Chapter Ten: The really long Blanca chapter
We raced through the forest, listening as the wolves got closer with their howling. Finally Katrina grabbed my paw and we shot up a tree. Scanning the ground, Katrina slowly smiled. I wondered at this. What could she possibly be thinking about?
"Hey, Blanca, I have an idea," Katrina said. "Follow my lead and don't fall..." she whispered in my ear. Before I could stop her, Katrina leaped from the tree, landing lightly on a branch of a neighboring tree. Slowly, I edged out on my branch, then leaped. My paws, to my relief, landed squarely on Katrina's branch. It shook slightly with the weight. Barely breathing, we slowly hopped from tree to tree, branch to branch. In the distance, we could hear the wolves, puzzling over why our scent clearly went up one tree and then disappeared.
That night, we stopped in the wide crook of a live oak, and rolled out our sleeping bags over the fork. I carefully pulled out some bagels and passed one to Katrina. She didn't say anything, but spread a bag beneath the bagel for crumbs. We ate in silence, and I felt my eyelids grow heavy.
Suddenly, the cracking of a branch jolted me from mid-slumber. Katrina was staring at the ground, where two red eyes glared malevolently up at us. Katrina pulled out her smooth stone. The silver path appeared, one wide, main road heading out before us, and a side branch pointing straight at the creature on the ground. Swallowing, I whispered to Katrina,
"These aren't normal wolves..." And they weren't In the dim light of the moon, I could make out huge black shapes, and several pairs of blood-red eyes. One wolf stepped into a patch of moonlight, and I could see that it was as large as a fully-grown wild black bear, with startlingly white fangs, as if they had never eaten in their entire life. Cold prickles shivered down my spine. I yelped involuntarily as a hand touched my arm. Paralyzed with fear, I turned and looked into the green eyes of an indistinguishable figure. In the dim light, I could make out hand motions that seemed to be saying, "No harm. Follow. I go, no wolves."
I looked over at Katrina. She was nodding, so the figure must be good. We followed the thing through the treetops, on a hidden path through the canopy. The creature was agile, running along the connecting vines between trees, about ten feet above the height where we had leaped from tree to tree. Up here, there were highways of crisscrossing vines and branches. We trekked along, the creature always glancing back at us with those green eyes. Eventually, we came to a place in the foothills of the mountains where there was a giant tree. The branches created a giant hollow in the center, and more green eyes peered out from hollows in the wood at us.
Our guide made some more hand motions at us: "Welcome. I Thelda, of Marshi tribe." The creature moved to the center of the hollow and a fire was soon lit. In the dancing light of the flames, I could see the creature Thelda clearly. It was a squirrel, with sleek brown fur and dark tan tufts of fur on its ears. Its paws appeared to be red fur, and swirly cream lines of fur decorated them.
"Hello," Katrina said slowly. As an afterthought, she smiled and waved. "I am Katrina. This is my sister, Blanca." She paused and attempted to sign "sister". Struggling, Katrina sighed and gave up that sign. Pointing to the swirly cream signs on Thelda's paws, she asked, "What do those mean?" Thelda was staring at her. He was looking into the air as if he could find her voice there, and then he stared suspiciously at her throat. He gave a chittering noise, then screeched, "Marshi!" and fell silent.
I decided to try signing to them. Gesturing with my paws, I managed to say, "Why you live here? No wolves always, I think. These strange, bad evil wolves, no normal." Thelda seemed to understand this, but before signing or speaking, he peered closely at us. Suddenly he backed away, chittering and screeching. All the other green eyes vanished, and the squirrel tribe could be heard racing away through the trees. Shaking a paw at us, Thelda screeched,
"Chitter chitter! Chitter chitter ch-ch-ch-ch! Predators! Predators!" And backed away quickly.
"No!" Katrina yelled. "Wait," she said, softer this time. "Predator?" she asked. Signing madly at us, Thelda appeared to say,
"Predators! Predators! You sharp-paws, sharp-mouths, hunt like wolf, yes? You kill-eat Marshi, they your prey!" Katrina suddenly understood.
"He means that we have claws and fangs, and as best as I can figure, someone with claws and fangs in the wild kills and eats the ones who don't," she explained. I quickly lifted a paw and deliberately bit off the sharp tips on each one, including my hind paws. Then I stuffed a piece of tree bark in my mouth and attempted to appear as least dangerous as possible. This seemed to amuse Thelda, and he came closer, running his paws over my nubbed claws and feeling bits of soggy bark stuck to my teeth. Accepting me as harmless, he cooperated and began to speak.
"You no predators, eh? Bear wolf hunt you, yes? Why bear wolf come? They never here before, now they hear, why is that?" he asked.
"We traveled through woods, searching to kill great evil," Katrina explained. "Bear wolf come when we near large hills, mountains."
Thelda considered this, and then disappeared into a hollow for a few seconds. He came out again with a large clay tray of different powders and soils. He ran a paw over my face, and then said triumphantly,
"I make face stay, no crumble each week." Thelda proclaimed. With a few words and scrubs with his paw, everything went black. I could no longer hear or see or smell or speak. Somehow, I could breathe. I felt Thelda's paws drawing on my face, and then my other senses came back. I opened my eyes and stared into a pool of water, my reflection staring back at me.
"You like, I make face stay." Thelda added. I gazed at a remarkable sight in the water. On the white fur, my eyes were lovely and almond-shaped, slanting upward at the corners. The irises were bright green, and my lashes were feathery white streaks. My nose was pink and the right shape. My mouth was perfect, and the whiskers were long and feathery white. The most interesting sight of all, however, were my ears. They were normal, up to the top, where two tufts of brown fur gave me the look of a lynx. I also resembled a Marshi squirrel.
"I...I like it," I told Thelda. Thelda said a few more words, and a shiver passed through my face. I ran a hand to my ears. The fur didn't feel painted on, but was a part of me. I smiled at Katrina, the first smile in a while, it seemed.
"Now you be part of Marshi," Thelda said, dipping a feathery-looking leaf into some blue substance. He lifted it out and pressed it first on one side of me, and then on the other. From where the leaf stem was, he drew with a twig a spiraling, swirling pattern in green, running down each of my legs to curl into a coil on my paws. On the top of my tail he painted yellow dots, and more went down the bridge of my nose. With another few words, a shiver passed through my body. Wonderingly, I place a paw on the feathery blue leaf pattern, but I couldn't feel the substance on my fur. Twisting my head around, I gasped as I looked at the smooth blue fur where the blue substance had been, and the green fur coiling down to my paws. Once more, the clay had become a part of me.
Katrina was completely astonished. Her mouth gaped open. Thelda turned to her and painted with a sparkling gold dye mystical swirls and purple swirls, and he made the dye fur again. Then he said a few more words, and Katrina froze.
"What happened?" I asked. Katrina whispered quietly,
"The SHOOTING STAR symbol, in its natural state. Happiness, Peace, and Hospitality..."
Okay. That totally freaked me out. Thelda just gave Katrina the powers of magic and fate, the same traits of true fortunetellers.