for himself Stony became the coach of our clan’s headstone team and had recently finished clearing a new practice field with two underground dugout caves to keep the players warm Very useful when your previously grassy field is now permanently covered in snow Here you go Stony said my dad handing him a stick with a tiny slice of sizzling llama meat on it The changes in our climate had completely transformed our way of life Our jungle llamas were dying out and nobody had seen a dodo bird in months Before we had lived in a jungle of plenty but now we were barely scraping by With the onset of the permanent cold it seemed like we were always just one step ahead of going the way of the dodo When Bonehead and Bugeyes stole a jungle llama it was a huge deal Every little thing counted Stony scarfed down the morsel of charred meat and grinned My father smiled Hey Crag said my dad if you want to see a useful new discovery you should try my new cooked meat It’s a big hit 6
Crag shook his head and exited the cave shooting me one last exasperated look Starving now I decided I’d better grab a stick and dig in before my dad and Stony licked all the stones clean I was just about to spear a sizzling morsel when I heard a familiar voice behind me Who wants to try some delicious new vegetables Here we go again said Windy rolling her eyes We all turned back toward the cave entrance Echo had come in holding a bunch of weird-looking tuberous plants with pale scraggly roots sticking out of them Her curly red hair was dusted with snow and her big green eyes shone with what could only be called desperate enthusiasm Oh come on now she pleaded offering the plants None of you have even tried these Everyone except me was trying to avoid eye contact with her I exchanged a sidelong glance with Stony knowing what was coming next Look I’m the Chief Enforcer for Ethical Eating she said For both clans No one said a word She was technically right of course The Joint Council of Macrauchenia 7
Riders my clan and Boar Riders her clan had allowed her to create a special position just like me and Stony Despite all my warnings that no one would take her seriously she had made herself the Chief Enforcer for Ethical Eating Basically she went around and bugged people to eat vegetables instead of meat Echo had also created a garden cave with these strange leafy things It was an abandoned stable cave where the dirt was full of old macrauchenia poo Echo thought this somehow made her plants grow better The cave also had many small holes in one sidewall which let in the sunlight but kept out most of the snow Croak went Froggy leaping from Stony’s shoulder onto Echo’s The girl smiled fondly at the critter as he peeked at her from behind a curl of her red hair I found myself staring at Echo’s eyes which got all twinkly when she was happy Croak ribbit ribbit croak said Froggy Ribbit croak croak ribbit replied Echo She loved animals more than anything in the 8
world and had a natural ability for communicating with them I cleared my throat Echo I said glancing at the hideous things in her hands would you like me to roast a vegetable for you Seeing that no one else was going to take one she nodded and sat down by the fire with a resigned sigh I gingerly picked up one of the ugly things by a root and placed it on a hot rock at the very edge of the fire pit as far away as possible from the actual food By the way said Echo I saw Crag storming out of here What did he want Oh you know probably just wanted to show us some crazy new invention in his mountain cave I’m sure it was nothing too importa KABOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOM The walls around us shook Yeah said Windy that didn’t sound important at all We all crawled over to the mouth of the cave and peeked out Stony grunted nervously as we gazed 9
