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A long time ago and with many journeys behind her Beauty had met with people from the base, whom her people had captured. They had taught her Imperium or at least tried to before the Shamans had decreed that the Imperial station was off limits for all, (or as I found out later, off limits to everyone except shamans…) which explained how she knew Imperium.

Beauty, Giant, Youth and I became very close in a short time, being in constant contact all day and night. Youth spent as much time as he could with us, and I grew to appreciate his understanding and comprehension of this world which far outstripped his apparent years. Eventually, I came to find out that in my time frame Youth was already hundreds of years old. They did not count lifetimes in the same manner as I did, thus the initial misunderstanding. As our understanding of one another and our grasp of language grew so did our friendship and my understanding of the shock that they felt about being incarcerated.

The native political structure was built on three legs. (I acquired the information, which I am telling you not in any such straightforward manner as that in which I am relating it but disjointedly over the hundreds of hours that we talked. While the names that I have used are not direct translations, they represent the reality much more than the generally unpronounceable sounds that are the true names.)

The three groups are the Mothers; representing the females as well as the religious and medical. The Hunters; representing the males as well as the day-to-day existence. And the Shamans; representing the unknown as well as the judicial system. The Shamans were the dominant group and the leaders.

The political system was broken down into the Home tree with a Home mother and a Chief Hunter, which represented one village or the smallest governmental entity (I found that an average adult tree generally was over six-hundred meters in diameter.)

The two-hands tree, which was also a Home-tree but was the center of all villages inside of a two-hands radius. A body-tree radius, (It is interesting to note that a body count was not twenty as you might expect but one hundred as they multiplied the two hands count by each toe.) A Body-tree generally contained twelve Home trees and in reality was honeycombed in shape although for religious purposes circular, as the circle—the perfect shape of the tree—was a holy shape) and was always the host village for the biannual "end of the cold" and "end of the heat" meetings.

The largest group was a two-hands of bodies or a thousand-tree radius. Once a year during the "middle of the heat" or summer solstice, all the Home mothers and the Chief hunters of a body-tree gathered and shared concepts and set policy for the women and men of all the villages. They also elected a roving "Mother" who with a male companion, selected by and representing the hunters, traveled for the next three body-count years, from Home tree to Home tree sharing new ideas and concepts.

The person of the 'Mother' and her companion was sacred, and no one could refuse them anything—specifically food and shelter—that they desired while they roved. Typically the people vied with one another to show who could bestow whatever that person did best on the Mother and her companion—some people even going so far as to leave their home that the rovers might have the best house while they graced the village with their presence. By doing so, they gained prestige in the eyes of the community and the rovers turned into a type of advertising as they showed off the beautiful goods that they had been presented from other villages.

It was the responsibility of the roving Mother's companion who represented the male ideal, under the direction of his partner Mother, who represented the female ideal, to introduce and instruct all eligible virgins into the mysteries of Motherhood, thus the germplasm of the select of the race was also on occasion shared, strengthening the race. Any virgin so blessed was considered holy, and the whole village vied to show her honor. Until the virgin was so instructed, she was considered a child. After her instruction, the new women took any tools or survival items that she needed or wanted and left to live on her own for one rotation of the gas giant, (about three Terran months) as she contemplated what she had learned.

The boys received instruction, similar to that of the women, from the roving Mother. Her companion then instructed the new men in manhood and sent them off naked on their one-year manhood trek. During which they could not stay in any village but must live off of the land. Making their own weapons and providing themselves with clothing and shelter. After which they were considered adults. It was permissible for the wandering new men to stay with the new women exchanging food that they had caught or gathered for items or favors that she had. However, he could not stay for more than five nights before he moved on. It was permissible for new women to join with a new man and travel with him. However, they could not stay in one location more than one-hand of nights, unless there was no village within a one-hand of two-hands radius.

Generally, new communities were started in this manner. Marriage was a simple handfasting. Divorce was symbolically accomplished by cutting the knot that initially joined the couple. No official was required to perform either ceremony. You could tell a married woman from an unmarried woman by merely looking at her belt for the marriage knot. Children were the responsibility of the village. However, they stayed with their mother.

I found that before participating in the rites of creating new men and women, that the roving Mother and her companion partook in special drinks created with certain flowers leaves and roots which only the Home mothers knew of, one drink for the man, a different one for the woman. Imp has speculated that this might be a contraceptive for the woman while having the opposite effect on the man.

Each Shaman was responsible for a two-hands-tree area and selected his own successor. The successfully trained successor being elevated by the conclave to a full Shaman. To fail the examination meant death by treelessness for both. The conclave also convened during the summer solstice to fill any vacancies. The vacancies thus created meant that the affected Shaman must select a new successor.

Once each season the Shamans changed Home trees, so the Shamans had no home but constantly roved. Shamans were also celibate until they selected their replacement from the eligible single men and had trained and turned their responsibilities over to his replacement. At which point he retired as a Shaman but remained a trusted elder who counseled the current Shaman. The Shamans were the judges and arbitrators of the land, resolving conflicts that the Home Mother and Chief Hunter were unable to solve. Their word was the final one on any subject.

Beauty and Giant were currently roving representatives of the Mothers, Beauty had been the head of the Mothers for a body-count of two-hands radius, previously. They had—which was normal—acquired an extreme attraction to one another and had tied the knot. The Mother of Mothers had seen fit to bless them with Youth, which I understood was not very common among rovers. Youth, although young in their world concept, had learned much of life, as from babyhood he had traveled. Beauty and Giant were now on their way to her Home tree which was near here, their time of travel almost over. However, as long as beauty wore the amber pendant, she and her companion were considered holy, and their wishes and instructions were not to be denied.

Recently a few of the Shamans close to the Imperial station had been exhibiting great powers showing miracles to the people, such as cold lights that shone brilliantly in the dark out of small sticks, and had been encroaching on the prerogative of the Mother and Hunters. They had even taken multiple women into their home, at the same time announcing that they would be Shaman for life and always stay in this home. They had gone so far as to recruit a core of hunters, 'Sheriffs' that served the Shaman, who took what they wanted from the people. Rather than relying on the tithe that was traditionally offered the Shaman. The worst offense, as far as Beauty was concerned, was that the Shamans had taken over the responsibilities of the Roving Mother and her companion and was instructing the new women in the mysteries of adulthood, and relieving the men of the onus of a one-year wander, if they joined the Sheriffs.

I saw a significant threat to this society in the actions of these Shamans, and we spent many hours discussing what to do. The only possible suggestion was to have the Mother of Mothers decree that Shamans so acting had forfeited their life and would be cast out to wander treeless—in which case the people would rise up in rebellion. As things stood, the people had always obeyed the Shamans and if a Shaman said that this was what was to be—then it was so. However, the Mothers had never needed this kind of authority and Beauty did not know how they could gain it and overrule the Shamans.

We had been incarcerated for almost four weeks my time, according to Imp, by my judgment it felt like a year but strangely also like a day, when the Sheriffs came for us. We were tied hand and foot and brought to a great rock suspended in the middle of five great trees whose branches had been made to grow together to form a giant natural amphitheater. The discussion waged furiously, with Giant and Beauty defending their position most eloquently. As the sun set the Shaman who obviously was the also the real ruler, finally pronounced his Jovian decree—Death!