A Rose In The Forest

 

 

            Summer was winding down. The nights in the Great Forest were becoming cooler. There was mist laying on the ground when the sun first woke the forest in the morning. The leaves of the softer trees looked a bit tired and worn.
            It was that sweet moment just before autumn begins in earnest.
            There would soon be rain, a lot of rain. This forest was, after all, built of rain, wind, stone, and the mighty trees.
            Maeve and Ralph were up early, conversing over by the river, so they didn’t wake anyone still sleeping, which was, in fact, everyone else. Ralph sat on that same rock where Twigg had sat when Rose had first appeared, with his feet also in the running water. Maeve, feeling the chill a little since she was a rather mature Raven, sat on his shoulder for the sake of the warmth.
            “Well, Boss. Now what will you do? You have a wolf at the door. Well, inside the door. The puma bros., a son who is nearly grown, a daughter, your dear Ramona, and now you  have this changeling,” chuckled Maeve, in her Raven voice, which Ralph understood perfectly well.
            “It’s more crowded in the cave than it used to be, Maeve. That’s for sure,” he said.
            “I’m a nosy old bird, I know it, but I have to know where you put everyone to sleep last night?” said Maeve.
            “We tried this: Twigg gave Rose his bed, and he slept on the floor at her feet wrapped in that big quilt Thaga made for him. We had an extra quilt which Rose used for her first night with us,” said Ralph. “It was not ideal, but for an emergency it was doable.”
            “Ah, Twigg. What a fine fellow he is, Ralph,” said Maeve.
            “I know it, Maevie, I know it. But he can’t stay on the floor forever. Something will need to change, and I have an idea. By the way, you called Rose a changeling. Why? Do you know something I don’t know?”
            “Maybe I was there, Boss, when he found her in the river!” whispered Maeve. “What he said is true as rain, as far as it goes. There is more to it,” she said. 
            “It’s a nice quiet morning, everyone is sleeping. This is a good time to tell the tale, dear old bird,” said Ralph.
            “Very well. As I flew up the river yesterday, just feeling the wind, and drifting upstream, I noticed a large silver creature swimming up our river. Something I had never seen before. It was like a fish, but not quite fishy enough, if you know what I mean. As I looked I saw arms, a long finny tail, and drifting hair in the current.
            “When I got up to the very spot where we sit now, I noticed Twigg sitting here, summoning fish, as you taught him to do.
            “I lighted up high in that tree over there, silently, and watched to see what would happen. I could imagine several possibilities. Some good, some bad, some merely nothing at all.
            “What did happen was this. This finny woman, for such she was, gazed upon Twigg through the water. She swam near him where the water is shallow and slow, and she sat up. I could see that the water woman was enraptured by what she saw. Twigg is a remarkably handsome young thing!
            “He spoke to her. He gave his hand to her, and he drew her from the water to sit beside himself here. He named her, though she didn’t speak, but only nodded.
            “Oh, Ralph, here is truth, though it sounds like a fairytale when I say it. He took her face between his hands, and he blessed her and held her, and as all of heaven and earth is my witness, she changed. She became as you are. I saw this. I am a true witness,” said Maeve.
            Ralph looked long out over the running water. At last he nodded and smiled.
            “There is a lot to be done, Black Leg. Much to be done!” said Ralph.
            “Ramona will be a mother to this changeling. We will all speak to her until she speaks back to us. So it will be,” said Ralph. “Cherry will teach her to play.”
            “I will be her father,” said Ralph.
            “Yes, you will,” said Maeve. “And I will watch over her from the sky,”
            “The rest is for Twigg to decide,” mused Ralph. “I wonder how it will all turn out!”
            “Whatever Twigg decides will be good. You know that, Boss!” said Maeve, giving him a little bit of raven side eye.
            “I do know that. Now, how about we go home and build up the fire for Mona! Anything to aid cooking something for morning is a good thing!” said Ralph.
            “It’s always a good thing when Ramona cooks,” added Maeve happily.
            “Let’s go, I think I was born hungry, Maeve,” said Ralph.
            

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