Chapter 7 Heart of the White Stag
The days that rolled by after Shibu recovered were some of the happiest he had ever known. He fell into a dedicated training regime with Cici. One day for target practice, and one day for exercise. These alternated so that Shibu could fully recover after a day of long marches or hour upon hour practicing everything from silent walking to the correct way for a Ranger to breathe.
The days began long before sunrise, and sometimes only came to an end with the following sunrise.
After Shibu's first incredible night of five-hundred shots with his bow, Cici realized the sort of truly committed and disciplined student she had in her little brother.
That magical night had been like a key to unlock a determination and focus in Shibu that Cici found difficult to find in any adult, let alone one of Shibu's younger years.
For Shibu, it was all grand fun, and a great adventure. He was learning. That meant something to him, and Shibu once again showed off his breathtaking ability to concentrate on something, and after seeing it only once, being able to copy what he had seen with an exactitude the Cici still found difficult to understand.
She had taught tens, perhaps hundreds, of her own people first to shoot, and then gradually to shoot better. Teaching required both a clever mind and patience to keep their minds focused on both form and function. Most of her Cra students had been bright enough, as they understood what was expected of them the first time they ever picked up and held a bow. But there were always more than a few who were endlessly nervous at first or downright distracted. These were the students that required extra explanation, and the sort of instruction that could calm and build confidence in a nervous disposition.
Cici was overjoyed when she saw none of these problems in Shibu. Her Little brother seemed to be a happy combination of clay to be willingly shaped and formed, combined with a masterful memory and a positively eerie ability to copy even the slightest detail in the most complex of lessons.
Shibu seemed to be good at everything, but at the end of his first month of day and night long marches thru woods that Shibu had never seen before, Cici knew in her most joyous heart that Shibu's skills seemed to excel when focused on the Primary Ranger skill of tracking.
Shibu had already spent days upon days at a time seemingly memorizing book page after book page filled with pen and ink illustrations of animal tracks. From Piwis to Gobballs, and every animal in between, Shibu knew them as well as his own fingers. When Cici marched him into the deep woods on the other side of the ridge that bordered the village, Cici half expected her bookish brother to be lost without a ponderous tome in his heavy backpack. Cici almost hopped for joy as Shibu stopped after only a few steps along the trail that lead down the ridge.
Shibu knelt, and looked deeply at the ground where the two of them had not yet walked.
"Two small does, and a fawn." Shibu pronounced with confidence as he stood up again at Cici's side.
"That's exactly right, Shibu!" Cici said with absolute joy in her soft whisper of an answer.
"See?" replied Shibu in a slightly teasing tone. "I remember what I read. I bet you thought I would need to bring the book along didn't you, Sis?" Shibu asked.
"Well, to be honest I thought you might need a few notes, here and there." Cici confessed quietly. "I should know better by now, Little Brother, You're Amazing!" Cici replied almost silently.
Her words and their manner of speech gave Shibu another demonstration of another unique Ranger skill, using a voice so quiet that the slightest puff of wind would wipe it away. But Shibu and Cici could hear and understand each other as if they spoke with hands cupped over their ears between them.
Nearly silent speech was a skill used by the Ranger both in hunting, and in the occasional bit of scouting and sometime espionage that were the Ranger's daily stock in trade. For his part, Shibu's smile glowed so warmly that Cici thought to herself that she might use it to start their breakfast time campfire.
Cici watched with delight as Shibu stepped silently away from where the two stood, and as Cici collected rocks to form a pit for the fire, Shibu walked from tree to tree, like a child turned loose in a bazaar and told to pick out his favorite sweets. Shibu selected the eggs, nuts, roots and berries for their all natural meal, along with a pair of stout sticks upon which their food could be cooked, over the small fire.
"Good job, Shibu!" Cici told her brother just as Cici put tinder and spark to the new fire. "But if we keep eating like this, we'll both have to walk twice as far every day to stay in shape!"
Shibu giggled as he sat down at the edge of the fire, so he could take off his backpack for a moment. Cici was surprised that rather than a book, Shibu drew a dark heavy square of black wrought iron from his pack, and set it down gingerly over the building fire!
"Ok, Little Brother, you pass for today." Cici said at last. "You're my best student ever, Shibu." Cici told him honestly.
"I have a good teacher, and I want to do well, and learn fast, so that I can learn more everyday." Shibu explained. The commitment and honesty shimmering in Shibu's bright eyes seemed for a moment to make the sunrise redundant, as Cici fought back the impulse to sweep Shibu into her arms and simply hold him.
"You're going to get the best marks during next weeks camping test, but I suppose you know that already, Mister Smarty-Hat?"
"Yep-yep!" Shibu replied with a boyish enthusiasm that Cici found infectious. "Where will we be going?" Shibu asked casually as he broke the first of the eggs over the hot square of black iron.
"You know I can't tell you ahead of time, Dear." Cici replied with a clever smile.
"I hope it's high up in the mountains!" Shibu replied. "I want to see more snow, and maybe the Northern Lights Too!"
"I like the mountains in the springtime too." Cici replied fondly. "Cool, green and growing. That's where a Ranger belongs." Cici reflected with a dreamy tone.
Shibu smiled in return. "Deer." he said thoughtfully.
"Huh?" Cici asked, not quite understanding.
"I'm just thinking of the Legend of the White Stag." Shibu replied.
"Maybe we'll get to see him somewhere up there above the snow line."
"They say he only appears once in every generation. Don't get your hopes up too high, for now." Cici told Shibu as she flipped her egg with the edge of her hunting knife.
"Is the Stag really Cra's Brother, Cici?" Shibu asked honestly. "Or is that just another story for kids?"
"I can't say what others believe, Little Brother." Cici answered slowly. "But I can tell you what I believe."
Shibu nodded eagerly as he cracked and tended to the second egg and the roasting herbs and roots laying nearby on a slightly cooler part of the iron square.
"Cra loved her brother as much as I love you, and I would do anything to keep you alive and happy. Cra would not allow the poachers to take her brother's life, and I'll always do whatever it takes to keep you safe and well too."
"Thanks, Sis, I love you too." Shibu replied gently. "It's all ready!" Shibu said brightly as the roasting roots popped like corn on the hot iron and the smell of warming herbs scented the newly sunlit air.
"We've got to bring Felice up here, one of these days, Shibu. I think she would like this spot as much as I do." Cici told her brother.
"I know!" Shibu interjected all of a sudden. "I could go back and get her, and all of us could spend time up here! Are you in a hurry to go back for anything today, Sis?" Shibu asked urgently.
"Not a bit, Little Brother!" Cici answered fast. "As long as I have the two of you with me, anywhere in this world is home for me!"
"Cool!" Shibu interjected. "Let me finish breakfast." Shibu replied. "That will give me the energy to go back the fast way, and bring back Mom, and a tent for all three of us."
"Careful Shibu." Cici reminded quietly. Even though she knew better than anyone in their village that Shibu's keen skills as a Ranger only multiplied when Shibu used the unique blue circles of light as an undisclosed method of travel.
"Not to worry, Sis." I won't even be gone for an hour. We'll need more water too, so I'll collect it on the way down."
"Shibu, you're sounding more and more like the Ranger I already know that you are. Get going so both of you can get back. While you're away, I want to mark some trails along the top of the ridge, just so we don't fall down the far side once it gets dark." Cici explained.
"OK Sis, see you soon!" Shibu's bright and easy parting was punctuated with a sudden flash of welcome warmth as her Little Brother took Cici around her waist and hugged her, snuggling in warmly for one extra moment! "Love you, Sis!" Shibu said tenderly.
Deep inside her, Cici felt her heart melt like sugar candy and slowly dribble into her boots. There were still many ways that Shibu didn't know his own strength, and his absolute gift for simply melting people with his wide open and pure affection was one of Shibu's most powerful gifts. Shibu's first impulse was caring, and his second was a natural affection that redoubled the incredible strength of his caring heart.
Shibu let go,and pivoted gracefully, going up on his toes and into the Ranger Run as easily as his next heartbeat. In a moment, Shibu was gone from Cici's sight, and the Cra Ranger put down a sudden impulse of loneliness before she turned to her first task of improving and enlarging the ridge top camp site for three people, rather than two. He had been gone less than ten seconds, and she already missed him! Perhaps that was the most profound of all Shibu's formidable gifts.
The only thing Shibu enjoyed more than running was running someplace up high. He had grown up learning to climb from the chipmunks, and racing them playfully along ancient tree branches that had grown intertwined over hundreds of years of natural growth. But the thickly wooded ridge line was higher than any trees near the village. Up here, he could see for leagues of distance. So far that the gray outline of Emelka came to the top of the horizon at the same time he did.
This was Shibu's high place, where the Ranger in him could look down across the timeless forest thicker than any tapestry that carpeted any of the walls and floors of any castle. Here, he stood for just a moment, and let the best of the Ranger Creed come to him.
To protect, and to nurture.
In this moment, in this place, Shibu felt strong in all the very best of ways. There was a tranquility that seemed to touch him as gently as the hazy morning sunlight. He was a protector, and this was his land. The thought and the dedication came to him as gently as his own breath and heartbeat, and as Shibu used the moment of elevation to survey his domain, there was a touch of both satisfaction and fulfillment inside him which Shibu relished as much as the morning breeze rising off of the lea side of the ridge. In that moment, all was right with Shibu's world, and his only goal now was to bring his family together so they could share in it with him.
Shibu pulled in a single, deep clean breath of the morning air and allowed the energy in it to charge him as much as the new day. There was a practical side to Shibu as well, and his reason for selecting this particular overlook on the top of the ridge had a practical implication too.
The working iron mines inside the ridge were older than the histories recorded in any surviving books. It was from one of these timeless mines, far below at the base of the ridge that Shibu had chipped out his first piece of iron ore, as soon as he could hold a pick. The Enutrof miners from his village had set up a smaller version of a village inside the ridge, and Shibu knew its major veins of ore and its countless branch tunnels as completely as he knew the grass of the Village Green where he played Boufball.
That meant that Shibu also knew the locations of the tunnels and quarry sites inside the mine that filled with water when it rained. The watershed along the ridge drained water thru small openings once used to provide fresh air and sunlight to the mining crews. But the ore below had been depleted years ago, and some of the tunnels and galleries were left to fill with rainwater filtered to a crystalline purity by the layers of rock that still made up the heavy ridge. Here and there among the heavy rocks, small openings remained, were a weighted bottle or a wine skin could be lowered into the small lake of pure water that cut its own meandering paths among the rocks of the long abandoned mines.
The water flowed endlessly, slowly, one drop at a time, in a never ending quest to reach a lower point, where the out rush would be channeled into baked clay pipes with a glass lining, and the flows of pure water diverted for both work and drinking in the village below.
The water that came up in Shibu's bottle as he pulled it back was as pure and cold as it could be, and was flavored with the heavy taste of iron that Shibu had always known. Once he was certain the water was good, he took two more bottles from his leather belt, and lowered them each in turn into the underground spring. Three bottles was enough to last three people for two days, according to Ranger lore, but Shibu also knew that Felice would take over the cooking for the three of them, meaning the extra water was most likely going to wind up in a cooking pot rather than being sipped from the bottle. That suited Shibu all the more. No one could cook like his mother, and even with the feral nature of the camp site, Felice would be certain that her family ate better than well, on whatever nature and Cici's bow could provide.
With the bottles full, and the trees as thick as fur on a boar, stepping away from the top of the ridge by only a few steps meant that not even the local deer could see Shibu as he cautiously thrust out a flattened palm, holding it up, as if to stop someone who could not be seen.
There was a fine sheen of pure blue light that gathered on his palm and seemed to leap a few inches forward, forming into a perfectly round circle almost exactly his own height. It seemed to hang in space before him as if the opening had been there for all time, and Shibu smiled at the result with a still uneasy familiarity. His work was half done, because he had practiced enough in the deep woods to understand that the blue circles were most fascinating and powerful when used in pairs.
Shibu knew the geography of the ridge itself as well as the most senior miners in his village. He looked farther down the tree line that tumbled down the rocks in the direction of home. About three hundred yards down the line of the ridge, there was another small clearing.
Far too small for camping, but large enough for Shibu to stand steady and cast his next pair of blue circles.
He had cautiously discovered that he could cast them in pairs while he slid thru the open air between pairs. So they manifested in pairs, six altogether, numbers three and four cast as soon as he left the second of his first pair of circles. This way, Shibu could start and maintain a nearly effortless "sliding" motion as he passed into and out of the set pairs of blue openings.
The practical effect was that Shibu could "slide" down the three hundred foot elevation of the ridge so quickly that there seemed to be no difference at all in altitude between the top of the ridge and the spot he used to hide his landings, both graceful and not so graceful, from the curious eyes of his fellow villagers. The spot was secluded enough so that anyone looking in that direction would see Shibu walking out of the deep woods, something that was common enough for a Ranger in training.
As he landed near the base of the ridge, Shibu was less than three hundred feet from home, and pure reflex dropped him back into the Ranger Run, which allowed him to cover the rest of the distance to the Village Green in a series of bounding leaps worthy of a young stag, testing his power and balance with each new leap.
"Shi-boo!" A familiar voice cheered arena style across his hearing. The sound and the energy of it brought a smile to his face.
"Hay, Dylan!" Shibu shot back quickly as the captain of the Boufball team and Shibu's best friend dropped an arm over Shibu's shoulders.
"What are you up to, Superstar?" Dylan asked casually.
"I came home to get Mom." Shibu answered fast. "Cici and I found a real cool place to camp out up on the ridge." Shibu went on. "Cici and I wanted to make a family gathering out of it."
"Way cool!" Dylan responded.
"You wanna come too?" Shibu asked fast. "I'm sure my mom could talk to your mom and it would be easy after that."
The lanky young Ecaflip who was five years older than his best friend, rolled the idea over in his head. "Yeah, sounds fantastic. I could hang with you, Shibu. Can we pack a Boufball along with the tent?" Dylan asked with a sly half smile and a wink.
"I don't see why not!" Shibu responded. The woods are too dense for a real game, but there's enough space to work on footwork and short passing." Shibu told the leader of his team.
"Great! Just what we need to work on! Maybe I can even slow you down enough to learn some of your fast footwork!" Dylan shot back fast.
"Cool!" Shibu interjected. "I gotta pack a few things, then I'll bring the moms together at your place. After that, we can all leave together."
"That's what I've always liked about you, Shibu. You always have a plan." Dylan complemented with a big smile. Dylan moved quickly, taking Shibu into a playful headlock, and touselling his woolen hood and the familiar hat underneath.
Shibu broke the gentle grapple the same way he always did. He shifted his weight, and swept Dylan up into his arms for a moment, before standing the older boy gently back on his feet a step or two distant.
It always made Dylan chuckle, because he admired both the strength and the flowing nature that went with Shibu's gentle counter movement.
"Ok, Superstar, I'll head back over to my place and wait for the two of you to spring me, before Mom can get out the melon list."
"Mellon list?" Shibu wondered with an odd expression.
"Yeah, you know.." Dylan answered. "Honey do this" and "Honey do that."
Shibu almost fell over laughing where he stood!
"OK, I'll do whatever it takes to save my best friend from a weekend filled with melons!" Shibu shot back. "We ought to be by your place in a half hour or so."
"I'm counting on you to rescue me,Superstar. I'll see you at home, OK?"
"Count on me, Dylan!" Shibu answered as the two friends parted.
Dylan's family owned the largest single plot of land in their village. They were the best farmers in the whole township, and most of Dylan's days outside of school were spent taking care of teams of pickers and growers who brought in and shared in the crops they grew on the family's land. Dylan was bright, and had a head for mathematics that came naturally to someone who was really good at working land. But as the family's eldest boy, it also meant that lots of Dylan's time wasn't his own. From the time Shibu had been old enough for his stellar kicking skills to show themselves, Shibu had used their favorite game to pry Dylan loose from the daily grind of numbers, ledgers,weights and measures. And the mutual friendship between the two had grown along with their mutual Boufball skills.
Shibu jaunted toward home with a quick and happy step, his excitement over the weekend to come growing with every stride of the Ranger Run.
As usual Shibu hit his mark, his final stride taking him to withing a half a step of his front door, where his step both slowed and softened so that Shibu could walk into his own living room with a step that even Cici could not hear unless she made an effort to listen.
For Felice, Shibu's natural grace was just another part of the wonderful energy that Shibu commanded as easily as his own breathing. In the eyes of the Enripsa healer, Shibu seemed to appear almost out of nowhere, and pad silently into the house, at what seemed to Felice to be the exact moment that she wanted to see her boy most!
"Hello, Sweetie hat!" Felice greeted him playfully as she turned around from her potion making bench!
Shibu seemed to slide across the open space between them, and in the next moment, Shibu was cuddled up warmly in Felice's arms.
"Hi mom, I came to get you. Come camping with us! Cici and I found this really beautiful spot up on the ridge!" Shibu explained gently although the rising tone of his voice gave away his own enthusiasm for the idea.
"My Stars, Shibu, that does sound wonderful! It's been months since we last got out into nature."Let me pack up a few odds and ends. And I'll bet you'll want the big tent, too." Felice said with a smile.
"Yep-Yep! That'll leave room for all four of us, as we can all be comfortable." Shibu answered. "I also invited Dylan to come up the ridge with us, Is that OK, Mom?" Shibu asked more cautiously.
"Shibu, That's wonderful!" Felice replied warmly. I want to see you with your friends more often. Both you and Dylan have something else in common, Dearest."
"What would that be, Mom?" Shibu wanted to know.
"Both of you work way too hard for your age, most of the time." Felice replied as she rubbed noses gently with her son.
"Yeah, I guess I might, but I know Dylan definitely does work too hard." Shibu agreed. "We thought you might help persuade Dylan's mom to let him off for the weekend."
"For my boy, and his best buddy, I think I can arrange that!" Felice replied in a bubbly tone. "When we get over there, just smile and look good, as usual. Cassandra owes me a favor, and I think it's about time I collected." Felice told her boy.
"I think some time in the woods might help relax her too." Shibu replied in a soft whisper that came with the cute smile that only Shibu could pull off. "Dylan's mom is nice, but she's way to intense at times."
"She has loads of responsibility, my sweet." Felice answered in the same quiet whisper. "And, yes, she piles it on Dylan most of the time." Felice confessed. "That's why you and I are going to liberate him, because he needs the time away as much as you do."
"Thanks Mom, You're the best!" Shibu replied hugging Felice once more, ever so gently.
"Sometimes, sweetie, boys just need to be boys, that's as natural as the trees." Felice replied. "Run along now and pack up the tent, while I fix us some little tidbits for the weekend." Felice told Shibu.
The dark haired boy paused to think for a moment, rather than running off without a plan.
"We'll only need the tent this time, I think." Shibu reflected. "We can cut poles and stakes from fallen trees on the ridge."
Felice nodded brightly. Can you manage the small camp stove, and an extra lantern?" Felice asked.
"No problem, Mom! I can pack all that into the extra bucket." Shibu answered.
"That's fine." I can cook more with the camp stove, and keep all of us properly fed all weekend." I'll just pack up some extra flour and corn meal to go along too."
"Thanks, Mom!' Shibu called back brightly, as he occupied himself with rolling the large tent into as small a package as possible.
Between the two of them, they were ready to leave in less than half an hour. As they met again in the living room, Felice gently patted the cushion next to her as she floated over to the large sofa, and fluttered down to have a seat.
Shibu scrambled over quickly to sit as close to his Mom as he could.
"Shibu Dear?" I'm going to trust you with most of the heavy fetch and carrying, until we meet at the camp site. I hope you won't mind. But I also know that you have ways of getting around that I don't, and to be honest, it's going to be more difficult then it used to be for me to fly up the windward side of the ridge."Felice confessed quietly. "I'm also taking along a box of light brushes, just in case, but that's about all I'll be able to carry."
"You know about the circles of blue light, Mom?" Shibu asked directly.
Felice nodded. "Yes, my Dearest special boy. Cici told me what little she knows when I asked her about them."
"I'm sorry, Mom, I didn't mean to keep secrets from you. It's just that I'm not sure myself about what they are, or how or when to use them." Shibu confessed quietly. "I wanted to wait until I knew what they are, before I showed you. I didn't want to scare you, Mom." Shibu finished with a snuggling hug that Felice joined in.
"Whatever those blue light circles are, My sweet boy, they are a part of you, like your hair, or your fingers and toes. Just another wonderful part of who you are." Felice responded. "You can't ever scare me, my Darling Shibu, I love you far too much and too deeply for that." Felice told Shibu.
Shibu hugged his Mom all the closer.
"But I also think you're right in being very careful how and when you use them, sweetness. People would start asking questions that no one can answer quite yet. So, I had a simple idea. Everyone has little secrets that they know about members of their family, Shibu. Until you and we understand more about them, and how to use them, the blue light is a family secret, for emergencies only, especially with other people nearby. Does that suit you, Dearest Mine?"
Shibu nodded vigorously. "Yes, Mom." Shibu replied simply.
"Now Both your sister and I understand that you may have to practice, so you can understand what you can do with your special skills. So when you're sure you're absolutely alone, you can use the blue light as you see fit. You can practice in the house when everything is closed up, and when Cici takes you into the deep woods, so you can practice and be sure no one is looking on with prying eyes. Does that make you feel better, Dearest?"
"Yes, Thank you for understanding, Mom!" Shibu replied as mother and son held one another on the soft sofa.
"You have a right to be who you are, my sweet Sea Dragon." Felice whispered to Shibu. But the world may not be ready for all that you are for a while yet. That's why, like anything else, to be good at it you must practice. I want you to have the time and space You'll need for that, my Darling Shibu."
I love you, Mom." Shibu whispered softly just before Felice kissed him on the forehead gently.
"You want me to take you up to the top of the ridge, Mom?" Shibu asked. "I'll do it if it's easier for you. I can manage a second trip back for the tent and the supplies."
"No, Dearest, that's all right. I'll go up with you and Dylan. I think between the two of you holding me up, I can make it."
Shibu giggled brightly at the image in his Mother's words. No one in the village was a better flier than his Mother. She could outmaneuver a goshawk on the wing if the moment called for it. But she didn't use her skills unless someone was in dire need.
Shibu let that thought resound thru his mind for just a moment. Then, he understood all she had told him as Mother and son sat on the sofa together.
Felice and Shibu gathered up their supplies, and once their home was secure for the weekend, the pair walked the well worn path that led to one of the largest houses in the village.
'Hay-o, Dylan!" Shibu called out as the two of them got to the wide front porch made of heavy timbers and a path that was lined with heavy stone blocks.
Dylan bounded out of his house and down the front steps, seemingly doing his very best imitation of Shibu!
This time, rather than escape Dylan's headlock greeting, Shibu scooped up the older boy basket style and just held onto him in spite of the added weight of the large backpack Dylan wore!
"Well don't you two just look so good together!" Dylan's mother said as she stepped into view on the porch, a few steps away.
"Hello, Cassandra!" Felice said, gently greeting another of the friends whom she had known since childhood.
"Felice, Dear!" the Ecaflip replied, perking up slightly along with the tone of her voice. "Dylan didn't tell me to expect company."
"It's all right, Cassie. You know you never have to put yourself out just for us." Felice responded. "We came to ask if we could steal your eldest away for a weekend of camping along with us."
"Yes, Felice dear. Dylan told me, and I think its a wonderful idea!" Casandra replied evenly.
"You do?" Shibu interjected, not meaning to say anything, but having the words pop out as a complete surprise!
Cassandra's eyes flickered toward Shibu and Dylan.
"You two belong together." Cassandra replied. "How in the world can you ever have a best friend, like your Mother and I, unless you do things together?" Cassie asked warmly. "Dylan is a good boy, but he works too hard. Anyway, the spring harvest doesn't start for a week or so yet. It'll be a good chance to get my boy away from those dusty old ledgers anyway."
"We'll just be gone over the weekend, Cassie. I promise to keep an eye on these two scamps." Felice replied.
"I know, Felice, I know. You're practically like a grandmother to Dylan anyway, so I know he'll be better than all right."
"Cassie, sweetheart, I can't thank you enough, for Shibu most of all."
"Think nothing of it, Felice, Dear. After all, when you go on an adventure, everyone should bring along a little luck, and my Dylan is luckier than most to have friends like you and our Shibu."
Even holding Dylan in his arms like an extra pack couldn't hide Shibu's elation!
"Thank you Cassandra, ma'am!" Shibu blurted out in sheer happiness and relief.
"You two are just too cute together, Shibu." Cassandra answered. "Well, if your intent on camping, you'd better go before you lose all of the morning light. Be careful, and have fun both of you."
"We will, Mom!" Dylan called out, practically beaming from ear to ear as Shibu turned and set his best friend down gently on his own two feet again!
"Thanks again, Cassie. I owe you one, for Shibu." Felice added quietly to the conversation.
"Never you mind for now, Felice Dearest. We can talk about that again some day soon. For now, this is as much for my son as it is for yours."
Felice nodded at her own best friend from childhood and then turned to the pair of strapping youths before her.
"C'mon boys!" Felice interjected. "I may need both of you to help me get to the top of that ridge!"
As the happy trio seemed to float down the steps, across the Village Green and toward the ridge line, Cassie whispered a few words after the group. "Good luck, my boys." Dylan's mother called out softly. It was a benediction for any Ecaflip to evoke their luck, and in spite of the fear she felt race down her spine, Cassie Silverstein just knew that luck would help them all, somehow.
The trio slid across the green ground, and toward the woods along the low end of the ridge. Shibu was up on his toes, even as he walked slowly between Felice and Dylan. After a few more steps, the ground began to show a slight but constant rise in elevation. Felice shifted to her wings, and went ahead by a step or two, watching their walking path for large stones and thick branches that might impede their progress. Shibu was already kicking aside any stone larger than a walnut to make the path smoother for Dylan, who was stuck on flat feet, covered with an Ecaflip's traditional wooden sandals.
"Hay, Buddy. If you start to have trouble with the uphill, just jump on, and I'll give you a lift until we hit the top."Shibu teased his best friend with a smile and a wink.
"Not happening, hat boy!" Dylan shot back. "Before we get up top, all the firewood we need all weekend says you wind up on my back!"
"You're on, Captain!" Shibu replied quickly. Shibu took two long, fluid strides both of which showed both the speed and strength of Shibu's toe tip walk. Suddenly, Shibu was almost two yards farther up the ridge, taking point for Dylan and Felice.
"I haven't gone all the way up in a couple of summers." Dylan admitted. "This place is like another world. Strange, but cool for a village guy." Dylan remarked.
"Have you never been camping before, Dylan?" Felice asked.
"I have, but never up here." Dylan answered.
"Then you're in for a good time, sweetheart. You know Cici is a Ranger, don't you?" Felice asked.
"Oh Yeah!" Dylan replied enthusiastically. "She's as cool as Shibu is, and that's something!"
Walking more slowly up ahead by a yard, Shibu giggled. "If Cici were here, she would blush!" He warned with a smile Dylan could see. "And she would just have to give you a hug!" Shibu cautioned.
Shibu laughed outright as he saw his best friend bite his lower lip gently!
"Don't worry, Bud." Shibu said with a bright smile. "She would think you're cute, and she'd say so too!"
"Not so bad, after all." Dylan shot back. "Maybe the two of you can teach me a little bit of that way cool Ranger stuff you can do." Dylan asked, changing the subject quickly.
"Hay, Dylan, we're always looking for recruits." Shibu answered. "Why don't you join up?" Shibu asked in a level and serious tone.
The thought stopped Dylan where he stood, even on the sloping ground.
"Say now, that would get me off of the farm, sure enough!"
"Hay, Buddy, if that's what you really want, I'll teach you just the way you once taught me!"
"You'd do that for me, Shibu?"
"You know it, Bud. You have everything it takes, and that's straight as an arrow from a Ranger, and someone who knows what it feels like to become one."
Even in the shadows cast by the denser stands of trees, Shibu could see the sparkle of light in his best friend's eyes.
"Shibu, you've gone beyond amazing." Felice said to her son with a note of encouragement in her voice.
"We'll have a lot to talk about once we get into camp." Shibu replied easily. "And Cici will do most of the talking." Shibu added. "Can you handle that,Dylan?"
"You bet your hat, Shibu!" Dylan answered. "After I drop you off in camp, at least she'll be able to tell that I'm in good shape!" Dylan replied in a cocky tone.
"We'll see what happens when the altitude and the slope of the ridge start talking back to your feet, buddy of mine. Remember, your best friend is a Ranger. I could carry both of you all the way up, and I wouldn't mind it in the least." Shibu told Dylan directly.
Dylan turned slowly to Felice who was fluttering along behind him by a step or two.
"He's not kidding, is he?" The young Ecaflip asked in a serious tone.
"No, Dear, not at all. Shibu takes being a Ranger very seriously. And Rangers don't lie, Dylan." Felice replied calmly.
Dylan looked back toward Shibu slowly, the light still in his eyes.
"Wow, what have I gotten myself into?" Dylan wondered out loud.
"Whatever it is, Dylan, you couldn't be in it with anyone better than Shibu and Cici." Felice replied with her own honest tone of confidence, to re-assure a clearly surprised young Ecaflip.