Promise!

 

Winter in Darrington.

The view out of the cave opening was not encouraging. It was very white out there. It was also cold and very windy.

A fire was roaring in the usual circle of stones between the warm cave proper and the forest outdoors. Still, snow drifted in and turned to steam near the fire. A persistent layer of cold air hovered just over the cave floor.

Ralph, bending down to peer outside, sighed a massive sigh like the wind passing by.

“Ramona, I better get out there and try to grab something we can eat. I dunno. Maybe a deer. We should hibernate like bears,” he murmured. "Then we could sleep all winter." 

Ralph and Ramona and little Twigg live in the foothills of the Cascades, just at the snowline. Their cave isn’t too far from the storied timber town of Darrington. It's pretty nice for a Sasquatch domicile. They don’t sit or sleep on the floor. Thaga had a hand in this. She and Ramona spent the summer, on dry sunny days, gathering moss and bundles of grass to spread on the floor until there was a layer about a foot thick of bouncy warm plant matter. Of course, it would have to be replaced next summer. 

Summer in Darrington.

Ralph had carried in some big flat smooth river rocks to sit on, and he also made a bed of springy saplings woven into a strong platform placed on some large logs. He was quite proud of his project.

 

Thaga provided a huge heavy quilt she had found somewhere, for the bed. She has her sources, not strictly larcenous. 

Sitting in the shadows, Ramona said, “I hate it when you go out there and leave us here. I never know if you will come back. Goodness knows what could happen out there!”

“You have abandonment issues Ramona. As soon as you can’t see me, you think I am gone forever. I am never gone. No matter where I am, when I am ‘there’ I am just as ‘here’ as I always was. Or am. You are always in my thoughts. I’ll get you some more firewood before I go. I won't even be long.”

“Promise, Ralph?  You never forget us?" Ramona smiled a little tearfully.

His laughter shook snow out of trees outside. Bears rolled over in their sleep. Rabbits went to the deepest hollows of their burrows.

People in Darrington heard a strange loud rumbling noise from the hillsides. “Maybe it was a landslide!”

“I promise.”

 

Then the huge form ducked down and passed out of the cave's low opening.