Once the elders and shamans overcame their objections to a recorded language, they began to send messages from village to village by rope carriers. The rope stories told of great events that affected the people in each village, such as the death of an elder, birth of a baby, floods, droughts and heroic deeds. Each village developed its own Knot name which was usually the name of a great village elder, except the Village of Herco.

As the knots became harder to tie and read, a school of hard Knots sprung up outside the village of Herco. The college came complete with a Great Library, with rows and rows of hanging rope scrolls containing the history of the valley. Here, knots were developed for great distances and very small distances, mathematics formulas and simple recipes, names of all the animals of the valley and many landmarks. Great Knot tomes of knotlore were knotted to pass on to the generations to come. As the valley grew, a secret society of coded knotters came into the picture, mostly hired by merchants to keep tabs on other merchants.

Even in the streets you could see Herco’s legacy. Men wore their hair and beards in beautiful knots and braids which told of their family histories, where they were from, what they did for a living, and even their political or religious beliefs. Sometimes when two men met in the street, they would stop and stare at each other for several moments. They would nod at each other, without saying a word, and continue on about their business; feeling they knew the man they just met. Women were not left out of the act, they were also taught the secrets of knot tying. In fact, they sometimes outdid the men because they had years of practice with their weaving and sewing. They would exchange information on recipes and herbal healing poultices. It was not uncommon for a single knotted poultice recipe to travel across the entire valley, from which all the mid-wives in the valley would learn. The young women would tie secret knots about the young men of the valley and pass them among themselves at social gatherings. However, as the population in the valley grew, the inevitable happened. Contact was made with the world outside. At first, the elders forbade dealing with the outsiders; but eventually, the merchants began trade routes. While crops and stock were the first items to be traded, it was the artwork of the valley people that sold best. Baskets woven with special knots and patterns, rugs that had special knotted ends, or jewelry with unfathomable knots caught the eyes of the strange people who lived outside the valley.

Then, from beyond the Sunset mountain, the winds of war began to blow through the trees. These Sunsetters, as they were called, had little that the people of the valley wanted. Still, the Sunsetters wanted the goods the valley people could provide. At first, the ominous winds of war came as a whisper, then grew louder and louder until even the people on the other side of the Sunrise mountains became aware of it. The nation of clans in power beyond the Sunrise Mountain decided they must do something to protect their interests in the valley. It was decided, by the Sunrisers, they should send their most famous emissary to the valley and offer protection. Kaleb was their most capable negotiator. He had many treaties under his belt that had worked most favorably for his sovereign. He never failed to win a favorable judgment in his twelve years doing this kind of work. Yes, Kaleb was very proud of his record.

As Kaleb entered the valley, he was struck by the beauty all around. This valley was protected on all four sides by high mountains. So high were these mountains, the winds that would normally bring extreme weather almost never entered this valley. Kaleb walked along a path following a trade wagon that had left the high mountain trading post where the valley people brought their wares to exchange for tools.

Kaleb thought it odd that the language of these valley people was very similar to his own. This would, however, make negotiations somewhat easier. These were a poor backward people. In fact, as far as Kaleb knew, there was no sign of a written language. A written language, Kaleb believed, was the first sign of an advanced society. Perhaps, after the negotiations, they could send teachers into the valley to educate the hierarchy of the valley.

Kaleb decided to walk into the valley with a pack animal carrying his provisions and the tools of his trade. He always tried to blend into the society he must deal with. While he was very accomplished on his mount, there had been no reports of the valley people riding mounts. Although he followed the slow moving wagon, he still lost sight of them some time ago. Perhaps he should have taken a wagon himself. It would soon be dark and he would have to make camp. He carried enough provisions to last about four days. He had hoped that before the four days passed he could find a village where he could spend the night and find leaders of the valley people. If not, he could forage very well for himself off the land. He also brought trade goods and gifts for the leaders of the valley people. Sometimes it was simply the act of giving the right gift or greasing the right hand that could make things happen when all the talk in the world could not bring about a favorable decision.

As Kaleb looked for a campsite, he noticed a fire not too far up the road. He decided that it might be the campsite of the same wagon he had been following earlier. It looked like they also were making camp for the night. As he neared the campsite he was not sure how they would welcome him. Since their languages were very close, he decided to try an old greeting from his homeland.

“Hello the fire.” He shouted, not sure what kind of a response he would receive. After a few seconds the response came back.

“Hello the road.” The voice came with a thick accent but the words were the proper response.

Kaleb decided to continue the ancient ritual greeting. “Is the fire friendly?” he shouted.

“The fire’s as friendly as the road that approaches.” Again the proper response.

As he approached the wagon’s campsite Kaleb thought these people may truly prove to be some lost tribe of his own people. Kaleb became aware that the travelers had set-up near a three-sided structure made from huge slabs of rocks. It had a single slab of rock as a roof. Within the structure were many wooden poles from which seemingly thousands of knotted ropes and leather straps hung. Some of the ropes looked like they had been there for many years. Kaleb spent the night with the family from the wagon. He learned much about the valley people; like there were twelve major villages and several much smaller ones. Each village had its own Council of Elders who ran the day to day affairs and set the rules under which each village operated. Once every four years all of the village elders would get together to pool their knowledge and settle any disputes that had come up in the past four years. Kaleb found this to be useful information. Now he knew the structure of the government he must address in order for him to succeed in his mission.

The next morning the family offered him a seat on the wagon and allowed him to tie his pack animal to the wagon. They seemed to be paying homage to the structure with all the ropes inside as they stood in silence for a few moments. Then Backus, the head of the family, placed his own knotted leather strap inside the structure. When Kaleb asked about the meaning of the structure, they told him that it was a monument to Herco, an early hero of the valley. From what Kaleb understood, this Herco set up the valley’s system of government or their numbering system, but he was not sure. Much of what they said he could not understand, but he knew that he would learn more about their language and legends as the days passed.

Kaleb was surprised when they reached the first major village. There must be three to five thousand people living there. The name of the village was Herco, named for the same hero as the structure they had left that morning. Kaleb decided this would be as good a place as any to start trying to contact the leaders of the valley. He thanked Backus by giving him a small gift to show his appreciation. Backus seemed duly impressed with the small gift. Kaleb knew the news of his kindness would travel quickly through the village. He smiled to himself, sometimes it was too easy to impress a backward people. As he walked around, he was struck by the advanced nature of the village’s layout. Much thought had gone into many of the buildings. There were even some buildings two stories tall, evidences of advance engineering skills. This made him wonder if some other faction had already made an alliance with these people. As he looked closer, he decided this was not the case since the buildings showed the wear of the ages.

One odd thing he noticed was that every business had several knotted ropes hanging in front of their building. Perhaps these were wards against evil sprites or maybe just as a type of art. If it was artwork, it was not to his liking. He knew; however, that this type of knotted art was in favor with the upper class of the people back home. For his purposes, the location of the valley and the fact that they could supply a vast amount of food products was the most important factor in the upcoming negotiations.

When he found an inn he realized this meant they had a way of determining monetary value and expected travelers. For an isolated valley, this was surprising. Kaleb could only think of two reasons for an inn. First, there may be a large number of people who traveled within the valley. Second, which Kaleb feared, was the people of the kingdom to the west had been coming here for years.

Kaleb and the woman innkeeper settled on a means of payment for his stay. Then he began to ask her questions about the village. She answered his questions as to where he could take meals and where he could stable his pack animal. Then she asked some questions of her own, but he was not sure if he misunderstood because of her heavy accent. She seemed to be asking if he was here to attend the school; she seemed to be calling it “the school of hard knots”. He was not sure wether it was supposed to be a joke or not when she started laughing. When he explained that he was from the kingdom on the other side of the mountain to the east, she just nodded her head and asked if he needed to speak to a village elder. He affirmed that he did, so she gave him directions to one of the elder’s house.

It took several days before he would be able to see the village elder, so he spent his time looking around and asking the locals about their ways of life. On his third day, he found the school, actually it was more like a college. It consisted of six buildings, the largest of which was three stories. The students were housed and fed in the other buildings. There was an administrative office in one of the buildings. There was also a large barn on the campus which made Kaleb think it might be a college for farming, a thought which intrigued him. The campus was surounded by a fence so the general public could not enter. When he tried to enter a guard stopped him an d asked him his business there. He was told that he would have to get permission from the village elders before he could enter.

As fate would have it, the very next day a representative of the village elder woke Kaleb early. Kaleb was invited to have the mid-day meal with the elder. The meeting, with the elder named Crimn, went as well as could be expected. However, Crimn made no promises. Instead, he stated he would have to convene a meeting of all the elders of all the villages before such a matter could be discussed. Placing troops of a foreign power within the valley was something all the villages would have to approve. Crimn told Kaleb it would take about ten days to get all the elders together. Kaleb would be invited to make his case before the Grand Council of Elders. In the meantime, he was free to stay in the village at Crimn’s expense. Kaleb thanked Crimn but told him he would rather pay his own way. This brought a smile to Crimn, as Kaleb knew it would. Kaleb had learned during his time in the village that Crimn was known to be very thrifty with his resources. Kaleb also asked if he could visit the school just outside the village. Crimn said he would look into it and let him know if he could be accommodated.

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