Three straight days with no end in sight. Periodically, the sun broke through long enough to create a steamy caldron of humid air. Once again, the jungle would become awash. Teman-e knew what to expect, but Connery never guessed that torrential downpours like these existed anywhere. In the rainforest there were only two seasons, dry and wet. They measured the passage of time. Subtle changes in the sky, the leaves, the behavior of animals, gave warning to Teman-e. He sensed the coming rains would be unusually harsh. Over the weeks to come, water would pour into the world's largest basin. Small tributaries would grow into raging rivers, feeding into the mighty Amazon then flowing to the Atlantic on a course more than four thousand miles long. Since prehistoric times, the river basin redistributed tropical heat from the equator and remained a driving force in determining climate around the world. The rain, the river, the trees, and thousands of plant and animal species formed a huge eco-system essential to the planet's health.
