Deep below the ancient conifer trees, an Ewok hunting party lead by Tippet and Wunka was tracing a large animal, most likely a gurreck. Known for their strict beliefs, Ewoks would only hunt when there was no other food, and in the times when the supplies gathered throughout the summer would not be enough to warm them up. With the first signs of a particularly harsh winter, a thin layer of ice had formed on the Yarlubb River and the first snow had fallen in the Happy Grove, hunting was inevitable.
"Do you think we'll find it?" The pitch-black Wunka was nervously scratching his friend's shoulders.
"Calm down!" Tippet was still optimistic. "Arandee, we need to focus on the task, otherwise we will have to settle for small game and birds...and you know what that means, right?"
"Of course. Hunting every other day, smoking the meat..."
"...and taking along a group of young ones, to teach them how to hunt and preserve what they caught. I hate that! They end up being more trouble than it's worth and no help at all!"
"Don't be so hard on them!" A shortish Ewok named Romba, who had kept quiet until then, joined the conversation. "Some ten, twenty snows ago we were like them – either overconfident and guaranteed to cause trouble, or scared of our own shadows! There was no middle ground!"
"Chak, I remember the day Stemzee fell from a high branch, face straight into a pile of maramu droppings!" One of the hunters recalled. "That smelled worse than, I don't know, a female Dulok in heat?"
"Wait, did you just admit you're familiar with that smell? Poor you!"
The whole group laughed.
On the other side of the forest, high above in their treetop home of Bright Tree Village, the young Ewoks, still free from most major responsibilities, had completely different things on their minds.
It was the day Wicket W. Warrick had been dreaming of a lot, the one he had been impatiently counting the days to. Though his height and behaviour would have made one think otherwise, this was the day he came out of age. No more questioning his decisions. No more telling him that he was too young. No more endless arguments with his parents over mundane chores and deliberately staging his own adventures solely for the sake of another trophy, another ticket for independence.
Wicket was proud of the things he'd done in between his birthdays - he saved his friends' lives multiple times, he had no problem finding a date for the Shadownight festival and, upon failing his first big warrior test, he overcame a personal crisis which almost made him give up on his dreams. He'd even been to space with three of his closest friends and frequent partners in crime. It was an incredible year. And now he was determined to start an even greater one, surrounded by his loving family and friends whom he had invited to his party. He planned his big night with attention to every single detail. He asked his parents to empty the largest chamber of their hut, so he could invite everybody old enough to wear a hood and young enough not to have woklings waiting at home. He was exceptionally nice to his mother, Shodu, for a couple of moons, so she would have made enough food for everybody. His older brothers, Weechee and Widdle, agreed to play drums and he was hoping that he could, perhaps, get two of his female friends, Kneesaa and Latara to join in – one to sing and the other to play the flute.
He was getting more and more excited as the night was falling down on the snow-covered huts.
"Mom!" he called Shodu, who was busy arranging food on the large table, "How do I look? Did I grow since my last birthday?"
While Shodu was thinking of what to say, Weechee, who seemed busy pulling a new layer of leather over his big drum, interrupted them.
"Don't worry, little brother, you're about two fleebogs taller than you were a year ago!"
"Chak, but that would be two baby fleebogs!" Widdle's remark was soon followed by both older Warrick children snickering and making faces at Wicket.
"Sounds about the size of your brains, lurdos!" Wicket snarled and went after them. But his father Deej, back from running some last-moment errands, grabbed him by the hood and then gave him a gentle pat on the back.
"You're bigger on the inside, my boy. Don't let these two get you down! As for you, Weechee and Willy, don't spoil Wicket's big day! This is a warning. I will be watching you"
"Of course, we would not even think of it." Weechee stepped back and winked to his brother.
"It's Widdle, dad! I'm a scout now and I am a whole new Ewok, I got this mean red hood and I lost some weight! Don't call me Willy anymore!"
"That's right, we're proud of you. But we're proud of Wicket, too. He has come so far since the days he played alone near the fire pit. Poor baby, no other woklings were born that season and it took us some time to find him a playmate!"
"Chak, until Chirpa got over the initial shock after losing his wife and started leaving Kneesaa with us, it was pretty hard to get Wicket to sit still." Shodu sat down next to her sons and husband, in the mood for a story. "And then there was that awful gang of Duloks who took away all of the children and nearly killed them..."
"I know, mom, I know…you told us this story so many times – we were saved and we became friends with the slightly older boy who contributed to our rescue, and before he first came around to play with me, you had no idea he could actually speak. And his sister is such a precious, sweet child and you don't like how I treat her sometimes!"
Shodu smiled broadly.
"All of that is true…and they're all right behind you!"
Two adolescent Ewoks and one slightly younger girl were standing behind Wicket. They quietly got in while he was complaining about his parents telling the same stories over and over.
"Kneesaa! Teebo! Malani! You're already here!"
"Goopa!" squeaked the little girl in an oversized blue hood with a star decoration. "Happy birthday!" A much taller male Ewok with a pink lantern bird tail feather on a baggy leather hat stood behind her, holding something wrapped in a piece of cloth. She took it from him and handed it over to Wicket.
"Umm, Malani and Teebo, thank you!"
Wicket went on to unwrap the present. At a first glance, it looked like a toy - it was brightly coloured, but he could not figure out what it was.
"What is this?" he asked Teebo.
"We made it together for you. I carved it and Malani painted it. Malani, would you please tell Wicket about it?"
"Sure! I-I-I-I don't know what this is, but I d-dreamed of it. It was too beautiful not to become real. You see, it has a pair of wheels and a tail! I told my brother what to make and then I painted it to make it even more beautiful. I liked it so much that I decided to give it to you…because I love you!"
The older Warrick offspring rolled their eyes, as little Malani was standing there, lovestruck, describing her bizarre birthday gift, with so much enthusiasm. She then proceeded to run around the chamber, giggling. It was only then that Kneesaa, who had been waiting patiently for the child to be done, came closer to Wicket, gave him a hug, kissed him on the cheek and presented him with a spear.
"This is from the three of us - my father, my sister and me. We thought you could use a new spear, now that you're on your way to become a warrior! Asha said goopa. She could not make it, since she went to the other side of the forest help Chukha-Trok with animal feeders for the snow season."
Wicket took the spear and played with it as if he were in the middle of a battle, yelling and jumping. Kneesaa waited for a bit, as if her friend had forgotten something. Eventually, she shook her head, sighed and went to the table to pour herself a drink.
"Shodu, what are we drinking tonight?"
"Warm milk for those who have just come in from outside and, for when you've warmed up some dangleberry juice, some sunberry juice...the usual. Just go and help yourself, dear."
The next to arrive was Kneesaa's cousin, Paploo. He shook Wicket's small hand to the point where it hurt him.
"Happy birthday, Wicket, you're an old man now! Ha-ha! This is from mom and me."
Wicked unwrapped yet another piece of cloth and looked inside. This gift looked like a belt, but there was a wooden buckle in the middle, its shape resembling the one of a munyip.
"Paploo, you said it was from your mom and you…are you sure of that?"
"Okay, it's from mom. I forget all possible important occasions, so I did not know it was your birthday before she reminded me. I thought this was a first snow party. As for mom, she said that this munyip-shaped buckle would look good on one of her, I am repeating her words you know, favourite little angels."
Everybody laughed. Wicket put the belt on, solely to realise it's too wide. But Bozzie, who had lost both her sister-in-law and her husband and had only her son to keep her company, meant well, ever since he saved her soul tree from a forest fire some snows ago.
"Tell your mom I love it and that I hope I'll be able to actually wear it someday, Paploo. She probably thought I was as big as you, for some reason. Either way, I've been getting the strangest gifts this year; it's got to mean something. Teebo?"
"Chak?"
"I have to thank you for not having written me a birthday poem or something like that. Malani managed to outweird you this time! It must be in the family!"
Teebo frowned. His friends mostly saw his poetry as something to poke fun at and they never wanted to hear anything about it. The frown quickly changed into a grin - he did not want to criticise Wicket on his birthday.
"I wouldn't say it's in the family. Our parents are pretty regular folk. Maybe the stars were aligned in a particularly strange way when each of us born! Oh…k'vark! The stars!"
"What's wrong, Teebo?" Kneesaa asked.
"I just remembered something. It's my turn to check the stars tonight and draw a chart! Master Logray is visiting the Tulgah traders with Chief Chirpa and he expects me to do this! I have to run out for a bit! I cannot believe it. Tonight, out of all nights in the year…on my best friend's big birthday!"
"Come back after you're done, this party will go on for long enough. I'll tell Shodu to save a piece of cake for you, as I don't think Wicket will remember."
"Thanks, and put this somewhere...I didn't even manage to take a sip of it or snack on something."
Teebo left the glass in Kneesaa's hand and ran out into the night. She shrugged and left the glass on the table, solely to realise her friend didn't poor himself anything.
It's hard being the reliable one, she thought to herself. Her friends had always been so complicated, compared to her. Paploo loved tall tales and would never think before jumping into danger. Wicket, whom she was fonder of than she would ever admit, has grown more confident, but he was still making more trouble than avoiding it. Teebo was withdrawn, somewhat awkward, but very polite and caring. Snappy Latara had not written a song in ages, there was a period when she was preoccupied with material possessions, but she recently discovered a new passion - hood making.
Unlike all of them, Kneesaa was just...normal, though many adult Ewoks were often telling her that she was wise beyond her years. She was not sure if it was so because of her numerous responsibilities, or because she never had a proper family. Sometimes, she wished she could just snap at her friends for being so complicated. Tell Paploo to think before he acts and make him realise how scared he actually is, deep within. Tame the burning desire for adventure in Wicket's heart, so there could be place for something else. Get Teebo and Latara together at last and see them hold hands. There was a lot more, to the point Kneesaa would often feel like if it was her duty to fix the whole of Endor.