The following spring moon Hopamato went to her father’s place of rest to say good-bye. As she lay on the ground and wept, the sky filled with dark, heavy, clouds. Soon the thunder pounded the ground like distant drums. As lightning cracked open the sky above her a small tree sprouted from the ground. Hopamato watched in amazement as it grew tall and strong before her vary eyes. It’s long thick branches spread outward in all directions. Thousands of small limbs and leaves grew in minutes forming a canopy above her. Though heavy rains soon came she remained dry and warm under the trees protection. As she put her hands on the tree’s massive trunk she heard her father’s voice and felt his presence. Hopamato felt no fear of these events, only peace. The message her father conveyed to her was one of love and encouragement. She felt the sadness leave her and be replaced with strength and hope. She knew the tree was a gift from her father and often returned to place her hands upon it to feel his presence. Many times, Hopamato came to the tree for strength and guidance, as I sometimes do today.”
“Wow.” The boys chimed.
“That was an awesome story.” Merle said.
“Yeah, why haven’t you shared it with us before now?” Hunk asked.
“I wanted to wait till you were old enough to appreciate how special it is.” She replied, “And I knew now was the time.”
“Thank you, Clair.” Merle told her as the others shook their heads in agreement.
“You are very welcome boys.” She replied with a big smile.
It was obvious that Clair had enjoyed telling the story as much as the boys enjoyed hearing it. They knew she had just shared something with them that was very special to her and all the other bears. They would never be able to look at the big oak tree the same way ever again.
“Don’t forget to spread the word about the meeting.” She yelled back over her shoulder as her and her cubs were leaving.
With the excitement of the new story they had forgotten all about the meeting and Cooter. As Clair and her cubs headed off, the boys were left with lots of thoughtful thoughts and unanswered questions.
“Does anyone want to touch the tree as bad as I do right now?” Hunk inquired.
“Oh yeah.” Merle replied.
“Me too.” Sonny added;
“Do you think we should all think of a question first?” Sonny asked.
“Definitely.” Merle responded.
The boys each thought hard about a question needing an answer. They didn’t want it to be something silly or underservant. The tree was sacred and deserved questions of great importance.
“Does everyone have one?” Merle asked after he figured out what he wanted to ask.
Sonny nodded his head, but Hunk still looked puzzled. Hunk had lots of questions, but they were all about food and didn’t really seem worthy.
“Oooh, I got one.” He finally announced.
Without uttering another word, they all placed their front paws on the tree trunk and closed their eyes. At first, they didn’t hear or feel anything. Then Merle and Sonny felt a sort of tickling sensation under their paws. It was hard not to move their paws and scratch but neither of them wanted to break the connection, so they remained quiet and steady. The tickling sensation began to move up the arms until they simply couldn’t take it anymore. They both jumped back from the tree and rubbed the paws up and down their arms. Hunk looked at one and then the other.
“Did you feel it? Did you feel it?” Merle asked, as he continued to try and shake the feeling.
Sonny was pretty much doing the same thing as Merle was. Hunk seemed confused at first and then amused.
“I didn’t feel anything.” Hunk said as he began to giggle.
“Well, I felt it,” Sonny replied, “and I still feel it.”
“It was awesome, wasn’t it?” Merle asked him, “It was a sort of tickling feeling that just kind of stays with you.”
“I know, what do you think it means though?” Sonny inquired. “I didn’t get an answer to my question.”
“I don’t know for sure.” Merle said.
“I do.” Hunk said before falling on the ground laughing. “I know exactly what it means.”
“What?” Merle and Sonny asked.
“It means you both put your hands over some red ants and now they are crawling on you.” He informed them.
Sure enough, Hunk was right, there were red ants all over their paws and arms. The tickling itchy feeling was very annoying now that they knew what they were.
“Awe walnuts.” Merle remarked as they started shaking them off. “I really thought I had felt something special.”
“Maybe it only works for bears since Hopamato had the spirit of the bear.” Sonny offered as an explanation to why none of them felt or heard anything.
“Maybe.” Hunk said, “Then again, why didn’t the ants get on me?”
They spent the rest of the day, thinking about the tree, spreading Clair’s message, and asking if anyone really knew what happened to Cooter. They did find out that he was a normal raccoon like every other raccoon at one time. Then he moved to the city and when he moved back he had ‘changed’.
“Maybe he had too many of them yogurt covered coffee beans.” concluded Sonny, “Remember what they did to you Hunk?”
“Well that would surely do it.” Merle agreed.
“Gee, thanks guys.” Hunk replied sarcastically.
That night the boys, their parents, friends, neighbors, and every other creature from far and wide met at Gulch Landing. Their parents told them they didn’t have to come if they didn’t want to. It was more of an adult meeting, but the boys were so curious about Cooter by now, they just had to meet him.
When they first arrived, they saw Cooter talking to Clair and the cubs. He definitely stood out amongst the crowd. He not only looked and acted a bit odd, but also wore a flowered bikini top on his head with the cups covering both ears and the strings tied under his chin. Apparently, it was to keep the humans from reading his thoughts. He also wore a headband around his waist stuffed full of walnuts. The boys weren’t sure if they were for snacking or attacking. After they were finished talking the boys decided to walk up and introduce themselves. He was every bit as unique as the cubs had said.
“Hello.” Merle started, “My name is Merle and these are my friends Hunk and Sonny.”
The boys each raised a paw when they heard their name so that Cooter knew who was whom.
“Glad to have your help boys. We are sure gonna need it.” He stated as he stood up on his back legs and began to walk around them. “Young recruits as yourselves are going to make this deployment a success.”
“What’s a deployment?” Sonny asked.
“Why do you want to know?” Cooter asked in an alarming tone, “Are you a spy? Let me look in your ears.”
Cooter then quickly grabbed Sonny’s head and turned it back and forth looking into each ear several times. Merle and Hunk exchanged looks of confusion while Sonny stood very still and alarmed.
“We just don’t know what the word means.” Merle explained.
“Well I would love to tell you boys but I’m afraid you don’t have the level of clearance needed for that type of information.” He informed them.
“How does one get clearance?” Hunk asked before taking a few steps back.
“Well from the chief of course.” Cooter replied as he walked around them once more. “Everyone knows that.”
The boys watched as he checked each one of them out from head to toe. He would then straighten his bikini hat and rub his chin before muttering something to himself. It appeared he was trying to figure them out.
“Who is the chief?” Merle then asked.
“What?” Cooter yelled as he stopped abruptly, “How do you know about the chief? That is classified. Who sent you? Where are you getting your information?”
“Ummm, from you.” Hunk replied slowly, as he covered his ears.
“Yes, well of course you did.” Cooter whispered, “But you shouldn’t speak of s
uch things out in the open like this. There are spies everywhere and the forest has ears you know.”
He straightened up and scanned the area while looking thru the circles he was making with his paws as if they were binoculars. As he did an obvious noise came from his rear end.
“What was that noise? Did you hear it? It sounded like someone strangling a duck.” He declared. “I should probably go check it out. You boys see if you can’t find the cause and location of that unusual odor that seems to be in the air suddenly. We could be under attack.”
He then quickly backed up and turned away from them. The boys watched closely as he went from animal to animal, leaving each one with a look of shock or wonder on their faces.
“Okay,” Merle said breaking the silence, “and he’s in charge.”
“Yeah.” Sonny added, “He doesn’t really fill you full of confidence, does he?”
“He’s a few acorns short of an oak tree, that’s for sure.” Hunk added.
It wasn’t long and almost every animal the boys knew was at the meeting. Clair the bear then got up on a large boulder to get everyone’s attention and introduce Cooter. It was obvious that most of the adults knew Cooter and just excepted his strange ways. For the most part, most of what he said made sense.
“We need to stop the humans from tearing down our homes.” Cooter was saying, “I have devised a plan that will involve a lot of us. It isn’t going to be easy, but I am sure when we are thru with them, they will want to build elsewhere and leave our forest to us.”
During the meeting Clair had to keep telling Cooter to speak slower and remind him why he was there. He was absent minded, and spoke like a mad animal with rabies, but what he said seemed to make sense. It was obvious the humans had planned on tearing down part of the forest to build something. No one knew what for sure but from the plot of land they had staked out it was going to be big, which meant destroying a lot of animal homes.
“We are going to need cactus plants, acorns, walnuts, blueberries, gooseberries, vines, and big hollow reeds.” Cooter listed. “I also have some supplies at my den that we can use.”
Despite the cub’s description and odd antics, the boys come to like Cooter. They soon realized he was intelligent most of the time and had some great ideas. They learned that he often visited the camp grounds while the humans were sleeping and collected things. He had light sticks, stretchy things, gadgets, tools and other shiny items. He was also quite funny and made them laugh often.
“What do you think happened to him when he went to the city that made him like that?” Merle asked the others.
“Reagle the eagle said the humans captured him and did experiments on him.” Replied Sonny.
“Yeah, and they call us animals.” stated Hunk, as he shook his head.
The next few days went by quickly. There were more meetings, planning and practicing. During practice, the boys got to see old friends and make new friends. Spike and Ike were porcupines that were in their learning class that Crowl the owl taught. Sam, Cam, and Pam were chipmunks that went to class with them too. Redd was a fox who lived on the ridge with his sisters and parents. It had been almost three months since they had seen him last. They met a talkative beaver named Bobby, a badger named Butch, and a wolf pup named Buster. Cooter referred to all of them as his team one.
“We know Butch” whispered Hub, “He likes to be alone and is always grumpy.”
“Grumpy?” Hunk asked before Merle could stop him.
“Yeah, you know.” Bub offered “Crabby, grouchy, snippety, testy, huffy, mad, ill-natured, snarly, cross, touchy, short-tempered.”
“An antisocial, rude dude with a bad attitude and no sense of humor.” added Hub.
“Okay,” Merle responded, “We got it. Thanks for the warning.”
Hunk looked at Merle in an apologetic manner. He knew the twin’s descriptive antics were getting to him, but he couldn’t help it. He thought they were funny.
“Listen up everyone. We need to start phase one of ‘Operation Scare Off’.” Cooter stated, “I want team one to sneak into their camp tonight after the humans have laid to rest and steal their food. Team two, I want you to take all their wooden stakes, lines, equipment, and other supplies and throw them in the creek. Does everyone understand?”
“Yes.” they all replied.
“Most importantly remember safety first. Those pesky humans can’t be trusted. They make my tail curl and my fur stand up.” Cooter said as he suddenly started scanning the area again. “And there’s that noise again, someone needs to find that poor duck and help it.”
By now the boys were used to Cooter’s peculiar ways, and were thinking about what they were going to do. It felt like a new adventure and there’s nothing the boys liked more than an adventure. Reagle the eagle watched the humans during the day and Crowl the owl kept a lookout at night. They gave Cooter updates and advised them when the humans were fast asleep.
“Humans trying to tear down our homes and build on our land.” Butch growled, “I don’t like it.”
“I am so nervous,” stated Merle, “My tail won’t stop twitching.”
“Not me,” said Hunk “I’m looking forward to phase one, free food.”
“Yeah,” added Buster and Spike “We’re hungry too.”
“Just remember, safety first.” Sonny instructed.
With that being said they set out for Cross Creek. When they got there the air was filled with strange snorting and growling sounds coming from the tents. Sonny stopped immediately and put his arms out to halt the others.
“Why are they making that noise? Are they fighting?” whispered Hunk.
“No,” advised Buster, “humans make noises in their sleep like that. I think they do it to scare off wild animals.”
“Well it’s working.” Sonny said.
“It’s annoying.” Butch grumbled. “I don’t like it.”
“It’s okay,” Buster added, “It just means they’re sound asleep, that’s all.”
Moving as quickly and as quietly as they could they gathered up all the food in the area, turned over the coolers, drained the water jugs and returned to meeting place.
“Wow.” Exclaimed Bobby, “That was the most exciting thing I have ever done in my life. We don’t get much excitement in our area unless the dam springs a leak.”
“Really?” asked Sonny, “Then what do you do?”
“We all work together getting mud and sticks and take them to the area that’s leaking.” Bobby informed him, “Then we fill the leak with mud, add some sticks, then more mud, and then more sticks, and then mud on top of that and so on until the leak is fixed. If it’s a big leak, then it takes a lot of mud and whole bunch of sticks. Sometimes we have to cut down trees, and use the limbs from the trees or use the logs to do the job right.”
They all just stared at Bobby as he continued to explain the art of repairing a leaky dam.
“Well that’s ten minutes of my life I’ll never get back” Butch complained. “Can we eat now?”
Everyone picked one thing from their stolen picnic and left the rest for the others. Sonny took some carrots, Merle grabbed the peanuts and Hunk chose one of the sandwiches.
“These are good” claimed Sonny, “I haven’t had carrots for a long time.”
“Same here.” added Merle
“O o my ung is uck oo de wuff of my mouss.” Mumbled Hunk.
“What?” chimed the others.
“Are you okay?” asked Merle.
“Maybe he’s having a stroke.” offered Buster, “I’ll go get Cooter.”
“uh huh, I ant et my ung untuck.” Hunk uttered.
“He’s not making any sense,” said Butch, “and I don’t like it.”
“What did you eat?” asked Sonny
“a anwich with bown gooy tuff.” He replied slowly.
Merle was getting concerned about his friend. He wasn’t sure what was happening. He knew his friend was scared so he needed to be brave. The rest of them just watche
d out of curiosity while Hunk sat there moving his mouth around and making funny faces.
“Okay, let me take a look.” Cooter said when he came back with Buster, “Open up.”
“Awe, uh huh, yep, just as I thought. I am gonna have to teach you young ones a few things.” Cooter said. “Hunk fell for one of the cruelest jokes known to man and animal. It’s called a peanut butter sandwich. It tastes good but traps your tongue to the roof of your mouth. Downright cruel, I tell ya.”
“Is he going to be okay?” asked Sonny frantically.
“Yeah,” advised Cooter, “He just needs to move his mouth around some more and then drink some water. Those sneaky humans must have planted it in case I came visiting. I’m sure it was meant for me. They’re after me you know.”
“Why do they want you?” asked Merle as Hunk continued to work the peanut butter loose.
“For my mind, they know I know things that no animal should know, I’ve seen things, and I’ve heard thing.” He explained, “They want to catch me but I’m too smart for ‘em, They had me once, but I got away and they’re never...”. And then he was gone.
“I got it, my tongue is free.” Hunk announced,
“Are you okay?” asked Sonny.
“Yep, and I’m never going to fall for that trick again.” He replied, “No more peanut butter for me, that was just rude.”
“Yeah, and they call us animals.” Merle repeated.
Soon team two had arrived back and all was well.
“Tomorrow night we drive the humans out of the area. Tonight, was just to shake them up a bit.” announced Cooter, “Everyone needs to get the supplies I asked for, get some rest, and we meet back here a little before sundown.”
‘Operation Scare Off’ was a go.
That night the boys wrote in their journals; Squeaky toys are scary but safe, odd animals can make good friends and great leaders, and peanut butter sandwiches are mean and dangerous.
Chapter Six
he next night everyone prepared for what was asked of them. They all felt anxious and excited. The hard part now was waiting for the humans to fall asleep.
“I could tell a story while we wait.” Clair offered. Everyone nodded their heads in agreement and quickly formed a semi-circle in front of her. Clair’s stories about the legends of their mountain were something all animals shared. As soon as everyone was situated Clair began.
The Legend and Land Battle Page 5