside wetlands and return to the plains and mountains of the Open Space. The family's experiences will confirm that the conditions necessary for peace must be achieved for its benefits to be enjoyed, while war is more self-sustaining. This book may not seem suitable for younger readers.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Robert Turtle
• Release date: May 5, 2016
• ISBN: 9781311424204

Robert Turtle

I turned to writing ecological science fiction after helping design and build remote sensing instruments used to monitor environmental changes on earth from space. Thinking about the way the lives of animals are constrained by their environment fired my imagination. The characters in my novels were chosen partly in reaction to William Blake's aphorism "The tigers of wrath are wiser than the horses of instruction," and I wondered what it would be like if animals felt remorse. Nama and Westwind's reflections are akin to those described by Mary Austin in her short story "The Walking Woman."

Book preview

Trekking On

An Ecological Fantasy

By Robert Turtle

Trekking On is the second volume of the Beasts of Instruction trilogy. The first and third volumes are Beasts of the Open Space and Across Primordial Landscapes.

Copyright 2016 Robert Turtle

Corrections in 2021

For my parents

Smashwords Edition, License Notes

This ebook is licensed for your personal enjoyment only. This ebook may not be re-sold or given away to other people. If you would like to share this book with another person, please purchase an additional copy for each recipient. If you're reading this book and did not purchase it, or it was not purchased for your use only, then please return to your favorite ebook retailer and purchase your own copy. Thank you for respecting the hard work of this author.

Table of Contents

Prologue

Chapter 1--Together Again

Chapter 2--New Knowledge in New Places

Chapter 3--Nama's Mountain Journey

Chapter 4--Along the Rainbow River

Chapter 5--An Unlikely Encounter

Chapter 6--Self-Domestication

Chapter 7--Herd of Discovery

Chapter 8--The Cottonwood Pools

Chapter 9--First Impressions

Chapter 10--River Mouth

Chapter 11--Inkie's Tour

Chapter 12--The Wealth of the River King

Chapter 13--Little Brother Takes a Chance

Chapter 14--Creatures of Prometheus

Chapter 15--Westwind and Nama Buy In

Chapter 16--A Stick in the Hornets' Nest

Chapter 17--Starting Off

Chapter 18--Along the Foothills

Chapter 19--The Charcoal Burners

Chapter 20--General Dogbane

Chapter 21--Bolas

Chapter 22--Ends and Means

Chapter 23--Move and Countermove

Chapter 24--Out of Touch

Chapter 25--An Essential Resource

Chapter 26--Customer Satisfaction

Chapter 27--Betrayal

Chapter 28--Finest Deeds

Chapter 29--Wisdom Lingers

Acknowledgements

Prologue

Trekking On is the second part of the trilogy that began with Beasts of the Open Space. In the first book, horse-like beasts Nama and Westwind joined with others of their kind to resist inroads by web-footed water primates. In this book Nama and Westwind search for a way into the future for their family and friends. They will find the conditions necessary for peace must be achieved for its benefits to be enjoyed, while war is more self-sustaining.

Chapter 1

Together Again

In a long-ago, prehistoric time, a family of horse-like, herbivorous beasts was spending a summer evening on a grassy mountaintop. Mare Nama and stallion Westwind were happy to have their filly Acacia to themselves after months of turmoil and separation. They had gone to drink earlier in the day, and since the wind was light and the weather warm, they climbed to the topmost ridge of a mountain to see the sunset and watch the stars come out. The family emerged from scattered trees onto an open crest covered by grass and shrubs. Mountains stretched off in all directions, but no high peaks loomed over them, so the horizon lacked bold relief.

As sunset pink faded in the west, Nama scanned the sky where stars were appearing. Look at that, she said. The Heron is flying over the mountaintops south of us.

The skies millions of years ago were different from what we see today. The moon cycled through its phases, and the Milky Way might stretch overhead from north to south, but the brightest stars were in completely different locations, and none of the constellations Nama had learned the names of looked like any we know. The stars that made up the constellation she called the Heron suggested a wading bird with its beak, wings and legs outstretched as it skimmed along just above a river or lake, and mountains along the horizon suggested waves. It was a constellation of the far southern sky, and at that time of night, the illusion was compelling. Nama was feeling relaxed and drowsy after a long day trekking mountain pastures. There was no moon, and as it grew darker, her mind spontaneously filled in the outline of sparks of light with wings and a shadowy body.

The family spent the night near the top of the mountain, far enough below the summit ridge to be out of what wind there was, but not so far down that they felt a draft of cool air sinking into the valley. Nama and Westwind took turns standing and lying down so Acacia could stay curled up close to one of her parents and keep warm. Only Acacia slept soundly through the night. The adults passed the time dozing or keeping watch. Such still hours of darkness were some of the happiest that beast couples shared.

In the morning, Nama led the way down the mountain to drink at a spring. There they met another couple who had a colt about Acacia's age. All the beasts were shades of tan except Westwind, who was gray. The youngsters hurried ahead to greet and play.

She's Acacia, Nama said as the parents caught up with their offspring.

He's Dustcloud, the other proud mare replied.

Westwind bumped shoulders with the other stallion. Perhaps they would have a chance to wrestle and show off for their mares some other time--for now, their babies were stealing the show. Further introductions were omitted in the excitement, and without correcting the oversight, the parents watched while their foals pushed and chased each other.

Is it true that our riverside settlements have been abandoned? Dustcloud's pa asked when there was a break in the activity and the little ones rejoined their parents.

Westwind realized he had important news to pass on. That's right. Only swamp primates are left, and the beasts who used to live and work with them are returning to the mountains and valleys of the Open Space so their families will be safe.

Until the year before, some of the beasts had lived beside a river that separated the Open Space from vast wetlands. The swamp primates who fished in the lakes and marshes combined the features of apes and otters, and unlike the beasts, they had dexterous hands. By working together, the two species mastered fire making, and other advancements seemed within their reach. But even though the web-footed swamp primates were the descendants of hominids and could walk upright, they were awkward on land and wanted beasts to ride where they could not swim. They stole foals and raised them in isolation from wild beasts. In place of outright cruelty, manipulation and cunning were used to train the impressionable youngsters to be loyal companions as well as steeds. Captives would breed as soon as they were old enough, so kidnappings became infrequent and were successfully passed off as tragic drownings in the river, which flowed wide and deep. At last, after decades of cleverly concealed trickery, the truth about this breach of trust reached the ears of the beasts living on the riverbank, and cooperation between the two species had ended abruptly.

We learned about the big move back to the Open Space just after our baby was born, Dustcloud's pa continued.

At the same time, we also heard that swamp primates had left their wetlands and were coming into our mountains to steal acorns, his mom added.

I'm not sure steal is quite the right word, Nama replied.

The conversation was becoming more interesting, and Westwind sensed that his chance to challenge Dustcloud's pa was probably gone--games would have to be left to the foals even though stallions relished wrestling matches and mares enjoyed watching.

It wasn't so much about acorns, Westwind explained. We also learned how the swamp primates kidnapped babies and bred them in bondage. That's what made everyone so angry, and all this information reached us at the same time.

If it weren't for the kidnappings, I expect we would have helped the swamp primates carry their acorns, Nama added. Now my mate and I are searching for new homelands where beasts can roam. We need to learn the rules by which landscapes form and rivers flow to the sea.

We're happy that the acorn harvesters were driven off, little Dustcloud's mom said, but my mate is disappointed because there was no way he could help. My baby had just been born, and I needed him. Yet we have heard of a stallion named Westwind who left his mate and newborn foal for almost a year to help lead the resistance.

An innocent oversight had caught up with Westwind, and he dropped his head to crop grass because the insides of his ears were blushing pink.

Nama came to his rescue. But we know the couple had almost a whole summer to prepare for what was coming. Westwind's mate remained in the company of close friends and wasn't alone with her baby. Also, I've heard that the plants around the grove where the swamp primates harvested acorns were grazed to the ground by our defense force. More beasts wouldn't have helped.

I'm glad to hear we probably made the right decision, Dustcloud's mom said, and we certainly won't let our little treasure near swamp primates!

After the families split up to graze, Nama nursed Acacia and teased Westwind. I guess you're happy they're on their way!

Yes, he admitted, and you saved me considerable embarrassment just now.

From an early age, beasts were patiently warned not to boast or tell fibs, so his mate had gone out on a limb to help him. Furthermore, Westwind had another reason to be pleased that the visit with the other family had quickly come to a satisfactory conclusion. Beasts often raised their young in the company of potential future mates, and Westwind was sure Acacia was already looking forward to rejoining another colt named Shadow when summer ended.

Shadow's mom was Nama's good friend Emmenanthe, who had been her mentor at the riverside settlement called Down River Camp where Nama grew up. Acacia was younger than Shadow, but the difference in their ages would no longer be significant by the time they were old enough to breed.

* * *

Westwind and Nama spent a wonderful summer with their daughter. Acacia made up for time with her father she had lost the previous fall and winter and soon had him properly trained. Westwind was fortunate, because his relationship with a son would have been more nuanced, and a lost first year of parenting might have had serious consequences.

The best find of the family's summer vacation was a magnificent bas relief of Highcliff, an ambiguous character from beast lore renowned for murdering lesser stallions and siring foals with their mares. The life-size carving showed the brute in all his strength and arrogance with three mares in the background, one obviously pregnant and another with a foal at her side. It had been skillfully chipped and scraped on a vertical surface of tuff. Unlike horses, beasts had rudimentary hands on their forelegs, so one of them could have fashioned it with stone tools.

Highcliff gripped beasts' imaginations because of the strong visceral reactions and conflicting emotions he evoked. When Westwind recognized what he was looking at, he turned his ears back, bared his tusks, and began to scrape the ground the way male beasts did to show anger. Nama began to laugh, and Acacia watched her parents with a puzzled expression.

Westwind remembered that the scene was only stone and became embarrassed. What disgraceful behavior to put on display for a little one like Acacia!

You've got it wrong, Westwind, Nama said. Acacia already knows that her father treats her mother the way he should. But if Shadow were with us, it would be up to you to explain the message to him.

I guess I'd have to try, Westwind said. I sure hate the idea of what Highcliff is doing. He must have those mares hidden someplace. It'll catch up with him when he tries to find mates for his youngsters.

Nama began to laugh. Oh, if only the artist could see you react! How proud she would be.

Westwind didn't mind being laughed at because he was afraid of frightening Acacia. He put his ears up again and was pleased when Acacia came and stood close to him.

Actually, mares often find the story of Highcliff and his evil ways useful when they’re being courted, Nama said. I don't remember you being shy, but desirable stallions often are. A mare can trim a month or so off a courtship with the help of an image like this. Her suitor will be embarrassed by what he sees and tell her that she's the only mare for him. After that he's fair game, and she can tease and encourage him in return.

Highcliff did get what was coming to him, Westwind said, although I'm not sure it was a good thing.

According to the legend, Highcliff's stolen mares led him into an ambush by bachelor stallions who kicked him to death and divided his harem. But listeners were left to imagine how many foals grew up fatherless because of Highcliff or were killed outright, and this made for an unhappy ending.

By now, the waning moon rising later and later on successive nights was a reminder that summer was drawing to a close. Following plans made the previous spring, Nama and her family headed west so they could meet with Emmenanthe, Shadow, and his father Ash when the next new moon marked the start of autumn.

Chapter 2

New Knowledge in New Places

Nama and Westwind had agreed to meet their friends in the vicinity of the beasts' only remaining record center and library. It was located on a plateau in the mountains two days' journey from where Nama had lived and worked with swamp primates before meeting Westwind. Technical information about how the riverside settlements were run and operated had been moved into the mountains for safe keeping.

When they reached the plateau, the family went straight to the record center to see if anyone they knew was there. The place was the same as when Nama and Westwind had passed by on their honeymoon. The clay tiles inscribed with accounts of the beasts' accomplishments still rested in rows on the dirt mounds where they had been neatly arranged, but instead of awakening memories of a lost golden age, they provided the setting for conversations. Refugees from the riverside settlements used the library as a meeting place. They agreed that the company of friends had been the best part of their former life and didn't want these associations to end now they were safely out of reach of swamp primates.

Nama asked the first beast they met, Have you seen Emmenanthe?

Yes, and I expect she's gone with her family to drink at the spring, came the reply. Try checking there. It sounded as if Emmenanthe's guidance and advice were still valued and sought after.

The spring used by visitors to the record center was at a lower elevation. Nama kept Acacia by her side and Westwind followed as she led the way down from the north edge of the plateau through a forest of pine trees where visibility was limited in every direction. They emerged onto the meadow that was watered by the spring, and Nama called to Emmenanthe, who was grazing with her mate Ash and their colt Shadow. Acacia bounded ahead to greet her pal.

This meadow was where Westwind had enjoyed his first, painfully brief meeting with his daughter the year before. Afterward, while he was helping turn back the invasion of the acorn harvesters, Nama and Acacia had remained near the spring for a couple of months before moving to a lower, warmer valley to pass the winter.

Hurry up and drink, Emmenanthe called back. We have a surprise for you.

The water flowing from the spring was clear and clean-smelling, and Nama encouraged Acacia to taste some.

When all were satisfied, the two families climbed back up through the forest to the plateau. On the way, Acacia and Shadow took the lead, but they let their mothers set the pace and didn't cause concern by darting ahead. Ash and Westwind stayed far enough behind so they could show off and keep a pushing contest going without raising the nuisance level past distraction.

Being a beast was all about going up and down hills, and Nama didn't waste time wishing it hadn't been such a long way down to reach water. She enjoyed watching Westwind and Ash play like colts even though both she and Emmenanthe acted as if they disapproved. She was proud of her mate's friendly display of energy and was sure that Emmenanthe felt the same.

On the west side of a small grove of oaks, a pair of beasts were enjoying the afternoon sun. The big stallion was tawny yellow, and his mare was brown. She was nursing a brown foal who was only days old. He was so tiny that he reared to nurse while steadying himself against one of his mother’s hind legs.

It's Swimmer and Drift. She's had her baby! Nama said.

He's called Pinecone because of his color and because he was born in a forest of pine trees, Emmenanthe explained as they walked toward the new parents.

Swimmer had been kidnapped from a river settlement years before and lived as a captive until a fatal snakebite severed the bond of loyalty between herself and her rider. Nama and Westwind helped her reach Down River Camp, where she had revealed the secret crimes of the swamp primates.

Nama had once feared that Drift might try to take her away from Westwind, but that anxiety ended when Drift and Swimmer met. Now the couples were close friends.

Drift hurried over to meet Westwind. They began to push against each other, shoulder to shoulder, although the match didn't last long because Drift was so much larger. They stirred up dust until it was clear that the balance of power hadn't shifted in Westwind's favor. Nama went to meet Pinecone while his father and Westwind talked.

Pinecone was Swimmer's second foal. The first, now fully grown, still lived with swamp primates in the wetlands, and she had lost contact with him and whichever one of several friendly stallions had been his father. Swimmer had been on hand to help Nama when Acacia was born. Now it was her turn to show off a new baby to her friends.

Acacia and Shadow followed Nama's lead and approached Pinecone cautiously, trying their best not to alarm him. Conversations continued while Pinecone was making up his mind about the strangers.

After we left Down River Camp, Emmenanthe said, I thought we were going to travel and see the world since we didn't have settlements to look after anymore. For example, I want to know where the river flows to. I watched it going past Down River Camp for most of my life, and now I'd like to find out.

I've gone far enough upstream to see where the wetlands end and the river emerges from mountains, Drift said. There it is confined in narrow canyons with rugged walls. It's hard going, but not mysterious.

No one ever talked much about where the river flows when I was a captive, Swimmer said. The neighboring clans held our riders' attention, and potential enemies were the main topic of the conversations I recall. I have been back and forth across the swamp as far as the savanna on the west side many times. The savanna is mysterious, too, but it's dry, uninviting, and dangerous to get to across a swamp full of swamp primates. Traveling there is out of the question now we all have little ones to watch out for.

I actually asked our swamp primate helpers about what is down the river, Emmenanthe said. It seemed like a harmless question, not at all like prying into their families' private affairs. They told me about an enormous body of water they called the sea. But they also said it wasn't an easy place to travel to because of all the different clans you would have to negotiate with before you arrived. Of course, none of them had ever gone so far, but their stories seemed to be consistent.

I believe that a sea is a lake so large you can't look across to the other side even on the clearest day, Swimmer said.

That's the impression I got, Emmenanthe replied. The swamp primates also told me they had heard that the water tasted salty and that the fishes were different from the ones in the river.

Everyone's curiosity was aroused by now, and Westwind suggested a travel plan. If we go south along the east side of the river, we'll be able to adjust our route to the season and for whatever our needs happen to be. We're headed into winter now, and we can stay in valleys where it's warm until summer comes again. Then we can climb into the mountains. It's a good way to go. Pinecone can be kept safe, and Shadow and Acacia will get the experience they need eating different sorts of vegetation.

The country you're describing is where I met Drift, Swimmer said, and I would love to visit there again and perhaps roam on to see what lies beyond. But I'm anxious to spend time with my parents and little brother now that we’ve been reunited. Drift thinks he knows where his parents are hanging out, and I'd like to meet them too.

There's another problem besides, Ash said. "Not all the settlement beasts are learning how to live in the wild as quickly as I would like. Sometimes I meet a hungry-looking