Just about two hours later, the canoe entered the mouth of a small river and again they were paddling upstream. Since the current was not that strong, they were able to make good progress in the general southwesterly direction. It didn't bother Vincent too much even if they were deviating from the exact south because it was much more important that they get as much distance as possible between them and the spot where they had spent the previous night and what was left of Kowla's body. He knew that those looking for Kowla would eventually discover his remains when they began looking for them.
They kept on paddling upstream all day, stopping only for a short time to eat and to stretch their legs. Only once it was too dark to see where they were going, did they stop since it was then too dangerous and they had no other choice on the matter. The blinking spot of light on the map told Vincent that they had covered about forty miles since they had left camp that morning.
All of them were much too exhausted to set any kind of camp on the bank of the small river. Instead, they slept in the canoe, which had been tied to a tree, that was close to the water. Beside, with the canoe still in the water it was much safer since they could not built a fire to scare away the night predators.
During the next three days they continued paddling upstream on the river which was getting narrower the further they went, but still thus far they had been lucky since they hadn't yet encounter any rapids. Then their luck changed on the third day, the river became no more than a deep creek and often they had to walk beside the canoe since the water was not deep enough.
But by then, judging by the map that Vincent had taken from Kowla, they had covered another ninety miles and he felt much safer now since whoever was after them, had much less chance of finding them, in the near future at least.
At no time since arriving in this world, had Vincent seen any sort of planes or flying devices of any kind. But during all that time that they were running away, he was half expecting to see something like that to appear in the sky. But still at the end of the forth day - after they had escaped from Kowla - he hadn't seen any man-made sort of flying device in the sky. This more than anything else convinced him that Valdo probably no longer had all the technological gadgets he must have had at one time in the pass. He felt sure that if Valdo had any sort of planes or flying machines, he would not hesitate a moment to use them to look for him.
By now, Valdo certainly knew that Vincent had killed Kowla and that the trio were trying to escape. Further more he was probably aware also that Vincent was from outside of this world and the only way he had gotten on this planet must have been by mean of the Simultravel system. Therefore Vincent knew that he must be very eager to capture him so as to make him reveal the location of the arch.
Yes it must be very frustrating for Valdo, thought Vincent. He still had many of the machines and gadgets of his civilization -- but not all of course -- and yet being the only one left from his race, he was the only one to really understand these devices and use them properly.
Of course it was always possible for him to train some of the natives of this world in the art of using these machines, but nothing short of a decades of operating and understanding these gadgets and machines would change the natives way of thinking about theme. Even then they would still probably consider the power of the machine as magic even it they could learn how to operate them, and this would be a great handicap since it would then be only natural for them to fear what they were suppose to control.
You can't force technology in a hurry unto uneducated and superstitious peoples. Before devils and monsters fearing people can accept and use new devises, it is imperative that they do understand perfectly how these work as well as the technology that make them work.
When Kowla had used the transmitter, he was still afraid of it, even if he knew how to make it work. He had been taught how to operate it and not to fear it too much, but he still didn't understand how it worked.
On the fifth day, they had to abandon the canoe since the shallow water of the small river would not permit the canoe and its occupant to float without hitting stones on the bottom. After hiding it in the dense foliages next to a big rock that did serve as a repair point, - Vincent figured that if they should pass this way again they would be able to find it -- they proceeded on foot parallel to the river for a while then they turned directly south.
Their progress was much slower now but on the other hand they were moving directly south. After checking his map, he estimated that they had another three thousands miles to go before they would reach the equator of the planet. After than they would still have to travel all the way to the south pole of the planet to find Valdo's domain. It was much too great a distance for Vincent's liking and he knew that their chance of reaching that far was not very good.
Looking back in time, ever since he had gotten on the surface of this planet, Vincent estimated that he had covered a distance of about fifteen hundreds miles and on many occasions he could have lost his life. Upon examining his map and taking this distance into consideration, he could pinpoint on the map fairly accurately the location of the Simultravel that had permitted him to arrive into this planet. This was a piece of information that Valdo would love to have and of course Vincent knew that he was ready to go to a great length of trouble to get it.
Vincent felt a sense of relief when he figured that with the aid of the map he could get back to the arch. But he had given his word to Brumel -- even if she was only a complex computer -- and he was not ready to go back on his promises to search for Valdo. He knew that even if he was to go back to his own world with both women, Valdo was bound to eventually find the location of the arch he had used, or even another one -- Vincent felt certain that there were others -- even if it did take him another hundred years it did not matter to Valdo.
But when at last Valdo would discover its location, it would then be possible for him to reach Earth. This would mean the end of civilization there.
No he had to find Valdo and kill him before he could destroy the Earth and other worlds. Both Nika and Verla showed much admiration and love for him and he knew that either of them would not hesitate a second to give her life so as to save his own life and he couldn't do less.
He was also amazed to discover how one woman accepted the other, there was never a trace of jealousy between them. Almost each night -- except when they were all too tired -- he made love to both of women and this he did in the presence of the other. But it was a common thing here to have more than one mate; people here didn't consider making love as the shameful act as it was in his world.
Sometimes it was the female that had more than one husbands. When one of her men was gone hunting -- often for a matter of weeks -- she had her other mate to protect her at home. When a man was very skilful at hunting or if he had some prestige such as being chief or shaman, it was common for him to have more than one wife.
After all, why should it be otherwise, it made a lot of sense since women got pregnant only when they were ready and willing, and by taking regularly the anti- pregnancy brew they could go as long as they wished without getting pregnant. Beside, in all the villages that Vincent had visited so far, it was always thus. Before a woman was allowed to have a child she had to have the approval of the committee of her village.
This did explain why there were no problem of overpopulation in this place, even if people tended to live a long time and died only when there was an accident or in wars.
Another things that fascinated Vincent, was the fact that every human he had met until now, whether male of female, was handsome and beautiful. The Rad virus not only kept the body in top shape but it also eliminated those imperfections on the face and everywhere on the body so that every single human was perfection itself in appearance and performance.
Even the cruel tribes they had met on their way had been handsome. Vincent figured that this fact more than anything else explained the absence of sexual jealousy between partners that were married to the same mate.
Beside it you were attracted to a certain person and if that person was not interested in you, it wasn't that bad since you were young looking and handsome, all you had to do was to look somewhere else and focus your interest on a different person and more important still, you had all the time you needed.
If on the other hand your mate was having an affair with a neighbor, there was no use worrying about it too much since she or he would come back to you sooner or later, - after all, time had very little meaning here -- and beside the chances were that you were also having an affair with someone else.
Marriage was only a temporary association here and it didn't have the same binding power as it did in Vincent's world. 'Till death separate us' was not part of the marriage ceremonies here.
Verla once explained to him that in her village, probably all the women, herself included, had had an adventure with almost each and every man of the village at one time or an other. But the worst insult -- and it had to be done willingly -- was for a woman to be impregnated by another man than her mate.
Since the village authorities strictly controlled the birth rate -- it was part of their culture to do so -- it was thus considered a capital offence to give birth to a child when it was not your turn, or worse still to impregnate another man's woman. The penalty in such a case was death to both offenders and it seemed that it was like that in most villages.
The temperature was cold during the night and judging by the colors changes of some of the leaves on the trees, Vincent guessed that they were approaching the cold season. Since there were seasons, it therefore met that the planet was inclined on its axes or rotation, just like Earth was, thus creating cycles of warmer and colder temperature during a one-year period.
What were these ranges of temperature depended much on the degrees of inclination of the planet. As to how cold it would get, Vincent had no idea but judging by the short fur on most of the animal species he has seen, he figured that it would be similar to winters in South Carolina and of course the further south they went, the less cold it would get.
They tried to hut for furs and food while slowly moving south. The forest was dense with a mixture of large pins, elms, oaks and a many other varieties of trees that he didn't recognize. It was slow walking in such a forest but they did manage to cover close to two hundred mile in a week time. Then the topography changed and whereas the land had been relatively flat before, it now consisted of low hills with rolling valleys in between.
It did reminded Vincent of his native Vermont, except that the animal life was now extremely rare and when they did see the odd deer or dog-like wolf, it would run away from them as if the forest was on fire. Even the few rabbits they saw escaped well before they could even try to catch them. Vincent supposed that given time he could probably catch something by mean of a trap but that would mean camping in the same spot for a day or two and he didn't want to stop since he had a bad feeling about the region they were now in.
They had gone for two days without eating meat. All of their smoked meat supply was now gone and they had to eat whatever they could find such as berries and nuts that were relatively abundant everywhere.
