The First Elder stood beneath the sheltering branch of an old but sturdy tree, feeling its timeless breath and slow thoughts in the resonance of his own. It was much like him in many ways -- focused not on the transient moments but on the slower, timeless processes of life itself. But the Elder knew, perhaps as the tree did not, that there are some moments in the Cosmic Unfolding of Life that call for critical actions, however small and precise, to be taken lest the whole be thrown from its harmonious Balance.

He raised an arm and from the shadows around him stepped forward the chosen men and women of the Tern community, the strongest, brightest and quickest of the men, whatever their ages; and of the women those who saw furthest, and felt deepest, and knew the furthest reaches of the heart and the great, unifying feminine Principle of the universe.

To them, he spoke softly and urgently for an hour. And leaving their families in the care of others, one by one, those he had spoken to slipped from the wide clearings of the Community campground into the towering shaded forests, along the ancient trails to the far points of the mighty wooded flanks of the planet.

The Elder's communion with the planet's Plantiarchs had served him well; his messages and his story had found its way not only through the community of grasses, mosses, and roots that crisscrossed the planet, but from them to the very waters and the connected hearts of those who lived as one with the planet's natural systems. From the shadows stepped forth dozens of two- and three-year old lammbrui, the gentle speedy travelers of Tern's forest byways and shores. Like large plump gerbils with the long facial structure of a Terran greyhound, masked and filled out by longhaired silken coats that covered their faces and bodies, they had never been tamed by the first Ternian settlers, because they would not stay penned and could always be counted on to escape no matter what was done to hold them. But although they would not be domesticated, it was learned among the first and second generations of Terrans on Tern that the lammbrui, living in the wild, would come to certain settlers when needed and provide them with transport on their comfortable shoulders, covering in hours what a Ternian human on foot could only traverse in days or weeks. It was never exactly predictable to whom they would offer this assistance, but it was most often the young and most often the young women. Gradually the Ternians learned to accept this help as it was offered, and they built up a cultural reverence for the lammbrui, and those who could call them were afforded high esteem for their internal clarity and virtue.

Tonight, however, the lammbrui, spoken for by the timeless Patriarchs, offered their help to any who needed it; and one by one, the men and women on the Elder's mission were whisked through the darkening forest trails seated on the comfortable silken shoulders of their new allies. Those that were not going far went on foot. However they went, before an hour had passed after the Elder's low-pitched resonant briefing, they had all vanished into the shadowed undergrowth.

Mandy came up to the Elder, who stood where he had been, watching the twin moons of Tern rise to the mark of the eighth hour.

"Thank you for receiving me here," she said simply, but warmly. The Elder nodded; no more was needed.

"Have we not finally won peace, then?" she asked, troubled in her dark eyes.

"No...we have won respite. The depths of the deceptions and desires of these people are as great as the forests of Tern. They have not learned; they are not interested in learning. Perhaps this means they will try to destroy us. Perhaps it means that we merely need to teach them in a different way. Or, perhaps....". He shrugged. She had seen the scintillating flash that had vaporized the Eisnerian fleet and did not need to be told what it meant.