Humans are Weird - Safety First
Revels in the Dawn had finally found a time to compost and had carefully pulled all awareness to the central forest of the region. It had been many seasons since Revels in the Dawn had first extended tendrils into this wood. Saplings had reached towering height and then died in their natural life course only for their offspring to do the same. This wild region had been in a stable equilibrium for tree-generations before Revels in the Dawn had first touched it. The native forest mind had easily accepted Revels in the Dawn and had kept on sending nutrients this way and that no matter what changed in the rest of the planet. The more motile species had accepted Revels in the Dawn’s request to leave this area untouched with cheerful acceptance, gladly accepting Revels in the Dawn’s assistance in cultivating the more equatorial sections of the planet and only posting small colonies of Rangers to observe the region and guard and maintain the local sensor stations and few scientific outpost around the deep forest. This was Revels in the Dawn’s most sacred place to compost and dream.
Therefore it was with no little annoyance that Revels in the Dawn realized what the flashed of brilliant, reflective color meant. The first clue was the sudden sprouting of interest nodes in dormant light sensitive tendrils. Something new to the experience of the Gathering had happened in the composting place, something associated with a color that did not occur naturally on this planet.
Revels in the Dawn spent a day deciding if this infraction was worth determining who was responsible and contacting them before grudgingly siding on the affirmative. Instead of settling a majority of awareness into a nice, soothing compost session Revels in the Dawn began carefully reviewing every memory node that contained the color signal. The results were perplexing to say the least. The first was a young flightless avian. The species was fairly large, a species of herbivore that subsisted on the liquid sap of the trees. Their long necks and long beaks designed to chip holes through the bark and lick out the fluid. This one had a long strap of brilliant yellow wound around its neck. The item, clearly not natural, had fallen to the forest duff and was easy to locate once Revels in the Dawn followed the color alert nodes though time.
This composting place had few motile tendrils, Revels in the Dawn had little interest in altering anything about the local environment, but with time and effort the Gathering was able to move the detritus that had fallen over the alien item. In clear current view it was easy to identify. The chemicals that had leeched out of it into the duff aided the identification. It was one of the highly reflective safety belts that the human Rangers used to make themselves more visible during low light conditions. However there were no human Rangers stationed near the composting place, and so far as Revels in the Dawn knew, no human Rangers had been granted leave for either scientific or personal travel into it.
However the avian species were known to migrate far during their sexual dispersal as they came of age. Had it been only this one ‘belt’ it was called, it might have simply been a curious example of the curious young avian getting its long neck tangled in the belt far away and dragging it into the composting place.
However there were far to many of the color alert nodes for that to be the case, and knowing the taste of the leeched chemicals Revels in the Dawn was able to quickly locate, not only more belts but also larger full ‘vests’ now littering the duff of the composting place. With growing perplexity Revels in the Dawn reviewed the visual memories. Not just the avian species, but the mammals that wandered through the deep forests on their way to the more open clearings were to be seen ‘wearing’ the reflective material. As a percentage of the populations the animals thus marked were very few, and the material degraded and fell off them quickly as it was designed to. The chemicals released into the forest were annoying but not particularly harmful.
The situation was coming into focus as simply...curious. Why would the humans feel the need to place their safety equipment, designed specially for their bodies and eyes, on the local fauna? Why was no record of this communicated to Revels in the Dawn?
Slowly extending awareness into distant memory Revels in the Dawn followed one of the larger mammals, wearing a full reflective ‘sweater’, back though the forest and days. The mammal had entered the composting forest from the south. The memory led back to the mid summer to a meadow on the edge of the nearest Ranger base that housed several humans tasked with various search and rescue operation as well as the physical maintenance of the sensor stations. As the memory stretched back it showed the mammal fleeing from the meadow wearing the sweater, then it showed one of the humans grappling the mammal, tying the ‘arms’ of the sweater around its neck and laughing as it escaped, and the human wearing the sweater while sitting with a small cluster of Rangers in the meadow.
Having found the central memory Revels in the Dawn played it over with full awareness and temporal focus. The cluster of humans lounging around the meadow. Current awareness showed that even in this colder season the smell and taste of humans lingered in the area showing recent presence. The humans in the memory chatting of various things before spotting the mammal. The sudden change in their posture from casual lounging to alert, predatory stance. One human being chosen who began to stalk the mammal. The chosen human carefully easing out of his reflective sweater as he approached the mammal and then lunging and capturing the mammal, the human pinning it with his greater mass and long limbs. The human tying the arms of the sweater around the mammal and then rolling off laughing as the animal bolted away.
Slow perusal of the memories of that meadow showed similar events happening over the course of the summer and autumn. Many times it was different humans, always it was a young male human. Revels in the Dawn considered the options available. If the issue was brought up with the base commander no doubt the behavior would stop immediately. However the animals were not being harmed, the humans seemed careful of that. The contamination of the composting forest was annoying, but hardly dangerous. Revels in the Dawn decided at last to enter a composting phase and to decide in that what course of action to take. Why mature humans would put so much effort into something so apparently pointless was an interesting question, but not worth interrupting high quality rest.
Therefore it was with no little annoyance that Revels in the Dawn realized what the flashed of brilliant, reflective color meant. The first clue was the sudden sprouting of interest nodes in dormant light sensitive tendrils. Something new to the experience of the Gathering had happened in the composting place, something associated with a color that did not occur naturally on this planet.
Revels in the Dawn spent a day deciding if this infraction was worth determining who was responsible and contacting them before grudgingly siding on the affirmative. Instead of settling a majority of awareness into a nice, soothing compost session Revels in the Dawn began carefully reviewing every memory node that contained the color signal. The results were perplexing to say the least. The first was a young flightless avian. The species was fairly large, a species of herbivore that subsisted on the liquid sap of the trees. Their long necks and long beaks designed to chip holes through the bark and lick out the fluid. This one had a long strap of brilliant yellow wound around its neck. The item, clearly not natural, had fallen to the forest duff and was easy to locate once Revels in the Dawn followed the color alert nodes though time.
This composting place had few motile tendrils, Revels in the Dawn had little interest in altering anything about the local environment, but with time and effort the Gathering was able to move the detritus that had fallen over the alien item. In clear current view it was easy to identify. The chemicals that had leeched out of it into the duff aided the identification. It was one of the highly reflective safety belts that the human Rangers used to make themselves more visible during low light conditions. However there were no human Rangers stationed near the composting place, and so far as Revels in the Dawn knew, no human Rangers had been granted leave for either scientific or personal travel into it.
However the avian species were known to migrate far during their sexual dispersal as they came of age. Had it been only this one ‘belt’ it was called, it might have simply been a curious example of the curious young avian getting its long neck tangled in the belt far away and dragging it into the composting place.
However there were far to many of the color alert nodes for that to be the case, and knowing the taste of the leeched chemicals Revels in the Dawn was able to quickly locate, not only more belts but also larger full ‘vests’ now littering the duff of the composting place. With growing perplexity Revels in the Dawn reviewed the visual memories. Not just the avian species, but the mammals that wandered through the deep forests on their way to the more open clearings were to be seen ‘wearing’ the reflective material. As a percentage of the populations the animals thus marked were very few, and the material degraded and fell off them quickly as it was designed to. The chemicals released into the forest were annoying but not particularly harmful.
The situation was coming into focus as simply...curious. Why would the humans feel the need to place their safety equipment, designed specially for their bodies and eyes, on the local fauna? Why was no record of this communicated to Revels in the Dawn?
Slowly extending awareness into distant memory Revels in the Dawn followed one of the larger mammals, wearing a full reflective ‘sweater’, back though the forest and days. The mammal had entered the composting forest from the south. The memory led back to the mid summer to a meadow on the edge of the nearest Ranger base that housed several humans tasked with various search and rescue operation as well as the physical maintenance of the sensor stations. As the memory stretched back it showed the mammal fleeing from the meadow wearing the sweater, then it showed one of the humans grappling the mammal, tying the ‘arms’ of the sweater around its neck and laughing as it escaped, and the human wearing the sweater while sitting with a small cluster of Rangers in the meadow.
Having found the central memory Revels in the Dawn played it over with full awareness and temporal focus. The cluster of humans lounging around the meadow. Current awareness showed that even in this colder season the smell and taste of humans lingered in the area showing recent presence. The humans in the memory chatting of various things before spotting the mammal. The sudden change in their posture from casual lounging to alert, predatory stance. One human being chosen who began to stalk the mammal. The chosen human carefully easing out of his reflective sweater as he approached the mammal and then lunging and capturing the mammal, the human pinning it with his greater mass and long limbs. The human tying the arms of the sweater around the mammal and then rolling off laughing as the animal bolted away.
Slow perusal of the memories of that meadow showed similar events happening over the course of the summer and autumn. Many times it was different humans, always it was a young male human. Revels in the Dawn considered the options available. If the issue was brought up with the base commander no doubt the behavior would stop immediately. However the animals were not being harmed, the humans seemed careful of that. The contamination of the composting forest was annoying, but hardly dangerous. Revels in the Dawn decided at last to enter a composting phase and to decide in that what course of action to take. Why mature humans would put so much effort into something so apparently pointless was an interesting question, but not worth interrupting high quality rest.
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