An early violet sky greeted Keelic and his father as they walked out of the house. Keelic bounced down the hillside, making his father take long strides to keep up.
In the Patamic forest, four-meter-wide tree trunks rose, tapering only slightly, to where it looked like someone had chopped off their tops at the thirty-meter mark, leaving them with two-meter-wide flat tops. Leaves two to four meters long grew in rings from the trunks on segmented stems. Each segment of the stem connected at a hinged joint. Father showed Keelic how the joints worked with natural hydraulics to enable the branches to swing and twist without breaking. Keelic discovered that they worked as excellent swings and even catapults.
Small flying creatures buzzed among the trees, or flew up from their feet. One that he liked was about five centimeters long, and had two sets of translucent blue wings at each end of its orange and pink body. It seemed to have a head at each end. These creatures flew past with the sound of crinkling stiff cloth, then stopped and hovered, turning this way and that as though unable to decide which way to go.
He walked beside his father or behind him when the undergrowth was thick, heedless of where they were going. Small gliding animals soared from place to place. The gliders were everywhere, being snared, pounced on, snatched, and generally eaten. Furred and scaled animals leapt or crawled through the trees, some in groups calling out with barked chirps.
Keelic caught a glider. Its opaque wings beat gently against his fingers. Four legs tried to push out of his grip with tiny force.
"When they hatch, everything comes to the feast," said his father. "They must have an excellent flavor."
Keelic acted out eating it.
His father frowned and said, "Remember what I told you. You must never eat anything. Many life forms here have chemistries that are incompatible with ours."
Tired of his parents’ warnings, Keelic tossed the critter away.
"Look," said his father, pointing to the top of a tall trunk fifty meters away. Keelic raised his far-scanner and saw a large blue-green-furred creature staring back at him. It hung from a high leaf stalk with two of its three arms, then lifted its triangular head, opening a wide mouth to cry loud enough to echo through the trees. Others answered.
"That is a yuwabpa," said his dad.
Keelic remembered from his studying. This animal looked much bigger than the pictures he had seen. He checked his stunner’s scanner.
His father said, "They are not dangerous. It is rare for them to even let us see them. They are the largest arboreal animals on the planet. They have hollow bones and other weight-reducing adaptations. There she goes. Probably to join her troop."
They collected a host of species for study by his father, putting them into breathable containers for later release.
Thirst and hunger, mostly Keelic’s, prompted them to stop beside the river. They climbed onto a toppled Patamic trunk beside the water, and pulled out their lunches.
His father asked, "So, where are we?"
Keelic took out the map and discovered that they had gone in a circle around the house.
"You will need to pay more attention to where you are. Especially if I’m ever to let you go on solos."
He looked at his dad and they smiled at each other.
"There are requirements that you are going to have to meet before your mother and I will be satisfied of your safety."
Nothing seemed impossible with the prospect of solos, and Keelic nodded.
"You are going to have to understand all of your equipment. You will have to know how to program the stunner, how to navigate without the map or compass, and how to send a signal if you are separated from the belt. If you lose even one piece of this equipment, neither your mother nor I will ever let you go out by yourself, understand? You will also have to know every predator, poisonous plant, and potentially dangerous species. Additionally, you will only be able to go where I have already been."