An Unbroken Circle of Friends
Breister, stuffing himself with Bisonbread and honey butter, was a very happy beast. He, Annie, and Toshty had found plenty of cave bird eggs and honeycomb to eat on their way down the Deep Springs River, but as Breister put it, “Eggs and honeycomb kept my body glued together, but everything inside my body is famished!” He held out his pants to show how much weight he’d lost during their float down the underground river.
Toshty laughed. “If you weren’t such a big galoot in the first place, you wouldn’t have such big pants to keep filled! Why, I didn’t lose an ounce.”
“Oh, yeah?” Breister responded. “You’ve got so many feathers, and then so many clothes, it’s hard to tell how much meat you actually have at any given time!”
Toshty, Annie, and Breister had safely completed their voyage down the Deep Springs River. After coming ashore at the Deep Springs Landing, they deflated the canoe and rolled it up for carrying. Then, Toshty took them to Elbin and Sareth Abblegurt’s dugout. When Sareth opened the door and welcomed them, Toshty walked in like he belonged there. Obviously he had visited many times before. Sareth and Elbin welcomed him like one of the family.
Introductions were made all around. Elbin and Sareth were astonished and pleased to learn that one of the visitors was the father of their dear Helga. “It seems to be such a small world sometimes,” Sareth observed happily, embracing Breister. “We, who have never traveled more than a few miles from our home, now lay eyes on Helga’s father, who has come from a distant land. I can barely imagine how big the world must be that you have traveled so long and far to get here. Yet, how small the distance seems when we embrace.”
“And all because of a crazy old Owl,” Annie scowled playfully.
“I met Elbin several years ago,” Toshty explained, “when I traded with him for some corn and beans at the market.” He grinned. “Well, it was actually the smell of Sareth’s cookies that first attracted me to their stall. There were a lot of vendors selling corn and beans, but only one had fresh Bison coffee and cookies!”
“Since then, we’ve become close friends,” Sareth said. “Toshty stays with us when he visits the Rounds. He’s a part of the family. Now, you are, too. You’re all welcome to stay with us.” Looking fondly at Toshty, however, she offered an apology. “Sorry, old friend, but you’ll have to sleep on a cot this time. We’ve only got two spare beds in the dugout. We need to honor Breister’s visit by having him stay in the guest room, and Annie can have Helga’s old room—we’ve kept it much as it was when she lived with us.” The three travelers gladly accepted the offer of hospitality.
Somehow, although Breister had never been there before, it all seemed strangely familiar to him. Perhaps it was the fact that he had heard Helga tell so many stories about her years growing up with Elbin and Sareth. But he also remembered the vision he had had at the whirlpool. He didn’t understand it. He was welcomed with such warmth in the Abblegurt round that he felt completely at ease. He seemed to be one of the family.
Breister appreciated the warm welcome, the hospitality, and the opportunity to get to know Elbin and Sareth. On the other hand, he also urgently wanted to continue his search for Helga. Thanking his hosts for their kindness, he mentioned his hope to leave the next day. Sareth would not hear of it. “You’re not leaving this house until you don’t look so pale and thin!” she declared. “You need at least a week of Bison bread, catfish, and greens! If you try to leave before then, I swear I will hide your clothes! Why, I might just burn them!” she exclaimed, giving Breister a laughing, but determined, look. Despite his protests, Breister knew he would have to stay a while. Country Bison were renowned for their hospitality, and equally known for their kind and humble, but absolutely unmovable, manner with guests.
“Just relax, my friend,” Toshty advised. “Enjoy the food and friendliness. You’ve been through a lot. Sareth is right; you really do look thin. Rest up and renew yourself. You will feel stronger and be better able to continue your search.” He patted his friend on the shoulder. “And besides,” he added, “they are Helga’s family, too, and they need to get to know you a bit.”
Breister was thoughtful. He did want to honor the Abblegurt’s as the family who had raised Helga. Helga often told him how much she longed to visit the Rounds, but there had been no way to leave the Hedgelands until they were expelled.
“How odd life is,” Breister reflected, sitting at the hearth listening to the happy chatter in the Abblegurt dugout. “Helga, who so longs to be here, is not; and I, who know these Bison only as fanciful stories now come to life, am here! Helga would choose to come here in a minute, if she were able, yet I find myself here by the most amazing forces of chance. The very household where she was raised! In my vision, it was almost as if I knew I would someday be here...I could see it...it was just like this.”
Over the next few days, the travelers explored the Rounds with Elbin. He was an excellent guide, showing them places that even Toshty had never seen, despite his numerous visits. Breister found one of the places where Elbin took them especially interesting. They went to a rocky point overlooking a quiet pool along Hervy’s Trickle. “Roundies often come here to jig for perch,” he explained. The flat, overhanging rock was caked with smoky residue left by the fires and drippings of countless fish-frys.
“Well, this is certainly a sight to see,” Breister said politely, wondering why they had gone on such a long walk to see a dirty, scorched boulder.
Elbin grinned at his visitor’s puzzlement. “Look over the edge into the pool,” he directed.
Breister, Toshty, and Annie did as had been suggested. Breister howled with glee. “HELGA!” The word was written with stones at the bottom of the clear, deep pool.
“Yes, Helga placed the rocks herself,” Elbin explained, smiling fondly at Breister. “I knew this was a place you’d want to see.” Breister’s happy face confirmed this. “The rocks have been there since Helga left,” he continued. “A ferocious snapping turtle inhabits the pool—Grandfather Vicious they call him. Most of us just refer to him as Grandbub Vic. He’s said to be over 100 years old, but he’s still fit enough to take off toes with a nip of his beak. I saw him once and he surely weighs at least 400 pounds—he’s a terrible wonder to see! Why, there’s been hunters go after him and come back with chunks of their hide gone, and their pikes and hooks left nothing by splinters. So, everyone just leaves him alone. The Deep Springs River is a much safer place to swim.”
“Makes sense to me,” Breister observed.
“Maybe so,” Elbin agreed, “but, just before Helga left the Rounds, she wanted to say ‘Good-Bye’ in a unique way. You see the result.”
“Well, it’s true to her brave and strong-willed nature,” Breister said with a tone of admiration. “Sounds just like something she would have done.”
“And I imagine that no one is about to jump in there and change it,” Toshty laughed.
“No,” Elbin chuckled, “even if Helga made friends with Old Vic, or whatever she did, it will remain something only she would do.”
With Elbin’s help, the three friends became skillful at catching perch with a jigging pole. They pulled out 30 fish in just over an hour. “Grandbub Vic doesn’t eat fish,” Elbin explained. “The pool is full of them. But Hervy’s Trickle is picked clean of just about any other water critter around the big snapper’s territory—snakes, clams, frogs, mussels, crawdads, smaller turtles—you name it, and the old fellow eats ’em. But the fish just go along like nobody’s business. No one knows why. But it makes this a great place to catch them.”
The delightful feast of fried fish they shared gave Breister a deep feeling of contentment. He felt that he had gained some precious closeness to his daughter, which he would have missed had he pressed quickly on in his search.
But, as the days passed, Breister’s desire to continue his search grew. Not wishing to offend his generous hosts, he enjoyed the happy fellowship of the household. His feelings of restlessness continued to increase, however. He had resolved to share these feelings, when one morning he noticed that Sareth was up extremely early, rustling in the kitchen.
“Sareth,” Breister inquired, coming out of his bedroom and rubbing his sleepy eyes, “it is more than an hour before sunrise. Why are you up so early today?”
“It is time for you to depart and I want to make some food for your journey,” she said, smiling at him.
Breister began to protest that he did not want to leave, but Sareth put a finger to his lips, silencing him. “Don’t want to leave!” she exclaimed, giving him a look of mock outrage. “What kind of a father would you be if you were fit, healthy, and fully able to travel, and yet you laid around here like a rug?” she asked, grinning at him. “Why, your Helga might be at the mercy of thugs and thieves! Or she might be wandering lost in the wilderness! What a fool I would be to have such a lazy fellow laying around my house while his daughter perished!” she continued, shaking a spoon at him. “Don’t want to leave, indeed!” she sniffed playfully. “Why, you are commanded to leave. You must go find her! What do you think this is, a resort?” As the big Wood Cow’s nose turned red with a deep blush of embarrassment, Sareth could see that she had succeeded in teasing Breister sufficiently for him to know he could leave without offending her. She put her arm over his shoulder and added, “But you have to promise that when you find Helga, you will bring her back here!”
“Oh, yes, ma’am,” Breister stammered happily, “Yes, ma’am, you can count on it.”
Later that morning, Toshty, Annie, and Breister caught the weekly running-wagon bound for the Drownlands Cutoff. “I have no way of knowing where Helga might be,” he explained, as the three comrades said goodbye and got ready to board. “She could be anywhere. But I can’t believe that Helga would have left me at the river. Either she was forced to leave, in which case I have no idea where she is; or she returned to the riverbank to look for me, and found me and our boat gone.” He looked knowingly at Annie, who could not meet his eyes. “Thus,” he continued, “the only possible lead I have, as opposed to just wandering around in all directions looking for her, is to return to the WooPeace. If she tried to follow me down the river, if she survived—” His voice trailed off and he covered his eyes. “If she survived,” he continued with a thick voice, “she is a Woonyak in the WooPeace. I at least have to see if she is there.” Breister was grief-stricken to think of such a fate befalling his beloved daughter. It was horrible to contemplate.
“That’s why going to Toshty’s cabin is the only thing that makes sense,” he concluded. “The unused entrance to the WooPeace that Toshty says is near his cabin—what he calls the ‘Mountain That Moves But Stands Still’—I’ve seen it from the inside. The WooSheep call it the LuteWoo. I don’t care if it is forbidden to enter the WooPeace there. The fact that folk are afraid even to go near it is actually a good thing in this case. I hope to slip in there without being seen and without having to swim!”
“And no way am I going to leave you two to face WooZan alone,” Annie declared, as she said goodbye to the Abblegurts and climbed onto the running-wagon. Annie reflected on how much she had enjoyed being welcomed into a loving family group. It was something she had never fully enjoyed in her life. It felt good. She looked at Toshty, who was sitting next to her in the running-wagon. “Toshty, do you ever get lonely?...I mean, living all alone and having no family?” she asked.
“My only family is my art,” Toshty replied. “I used to have family, but some are in the WooPeace and others are at the Bottoms. They all act like the others don’t exist. I don’t need a family like that.”
“But Toshty,” Annie continued, “art is not a family. Even if it makes you feel good, I think a family is creatures loving one another and caring for each other.”
Toshty looked kindly at Annie. “You’re right, Annie,” Toshty replied. “A family is an unbroken circle of friends.” He covered the Cougar’s paw with his wing. “We aren’t exactly an unbroken circle, but we are friends, and that’s a place to start.” Annie squeezed his wingtip and they grinned at each other. Breister, seeing this, reached across from where he was sitting and said, “I join myself to this circle, and now there are three.”
The friends smiled broadly at one another. “Family is an unbroken circle of friends,” Toshty said softly. “So even folks without family can be family!” Tears filled his eyes. “Even a crazy old Owl, with mixed up relations who hate each other can have a family...Thank you, friends. That is a wonderful thought.”