Watch Where You Walk

 

            It was a day like many others in the Great Forest. It was mid-summer. The forest smelled sweetly resinous, and the air was warm. Blackberries were turning red out on the tree line. Soon they would be sweet and black.
            Ramona was teaching an old Firekeeper’s song to Cherry. Cherry tried to keep up with the words of the song as Ramona chopped something up on her little stump table. The beat was monotonous, a work song. But of course, it wasn’t all business. There was a lot of giggling laughter when Cherry goofed up the words. To teach her the rhythm, Ramona had Cherry tap out the beat with a stick on one of the big pebbles around the fire.
            Ralph with Twigg and Bob and Berry had gone out on a hunting expedition. It took some walking and time to get to where the deer might be lounging. Deer didn’t hang around the Home Clearing. They’re not super bright, but they aren’t suicidal either.
            They traveled upstream for a few miles, getting out into more open land. They were a good hunting team, often having quite good success. Sometimes Berry and Bob, working together would catch some careless young buck, and Ralph would carry it home. They left does alone so that their tribe would increase.
            They began to notice some sort of activity up further to the north. It sounded like people talking and calling. There were three rifle shots, and after a few minutes there were three more. The name being called was audible to the hunters. Bruce. Bruce was lost somewhere in the area apparently.
            “Hey, Dad, why are they shooting like that?” said Twigg.
            “They’re trying to find someone who is lost. I guess it’s somebody named Bruce. They hope that he will hear the sound and come toward them,” said Ralph. “Sometimes that works. I bet Ranger Rick is out there with them.
            “It’s not a good idea for Hairless to range the forests and mountains alone. They get hurt or lost sometimes in normal ways, but sometimes they get lost in ways that they just aren’t expecting. Then sometimes they are never found and no one ever knows what happened, Twigg.”
            Berry and Bob sat on their haunches looking from face to face, waiting to learn what their next move would be.
            “It wouldn’t be a good idea for us to show ourselves to them. Most of them would probably be scared and then Rick would have something to explain that we know he doesn’t want to explain,” added Ralph. “But we can sure keep our ears and eyes open for Bruce, wherever he has gotten himself to.
            “Let’s ramble on back down toward home,” said the father. The son and cats assented.
            Things didn’t seem so jolly now. There was a bit of a pall over the day.
            Now, Ralph knew a thing or two about people lost in the woods. It was a delicate situation because much as he would like to assist, sometimes he scared people and things really went haywire. He had a couple of ideas of what might have happened to Bruce. He felt led to the riverbank. It was like he was hearing something subliminally. He had a picture in his mind too. It had arisen soon after hearing the search party calling and shooting. He kept thinking of a certain pair of boulders, so big that they are called erratic by geologists. He knew just where they were.
            They worked their way down the river to where the two boulders lay. They weren’t in the water; they were almost under the trees.
            “I believe he’s here somewhere, Twigg. Keep listening,” said Ralph.
            “I am. I don’t really hear anything yet,” said Twigg.
            “Do you hear tapping? I do,” said Ralph. “Also a kind of moaning.”
            “I mostly hear the water, but yes, I think there is a tapping sound by those two big rocks,” said Twigg.
            “Yes, that’s right,” said Ralph.
            He stood between the boulders, listening intently. Then he called out, “Bruce! Can you hear me?” He listened again. The moaning stopped. Ralph looked at his boy and his cats and nodded.
            A weak voice, audible to such as Ralph, said, “Can you help me? I don’t know where I am!”
            “I think I can, Bruce. You must close your eyes and listen to me. I will sing and you will open your eyes when I say and there will be a faint path leading to my voice. You will follow the path until you come out of the rock. Will you do as I say?” said Ralph.
            “I will do anything you say,” said the faint voice which seemed to come from no particular place.
            “Good, now, you must accept that I am not exactly human and not let fear trip you up. Can you do that?” said Ralph.
            “I will not let fear trip me up,” said Bruce a shade more audibly.
            “Good,” said Ralph, and he began to sing a song of freedom and loosening of entrapments. It rose and fell, it was a lot like the sound of the river, but stronger and more insistent. It was so powerfully about loosening that things fell to the ground all over the forest, causing a lot of confusion.
            “Bruce, open your eyes. Can you see a little path?” said Ralph.
            “I do! I do!” said Bruce. “It’s long though.”
            “Keep coming,” commanded Ralph in a deep serious voice.
            Ralph kept singing. He could hear Bruce better now. He kept saying, “I’m coming! I see something and light!”
            The space between the boulders became hazy. Ralph stepped back from the hazy area and waved Twigg and Bob and Berry back too.
            Bruce stepped out of the haze and looked around himself with tears in his eyes. He was just a young guy. He was barefoot and seemed mussed, like he had been in a battle or something. He was dark-haired, blue eyed, and looked like some nice mother’s son. Maybe he was 18 years old.
            He took a look at his rescuers and had to steady himself, while his world changed forever.
            “What the heck happened, Bruce,” Ralph said, smiling largely. “How did you get caught in the Mouth of the Mountain?”
            “I don’t know. Who are you? And all of you?” said Bruce, a little weakly.
            “I am Ralph, my son here is Twigg, we are Forest Keepers, some call us Sasquatch. These cats are Bob and Berry!” said Ralph happily.
            “Well, Ralph and all of you, I was just walking around by the river, and I fell somehow. I don’t know how it happened at all. I was in a dark place, and I couldn’t see anything. I could feel stone, and it was cold as hell in there!” cried Bruce.
            “Well, Bruce. Number one, don’t go wandering around in the forest or on the mountain alone. Never again. The Mouth of the Mountain is greedy and will try to have her way. You are lucky that we noticed a search party looking for you up north a few miles from here, and that I was led to this place to find you!”
            “I will never know how to express enough thanks,” said Bruce. He seemed to be in a bit of shock, and he was shivering.
            “You need to go to the search party and let them find you,” said Ralph. “But you can’t walk there in the condition you're in, so I will carry you very near to them. We must hurry to catch them before they go home for the night.”
            Bruce was in no position to argue, so he allowed Ralph to set him on his right shoulder, like he would carry Twigg when Twigg was smaller and they all set off up the river to the north again.
            When they got to where they had been before, it was apparent that people were still there, but maybe fewer of them.
            Ralph left Twigg and the cats a bit behind and he carried Bruce to where he could easily call out and be found and set him on the ground.
            “Don’t spill the beans, Bruce. Just tell them you got lost and took your shoes off to play in the river or something. Remember what I said, OK?” said Ralph in a whisper.
            Bruce whispered back, “There is no way on this earth I will forget anything you said!” He grabbed Ralph’s hand for a moment, shook it with both of his, and looked up at him closely and then walked toward the voices a few yards away. Ralph watched until he was sure that Bruce had been noticed by the searchers.
            It was getting on toward the time of evening when deer come out of their resting places. So, on the way home Berry and Bob did catch a buck deer. A big one this time, not some little guy. Ralph hoisted it up over his shoulder and they all walked back to the Home Clearing.
            They had quite a story to tell over dinner, which was not venison, but veg. soup and biscuits. The buck would do for the next day.
            Ralph was tired, but quite pleased with it all. Ramona and Cherry were very impressed, and it was a lovely evening.

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