THE STRANGERS
Today I'm going to tell you about a time when our forest was shaken by fights and the strange plant called hatred spread in every patch of clover or grass. Hard times they were and we all learned a lesson back then.
Well, how did it start? I think it was the rabbits who first discovered them. Yes, the rabbits. Now, you surely know that rabbits are quick little fellows, they're hot tempered and always they're fidgeting - can make you nervous sometimes. Anyway, one day a couple of rabbits were playing on the sweet daisy-meadow at the edge of the forest. They were running around, hopping here and there, taking a mouthful of clover or chewing on a juicy leaf of the golden dandelion, you could hear their laughter from afar. The sun was turning red and getting ready for the night, a few clouds drifted past the sky - a peaceful spring evening as we all love to see them.
Suddenly one of the nose wagglers noticed some strange creatures silently and obviously secretly entering the forest. "Oy!" the rabbit called out and pointed in the rough direction where it had seen the foreigners. "Oy-oy-oy!" - You know, rabbits use to say everything thrice when they're excited, and as they are easy to excite they usually don't say anything just once. The others stopped and looked. Just in time to see a dark tail vanish into the twilight under the huge old trees.
"What was that, was that, was that?" they asked. "Strangers, strangers, strangers!" they said. "Never before have strangers dared to enter our homeland, never, never, not our homeland, not our homeland!" A lengthy discussion arose until finally one of them had the idea to go and look for the strangers "We'll follow them, follow them, follow them! Check'em out, check 'em out..." The others already dashed towards the forest.
They were a noisy bunch and they disturbed every little animal on their way. No, they didn't find the strangers. They spread the news that strangers were roaming under the oaks, probably up to no good, because they looked suspicious. Hadn't they turned around to check whether someone was behind them? Hadn't they kept quiet? Had they said 'hello'? No. So it was pretty clear - something was fishy! (As we don't have a pond in this forest most animals refer to fish as something really disturbing, or worse, dangerous.) But - as rabbits, as I said before - are often excited and quick to voice strange ideas - nobody listened.
Nothing else happened that night and rabbits being quick are also quick to forget things - the next morning found our corner of the world getting ready for just another peaceful day. The old lady Owl settled in the oak and closed her eyes after she had cleaned her feathers and claws and had bid us a good day. Little birds ruffled their feathers and swung into the air to fill the world with joyful singing. The redheaded fox crawled out of his earth which reminded the mice to be careful during daylight. Bushes were swaying in the breeze, gnarled branches of the older trees creaked as they stretched towards the sun, flowers opened - it was a really nice morning.
But sometimes peace is not meant to stay. There's this small patch of whortleberries, or you might call them bilberries. They use to grow the most delicious berries you can imagine and many of us were looking forward to the day when they'd be ready for eating. But now imagine: Someone had picked a couple of these blue goodies during the night! Scandalous! The berries themselves did not complain, but was it fair that they didn't give away who had committed such a crime? Mr.Hare suggested: "Must have been the birds! They robbed the berries and flew away - no-one would have noticed!"
"Noo-hoo! Noo-hoo!" a thousand beaks protested. "We didn't do it! Why don't you ask the mice? They always want all for themselves, they are the thieves!" And soon everyone had his say, each species found a guilty party. And while they were at it and called each other names they came up with this "I always wanted to say that but..."-stuff. As a result there was a lot of noise where usually all was quiet.
One very angry wasp even threatened to make a good use of her sting if she found out who had taken the whortleberries without asking. "You and your sting! Pah!" said a little mouse. "You better take care that I don't put my teeth into your pretentious striped body! Swirming around all day, making my ears ring with that flapping of your wings. You better watch out that you don't get caught when you're in the pear trees!"
"Hum, hum, hum!" This was the bumblebee. "Now now, we must not get too upset Mr.Mouse! Although we flying insects (and the bumblebee spoke slowly, expressing each word with great dignity) admittedly loooove sweet fruits, we never touch them without leave by the others."
"Uh! Here speaks the queen, huh? Flying insects - indeed! What do you know? Just looking at your... uhm... baroque body is enough to make me laugh!" And already the wasp laughed and put her middle legs around her slender waist in order to demonstrate what a beautiful body she had.
Every now and then someone asked the whortleberries to please reveal their knowledge. But they kept quiet. So the fighting became more fierce and finally the rabbits hearing it thought there might be some fun going on and they returned from the meadow.
"What's going on, going on, going on?" they asked, and as they all asked at the same time it seemed to be a never ending echoe of 'going on?'. And everybody replied at the same time and the fighting started again about who was the guilty party. That did it. The oak who happens to be the oldest of all trees in this forest awoke.
Oaks love to dream. They dream of the olden days when they and the world were young. They don't love to wake up. In fact, they can get very angry! And now the screams and shouts and accusations had disturbed a dream of rock-roses and heather, of deer and hedgehog, even of eagles and hawks circling the sky with their keen eyes spying out the ways of men...
A deep silence fell, they were all too afraid to speak, except for the rabbits, of course, who cried: "Oh-oh-oh! Oh-oh-oh!"
The oak ordered the whortleberries to speak up and explain what all the fuss was about. (I think this tree knew right away that the whortleberries knew more than the others.)
The berries took turns in repeating all accusations they had heard. They explained that - sad to admit - yes, some of their precious fruits were gone.
Everybody was holding the breath when the inevitable question arose: Why wouldn't the berries tell who of all the creatures in the forest had taken the 'little bluesies' - only the oak called these fruits 'bluesies'.
The whortleberries rustled their slender leaves but then reluctantly one said: "It was freely given! It was not stolen." The oak lost it's temper - and that is a thing so seldom to happen that none of us had ever witnessed it. It was waving branches shaking the crown, even losing some would-be-acorns (much too early!).
"Who? I want to know WHO ate them!"
"They who ate them, dearly needed them - and we won't say anything more."
That moment one of the the waggle noses cried out. "The foreigners! The foreigners! The foreigners! They robbed us, robbed us, robbed us! We told you, told you, told you!"
All eyes were fixed on the rabbit, a young lad still, now shivering with excitement. And soon he had to tell the story of the strangers. Very quickly all fighting was forgotten, now this was a fine outcome of the scandal. Of course, nobody in this forest had seriously thought that any of his beloved companions... oh well - you know, what I mean. They had spotted a scapegoat and now they were discussing how to get hold of it, how to get back the couple of, no, the load of - no, the entire harvest worth a couple of tons of blueberries.
The whortleberries would not comment anything, they would not tell more - they simply did not utter one more word. They seemed a little sad - but who cares whether whortleberries are happy or not when there's danger at hand! The strangers might rob all inhabitants of the forest of all food available. Evil hordes they surely were - invading the forest going about pillaging.
It is strange, but really not one of all creatures took a look at how many berries were gone. If they had done so, they'd have realized it were only a few, not more than a mouth or a beak full.
Well, to cut a long story short - a guard was set for the night. East, West, North and South birds were flying, rabbits hopping, foxes sniffing. "Told you! Yes, always I told you: Be careful with strangers. If they come here, they don't have a home. - Why? I ask you. Because they are bad and their folks didn't want to have them. Yes. Beware of strangers, mark my words!"
During the night the hunters came. They went through the forest - noisy as humans always are - with their guns, looking for something they could shoot. "See?" the hare complained. "They even bring hunters to our forest! Strangers - dangers, mark my words!" Obviously it had slipped the mind of Master Hare that twice or thrice a month hunters came to this forest.
Next morning all gathered again close to the whortleberry patch. The red fox was the first to report.
"I took up track - you all know, nobody's nose can compare to mine!" Two mice started to giggle but when the fox gave them a sharp glance they were hushed and stepped backwards. "Were was I? Uh, yes... I traced the foreigners by their scent. They were actually foreigners, that much I can say - never anything smelled the like. They passed through the mushroom patch, continued under the hazels and finally left the forest under the birches." He cleared his throat and seemingly satisfied with his speech looked around the audience.
"And then? Where did they go then?" Master Hare was upset, why wouldn't Mister Fox go on?
"How do I know? I don't leave the forest. Ask the birds, perhaps they have seen the foreigners."
But the birds hadn't seen them during the daytime. Lady Owl was tired and could hardly stop yawning. She said: "I saw them. They are the strangest strangers I've seen in ages. There were three of them and they crossed the little meadow behind the birches. They were bigger than a hare, bigger than a fox - maybe they were even bigger than the deer."
Then 'things' started to happen. One morning some leaves of a tasty little bush were gone, one morning a couple of musrooms were missing. The animals gathered. Something had to be done about it, nobody felt safe anymore. They concluded that one who secretly takes whortleberries and other valuable food, hidden under the shadows of night - well, such a creature surely was also likely to become dangerous in other ways soon.
But while they discussed the possibilities of how to proceed some birds came flying, chirping with excitement. They had found a nest! It was a big nest, bigger than any bird's nest and - what was most strange it was decorated with flowers and leaves and looked... well, different.
Each and every big and small creature of the forest wanted to see this new 'monstrosity'. But when they reached the spot the birds had found they stood in awe. Now this was not exactly what they had expected - or what they might have wanted to find. The huge nest, made of dry grass, twigs and golden leaves looked so inviting, so cozy and nice... not at all like the bed of a monster. The rim was decorated with white and blue forest flowers and made the nest look like it was placed in a garden. Some of the animals thought to themselves that perhaps they had been mistaken, pershaps these foreigners weren't that bad after all. Of course, nobody gathered the courage to speak about such a thought in public, because they all thought the others might think... uh, you guessed it!
"But they stole the berries, the berries, the berries! We must not forget, not forget, not forget!"
"Right, Master Rabbit! And they never asked us. And they never said hello. They should have introduced themselves instead of frightening us!". The fox was obviously not very impressed by this new evidence of the existence of the foreigners.
Lady Owl, with her deep and sleepy voice spoke as if in a dream: "But maybe they were frightened themselves? Perhaps we frightened them - who knows?" and with that she shut her eyes and went back to sleep. The others were a little irritated - such a thought seemed to be a bit silly, or maybe a bit too far fetched, or...?
It was a big surprise that suddenly there came a hiss from above. The old-old-old spider, Madam Gnorts spoke to them - it hadn't happened for years that she had addressed them. "They are Poononiesssss. Not a big deal - what'ssss all the fusssss about?"
"They are what?" all asked in unison. "Poononies? Never heard of anything the like!"
"Becausssse you're not educated. Becaussssse you're sssstupid. Becaussse you never lissssten and never know what happenssss outssside your forresssst. You don't know a lot of nothingssss." And with that Madam Gnorts came sliding down on one of her precious silken threads. Now she hung and swung in the breeze, just a little higher than the nose of the fox would reach.
"Have you seen them? What do they look like? Where did they hide all the food they stole?"
The spider chuckled. "You foolishhh greedy folkssss! You think there wazzz anything they could sssspare and hide? Uh no - they are ssso thin, one might assssk how long they will be among ussss. Nonono. They only took very little of what we have in plenty. They are poor fellowzzzzz, yessss, very poor." And Madam Gnort made a very sad face - if you can imagine a spider making a sad face.
"Tell us more, tell us more, tell us more!" The rabbits who usually had a short attention span were now all eyes and ears and wanted to know what was behind the words of the hairy-legged old-old-old tree-inhabitant.
"Poononiesssss come from far, far away. The usually live in a country which you will never ssssee. It izzz milezzz and milezzz and many, many more milezzz away." All was quiet now and I dare say you might have heard a pin drop - only that nobody ever drops a pin in a forest - when Madam Gnorts solemnly gave her speech.
"It izzz a family, there are father and mother and one sssson. They have been caught about a year ago, were put into a boxsss and travelled on a...." the spider lowered her voice in order to add a little dramatic touch to her story, "ship!"
"Oh-oh-oh!" and "Huh?" and "Uhu!" and all that kind of silly exclamations were voiced.
"Yesssss, a ship!" Triumphantly Madam Gnorts looked around.
"Yabbut - how do you know all this?" Master Rabbit was so surprised by this tale that he even forgot to ask his question thrice.
"Well..." the spider smiled (allthough it looked more like an evil grin) "I've got earzzzz - even though you might not noticcccce them, young rabbit. Mine are not ssssso big azzz yourzzz are - but they do hear quite a lot!" She chuckled. "They ssssspoke to each other, I lissstened.
"They were kept captive for nearly a year, and they were fed but had to ssssspend their dayzzz and nightssss in a cage. There had been a couple more who died, I lossst count while they were talking about their friendzzz.... anyway, they were the lasssst three of them. And they feel homessssick and want to get back to their country. They managed to esssscape and fled. Here in thissss foressssst they are trying to hide and to gather ssssstrength in order to ssssstart their journey home. But they are terrified by what goezzzz on around here. They hear big noizzzzze, they don't dare to pick more than a mouthful of what they feel doezzzz not belong to them. But if they don't eat, they will never be able to go home. All of you" now Madam Gnorts pointed four of her eight legs at the crowd, "all of you frighten the poo out of the Poononiessss!"
A silence fell, unusual and unheard of in this forest. Not even the tiniest fly would dare to give a little buzz. In fact, this silence was so silent that again it awoke the old oak. It demanded to immediately know what was going on again, but nobody wanted to speak, all were far too embarrassed and too ashamed. So they left the story for Madam Gnorts to report what had been the fuss and what she had found out and so on.
"Hm-hm" the old oak was heard. "So, that's sorted out. I hope we can now return to normal days. And by the way, now that we're at it - don't you have works to do? What kind of life is that, sitting around idly, just staring holes into the sky?" And whoosh! They disappeared in all directions.
That night, when all were fast asleep, three frightened poononies returned to their nest, expecting to find it destroyed and maybe even a guard waiting for them. They didn't care anymore, they were tired and had lost all hope. But what was that? Someone had done a little work: The nest was suddenly covered with feathers and looked very comfotable, there were more flowers and also some pretty red berries had been added to the decoration. But the best of all was a pile of whortleberries and mushrooms, tasty soft leaves and sweet roots.
At first they didn't dare to touch the food or enter their nest. This nest was now surely claimed by another animal. But nobody showed up. Whispering they discussed what they should do. But then the oak spoke to them.
"Why, you're still awake, little friends? See? Your bed is ready and so is your dinner! Eat your fill and rest well - tomorrow there are going to be a million questions to be answered, friendships to find, even help may await you. Don't be afraid!"
And the oak was right. Next morning, before the sun rose above the tree tops they all came hopping, running, crawling, flying - bringing little presents and the promised million of questions. Allthough the poonony-family was frightened in the beginning they soon found out that nobody was going to harm them.
That was a very special morning in this old forest. It was a morning that was never forgotten - also the poononies were never forgotten. They were really different in many ways, for example they were very fond of singing and they had beautiful voices, they loved to put flowers in their fur and between their toes, they climbed up the trees without disturbing the spiders. They had many stories about their far-away home and told them with joy.
One day - it was spring again, the air was soft and warm, they bade farewell. Nobody in this forest knows whether they have ever seen their home again. But we're sure that they would never again enter a forest secretely. Now they would introduce themselves and the others would understand them and help. They learned something from us - but we learned more from them.
Eva - Fairy Tale Auntie - Bekker
