Chapter 9. Eagle's Vale
The rising land became stonier. The pines that had, long back down the trail, replaced the hardwoods were becoming shorter and more gnarled.
Rahak was staring about in frank wonder. “I have seen this from the air so many times. I never dreamed that it could be so different when seen and experienced from the ground.”
Grata, crest up in interest, was watching the rise of steep, almost cliff like walls of stone on either side of the Vale. She leaned into the harness while Daring Do and Rahak put their shoulders to the back of the cart to get it through yet another stony place that was the best way forward that they could find.
Grata took a moment to gesture at the enclosing walls of the vale. “Look at all of those ledges with nests, protected by high scarps! No wonder that the Eagles love this place!”
Daring Do reminded her, “Those walls will get even closer and higher further up. When this part of Eagle's Vale comes to its end, it is going to open out into a deep, steep sided bowl. The walls there are over three hundred meters high. From the lip of the Vale, it is about fifty meters or so to the bottom.”
Rahak, having experience with flying in the area put in, “That is not all! This part of the Vale acts like a funnel driving and concentrating the winds. When they hit that bowl, they swirl about in ferocious and unpredictable ways. It is best for us to not fly in there, though the Eagles thrive on it.”
That afternoon, Daring Do was in the harness, pulling and grumbling without any real rancor, “And the Rom think that THIS is a culturally unifying experience?”
Grata pointed ahead. “Look, Doctor Do! The high sides of the Vale seem to end, outlined against the sky! That means that the opening of the bowl part is there!”
It only took another half hour to prove Grata right. The vista that opened out before them was breath taking. The whole of the huge bowl that made the upper end of Eagle's Vale was exposed to view.
The sides were stone with an enormous number of ledges covered with the big, untidy looking nests of Eagles. Many of the huge aerial predators were gliding about below them. Trees, pines mostly, started part way down. By the bowl's bottom, the trees were a mix of pine and hardwood.
Daring Do pointed down to the mixed trees. “Do you have any idea how far down that means it is? We need to camp here. I do not want to be on that slope when night falls!”
Both Rahak and Grata gazed thoughtfully down the slope and nodded, “I think that is wise, Doctor Do.”
While they were making camp, Rahak paused to rest. “This stone is just about the most comfortable one that I have found. It almost seems to be deliberately smooth.”
Daring Do quietly got out her notebook and sketching materials. “Would you please move, Rahak? I want to get a drawing of that stone.”
Grata nodded, her crest set in command. “Doctor Do would not ask that lightly, Rahak.”
Daring Do laid a meter stick on the stone's upper surface. It alternated white and black every ten centimeters, with clear one centimeter markings picked out in the opposite color. She made a swift but careful and accurate sketch of the stone.
Next, she took a trowel and dug down alongside a face of the stone, staying just clear of it. Then she began breaking away the caked dirt of centuries. That was followed by painstaking work with stiff and soft brushes to completely clean the face of the stone without harming it.
With the meter stick unmoved, Daring Do swiftly and accurately sketched the exposed side and its oddly almost familiar characters.
Grata and Rahak, having never seen this side of the work of Antiquarians, watched in fascination. Grata asked, “Do you know what the characters say, Doctor Do? What language is it?”
Soberly, Daring Do looked up and nodded. “This is presently the oldest known piece of writing in the whole world of Equestria except for the earliest entries in the Chronicle.
“This is Old Equestrian. It is the original language invented by De Writer. He, Celestia and Luna had to flee for their lives when their lands were invaded in what is now celebrated by the Hearthwarming Pageants.
“They fled to the Sunrise Isles. To this day, the three of them are the only ones who know where they are. There, Celestia and Luna spent about 200 years learning the adjustment of the heavens, which they still do to this day.
“When they returned, they found the cult of the Sunlords taking credit for the fixing of the heavens. The ancestors of the Sunlords had discovered De Writer's writing system and were using it.”
She gestured at the stone. “This is a Sunlord way marker. It says, 317 Myria. The rest are signs of the sun and moon that the Sunlords used. Myria was the Sunlord word for a distance of 1000 pony paces.”
Grata stared Rahak in the eye and said, “What an irony. We spun a lie to throw murderous cult members off our track and now it may turn out to be true!”
Darkness was falling by that time. Down in the bowl of Eagle's Vale, soft, mist like light was glowing. It swirled, pooled and dissipated. It made veils of gentle color like an aurora.