‘It means looking at things like animals and trees and rocks,’ Deep said. Even sitting down, Deep was big big, but his face was friendly and kind. ‘Looking at them in a special way, inside and out, not only with our eyes but with . . .’ He glanced at the other Earth people as he struggled to find words that we’d understand. ‘ . . . but with different kinds of tools we have for seeing things that are too small for eyes to see, or for figuring out what they’re made of.’

Newjohn laughed. ‘But we know what animals are made of ! Meat and bone and blood.’

‘Ah, but what are meat and bone made of ?’ asked Deep with a friendly smile. ‘And is the meat and bone of Eden animals made of different things from our own? Why is their blood green, for instance, while ours is red? How come most of them have six limbs while most large Earth creatures only have four? How do their eyes see, when they’re so different from ours? And what can they see? Do they see the same colours as us, or different ones? Who knows? Perhaps they see heat as much as they see light. That would make some sense, seeing as there’d have been almost no light at all in Eden until life first appeared.’

Again Newjohn laughed uneasily. ‘Michael’s names, you people say some strange things! How could we possibly know what animals see?’

‘Well,’ began Marius, ‘it’s not easy, but we could begin by testing whether they can tell the difference between two colours. It would be a matter of—’

‘But that would be for later, Marius, wouldn’t it?’ Gaia interrupted him with a smile. ‘For the moment, if it’s okay with Head Guard Strongheart here, we just want to wander out into the forest and see what’s there.’

Strongheart looked at Newjohn, who gave a tiny shrug and a nod. When Leader Harry had still been in Circle Valley, Strongheart had turned to him for advice, but of course Harry was crossing the Dark now, and the only other man there who was anything like as high as Strongheart was Headman Newjohn. Starlight found it funny how these two old guys, one fat and round-faced, one thin and pointy-faced, had begun to rely on each other, even though Strongheart was head of all the Davidfolk, and a many-greats grandson of Great David, and Newjohn was head of the Brown River folk, and the many-greats grandson of Juicy John himself.

‘Well, if you need to look at the plants and animals,’ the old man said, ‘then of course you must. I only ask that you come back before the New Earthers get here.’

‘We’ll be back long before that,’ said Deep. ‘And when we come back, we thought maybe you’d like us to show you all some pictures from Earth.’