The Thing That Maeve Saw, And Then Forgot

 

            It’s not surprising that she saw it. After all, Maeve is the eye in the sky who sees all, pretty much. What is surprising is that she forgot it. Passing strange!
            How it went down is this: As you know, the Silver River is the only jack card in the Great Forest’s deck. It flows through the middle of the G.F. with impunity and no special permission. So, anyhow, Maeve was cruising in the sky over the river one early evening just as the land was getting that golden look it gets as the sun is setting. The last of the light was picking out certain things glamorously like on some famous painting. Maeve was digging the scenery, when she noticed something unusual.
            Rolling downstream was a ball of light, maybe ten feet in diameter. It was an odd color somewhere between green and blue, kind of like that shiny spot on the gills of a certain kind of duck. It was about half submerged. It made no noticeable sound.
            Maeve dropped down to get a better look. In its center was a brighter area.
            She was just formulating the intention to go find Ralph and let him in on the story when she forgot all about it. She flew on.
            Once she was gone, this thing rolled over to the river bank near the granite boulder which, though chastened, still lay there. There, it lifted lightly a bit into the air and drifted over to the huge erratic boulder, where it kind of melted into the granite and vanished, leaving the pebbled river bank and the murmuring water as they were before.
            Sunset proceeded normally.
            Things changed after dark.
            Maeve tried to sleep in her stony nest high on the mountain above the Great Forest. Something kept tickling at her thoughts. She kept waking and looking out into the dark, worrying and wondering what she was missing.
            A baker’s dozen or so small versions of the big greenish light began coursing through the Home Clearing. The family who resided there were sleeping so they didn’t see these objects popping and snapping and seeming to be having difficulties, as if they weren’t meant to be there, but were anyhow and suffering for the impertinence.
            It was like a hunt of some kind. Not seeing their quarry in the Home Clearing they spread out. They had an easier time at the campground and the ranger station, but he they sought wasn’t there either.
            So, going back into the forest, they headed up past Ralph’s log and into the big meadow. They bounced and rolled and spat out greenish sparks as their direction became synchronized…
            Koba wasn’t sleeping well either. He woke suddenly. He was aware that his parents were asleep. Something was coming toward him.
            Without waking Twigg or Leely, Koba slipped outside to stand on the grass before the Alder Tree House and wait. As he stood there in the dark, he assumed his star form.
            A baker’s dozen or so of these small greenish lights hurried toward him where he stood before his home. As they came their true forms emerged. The seemed to be tiny glowing lace winged fairies. They gathered around Koba. One spoke.
            “Come home with us, Star Boy! This dirty place in no home for you! You should live among the stars!” It twinkled near his ear, speaking softly, soothingly.
            “No,” said Koba. “Liars!”
            Still speaking sweetly, the first winged imp said, “You would be given great honor among the heavenly lights! You will have glory and power!”
            “Liar!” said Koba. The fairy imp coughed and seemed to struggle to breathe.
            “Time is short, Star Boy! Come now!” it said. “There is a curse on this place and we will die soon unless you hurry now!”
            “I won’t,” said Koba.
            Just about at this impasse, Mak’s silver ship slid down out of the night sky. This time it had lights glowing all along its sides.
            “Oh, no…” said the coughing fairy.
            “What!” cried Leely as she opened the door of the Alder Tree House and stepped outside, trying to read what she was seeing. Twigg was right behind her.
            Mak emerged from his ship quickly holding an odd-looking device of some kind. He stepped over by Koba, and kind of vacuumed up the fairies with it. Coughing was still audible from inside the strange machine.
            “I’m sorry,” said Mak to Koba and his parents. “It was a kidnapping attempt. I’m proud of Koba. He knew a liar when he saw one!”
            “Who were they?” said still sleepy Twigg.
            “There are still some dark corners of the galaxy. The one who sent them hoped to gain power by possessing Koba. It was a stupid plan, really,” said Mak. “I’ll deal with them. Goodbye, and goodnight! I will visit soon, but not tonight.”
            He re-entered his ship and it slipped back up into the air and vanished.
            The whole scene looked normal again.
            Far up in the mountain, Maeve remembered what she had seen.
            “That thing must have done something to make me forget!” she said to herself. And, though it was dark, and ravens don’t generally fly in the dark, Maeve flew from her nest to find Ralph.
            When she got to the cave door, she rapped on it hard with her beak. Ralph came out in a moment. She told him about the big greenish round thing in the river, and how she had been made to forget to report it to him.
            “Not good, Birdie,” said Ralph. “This smells very bad. My heart tells me to go up to the Alder Tree House and see if all is well or not!”
            When Ralph is in a hurry, it doesn’t take him long to get up into the meadow. Maeve flew beside him. He and Maeve got there in a couple shakes of a goat’s whiskers.
            All was quiet at the Alder Tree House, but Ralph knocked anyhow and woke everybody up again. First Leely explained what she had seen, then Twigg did the same. Then Ralph put Koba on his knee and said, “Now you tell me what happened to you this night, Koba!”
            Koba told him about going outside because he knew something was coming, and seeing the lights coming across the meadow to him, and how they changed into sort of lacy fairies.
            “Then they told me to come home with them, and I said no,” said Koba.
            “After that Mak came in his ship and put them in a machine and took them back into the air with him! Grampa, they were liars. They said I would have honor and power among the stars. That’s a lie, isn’t it?”
            “Yes, that was a lie,” said Ralph.
            Then Maeve told them what she had seen, and how she forgot about it, and then remembered suddenly up in her nest while she was trying to sleep.
            “I’ll let you all go back to bed now. I have a bit of business to attend to. I don’t think you’ll see those naughty fairies again, Koba,” said Ralph. “Be at peace.”
            Ralph and Maeve walked back down through the meadow, into the woods, and into the Home Clearing. Ralph helped Maeve into the cave to tell Ramona everything, then he went on down to the river.
            In the darkness, under just a bit of dim light from the sky, he could hear the river sighing as it moved ever onward. He could sense the presence of the Mouth of the Mountain lying in the shadow of the great firs.
            In the morning, not a trace of the huge granite boulder remained. Only a smooth bed of river pebbles lay where she had been.

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Photo source.

Suzday Greetings and Open Thread

 I took Catfurday off!

Photo is from a September 2009 trip to Alaska. 

It was a gift from our youngest!

The next morning, early, while most were still abed.

I would certainly like to go back, overland.

Such a trip would be a very big deal.

But, it would be epic!

⚓

"Peekaboo!"

 

            From Ramona’s point of view, human people were madly interesting when she was a shy young thing. Before she saw Ralph, or figured out the rest of her life right there on the spot, she was like an obsessed teenaged girl.
            You can see how this would go.
            If she saw a fellow working on his car at night. His suspended light source would draw her attention as she did her own research. Like the proverbial moth, she might creep close and look over his shoulder to see what in the world he was doing. His grunting, talking to himself, and moving things around would be totally mysterious to her.
            If he saw her and she knew he saw her, she would skedaddle right quick.
            Her mom had told her to stay clear of humans because they are unpredictable, above all things and might possibly take a shot at you.
            Children playing would be fascinating. She wouldn’t understand clothing. Why do that?
            Her father said human people wear those things because they don’t have enough body hair to stay warm, and besides their body mass is too small to produce much heat. Humans are slaves to the elements, he told her.
            Windows would be like her own TV screens or monitors. The trick would be to watch the show without being seen. She found that this was actually pretty easy because people are so self-absorbed. They don’t look around much, generally speaking. They don’t look at the sky much, or look at their windows. Children are different. They look at everything, then when they try to report what they have seen, well they bump into a bland wall of disbelief usually. Not always.
            Some ladies still hang laundry on a line to dry because it smells so nice when dried that way, and the sun sterilizes like no electric dryer can.
            When she was young, Ramona liked to watch the ladies hang their laundry. They were usually so busy that they never saw her there. If one, sensing something, looked up suddenly, Ramona would do that thing where they change their wavelength to something out of the visible range for humans.
            Peekaboo!
            In fact, this interest in humans is how she met Thaga and Ooog, years before. She watched Ooog gardening and wondered why he did that. Was he making a strange artificial forest or something? What were all those plants for anyhow? What did they do with them? Surely, they couldn’t be food, she thought.
            She was standing motionless in the tree line watching Ooog one day, when Thaga walked out to the road to mail a letter. When Thaga saw Ramona there, she jumped, but managed to steady herself quickly.
            “Oh,” Thaga laughed, “You scared me a little. But not much. I just didn’t expect to see you there.” Possibly, Thaga and Ooog knew of the Forest People. I would suppose so.
            Ramona wasn’t scared either, for some reason, of the little woman in the big apron. She held her ground while the little woman talked to her gently. Thaga even kind of sang to her.
            Thaga took Ramona’s hand and said, “Why don’t you come to the house and spend some time with us?”
            At the stone cottage, they became friends. Ramona learned to speak good English. Thaga learned quite a bit of Saslingua, though it’s hard for English speakers to pronounce. And Thaga, as well as Ooog, answered a lot of her questions about the Hairless. So, she didn’t have to do so much research.
            Of course, Ramona wasn’t Ramona until Thaga named her. Her name, given by her mother, was impossible to say, in Thaga’s opinion.

💚💮💚

She Couldn't Help Wondering

 

            Dianne thought about the river trip for a few days. But really, she was thinking about the blond child in the air and the blue light, inexplicable, beautiful, and compelling. She had to know more.
            Just plunging into the forest hadn’t worked. She and Larry had found out exactly nothing that way. In fact, it seemed as if the very forest had rejected them. Dianne thought there must be a way. She figured she would leave Larry out of this particular venture. He didn’t even admit to having seen what they absolutely did see.
            She decided to investigate on her own. This involved getting a ride upstream with the yellow inflatable raft. There was a park with river access. Her brother was willing to assist. He left her there, afloat, and promised to pick her and the raft up in town when she got there. All she had to do was call. Their parents were not consulted. They didn’t want to worry them over a little solo rafting trip. After all, the river was a sweet calm little river and Dianne would wear a floatation vest.
            It was a pleasant afternoon trip downstream. She passed stands of trees, farm fields, houses, and all, just as she and Larry had done before. She knew she would recognize the right spot. It was rather memorable with its huge Douglas firs standing near the river, and that particular large granite boulder.
            She thought of the laughter they had heard on the beach. It didn’t dissuade her.
            When she got to the right spot, the water thinned out near the west bank of the river, it ran slowly over the pebbles. Dianne steered the raft into that shallow water and then onto the very beach itself. She climbed out, getting her feet wet, pulled the raft further up onto the beach, took its rope and tied it around the boulder. So far, so good.
            The rest of the plan was to sit there and wait, and see if anything happened. Maybe she’d try some dialog with whatever lived in that section of forest. It couldn’t hurt to try.
            So, she picked a likely looking bit of river driftwood and sat down. She looked all around herself.
            The beauty of the place distracted her and quieted her thoughts. On the opposite bank there were the same tremendous firs as the bank where she sat. The water ran smoothly, but not silently. It seemed to sigh, or murmur subvocally. One gull, a long way from the salt water screamed from way up high. Crows added their harsh commentary. The sun glinted on the moving water. A mysterious woody scent came to her, and like scent does, it reminded her of something. But she couldn’t say exactly what.
            Rising up behind her were mountains. Implacable, silent, so very present, saying nothing audible
            Then she remembered with a start why she was there.
            She folded her hands and shut her eyes. She spoke.
            “I just want to know who you are. I come in peace, as they always say, but I really do.”
            She felt the wind lift her hair a little. The cuffs of her jeans were still dripping. Her feet felt cold in their wet socks and Keds.
            “I’m good at keeping secrets, if that matters a lot,” Dianne said. She waited.
            “I’m not going away,” she added. Then she laughed at the incongruity of the situation.
            Someone sat down beside her. She opened her eyes and turned to her left.
            She was startlingly beautiful. That was Dianne’s first impression. Then she noticed the hair, so many colors combining to create the effect of a rich complex light brown. She must have stood around seven feet tall when standing. She was some kind of epic female figure. Her eyes were blue and amused, but a little reserved looking.
            Dianne didn’t dare speak, in fact, she was speechless.
            “You saw my daughter and my grandson,” said Ramona softly. “He was in his star form.”
            “It was an accident,” said Dianne. “We didn’t mean to sneak up on anybody.”
            “The man isn’t here,” said Ramona.
            “He won’t admit that we saw anything. I left him in town,” said Dianne. “I couldn’t stop thinking about what I saw.”
            “Well, since you won’t go away, I thought I would come and sit with you for a while.”
            “Oh! Did you hear me? Were you nearby?” said Dianne.
            “I did! You came to solve a mystery, so here I am to help you. The bones of the story is that those like us live apart from those like you, in forests, on mountains, in deserts, wherever there are the means to do so. My family lives near here.
            “Most of humanity thinks we’re a charming folk story, or something like a horror story. Some find the story horrible, and some can let it be. Some want to be involved.
            “My English name is Ramona. The children you saw are Cherry and Koba. We like to name our children after beloved natural things. Koba means star though.”
            “I’m Dianne.”
            “Which kind are you, Dianne?”
            “I think I’m the kind to let it be. I just couldn’t forget. I kept thinking and wondering. And I won’t tell!”
            “It’s pretty hard to catch us with our guard down. Maybe that bunny Cherry and Koba were chasing bolted for a reason. Maybe we were meant to meet?
            “The forest protects us. Also, it’s unlikely that anybody gets past Ralph, Cherry’s father without a reason. But I’m glad you can keep a secret. Will you keep ours?” asked Ramona.
            “Yes.”
            “Thank you,” said Ramona. “Want some help getting that raft back out into the river?”
            Since the interview seemed to be at an end, Dianne accepted Ramona’s help. She untied the raft from the strange big rock, and climbed into the raft and Ramona shoved it out deeper into the river.
            “I’ll never forget,” said Dianne.
            “I won’t either!” said Ramona.
            As Dianne drifted down toward the west, she saw Ramona step back among the trees.

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Meowy Purrsday to All!🐈🐈‍⬛🐈

 Sweetie wishes you the best of everything.

(He's very interested in the camera!)

He feels that it is high time for fall to commence.

🍄‍🟫🍂🍁🍂🍄‍🟫

Celebrating The Arrival of September

 

It was September 25, 2022.

That's Mt. Hood there on the horizon.

We were headed south!

I wish you a day full of happiness!

Let it enfold you!

❤️

A Walk In The Forest

 

            Cherry and Koba were both free range children. Why not? Every inch of the Great Forest was their dedicated playground. Ah, but the Silver River is another matter. The river moves through the Great Forest, a sort of interface with the outside world.
            One day that fall, Cherry and Koba were visiting Bunny Town and getting to know the new children, who were now old enough to come out and play, and get to know Cherry, and her nephew, Koba. It was always alright with the mothers and fathers if their children played with Cherry near their burrows. They were not allowed to range the forest at their young ages.
            However, in any family, or extended family clan, there is always one. That special one who has a lust for adventure. One with a born-in need to raise his little head, lay back his ears and look further than his nest mates. Alas.
            This year the visionary was Leap, named for his father. From his birth, as soon as his eyes opened, he had been trying to leave the burrow. In fact, his mother was glad to have Cherry keep an eye on Leap. It gave her a few moments to attend to the other three without worrying.
            So, on that day, Leap and Cherry and Koba were sitting in the grass beside the trail running past Bunny Town. Leap was demonstrating his jumps to the cheers of the others. He obviously would be a very fine big rabbit someday.
            Suddenly he stopped jumping right in the middle of the path. He was facing the river and his nose was twitching, and quick as a bunny, as they say, he took off at a dead run up over the hillock between Bunny Town and the Silver River.
            Cherry and Koba had no choice but to follow him and bring him back to his mother.
            To gain the advantage of height, Cherry rose into the air over the path. Koba his blue star form, did the same.
            “Can you see him?” Cherry called.
            “He’s going straight to the river,” said Koba.
            The rushing water must have called to Leap, for that’s just where he was heading, as fast as he could go. The children followed close behind, and did capture little Leap just before he lept into the water. So it appeared that for that day, all was well in Bunny Town. Leap’s parents, Leaper and Missy, said he would have to stay indoors for two days, as punishment, to remind him about the rules.
            Oh, but while the children were catching Leap, an inflatable raft was drifting down the river, heading toward town. The occupants, two biology students from the local college, glanced up into the air near the tree line. Their mouths dropped open.
            They didn’t know what they were looking at. One hears of orbs, of course, but everybody knows that’s not real, thought Larry. But there it was, right there. A blue light, about as big as a beachball maybe. It was brilliantly shining, like some sort of heavenly body, he thought.
            Dianne, the other student, said, “What’s that!” when she saw Cherry’s small blond form aloft beside the blue light thing. “It’s carrying a rabbit!” she hollered.
            “No way!” said Larry, steering the raft toward the pebbly beach.
            “What are you doing?” said Dianne.
            “Can you imagine what would happen if we got photos? Don’t you want to be rich and famous, Di?” said Larry, with a plan in his eyes.
            He managed to beach the raft and tie it off on a very large granite boulder, which was right there and handy. They grabbed their cameras.
            Now, we know the situation with the Mouth of the Mountain. She is no longer able to swallow passersby, even those who are trespassing, but she does know a thing or two.
            As Larry and Dianne passed her, she laughed. They looked at each other, and kept walking.
            “Who was that?” said Dianne. Larry shrugged.
            “I see that blue thing down that path!” said Larry. Larry was no poet.
            In a moment they were among the trees. The path vanished, leaving only brush, in the dim light. Pushing his way through a large scratchy bush, he said, “They can’t be far ahead of us!”
            The light went out. It was as dark as midnight. Dianne grabbed the back of Larry’s belt and hung on. “I don’t know about this..” she said, but he kept walking.
            Something very large and dark flew over their heads. They could barely see it, but they could hear the big wings thrusting the air aside as it moved deeper into the forest.
            “Keep your camera ready,” said Larry.
            “I think we’re going in circles,” said Dianne. “I’m seeing the same brush, and broken places where you broke them, Larry. Let’s go back. I don’t think we’re getting any photos today.”
            But he wasn’t done yet. He pulled Dianne around in the dark for nearly an hour before he stopped and sighed.
            “I don’t even know anymore how to get back to the river,” he said.
            “There is a little light over there, let’s go that way,” said Dianne, pointing to her right.
            Larry was tired enough that he listened to Dianne, and complied. In a few minutes they could hear the river murmuring ahead of them where the light was stronger. Their steps quickened and soon they walked out onto the beach of the river.
            The raft was still there, just as they had left it. Larry untied it from the big boulder and shoved it into the water, allowing Dianne to hop in first. Just as it was clearing the rocky bottom, Larry hopped in too.
            The raft resumed its drift to the west.
            “You know what, Di. I didn’t see a thing, and neither did you. Right?” said Larry.
            “Right,” said Dianne, but actually she had, and she never forgot it either.

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