The arrangement sounded most novel to me, but it was not, after all, very much more peculiar than that of the so-called “air plant” of my native world, which roosts in trees and drinks sustenance from the atmosphere alone, without recourse to the soil which is the common food source of most plants.
We rode on across the Great Plains, strung out in a wide front, each of us keeping an eye open for the elusive and invaluable jinko without which, I assumed, death from thirst and starvation was to be our lot. Zamara complained, loudly and continuously, about her hunger and thirst, but sulkily refused to assist in the hunt. It occurred to me to suggest that, as the chosen darling of the gods, she might expect miraculous relief for the asking; but that otherwise, unless she helped search for the jinko, she would have no claim in the partaking of its fluids.
She cursed me sulphurously, but began searching for the jinko as soon as she thought I was not watching her. I exchanged a grin with Darloona.
“Another week of this and, between us, we’ll make a human being out of her,” the Princess chuckled.
Chapter 14
The Tree that Walks like a Man
Before we had been riding for more than a couple of hours, Ergon raised an exultant shout and whirled his thaptor off in the direction I assumed to be north. He rode straight for a large, conical-shaped tree that towered above the plains to the height of some fifteen feet or so.
Riding up to where he had halted near the peculiar-looking tree, I called out to him. “This is a jinko? You didn’t tell me they were as large as this―I was watching for something more like a bush.”
“Such they usually resemble,” he grinned happily, “but this is the grandfather of all jinkos!”
He climbed down off the back of his bird-horse, and made a warning gesture of caution.
“Don’t talk too loudly or move too swiftly,” he advised, “or you will scare it off.”
I elevated my eyebrows.
“Scare it off? You mean the thing has―intelligence?” I asked incredulously. He shrugged indifferently.
“I know not whether it be true cognition, or mere brute instinct,” he growled in a low voice, “but they are somehow sensitive to the nearness of warm-blooded creatures, and any abrupt movement in their immediate vicinity may alarm them into flight. And, while they are generally ponderous and slow of movement, I have known instances when it was necessary to gallop after one for the better part of half a korad before you got near enough to snatch a drink of water.”
Glypto, Darloona, and Zamara had ridden up to where we stood by this time. Wiser than I in the techniques of stalking the wary jinko, they dismounted slowly and formed a great ring about the tree, slowly moving in from all sides simultaneously.
The jinko, by the way, resembled an overgrown bush more than a tree, on closer inspection. That is, it seemed to have no central trunk from which the branches grew, but was a thicket of intertangled twigs, each about as big around as my forearm. The base of these twigs was a tangled network, like a great pad, which rested on the surface of the plain. Below this pad hairy rootlets of sinuous and snaky prehensile ability wormed deeply into the ground―I knew this because even as I advanced slowly upon the tree from my side of the circle, one wriggling rootlet came sucking up out of the soil and slithered inquiringly in my direction. In fact, it snuffled inquisitively about my feet like a wary and nearsighted dog!
The twigs extended about a dozen feet in all directions from the central mass, shaping the jinko into something like a squat cone. The twigs ended in swollen, purplish bladders rather like elephant ears, but much fatter because of the water stored within them. The fullest of the “leaves” were a good four or five inches thick and the larger of these must have contained nearly a gallon of water each.
The tree was aware of our presence now. The rootlet which had been sniffing at my ankles, recoiled suddenly into a tight spiral, quivering and tense with alarm. Bristling long hairs or minor rootlets sprouted from the length of the wriggling, prehensile thing, and these vibrated, stiff with alarm.
I was reminded, uneasily, of a rattler, coiling and vibrant, about to strike. Snakes are unknown on Thanator, I believe, and Ergon, sensing my trepidation, advised me the tree was harmless.
Reaching up, we selected the fattest and largest of the bladder-leaves we could, and began cutting them off the branches with our knives. The tree jerked this way and that, trembling, trying to snatch its leaves from our grasp.
The leaves were quite easy to detach. Once you snapped one loose, water dribbled from the end of the branch, which was hollow like a pipe or a garden hose; but the opening quickly swelled shut with an oozing, gummy substance. Watching this curious phenomenon, I suddenly realized that the “leaves” we were plucking were nothing like leaves at all, but were more like bubbles or balloons! For the gummy sap which oozed from the end of one branch from which I had just snapped off a “leaf,” now swelled into a reddish bubble from the water pressure, and as I watched, it began slowly to expand into another elephant-ear-shaped bladder. As the gummy stuff stretched and dried, it turned purple.
When we had harvested enough bladders of water, Ergon bade us stand clear of the tree. Once it perceived itself to be no longer ringed about, the jinko nervously detached itself from the earth, and began scuttling off to the west, squirming along on its wriggling rootlets, swaying from side to side in a most amusing fashion.
Picking up its stride, it rocketed off across the plains and dwindled from sight. When last seen, I would say it was running much faster than a man.
Thanator―world of wonders!
You drink from the bladder-leaves by cutting or tearing a slit about two inches wide in the purplish flesh, tilting this aperture towards your mouth, and squeezing the bladder gently, causing the water to squirt into your mouth―and all over your face, if you fail to aim it properly.
The water was pure, clear, cold, and indescribably delicious.
Ergon made a fire with dry grasses and cut two of the empty bladders into long strips, toasting these in the blaze. They sizzled like steaks roasting on charcoal, giving off a steamy, spicy odor that was not exactly meatlike, but not quite vegetable either. When the strips were done sufficiently, we feasted on them. The purplish flesh, now crisp and brown, had a stringy, fibrous consistency like good lean beef, but a succulent, mealy taste like hot tortillas.
Anyway, they were tasty and filling. Even Zamara devoured them hungrily, failed to complain at the primitive nature of the feast, and carefully licked up every crumb from her lips with a small, pointed pink tongue.
We had drained dry, then cooked and eaten, only two of the jinko leaves. As we had plucked about seventeen before permitting the walking tree to scuttle away about its business, we had provisions of food and drink sufficient to last us for several days.
Resting awhile, seeing that the thaptors satisfied their thirst, we mounted and rode on, refreshed and filled.
Now the only pressing and immediate problem which we faced was that we were lost.
This was a problem that took some thought to solve.