Eoeun lived contentedly in the temporal belt of Eoe whose villages were also called by that name and whose lot seat was called Community.
        North it grew rapidly more cold to the magnetic pole. Now and then an odd Eoeun had crossed the river and disappeared north into the trees. Sometimes they had returned with stories of rime-crusted steppes, frozen seas, chunks of ice bigger than all the houses in a village tumbled together, and great birds whose eyes pierced the spirit like their talons pierced the skin.
        But it took a rare strange Eoeun to do that.
        Not as strange as the 1s who abode in the Long Rift, but different-eyed.
        The Rift cut deeply into the planet’s surface to the south. No 1 had ever been south of that because no 1 wanted to go near to the Rift, which, anyone could see, prevented going beyond it. Eoeun laughed at that for it explained how things were in life as well as anything.
        Eoe's Community was situated at a reasonable distance from the intersection of 3 major trade routes in the free band outside of any designated lot and so the 5 families who regulated life there had paid to have a beacon set at the cross routes. No risk, they laughed, rubbing their chubby hands together and winking boldly in anticipation. They expected, life being what it was, that many vehicles, ships, and caravans of all sorts would detour to Eoe's biggest for relaxation and refreshment along a barren stretch.
  They hired outlanders to construct and manage refueling, care and repair bays.  They sponsored dance contests and also, for the last 5 cycles, the carc race.
        Village Eoeun marveled at this different spirit prevailing in their seat but rarely did any journey to see it for themselves.