Helga- Out of Hedgelands

by Rick Johnson

  “Yes, maybe so,” Breister agreed. “Maybe so...”

  Close on the Trail

  Helga, as a young beast, had always been tall for her age and strongly-muscled. From her earliest years, her Wood Cow heritage had shown itself in her talents and interests. She worked for a master carpenter, Alao Barkword, during her years in the Rounds and won his admiration with her skill. Always overflowing with opinions, Alao would often loudly compare his apprentice to the legendary Ragebark, known all over as the best carpenter that ever lived in the Rounds. “I knew Ragebark,” Alao boasted, “he was no Helga—she is the best carpenter Cow that ever lived—and she’s only a youngster! What will she be when she is full-grown? It will be something to see, that you’ll be sure!” Standing at full height in her pounded barkskins, boots, wide-brimmed hat, and carpenter’s apron, Helga, even at age twelve, towered over most other creatures in the Rounds community. Her huge forearms rippled with the strength needed to lift and carry timbers.

  After completing her apprenticeship, the world seemed to be hers for the asking. Smart, strong, and talented, Helga hoped to find her fortune and make her mark. Just past her twelth birthday, Helga joined a running wagon team to provide some service to the Rounds while she decided what path she would next take into her future. Things did not go as she planned, however, and circumstances that, at first, seemed disasterous to her future happiness intervened to force her to leave the Rounds. What seemed fatal to her future, however, because of her courage and confidence in herself, ultimately resulted in her being reunited with her family at O’Fallon’s Bluff. Her confidence in the face of disaster created a future she could not have dreamed possible.

  Now, as she listened to JanWoo-Corriboo recount the story of the WooSheep, Helga recognized this same spirit in her new friend. She admired the energetic strength, fierce self-confidence, and snappy smartness she saw. How many of the emotions she had felt when she completed her apprenticeship and went with the wagon runners now came alive in JanWoo-Corriboo. She loved to listen to her, to watch the pulsating rhythm that moved her so constantly that she seemed never to be still. How much she admired her.

  How much Helga knew she needed JanWoo-Corriboo in this, the greatest challenge of her life. Her once powerful legs were weak from injuries. She hobbled along with the aid of a walking stick. She had lost both her Mamma and Papa. Would she be alone for the rest of her life? It almost seemed to be too much to bear. Where had the happy times gone? Where was her father? Helga, feeling herself sinking into a slough of self-pity and despair, closed her eyes to force back the tears that were gathering.

  “Well, what are we waiting for?” JanWoo-Corriboo asked, interrupting Helga’s reflections. “We can be at the ‘Mountain That Moves But Stands Still’ by dark if we want. It’s a great place to visit at night.” She looked mysteriously at her friends. “Night is the best time to visit if you really want to understand the place,” she said excitedly. “That’s when the Venom Bats are most active!”

  “Ohhhh...Great!” Burwell shuddered. “I can’t wait to feel what it’s like to have a Venom Bat sink its teeth in me! Yep! Yep! Yep!”

  “Don’t worry, Burwell,” JanWoo-Corriboo advised. “Venom Bats are so tiny you won’t even see them coming! They just sort of fly into your ears. You hear a little flutter, they zip in your ear, and bore into your brain. You die so quick, you won’t feel a thing.”

  Burwell, Bwellina and Helga all looked at JanWoo-Corriboo to see if she was serious. They couldn’t tell. She just stared at them with a look that said, ‘Yes, that’s what I said.’

  “Well, O.K.,” Helga said at last. “There’s worse things than Venom Bats biting me on the brain. I want to find Papa. Let’s get going.”

  “Here,” JanWoo-Corriboo said, handing Burwell a pack. “This will be enough provisions for an overnight. We can come back tomorrow and fill up again if we need more.”

  “The ‘Mountain That Moves But Stands Still’ is that close?” Helga asked with some surprise.

  “Oh, yes,” JanWoo-Corriboo replied. “It is very close. But sometimes, close is far away,” she added. Helga thought that she noticed a hint of sadness in her voice.

  Picking up the pack, Burwell settled it comfortably on his shoulders. Helga picked up her pack. JanWoo-Corriboo and Bwellina both slung water jugs across their shoulders. Looking delighted with her charges, JanWoo-Corriboo raised her arm and pointed toward a jagged gap between some hills in the Bone Forest. “Forward, ho! That’s where we’re going—the ‘Mountain That Moves But Stands Still’—but don’t tell anyone I told you that,” she grinned.

  They walked several hours heading back into the dry, barren lands of the Bone Forest, but not in the same direction as Helga and her friends had traveled before. Moving deeper into an ever more barren and forbidding terrain, at first they made slow progress. The bones of the Ancient Ones were everywhere and JanWoo-Corriboo delighted in telling about the fossils. Burwell loved to hear JanWoo-Corriboo rattle off the names of the Ancient Ones.

  “She’s fantastic,” Burwell exulted. “Show her a leg bone and she says, Tyrannosaurus! Show her another bone and she says Pterosaur! She’s amazing! Yep! Yep! Yep!”

  Helga wanted to keep moving, but she tried to be patient. “Don’t worry, Helga,” JanWoo-Corriboo said at last. “I know you want to get there. We’ve got plenty of time. The ‘Mountain That Moves’ doesn’t really go anywhere,” she added with a friendly smile.

  As the afternoon was waning, they entered the jagged gorge that JanWoo-Corriboo had pointed out as they left the Bottoms. It was a ghastly place. The barren hills suddenly stopped in a ragged edge, as if torn off by some giant hand. An old, extinct volcano crater yawned open before them. The crater sloped steeply down to unknown depths below. Along one side, where the crater had collapsed in an ancient eruption, the ground was more level. Here and there steam rose from hot springs. The pungent smell of sulphur wafted strongly.

  “Welcome to the ‘Mountain That Moves But Stands Still,’” JanWoo-Corriboo announced.

  Burwell shuddered. “Where are the Venom Bats?” he said in a quavering voice.

  “They come out at dusk,” JanWoo-Corriboo said. “We’ve got some time before that. We’ll want to be in just the right place to see them. Come on. We’ll move down to where the best seats are!”

  “Ohhh...Thanks, you’re a real friend,” Burwell sighed.

  “You’ll like it, I promise,” JanWoo-Corriboo replied. “You won’t believe how cool it is.”

  “My heart is just leaping with excitement!” Burwell observed sourly.

  “Well, in any case,” JanWoo-Corriboo said, “we’ve got to get moving. Father will be waiting for me.”

  Helga and her friends were thunderstruck. They stared at JanWoo-Corriboo with saucer eyes. “Your father?” they exclaimed together.

  “What is your father doing in a place like this?”

  “Shhh...” JanWoo-Corriboo scolded playfully. “This is a secret. I’m taking a big risk in even bringing you to the ‘Mountain That Moves But Stands Still’ in the first place. If anyone finds out I meet my father here, I’ll be dead meat.”

  “Ohhh...Don’t say ‘dead meat’ around me,” Burwell said. “I keep thinking I hear Venom Bats fluttering around my head already! Yep! Yep! Yep!”

  JanWoo-Corriboo related her story. “I was born in the WooPeace,” she began, “my parents were Woonyaks. Mother became committed to the WooPeace. Father never liked the place but did not wish to leave Mother behind. Neither of them wanted me to stay in the WooPeace my entire life. ‘Do you want to stay in the WooPeace when you grow up?’ I remember my mother asking me many times when I was a young beast. The answer I was always supposed to give was, ‘Oh, no, ma’am.’ Mother herself did not know how to leave—or did not want to leave—but she wanted her daughter to have a life in the world above. So, from the time I was a small child, she would take me exploring. She never told the others in the WooPeace what she was doing. It was always just, ‘Oh, w
e’re just catching salamanders for our dinner,’ and such stuff. But what we were doing was looking for a way out...and we found one.”

  “Whew...” Helga whistled. “Do you mean that your parents are still down there?”

  “Yes,” JanWoo-Corriboo replied with a tone of sadness in her voice. “I have not seen Mother since I left. It is too dangerous for her to be too obvious about knowing where an exit is. But she brings Father every eight days. I meet him and help him take a bath in the hot mineral springs. He was injured when they fell into the caves. He’s crippled and can’t walk very well. But the hot mineral spring seems to help him. He’s getting better, I think.”

  “Doesn’t anyone follow him?” Bwellina asked. “Doesn’t anyone get suspicious?”

  “Oh, I imagine some in the WooPeace know. But so long as you aren’t obvious and don’t try to tell others and convince them to go with you, no one will bother you. It’s the fact that most people can’t live knowing they could leave. They’re scared of knowing. Most people won’t even try to follow Mother when she brings Father here, even if they know what she’s doing. Only if the WooZan sees her as a threat to WooPeace would there be trouble. Mother doesn’t want trouble. She’s very discreet.”

  Helga’s head was ready to burst. It was absurd. These WooSheep were all stark raving mad! She wanted to scream: “Why don’t you all just...just...well, why don’t you just...Fix it! This is nuts!” Despite Helga’s well-intentioned desire not to be critical, the last three words slipped out.

  JanWoo-Corriboo smiled. “Yes, it is nuts, Helga. But I don’t know how to fix it. Do you?”

  Helga was silent. She had to admit that she really didn’t know how to fix it. But that didn’t mean there was not a way.

  “No,” Helga said quietly, “I don’t know how to fix it. But I think I’ll go nuts if I really have to admit there is no way to change things. So, I’m not admitting that...Not yet at least. I’m a stubborn old Wood Cow in some ways. Mostly I just won’t admit that I’m too stupid to solve a problem until it has completely whipped me. I just heard of this, so I don’t feel whipped yet.”

  JanWoo-Corriboo grinned at Helga. “You know,” the young Fox said, “you remind me of me in some ways.”

  “Come on, we’ve got to hurry,” she urged. “Father will be waiting.”

  The friends climbed down the slope to a bubbling hot spring. A male Fox, with a checkered bandana tied over his head, and a matching shirt, was sitting on the side of the pool, soaking his legs in the hot water.

  JanWoo-Corriboo ran to him and threw her arms around him. “Father, it is so good to see you!”

  “And you, too, my Janty,” the older Fox smiled. “You have some new friends, I see.”

  Introductions were made all around. “This is my Father, TatterWoo-Corriboo,” said Janty, as her friends now knew her. “You can call him ‘Tatty’ if you want,” she said. “That’s what he’s called around the WooPeace.”

  Helga sat down and pulled off her boots. Her legs hurt. She began rubbing her legs as she always did at the end of the day. It helped to relax the muscles and bring relief from the pain of her injured limbs.

  “You should try the hot mineral water bath,” Tatty invited. “You’ll be surprised how good it feels, and how much it helps.”

  She accepted the advice gratefully. Rolling up her pants, she slipped her legs in the hot, bubbling water.

  “Ahhh, this is just what the doctor ordered,” Helga grinned. “I never want to leave!”

  “Sorry, friend,” Tatty responded, “twenty minute maximum. You’ll be baked like a potato if you stay longer.”

  Helga looked crestfallen, then brightened. “I’ll take my twenty minutes; maybe Venom Bats don’t like water.” She nudged Burwell playfully.

  JanWoo-Corriboo piped up, “That’s right, Burwell, the sun is going down. Won’t be long until the Venom Bats come out.”

  “Oh, Janty, for heaven’s sake, not that old monster tale again!” Tatty laughed. “Don’t listen to her, Burwell, she’s just teasing you. There’s no such thing as Venom Bats.”

  “What?” Burwell burst out. “No Venom Bats? Do you mean to tell me that this pirate pup has given me heart palpitations for nothing? She’s been fibbing to us? Why, I’ll throw you in the hot spring and hold you under! Yep! Yep! Yep!” He started after Janty in a mock rage.

  “Yes, Burwell, she fibbed, but it’s the biggest fib in these parts, since every WooSheep believes it’s true!” TatterWoo-Corriboo chuckled. “No one knows where the myth about the Venom Bats got started, but every WooSheep in the Bottoms learns it as a fact of life. Little beasts cut their teeth on the Venom Bat tale. The whole clan is terrified of them.”

  “Uh, excuse me,” Burwell said, “but the two of you say there’s no such thing as Venom Bats and every other creature says there is. We’re supposed to believe you two? Sounds like bad odds to me!”

  “Oh, there’s bats all right,” Janty spoke up. “We’ll be seeing them real soon. And the sight may scare the daylights out of you—but they’re not dangerous. I don’t know whether someone got scared of them once and the story just grew and grew, or if someone made up the story to keep the WooSheep away from here, but you don’t have to be afraid. Just take a look—here they come!”

  JanWoo-Corriboo pointed to a vast cloud of small bats that was pouring out of an opening in the rock not far away. There were so many that they completely blocked out the disk of the setting sun. “Why, there must be thousands and thousands!” Helga breathed.

  “Yes,” Janty replied. “You can definitely see how, if you were a little skitterish about bats, the sight could give you the shakes!” She looked at Burwell, who was noticeably shivering at the sight. “Don’t be scared, Burwell,” she continued. “These bats only eat flies and bugs.”

  “Well, that still makes them meat-eaters!” Burwell argued. Everyone laughed.

  “So,” Helga asked, “why don’t you tell everyone that the bats are harmless? Why allow the myth to continue?”

  “Oh, some of the WooSheep know the truth,” Janty responded, “or at least would consider the possibility. But most just won’t even listen to such an idea. They know that if there’s no Venom Bats, then there might be a lot of other things that aren’t true, too...”

  “Like what?” Bwellina asked.

  “Like the idea that the WooSheep who live in the caves are bad, evil beasts,” Janty answered, looking fondly at her father.

  Helga couldn’t take it any longer. “What a bunch of crazy, absolutely stupid, idiots!” she exploded. “This is nuts! We’ve got to do something! I can’t stand it anymore!” She stopped, feeling frustrated and flustered. She wanted to do something, but she didn’t know what.

  Then, too, she also desperately wanted to find her father. Was she even close to his trail? There was only one possible—but unconfirmed—report of him. She was going on pure hope. She might be wasting her time. Had he really come this way? No one had reported seeing him. It was very discouraging.

  “Whoa, Helga!” Janty exclaimed. “You sound just like Toshty when he goes off raving about the WooSheep.”

  “Toshty? Who’s that?” Helga asked.

  “Oh, he’s my art teacher,” JanWoo-Corriboo replied. “He’s a WooSheep who has lived at both the WooPeace and the Bottoms and couldn’t handle living in either place. So he stays away from both places. He thinks the way the WooSheep clans don’t acknowledge each other’s existence is nuts, just like you do. He’s kind of calmed down recently—just kind of retreated into his art—but he would really agree with you. He’s a fantastic artist and he’s teaching me and a few Otters how to paint.”

  “Well,” Helga sighed, “I’d like to meet him someday. It would be refreshing to meet a WooSheep that has some sense! Oops!” She looked at Janty and Tatty. “I mean excepting you two, of course!” Janty and Tatty grinned at her.

  “Well, we forgive the insult,” Tatty chuckled. “But, it does hit a little too close to home. The truth of wh
at you say is pretty depressing.” He looked lovingly at Janty. “My wife and I wanted Janty to have a better life. Even though Janty’s mother really loves the WooPeace and, in a way, I like it too, we knew that Janty had more energy and talent than the WooPeace could absorb. We have a good life in the WooPeace...Terrific friends, a comfortable life, a sense of peace. But it’s not for everyone...” His voice trailed off. “It’s just very lonely sometimes,” he continued, reaching out for Janty’s hand. “We really miss Janty.”

  “I know what you mean,” Helga replied softly. “I miss my father terribly, too.”

  “What happened to your father?” TatterWoo-Corriboo asked.

  “He’s a Woonyak!” Janty interjected. “He’s down in the WooPeace somewhere!”

  Helga looked at JanWoo-Corriboo. “What did you say, Janty?” she asked, looking intently at the young Fox. “You think Papa fell into the WooPeace?” The idea had never before occurred to her.

  “Sure!” Janty replied as if it were the most obvious thing in the world. “From what you’ve said, it all points to Breister being a Woonyak. Why in the world would someone see him at the Drownlands Cutoff saying he had been at the Bone Forest and was heading to the ‘Mountain That Moves But Stands Still’? It makes no sense, unless somehow he got mixed up with the WooPeace someway. No one has seen a Wood Cow at WooSheep Bottoms, and the WooSheep are the only ones who know where the ‘Mountain That Moves But Stands Still’ is. If Breister had been at the Bone Forest and was heading back to the ‘Mountain That Moves But Stands Still,’ it really can mean only one thing: He was a Woonyak and fell into the WooPeace. He found a way out and for some reason is coming back.”

  Helga grabbed Janty and hugged her tightly. “Oh, Janty, Janty! What a good friend you are! I never would have thought of such a thing. Why didn’t you mention it before now?”

  Janty, nearly smothered by Helga’s massive arms, gasped out, “I didn’t want to get your hopes up until we could ask Father if he’d seen a Wood Cow in the WooPeace...Have you seen a Wood Cow Woonyak, Father?”