The Season Of Innocence, also known as the Great Forgetting is an extended pause sitting across the track of the past. It is an age of absence, which tantalises the historian because it can only be known through thick veils of mystery and myth. Indeed, in every important sense it is an age without history. In the Season of Innocence, the clocks stopped. There was a wilful and universal refusal to make any record more persistent and less mutable than oral folklore. In that eternal now, tradition tells only of simple bucolic virtues and strange tales of the wonders of the new gene sea spreading like a healing balm over the planet.

This is the time of the Legends of Klane Kalonia and his wandering over the grassy craters and glassy plains of an all but empty world. We know that the Season Of Innocence began with the Vow Of Earth between the Galactic Compact and the Guardians. We do not remember in this age, why such a Vow was taken. Some say it was a form of atonement for an unimaginable sin against the Galactic Compact. Others contend that it was an act of social therapy on a planetary scale, or a misguided political experiment. No one really knows.

How long did the Season Of Innocence last? More than a thousand years? Certainly. Less than fifty thousand? Probably. The Geigamon might be able to tell us, for history did not stop in the Galactic Compact but the Geigamon were not party to the Vow of Earth and have little interest in it. Powerful winds of change blew across the Galactic Compact whilst the Earth slept through the Great Forgetting. Let us say only that at length the pulse of history quickened to life again with the arrival of the New Sophisticates. In the time of Foundation they established their seven renowned cities, to be strongholds of learning and to bring the renewal of civilisation with all its goods and evils. And the Season Of Innocence was over...

Yet the Legends of Klane Kalonia have not lost their power even today. The cycle begins with the story of the Station Of Seers and of how Klane Kalonia came to free them from their strange curse. In those days the seas of the moon were still wet, though the long desiccation had begun to return them to their ancient lifeless dust. Under the mottled green and blue of a waxing moon, two riders crossed the chalk plain of Ilunon. In the warm spring sky above them, they began to sense that something watched...

It soon became apparent that there were several observers in the sky over Ilunon and one at least had decided to take an active interest in the travellers. Every bit as conscious of the danger as their riders, the horses needed no urging to pick up the pace. In the hot sunshine of that late spring afternoon they galloped over the soft turf of the downs until they came to a thin track cut into the chalk which they now began to follow.

Asanka glanced behind and felt his heart accelerate to match the rhythm of the pounding hooves. There was no cover and the thing was so close! These wretched beasts had become much bolder and more common of late, yet he had never expected to see one so far from the mountains and he had never thought to lead Oreitta into such danger when they were without weapons. He yelled to his bride of six short weeks. "We must try for the Enclave! It's our only hope!" Orietta said nothing but her bay mare matched his black stallion stride for stride and her sharp smile across the wind of their passage told him she had heard and accepted.

Asanka felt a surge of pride in his wife. All Rider's had the self same mortal dread of the Enclaves and under any other circumstances they would have come no closer than the rim of the gorge ahead of them. Others might have tried to argue. Even with the clear and present danger of the alegoyle behind them, Asanka knew many Riders who would rather face certain death than venture into an Enclave. He was pleased Orietta either did not believe the dark rumours or was strong willed enough to face them down. If he was honest, he had himself hesitated to voice the words he had shouted with such apparent confidence. Not that it seemed to matter anyway. Perhaps horses had a good deal more sense than people, for knowing nothing about any stories of the Enclaves they saw only the sole source of possible cover from aerial attack and were making their own decisions about which way to go. Asanka's orders were little more than an acknowledgement of what was already happening whether he willed it or not.

Damn that alegoyle! It was just too far to the Enclave. Far too far....

Orietta was the first to feel the shock of overshadowing, a sense of something massive closing down and for a brief moment the hot stench of fetid breath before the alegoyle shot ahead of her with snapping teeth and a clap of leathery wings. For some reason the creature did not complete its attack. In a frenzy of renewed energy her chestnut mare accelerated as the alegoyle wheeled behind them again. Asanka hung back, letting his wife lead and deliberately making himself the primary target. A second and third swooping run followed as the creature tested him and his horse. At first Orietta thought the alegoyle was hesitating, unsure whether they had weapons and building courage for a proper assault. As the long chase continued though, she began to realise that it had a more calculated hunting strategy. On the open downs its prey had nowhere to run so there was no hurry to move in for the kill. It wasted little energy in the long circular sweeping glides which preceded each approach, but the horses were tiring fast. The alegoyle was deliberately playing with them, deliberately seeking to terrify and exhaust them so that when it finally struck they would be weakened and easier to dispose of with its sharp talons and predatory teeth.

The thin track followed the curve of one of the many chalk gorges which cut through the high plains of Ilunon. Now on a rise ahead of them came a junction where a branch to the left seemed to drop over the edge. In reality this path followed a short steep switch back leading down to a mirror bridge. Across the bridge was the Enclave. It was a dreadful thing to be contemplating entry to an Enclave! Orietta tried not to think of all the horror stories she had heard about the denizens of the Enclaves and what they did to Riders. She tried not to think of what might be happening behind her to Asanka and Paramal his headstrong stallion. Instead she tried to think only of how to encourage, Cassia, her faithful mare not to run herself into the ground, soothing the horse with soft words. Now that she had realised what the alegoyle was doing she could try to counter it. If it was to be an endurance test they just might survive, provided they conserved their strength and didn't surrender to panic. Cassia had always been such a strong and patient horse and Orietta had loved her even before the Rider foal bonding ceremony made them life partners.

Yet today they might all four of them die before the Marriage Journey was complete; Asanka and Paramal, Orietta and Cassia, all just meat for an alegoyle! Despite the brave words she whispered into Cassia's ear, the young Rider wife could not hide a little broken tremble in her voice. The Enclave was still such a long way off!

They negotiated the narrow track down to the mirror bridge without any further attacks, the slower pace allowing the horses to catch their breath. Then the crossing began. The surface was hot and the horses didn't like it, especially when a second older alegoyle began to dive bomb the travellers. Cassia was still in the lead, the bay mare galloping as fast as she had ever run now. As the Enclave finally drew near Orietta had chance for one glance back. The sight that met her eyes was one she would remember for the rest of her life. Sensing its prey might escape the alegoyle had finally struck, its claws gripping her husband's shoulders and pulling him off the rearing Paramal. Asanka had time to scream ''Go!'' but there was no need for Cassia certainly wasn't stopping. Her eyes blinded by tears a sobbing Orietta heard the rush of a second alegoyle, then silence when she expected to feel its claws. She barely had time to wonder why when Cassia's legs seemed to give and the horse stumbled. A numbness came into her own mind which she did not understand. All she could think of was Asanka. Then the world went black.