Odyssey From Africa 8b9a

Ch8, cont. Northward parallel the valley. And their ridge-top elevation Gave advantage of perspective They could see the forest's ending In the distance. That same evening Would reveal a stronger reason For Ipiki's intervention Something sensed in his night travels Once again they stopped at nightfall Gathered food and lit a campfire Han continued chipping ironwood Fashioning a second wing-form In the dying light of evening As they climbed into their treehouse Glancing downhill to the valley To a lowland river canyon Han discerned a sudden movement Several saber-tooth cat hunters Ran across an open gully In a predatory manoeuvre This time they were hunting hippos Several adults were surrounded Separated from the river Corralled into gloomy forest By about a hundred felines Then arose the dreadful uproar As the sabertooths, attacking Leapt upon the river creatures And with their enormous canines Cleaved their spinal cords asunder Brought the behemoths down crashing Then came crowding to the blood-feast Witnessing this awful carnage Han and Kwona and the children Who with Rosy and Ipiki Safely sheltered in the tree-nest Realized that by responding To the warning of Ipiki They were spared from deadly danger They were shown the way of safety In the morning they continued By the wood ridge that descended To the valley and the shoreline Of the wide Lurio river Several days of work were needed To prepare a raft of tree-trunks Which they rode across the river Safely to its northern margin Whence they traveled north and east Toward the Mozambiquan coastline And with two more days of trekking Reached at last the forest's ending Finally the path before them Opened into coastal scrubland Soon the fisherman and family Walked again along the seashore If however they considered That the wide familiar ocean Was a refuge safe from danger They would learn they were mistaken Chapter 9 Mollusca One thing that the sea did offer Was a very tasty supper Coming to a rocky headland They began to hunt for shellfish On the wave-impacted shoreline Clinging to the rocks were limpets Also mussels, snails and oysters Deeper down were clams and scallops So they dined on roasted shellfish Left a midden pile of seashells And they slept inside a rock cave That the children had discovered While along the shore at nighttime Air was filled with flying insects Nothing flew inside their cavern But just one well-fed Ipiki