Six Days Had Passed

 
 
            The sun rose and set upon the Great Forest, and its cloud cover, six times. There were drizzly days and a couple of sunny ones.
            On the seventh morning while sitting by the fire, watching Ramona moving around getting breakfast on the road, Ralph heard the unmistakable sound of high-powered rifle fire. He frowned. Ramona whipped around and looked at him open mouthed. Neither said a word.
            Ralph and Ramona were still staring at each other in astonishment or perhaps dismay when they began to hear the sound of a large four footed animal approaching.
            “What?” said Ralph.
            “Is it Hugo?” said Ramona.
            They both watched the main trail that leads past Ralph’s favorite log and out into the meadow up to the north. It wasn’t long before Hector riding a limping Hugo appeared.
            “Hector, what in the world has happened?” called Ralph when he saw his cousin.
            “I’m afraid Hugo has injured a hoof. Climbing a steep path his left side rear hoof found a very sharp rock. We hadn’t gotten very far away, only a day’s travel. We camped and rested and then walked back this direction. Hugo needs to rest and heal.
            “But that’s not the end of it! Hugo was shot by a man with a gun. It must have been from a very great distance. He carries the bullet in the same leg, and it hurts him when he walks,” said Hector.
            Hugo did indeed look unhappy and tired and maybe a little skinny. Hector didn’t look very happy either.
            “You must stay with us while Hugo heals,” said Ralph. “Come and sit by the fire and let’s plan what to do next. Hugo must go to the meadow and eat and grow strong again. But he might be in danger from the same hunters. Something needs to be done.”
            “I think I know who can find the bullet in Hugo’s leg and pull it out,” said Ramona. “Would you call Maeve, Ralph. That beak is a very sharp long tool. I think she can make quick work of it.”
            Ralph did call Maeve, and like always she seemed to hear him wherever she was. She drifted down out of the sky.
            “What’s up, Boss?” inquired she.
            “Hugo is back, but carries a bullet in a wound in his leg. Do you think that you might be able to grip it with your long sharp beak and pull it out?” asked Ralph.
            “I can try,” said Maeve, glancing over at Hugo. “Please let him know that I’m trying to help him!”
            So Hector put his arms around Hugo’s neck and while he was explaining to him what the big black bird was trying to do, Maeve hopped over and inspected the wound. It was in the lower part of his leg where there wasn’t a great depth of flesh.
            “I think I can,” she said. Then, using her beak like a surgical tool, she entered the wound, found the bullet and with some effort pulled it out.
            “Ah, thank you, Birdy,” said Ralph. “Ramona thought you were the one who could get it out.”
            Hector thanked her and Hugo looked relieved.
            Ramona got Maeve a cup of water from her bucket, so Maeve could rinse her beak.
            “Now. We can’t have people coming into the Great Forest and shooting rifles,” said Ralph. “Something must be done. It just can’t be allowed to stand. Are you with me Hector?”
            “Of course,” said Hector, glancing at Hugo. “They might kill him next time!”
            “OK, then. We must find these hunters and make them regret coming out here. We must fix them, so they don’t ever want to see this place again!” said Ralph.
            “We’ll hunt the hunters,” said Hector in agreement.
            “It sounded, to me, like they must be over in the direction of the river,” said Ramona.
            “Let’s go talk to Bob. He can watch over Hugo while we find and deal with the hunters,” said Ralph.
            It only took a few minutes to find Uncle Bob at the Stump House sitting outside with Aunt Suzie. Ralph explained to him what had happened and what they were going to do and asked him to just watch over Hugo. Suzie and Bob both agreed to kind of keep an eye on Hugo while he ate and rested and got some meat on his ribs.
            Ralph reckoned that Ramona’s sense of direction was about right, or at least a good place to start, so he and Hector began their search for the hunters at the river. It was the right direction, but it seemed as if the sound had come from further out. They were going to have to cross the river.
            Forest people are strong swimmers. This little river was no challenge realistically. Ralph and Hector did their invisible thing just in case the hunters were near. They didn’t want to be seen. Though being seen does have its own utility. But for this mission they felt not being visible was better. Who knows? These goobers might take a shot at a Ralph or a Hector, if fully visible.
            They plunged into the forest, going further than Ralph usually went. They walked straight out from the river for a while, until they heard something. It was voices. Men’s voices.
            “I think I hit that moose,” said one. “I don’t know what the hell was riding it, Gary.”
            “A hallucination is probably what was riding it,” said Gary. “You believe too many things you see on YouTube Jimbo! Get real!”
            Gary and Jim were sitting on a log, taking a break, it looked like. There were four Rainier cans lying around their feet and they were working on the last two cans when Ralph and Hector found them. Ralph was almost sorry for them, but not too much. After all one of them had wounded Hugo and they were shooting in the Great Forest. Ralph didn’t approve.
            Ralph’s first gambit was the dead skunk in the middle of the road scent. He laid it on heavy. It didn’t bother him or Hector. It did bother Gary.
            “What the hell, Jim,” he said. “We better move. The wind must have shifted, and something died a long time ago upwind! Eww! I think I’m gonna puke!”
            “Not my fault, let’s just move,” said Jim. They left all six cans on the forest floor.
            They tried to escape the stench, but since Ralph and Hector were gliding silently along with them it didn’t work. No matter how far they walked the stink came right along with them.
            Hector whispered to Ralph, “I think I’ll do some orb stuff for them!” Ralph grinned. Invisibly of course.
            Little orbs of multi-colored balls of light appeared like a swarm of bubbles. They flew up in the men’s faces. They swatted them away, still hanging on to their rifles.                  When Gary set a foot down myriad little light bubbles burst up from his feet. He was breathing heavily, and his face was sweaty. His eyes were getting kind of mad-looking.
            “I told you every damn thing isn’t in the newspaper, Gary! Explain this,” screamed Jim, trying to see Gary through the swarms of tiny lights. “You get real, Gary! What is this?”
            They kept moving but they couldn’t escape the exuberance of the swarms. Ralph added some tinkly sound effects.
            “We’re getting farther away from the truck, Gary, we better turn around and go the other way,” said Jim. “We need to get out of here; there’s no game anyhow!” he screamed.
            Both men, weighed down with camping equipment in big packs, and their rifles started jogging heavily in between the brush, which might have been sort of a rough trail.
            Ralph and Hector had no trouble keeping up with them. It was easy. In fact it was hilarious, but they were silent for the most part. Gary and Jim were much too flummoxed to notice a little whispering between them.
            Hector was enjoying the bubble lights so much he just kept it up. One of those guys had injured his buddy and he was ticked.
            About the time the men were running out of breath and had slowed down, still looking wildly around, Ralph decided that it was time for his boulders rolling down the mountain sound effect. If a person didn’t know it was just sound, not boulders, it was terrifying. It started like a distant rumble, but got louder and louder until they noticed it.
            “Dear God, what’s that!” screamed Gary, who started running again. He didn’t notice that he had dropped his rifle.             Jim picked it up, but then when the noise got to him, as he was running too, he put both hands over his ears and dropped both rifles. Ralph made a note to see if Ranger Rick wanted them. He thought, “I could just bury them, but maybe Rick would have some use for them.” He would pick them, and the beer cans up on the way back through the forest.                   Ralph doesn’t like litter in the Great Forest.
            He knew they were getting near the parking lot where hunters often parked and that they would lose them there when they got in their truck. He was sure it would be a truck. He kept up the rolling boulders show, and Hector kept blowing bubbles of light.
            Gary and Jim were stumbling now, but they kept going, just trying to make it to the truck. For some reason, they felt that this would all end there, and maybe it mostly would.
            It sounded like the mountain was coming down on them. The little orbs flew faithfully with them.
            “Where are the rifles?” howled Gary as he hit the driver’s side of the pickup and wrenched his door open.
            “Damned if I know!” screamed Jim as he jerked the passenger side door open and threw his pack in first. "I'm not going back there for nothing!" Gary fumbled his pack off and ran around to the back of the pickup and threw his in there.
            Before they managed to escape, Ralph said in a voice that seemed to come from everywhere at once, huge, bellowing, horrifying, “NEVER RETURN!” It sounded worse than the boulders. It echoed in their minds like the crack of doom.
            Gary started driving before they got the doors shut. He floored it getting out of the parking lot and out onto the dirt road that joins the highway that finally ends in Milltown.
            Hector made sure some bubbly orbs made it into the cab with them. It could be that Gary and Jim would never be entirely free of them. Maybe not. It could cause problems for them at home. And home was a good place for those two.
            “You know, Hector,” said Ralph, “I don’t believe those two want to hunt out here anymore!”
            “I think they’re completely over it,” agreed Hector.
            “I wonder what Ramona is cooking, I’m getting kind of hungry, now that I think about it,” said Ralph. “I bet you are too!”
            “I am! I also wonder what the wonderful Lady Ramona is cooking!” said Hector.
            Then they walked back the same way they had chased the hunters out, scooping up the fancy expensive rifles and the beer cans. The guys had left the plastic bag that the beer came in, so it was easy to carry the cans out of the woods.                     Looking back, Ralph was pleased to see that there was no sign the Gary and Jim had ever been there, not ever cigarette butts. Apparently neither of them were smokers.
            Ramona had roasted three wild turkeys caught by Twigg and the puma brothers earlier in the day while Ralph and Hector were chasing the hunters out of the forest. They could have used a fourth, but it was enough and very tasty!

🦃

A Meeting In The Meadow

 

No moon at all.

In this misty forest.

All of that gold,

Hidden above.*

 
            It was barely light outside when Uncle Bob woke. Aunt Suzie was still absolutely asleep. He was a little sad because the moon had hidden its face all night. He was thinking of songs as usual.
            He left the Stump House as quietly as a mouse, as they say, and stepped outside and stretched. It was cool and all around was gray and deep green and brown. The fire had almost gone out. As usual there wasn’t a lot of firewood left over from the day before. He needed to get out there and bring in some more. Hunting food and firewood was his constant responsibility.
            Bob built up the fire for morning, stuck his head back in the Stump, and woke Suzie enough to tell her that he was going for fuel. She yawned and made some sort of soft sound of ascent.
            The whole meadow had been logged off many years before, leaving brush, saplings, ancient stumps and patches of grass. He headed for the tree line looking for fallen branches. He also usually pulled up some saplings. Green wood for a slower fire. In fact, Ralph did the same thing, so it’s no wonder that the cleared area never grew another forest.
            So, Uncle Bob was trundling along dragging a big dry branch from a fir tree and three alder saplings when he saw something he didn’t understand. Sticking up out of the undergrowth were some odd looking branched things. Those had never been in the meadow before! He came closer, trying to be quiet while still carrying the firewood.
            What he saw was a great beast bedded down and asleep. It was kind of like a regular deer but so much bigger.

Is it magic?

What is his name?

Will he fear me,

Or me him?*

 
            “I gotta tell Ralph,” Uncle Bob whispered into the morning mist. He dropped his firewood and ran, thumpity wump down the path, out of the meadow heading for the Home Clearing.
            When he got there, all out of breath, he was once more amazed, for sleeping old style around the fire circle were Ralph another one like unto himself and Blue the nearly grown wolf pup.
            Blue woke when she sensed him puffing and breathing there, and yipped a little.
            Ralph woke then, but Hector snored on.
            “Ralphie,” said Uncle Bob, “Who is this?”
            “Oh, hi, Bob,” said sleepy Ralph, rubbing his eyes and yawning. “It’s just my cousin, Hector. He came up to visit us. We decided to sleep by the fire last night. What brings you here this early morning Bob?”
            “I was out fetching firewood, and I found a great beast sleeping in the meadow. It’s like a deer but huge!” said Bob. “Do you know what it is?”
            By then, they had awakened Hector, who smiled at Uncle Bob.
            “That is Hugo! He is my great friend. I ride him as a man rides a horse!” said he. “He is not to be feared. He is quite friendly.”
            Uncle Bob sat down near the fire to catch his breath. It had been a pretty exciting morning so far.
             “Hector, good morning! This is Bob, my childhood friend who lives out where Hugo is sleeping,” said Ralph.
            “Would you like to ride Hugo?” grinned Hector. He was looking at Uncle Bob.
            “I don’t know! Would he let me?” said Uncle Bob.
            “Sure! He’s very agreeable. I’ll call him and saddle him up, and you can try it!” said Hector.
            Hector stood up and whistled very loudly and within a few moments, Hugo was among them.
            Bob kind of got behind Ralph while Hector put his big padded saddle on Hugo’s back and tightened it down.
            “Where did you get his saddle?” said Uncle Bob.
            “I made it! It’s made of sheep skins all stitched together with some homemade sinew ropes to tie it down on his back,” said Hector proudly. “I saw some saddles on horses one time. Where I come from there are cowboys riding horses. And they all had saddles.”
            Uncle Bob got up on one of the logs around the fire, so he could mount Hugo. It took a minute, but he got into the saddle and looked around at everything. “Wow, far out..” he said, reverting to type a bit.
            Hector handed Bob the reins and turned him loose.
            While Uncle Bob and Hugo were strolling around the Home Clearing under the watchful eye of Hector, Ralph said, “So, Cousin Hector, you must have rode all the way up  here for a very good reason. I’m curious. What’s it all about?”
            “Well, Cousin Ralph, you know what happened to my parents. It’s logging country down at home. You know that loggers don’t like us, and we don’t like them. Both way down south where I was born and up where I found Hugo while living with Aunt Rose and Uncle Sam. It’s the same story,” said Hector. “Hugo would like to live somewhere with cold winters too.”
            “How do I make him go where I want to?” said Uncle Bob from across the clearing where Hugo had found a few blades of grass. “I’d like to get down now!”
            “I just talk to him, but you don’t have to,” Hector said, and whistled Hugo over to the fire. Bob climbed down as he had gotten up.

            "I better go," said Uncle Bob. "Suzie will be wondering why it's taking so long to get some firewood. Thanks for letting me ride Hugo, Hector!"

            "Sure! Anytime," said Hector.
            They had been making some noise, so they woke Ramona, Twigg, Cherry and the puma brothers.
            Ramona went to work making a pot of oatmeal porridge and a pot coffee too.
            “Would you like to ride Hugo, Firekeeper?” said Hector.
            “Oh, no, thank you, Cousin Hector, I’ll just keep making some food,” said Ramona.
            “I’d like to ride Hugo,” said Twigg.
            “I’ll show you one of Hugo’s best tricks. Makes life easier,” said Hector. He spoke to Hugo in a low rumbly voice and Hugo knelt down low.
            Twigg got on and took the reins. As it happened he was a natural rider and had no trouble telling Hugo where to go. They even ambled out to the river and back.
            Cherry was still being shy, so she just stayed near Ramona.
            While Twigg was riding Hugo around, Ralph said, “What is your plan, Hector?”
            “I believe that Hugo and I will continue up to the north until we reach a remote forest. It will be cold in the winter for Hugo, and perhaps I will meet my Firekeeper among our people there,” said Hector. “I would like to have my own place at last, far from hired hunters.”
            “That sounds like a wonderful plan,” said Ralph. “I wish you much happiness in your search!”
            “Time to eat,” called Ramona.
            While she was serving the oatmeal with butter, and cups of coffee, Ralph continued, “Why don’t you rest with us another day or two? Then we can let you go.”
            “Thank you, Ralph. I couldn’t ask for anything better!” said Hector.
            As Ramona served him the steaming bowl of oatmeal, he said, “Lady Ramona, I will remember your good food. Perhaps I will find one who would like to make hot food also. My thanks!”
            When two days were past, Hector whistled Hugo to himself, saddled up, and rode out of the Home Clearing heading northward, always keeping to the higher parts of the mountains.
            The farewells were tender and heartfelt.

💚

*Uncle Bob had been working on a few verses.

Purring Though It's Dark and Rainy

  

Herself

🤍

            “Hi, Suzy,” I said, when I noticed her waiting silently by my elbow. “You look thoughtful.”
            “It doesn’t seem fair, to me,” mewed Suzy, earnestly.
            “Well, tell me about it,” I urged.
            “It’s a couple of things,” she said. “Well, three.”
            “OK, number one?” I asked.
            “Mr. Baby. He walks around saying ‘meow, meow, meow!’ all the time. He sounds like he is lost or has a problem.”
            “He does. What’s number two?” I said.
            “The biggest best moon ever is shining up over the clouds, but we can’t see it!” she said.
            I sighed. “Yes, that’s true. What’s the rest of it, Suzy?”
            “It’s dark. It’s raining and the days are too short. Nobody can sleep that much!” she said.
            “Let’s work our way through all that. OK?
            “Number one, Mr. Baby is the kind of cat who meows. There is nothing we can do about that. You should be happy that he isn’t mean! He’s rather nice, isn’t he?” I asked her.
            “No, he’s not mean. There is that,” she said.
            “There is nothing we can do about the weather, either, is there?” I said. “It is what it is, as people love to say. I’m glad cats don’t say that.”
            “Some of us just say ‘meow, meow, meow!’” she giggled, which in her case is just a little smirk.
            “There’s nothing to be done but think about the good stuff. I don’t need to tell a smart little girl like you what those things are, do I?” I said. “If you say them to me, they’ll be more real to you.”
            So, she reeled off a little list of things like a warm house, two kinds of food always, clean water, a nice tidy litter box, plenty of places to nap. All those kinds of things.
            “So, with all that in hand, Suzy, you have plenty to purr about. Right?” I said.
            “You’re right,” she said.
            “Spring will come, the weather with improve. Mr. Baby has to sleep part of the time! It’s all part of the cycle of life. Your job is to purr and be happy,” I reminded her. “Of course, if a mouse gets in here, it’s also your job to get that mouse!”
            “OK,” she said and hopped down off of the desk.
            I felt like I had been talking to myself! How about that!

🔔

The Arrival Part 2

 

            “I think these fish are starting to know me, Maeve. I hardly need to call them,” said Ralph when he and she arrived at the river. “As soon as I settle down here they all start crowding in. Do you see that? Amazing.”
            Ralph was seated with his feet in the water, on a boulder that he had rolled down to the perfect position some time before. Maeve was seated on his shoulder watching the fish lining up.
            “You know, Boss, a lot of guys would really like to know how you do that! But, I don’t know, maybe most of them like the challenge of doing it the other way. Maybe it depends on whether you’re out for fun or food,” said Maeve.
            “This is fun,” he said as he plopped another trout in his bag. “But I get what you’re saying.”
            “Hey, Maeve. I think I might know who that guy riding a moose might be. In fact, I’m sure of it,” said Ralph. He hooked another fish, and then another, slipping a finger in their gills.
            “You do? How do you know?” said Maeve.
            “Well, I’ll tell you. It’s a story of three sisters of the Forest People. Wren was my mother. Robin was a child called Hector’s mother. The other was Poppy. She’s the one who got filmed by those two cowboys so long ago,” said Ralph.
            “Now, Robin and Philo were Hector’s parents. They lived in the forests very far below the great river that divides this part of the land. It was logging country. The logging company didn’t want a bunch of Forest Keepers keeping their forest. So they hired hunters. That’s how Hector became orphaned. The hunters didn’t see him hiding in the top of one of those big trees. Hector was always climbing trees, they say.
            “He wasn’t a small child, but he was quite young when his parents died that way. He went to Aunt Poppy, who was a kind of leader in their clan and asked what he should do. Aunt Poppy kept him and took care of him as if he were her own child until she felt that he was stable.
            “Is that all clear so far, Birdy?” asked Ralph.
            “It’s like the setup for a fairytale, Boss. But yeah,” said Maeve.
            “OK. Next, Philo had a sister named Rose who lived in what the Hairless call Oregon, up north, who had no children. Poppy checked with Rose and Sam, and they said ‘sure, send the boy to us’. And so it was done. Hector went to Rose and Sam, by way of a safe conveyance, You know?
            “My mom, Wren, told me when I was a boy that Hector had met an orphaned moose and that they became the best of buddies there in Oregon. So, you can see why I’m pretty sure who this guy is. It has to be Hector on his moose. What I don’t know is why he is coming here, if he is, and I bet he is!” said Ralph.
            “I think you must be right,” said Maeve.
            “Birdy, would you fly to him and help him find us? Better than him hunting all over the Great Forest because he only has an idea of where we are,” said Ralph.
            “Evermore, Boss!” she said as she blasted off of his shoulder and into the air.
            Ralph picked up his burlap bag of trout and headed on back home. Ramona sent him back for a bucket of water to keep them in for a couple of  hours while they waited for the arrival of Hector, probably.
 
            Now, as Hector was riding his moose, Hugo, through the misty highlands of northern Washington, he didn’t know it, but he was being observed from on high. The observer was Maeve, of course.
            Boldly, she flew down and landed on his shoulder. It was the best way to have a word with him.
            “I am Ralph’s bird. Who are you?” said Maeve.
            “Well, Bird, I am Hector and this is Hugo. I am cousin to Ralph, and I seek his home,” said Hector very politely, considering that it was quite a shock to have Maeve land on his shoulder like that.
            “May I know your name, Bird,” he added.
            “I am Maeve, evermore,” said she, and thus they were introduced.
            She informed Hector of some coordinates, and said, “I will check in on you again, but it’s not far now. Just do as I said and you will come to the Home Clearing before very long. I see that Hugo is rather slow but steady!”
 
            Ramona’s instincts are pretty good, so when she thought it was getting to be about time, she started preparing all those fish for her big flat pan and building up her fire for the evening.
            She figured that she would start cooking them when their guest was actually present.
            Soon there was the sound of hoof beats and there was Hector astride Hugo, with Maeve on his shoulder, because it’s always best to have help finding the Home Clearing even if one is another Forest Person. 

             Hugo stood impossibly huge, steamy like a horse, breathing heavily. He made a heavy breathy sound as if he were glad of a resting place. It had been a long journey for Hugo. His earthy, foreign scent filled the air surrounding him.          
            Ralph left his place at the fire and walked to Hugo’s side. He took Hector’s hand in his and said, “Welcome, Hector! Come sit by our fire!”
            “Thank you, Cousin Ralph. Your kindness is known very far from here! I am grateful,” said Hector. “My mother, when she was living, spoke of you.”
            “And mine spoke of you, Hector,” said Ralph.
            “Please be welcome and come sit by our fire,” said Ramona. Then she put the fish on to cook in the hot butter in her pan, with a lot of garlic and salt and pepper.
            Bob and Berry and Blue watched Hugo and Hector with wide eyes, keeping quiet.
            Cherry was overcome with shyness and sat behind her mother by the fire.
            Twigg, who was home for dinner, said, “There is grass in the meadow nearby. Would you like me to lead Hugo out there?”
            Hector climbed down. He said, “I’ll just tell him which direction to go, and he will find your meadow for himself. He never wanders far, and he comes when I whistle for him!”
            So, after Twigg had a chance to pat and speak to Hugo, he pointed out the direction to the meadow. Hector removed Hugo’s saddle and Hugo ambled agreeable off to where the grass was. Everyone was very impressed with the great beast and his mighty antlers.
            “Lady,” Hector asked Ramona, “What is that wonderful scent? I must say that I am rather hungry.”*
            “They are fish, frying in butter,” said she. “Please eat with us. Are you accustomed to fired food, Sir? I hope that you will like it!”
            “In all my life, I have not had such food,” said Hector. “But by all the forest and the sky, I am more than willing to try these fish which smell so good!”
            After this very polite meeting and getting to know each other just a bit, Ralph and family and animal friends and Cousin Hector had a lovely meal of butter cooked trout in those flat wooden bowls. Hector was tired and a little shy, so there wasn’t a great deal of talk, just a some comfortable chat.
            After dinner, Ramona made a pot of coffee, and that was another new experience for Hector. Hot drinks of any kind were unknown to him.
            “Let’s talk in the morning,” said Ralph.
            So, after dinner and coffee, Ramona and her children and Bob and Berry and Blue went to bed in the cave. But, Ralph and Hector slept outside by the fire, just like in the old days, under the sky, among the great trees. \
            And in the morning they were misted with dew, and the fire had burned very low.

 

*Translating formal Saslingua to English always sounds stilted and old fashioned to our ears.

🍀

The Arrival, Part 1

 

Ralph's river is to the right of the road a bit.

            When he woke the sun was already up and shining in his eyes. It took a moment to remember why he was sleeping in tall grass so far from home.
            “Oh!” he said to himself. He recalled that his famous cousin, Ralph, monarch of the Mt. Baker-Snoqualmie National Forest, was at the end of the trail. That’s where he was going and it was time to get up, find that moose, and get moving.
            He had been using that moose’s saddle for a pillow, to keep his head up off the ground and dry in case of dew or insects.
            Hector’s home was in a corner of a kingdom known as Northern California to the Hairless. Of course, he didn’t call it that. He didn’t really call it anything. Just home. Mother and Father were home for many years.
            Now, about that moose. Hector had found it wandering motherless around the trees at home making piteous little calls. Hector stood aside and watched the creature for a whole day, to see if its mother would appear. She didn’t. He was actually lost, not just stashed by the mother and disobeying her.
            For some reason, maybe it was pity, or maybe having seen men with pack animals and riding on horses, he had some notion of doing likewise once the creature grew up. So, the moose didn’t become dinner, it became a friend. Hector had needed a friend about then.
            He thought of his mother and his father, and their fate, and it ignited his desire to move north again.
            He stood up in the bright morning sunlight, all 8.5 ft. of him, and whistled for Hugo. He waited, thinking about something to eat. After a short time, Hugo appeared, bulging with grass and still chewing.
            “Hey, Hugo,” said Hector, happy to see him.
            Hector saddled him up, and climbed on. They rode north, mostly keeping to the mountains.
            They swam the great river and rested a whole day after that. If anyone saw them, well, they knew nothing about it. They might have passed it off as an hallucination. It’s possible!
            Hector had heard wonderful things about his cousin. Word gets around, especially when moms are talking amongst themselves about their sons, and their daughters too. But sons seem to really get them going. Hector’s mom, Robin, and Ralph’s mom, Wren, and Poppy of the famous film were sisters.
            Hector knew nothing of the film, but he did know about the famous walk from Poppy’s point of view. She told many times about the two cowboys who showed up just as she was leading the family along the river, hopefully drawing attention to herself to allow the rest safe passage.
            That was so long ago. Before his own birth.
            Once rested from swimming the Columbia, they headed north, avoiding roads and towns, traveling where there was grass for Hugo, and small convenient game for Hector, who knew nothing of cooking.
            They presented quite a picture. Hugo was big, big as a moose! But Hector’s feet still hung near the ground as they traveled agreeably along, until one day they were within a day’s walk of Ralph’s domain. The forest here was different from home. It was cool and many times the sky was gray and cloudy. It rained much more than he was used to. Huge firs crowded near. Crows called and even the occasional owl.
            Now it happened that Maeve, the watcher in the sky, was soaring above the Great Forest a bit more southward than usual. She saw something moving down on the forest floor and could hardly believe her black eyes.
            Incredibly, it was a Forest Man riding a great huge moose and they were heading north.
            Maeve swore that Ralph would know within the space of a few mighty wingbeats.
            It was midday when she got to the Home Clearing, dropping out of the sky and through the canopy of tree tops.
            There he was, sitting by the fire! She landed on his shoulder and took a great breath!
            “Boss!” she managed to get out.
            “Oh, hi, Birdy,” he said, “What’s all the excitement about?”
            “Evermore, Boss! There’s a guy riding a moose heading this way!” she squawked.
            “What kind of a guy?” laughed Ralph.
            “A guy just like you, but not quite as big! And he’s riding a moose!” she said. “He’s as black as me!”
            “I wonder who he is,” said Ralph. “Where is he anyhow?”
            “He’s east of Darrington. Uphill and not moving very fast,” said Maeve, strutting importantly back and forth on Ralph’s shoulder. Ralph scratched his chin, and smiled.
            “I bet we’re in for some fun! Mona, did you hear that? I think we’ll have company later tonight!” said Ralph. “I love a mystery!”
            “I do too,” said Ramona. “I wonder who he is and why he’s coming here, if he is, and I bet he is!”
            Ralph looked at Ramona and they both looked at Maeve, who had hopped down to one of those logs, and all three nodded. Now they would wait. But, while they were waiting, Ramona began to think about bigger dinners and such. More hunting and cooking.
            “Ralph, Baby, maybe you better go get another sack of fish?” said Ramona, just taking care of business.
            “And so I will, Mona,” said Ralph. “Does anyone want to come along?”
            “I’ll go,” said Maeve.

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Ralph Decided To Do Nothing All Day

 

            When Ralph woke up, all snuggly in the big old quilt, lying beside Ramona, he thought it might be nice to just enjoy living, and not do anything at all that whole day. He smiled and rolled over and went back to sleep.
            The next time he woke Ramona was gone and the bed wasn’t so warm and comfortable. Nobody was in the cave but himself. But he still wanted to take a day off. He began his day off by staying in bed for a while longer. It was great, but a little uneventful. His eyes stayed open, sleep had left the cave.
            Ramona stepped back in to see if  he was awake.
            “Ralph,” she said, “I’m getting low on firewood. Do you think you could get me some more?”
            So, he rolled out of bed. He followed her out to the fire and saw that she was right. They really went through a lot of firewood.
            He fetched the big leather backpack that Ooog had made him for that one Gifting Day a couple of years ago and set out to see what he could find.
            When he got back to the Home Clearing with a nice load of broken up alder saplings and some dry stuff too, Ooog was waiting for him.
            “Ralph, will you come help me with a tree I felled earlier today? It’s a little too much for me to move alone,” said his good friend, Ooog.
            So, since it was a day of doing nothing anyhow, Ralph followed Ooog over to his place and then out into the trees a little ways. Ralph took the heavy end of the tree trunk and Ooog took the lighter end, and they carried it back to Ooog and Thaga’s back yard where he could get at it.
            Then Ralph went back to doing nothing.
            As he was sitting by the fire, incidentally while Ramona was cooking some more fish, Cherry came and took a seat beside Ralph.
            “Will you tell me a story about something that happened to you when you were a child,” she said. So, Ralph thought long and hard and decided to tell the story of when he and Uncle Bob were kids and they tried to catch lady deer to ride like a horse, how they did catch her, but when he helped Bob up on her back, Bob got bucked off, and the deer ran deeper into the forest.
            “Thank you, Da. I won’t try to ride a deer!” said Cherry thoughtfully.
            Twigg came home about then, and they all ate some trout fried in butter with some mushrooms too. While Ralph was still patting his stomach and feeling really great, Twigg said, “Dad, I’m trying to get a living tree to grow kind of in a circle and I wondered if you would help me bend it and make it stay?”
            Well, since he wasn’t doing anything, he followed Twigg out near the meadow, just at the edge where leafy trees grow. There was a young birch there with a shiny white trunk. It was quite a young tree with a trunk of maybe 6 inches in diameter.
            Ralph kind of crooned to it, until it felt willing and they shaped it around into almost a circle.
            “That should look really cool when it grows up a little in that shape,” said Ralph to his boy. “Anyone who sees it will be very impressed and even mystified,” he said too.
            It was getting dark about then, since it was early November, so they walked back to Ramona and Cherry and the animals at the fire.
            When Ralph took his seat again, Blue came up to him and went to sleep with her white muzzle on his feet as he sat there.
            Bob and Berry, the puma brothers, came near the fire and crouched down in its heat and light and smiled sleepily.
            Ralph patted all of their heads and scratched behind three sets of ears.
            Ramona sat down there beside him. She leaned on his shoulder and yawned.
            “I’ll get something together for dinner pretty quick,” she said. “It’s nice just to sit here for a while.”
            Ralph looked around at everyone and thought what a great day it had been, a day of doing nothing but enjoying himself.
            Then he put his arm around Ramona, while she did nothing for a bit, and in his heart he blessed them all, as was his custom.

🍀🍁🌲

Suzday Blessings & Happy Open Thread

 

Isn't it amazing?

Soon it will be Thanksgiving time!

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