Helga- Out of Hedgelands

by Rick Johnson

  A family is

  a circle of friends.

  Unbroken,

  let the circle be.

  WooPeace Airlift

  The afternoon light was filtering into the LuteWoo when WooZan’s boat paddled out of the darkness. As her boat came to the stone bank, she looked with dismay on an amazing sight. Hundreds of WooSheep filled the rocky ledges of the LuteWoo, and a steady stream of Otters, Sheep, Geese, Foxes, and other creatures were still descending the long ladder Breister and Helga had constructed.

  So filled with creatures was the LuteWoo, that WooZan found nowhere to land her boat. Paddling her boat as close to the bank as possible, she called for ‘the rebel Wood Cows’ to come to her.

  Helga and Breister stepped through the crowd and addressed WooZan. “You see the creatures that care about creatures in the WooPeace,” Helga said. “These are not illusions. They are not images of some perfect picture in your mind. These are real creatures that love and care for real creatures in the WooPeace. That is all they want.”

  WooZan was livid with anger. She replied with cold fury. “I had hoped you would depart in the night. But you have chosen to remain. The Council of Inquiry has handed down its verdict. You will be conducted—” She stopped speaking abruptly; her eyes fixed on the ladder.

  Slowly, carefully, rung-by-rung, a very elderly, wrinkled Sheep was descending. She was looking toward WooZan with kindly eyes. Helga, who had experienced long separation from her parents also could never mistake the meaning of the look. “That is WooZan’s mother,” Helga breathed, “or I do not know my own feelings.” Breister nodded.

  WooZan, who had been sitting stiffly in her boat, plunged over the side and half-splashed, half-waded, to the rocky bank. She clambered out of the water and pushed her way through the crowd. The crowd parted to let her pass, staring in astonishment. WooZan reached the base of the ladder just in time to help her mother take the last steps. Gently and with genuine love, WooZan embraced the aged Sheep.

  The crowds of WooSheep fell into silence, knowing that they were in the presence of a blessed event. Some minutes passed, as WooZan and her mother embraced and tears flowed freely from both.

  At last, WooZan turned and spoke to Helga who was standing nearby. “You have had a lost parent. You know the feelings one has. But you may not know the feelings one has as a daughter who knows that her mother will die if she stays with her. My mother, MoontZant-Woo, had an illness that no one in the WooPeace could heal. A Woonyak came. He spoke of hot springs that could heal her. I made up a story about her being a rebel and she was sentenced to die, but when I conducted her to the deep caves as is done in such cases, I took her to the exit instead. She understood what I was doing and why. It was the last time I saw her. I never knew if she had lived and been healed until I saw her coming down.”

  WooZan’s fierce, cold manner had now vanished. She looked at the continuing stream of WooSheep descending the ladder. “We have to do something,” she smiled at Helga, “there is no more room here for WooSheep. I will call for boats and we will ferry people to the WooPeace. We will have the greatest, most festive Common Bowl in WooPeace memory!”

  Burwell, who had been helping WooSheep begin their descent of the ladder, was signaling frantically at Breister and Helga. “What is it, Burwell?” Breister hollered up to him.

  “Ask WooZan if we can bring food from the WooSheep Bottoms also,” Burwell yelled back. “I’ve heard about the WooPeace diet...nothing cooked...Salamander Parts...Bat Milk...Frog Guts...Catfish and Moss Sushi...Can’t we bring some more food?...Please?” he pleaded in a plaintive voice.

  Everyone, including WooZan, laughed heartily. “Well, I guess this is a new day,” she replied. “If people are going to be able to come and go as they wish, I guess they should be able to choose what they eat also. Bring on the food from the Bottoms!”

  “Helga,” Breister commented quietly, “that ladder is never going to be adequate for this. Once creatures in the Bottoms hear about this, they are all going to come running! The ladder won’t be able to handle all the traffic, especially if they are all bringing dishes for the feast!” he laughed.

  “Well,” Helga replied happily, “that’s an entirely different problem than we had yesterday! I think I know what we can do.”

  “I’ll play my flicker-pole for just a moment or so. I don’t want every bird within 20 miles, of course,” she grinned. “I’ll play it just long enough to attract the birds, say, within one mile. That ought to do nicely to get helpers for a supplemental airlift!”

  Breister looked admiringly at his daughter. “Helga, you never cease to amaze me,” he said, shaking his head in bemused respect.

  As WooZan set off in her boat to summon other boats to carry the visitors to the WooPeace, Helga began to work her flicker-pole. The characteristic tones filled the cave and wafted up through the LuteWoo. When the first birds began to appear and drop down through the LuteWoo skylights, Helga stopped. “There, that will be enough, I think,” she observed. “By the time the rest of the birds who were first attracted get here, we’ll have plenty for our airlift.”

  One by one the birds arrived, and settled onto perches in the LuteWoo. As they gathered, Helga explained to them what she wanted. They readily agreed. The large birds, such as Eagles, Owls, Geese and Cranes were assigned to carry young beasts down into the LuteWoo, leaving the ladder for adults. The children hooped and hollered as they took the thrilling ride down on the airlift.

  The smaller birds—Jays, Robins, Meadowlarks, Woodpeckers, and Sparrows—carried all kinds of packages and parcels containing foods for the feast.

  In later years, the ‘WooPeace Airlift’ was one of the most famed events in the common history of the WooSheep clans. But not only because of the wonderful help all the various birds provided. The fame of the WooPeace Airlift also had to do with a certain ‘crazy old Owl’ and his soon-to-be wife...

  New Scenes for Toshty’s Painting

  After leaving Breister on the sandspit near WooSheep Bottoms, Toshty and Annie paddled for the rest of the day, then Annie asked that they stop for a while. Toshty sensed that something had been bothering her ever since they had left Breister.

  Pulling over to the bank, Toshty held on to a bush to keep the canoe from floating downstream. “What do you want, Annie? Shall we stop here for the night?” he asked.

  “No, I don’t want to rest,” Annie replied with a sigh. “I want to turn around and paddle back the way we came.”

  “Why do you want to do that?” Toshty replied in surprise. “You’re not sorry we’re going to get married, I hope?”

  “Oh, no!” Annie exclaimed happily. “I so want to be married, but...,” she paused, then continued, “my heart has been burning since we left Breister. I caused great pain for him and his family. I feel like a hypocrite to do all this mushy talk-talk about ‘family is an unbroken circle of friends’ when I...Well, when I helped to break his circle!” Annie sighed sorrowfully.

  “I can’t marry you until I figure out a way to at least say I’m sorry, or do something to help him,” Annie concluded.

  Toshty looked at Annie with love and pride. “You are a great lady, Annie!” Toshty replied. “I don’t know what we can do, but I don’t mind delaying our wedding long enough to try to help him...Especially if it will help you to be happy and at peace!” he added.

  As they paddled back upstream towards the Bottoms, Toshty and Annie discussed what they could do. Exploring many possibilities, and discarding them one by one, they finally hit upon a plan that felt right. They would go to Toshty’s studio in the caves, through which they could secretly enter the WooPeace. Once there, they would try to locate Breister. Annie would give her genuine apology for the pain she had caused and they would offer to help him in any way they could. “Leaving the past behind does not mean leaving wounds unhealed,” Annie said. “I’m not going to start a new life with you while this sore I helped create still festers in Breister’s life.”

  “W
e’ll do what we can,” Toshty agreed. “How much Breister is able to heal depends on a lot of things we can’t control,” he added. “But we’ll give it our best go...A family is an unbroken circle of friends, and Breister’s in our family now.”

  They arrived in Toshty’s studio and rested there for a while before preparing to proceed further through the cave system to the WooPeace. Just as they were about to leave the studio, Toshty began to act very strangely. As if he had suddenly gone mad, he began to wildly flap his wings and throw himself at the walls of his studio, as if trying to fly through the stone wall!

  “Toshty!” Annie screamed, “What are you doing? Have you gone mad? What’s the matter?”

  Toshty did not respond, but simply threw himself more and more frantically against the walls. Feathers flew as Toshty wildly flapped his wings like a bird possessed by some wild spirit. “AWWK! OOOFFT! SQWAAAK! OOOFFPT! OOOO!” Toshty, battered and spent, covered with broken feathers, sank to the floor in dazed frustration. “Oooohh...” he groaned, rubbing his battered head. “What a terrible time for the ‘help bugle’ to sound!”

  “The help bugle?” Annie asked.

  Rubbing his head, Toshty got to his feet and prepared to throw himself at the rock walls once again. “It’s an irresistible call for help and all birds by nature respond. Whenever the bugle sounds, any bird that hears has got to go. It’s a sacred duty. It’s just like a switch is thrown in a bird’s brain...Ooops! I’m talking too much, gotta go!”

  Zoom! Crash! “OOOFT!”

  Annie turned her eyes away. The sight of her beloved Toshty battering himself against the solid rock walls was too painful to watch. Slumping down against the wall, she felt dejected and sad. “What a wedding party this has turned out to be!” she groaned. “Toshty will be lucky to walk away from this with his brains intact. I’ll have a husband capable of only vacant looks for the rest of his life. I’ve got to do something. Maybe I have some rope in my pack...I’ll tackle him and tie him up until this madness passes.” She rummaged frantically in her old, battered bandit’s pack looking for some rope.

  “Where are things when you need them?” she muttered. “Moldy bandit’s mush, Grizzly Bear Army knife, clothes, maps, bits of biscuits, flash gourd, scissors...Flash gourd!” Annie howled with glee. “Yeowzer! I forgot I had this! This is just what the doctor ordered!” she exulted. “This is one time that knowing a little something about explosives will come in handy...I’ve gotta hurry though...That dazed and vacant look will be in Toshty’s eyes permanently if I don’t do something to get him where he wants to go!”

  “Hmmm...,” she mused, surveying the studio. “Gotta be careful. Don’t want to blow up Toshty’s life work! Let’s see...there’s got to be a good place for this.” Looking around the studio quickly, Annie located a small, deep crevice leading in the direction Toshty apparently wanted to go. She carefully packed the flash gourd as deep in the crack as possible, letting the long fuse hang back out in the studio. Then she took rags that Toshty had for cleaning up his paint brushes and stuffed them in the crack behind the flash gourd, packing it in securely. “I want the main force of the blast to go the other direction,” she said to herself. “Please let the blast blow the other way!”

  Lighting the fuse, Annie rushed at Toshty and hurtled him to the floor just as the flash gourd detonated. KA-BOOOOM! The studio shuddered and shook, dust and small pebbles showering down on them. Annie lifted her head and looked around. Toshty’s paintings were intact! There was a huge, jagged hole torn in the wall where the flash gourd had been lodged.

  Annie could see a crowd of creatures standing on the other side of a lake looking at her in amazement. The blast had ripped a hole through to the LuteWoo, but the lake had buffered the creatures from the blast debris!

  As Annie and Toshty stepped through the new opening to survey what was happening in the LuteWoo, the slanting afternoon rays of the sun, streaming through the skylights fell on Toshty’s painting of the history of the WooSheep. The colors were brilliant in the sun. Annie and Toshty, as they watched the amazing scene unfolding in the WooPeace, sensed that new scenes would need to be added to the painting.

  Shipwrecked Sea-beasts

  The feast in the WooPeace on that memorable occasion was an epic of unlimited digestion. A world changed for the better, and the wild joy that came as a result, made beasts daring enough to try strange food and drink. Cheerful courage and curiosity led many a beast to sample delicacies they would have once despised as the product of savage cooks and hateful kitchens. More than a few were so besotted with the pleasant chaos that they cared not whether they liked what was set before them. Like many a fool or famished wanderer, they liked anything that touched their lips.

  Beasts of both persuasions—of the WooPeace and of WooSheep Bottoms—were generous and praised each other’s provisions till the casks ran dry and the victuals were gone. There were Cave Crabs, black and orange; the black ones packed with eggs that, when tossed in sizzling oil, popped up into crunchy, toasted orbs three-times their size, that even Burwell greedily devoured. And more than Burwell were surprised to discover that Cave Bat Tongues Sautéed in Lizard Fat made a dish fit for the finest table.

  The Armadillo Pie in the Shell contributed by the WooSheep was judged by all to be very good eating; and some thought their Rattlesnake Fillets worth dying for, especially when drizzled with spicy Pear Salsa. But the Buff-Jacket Tarts—dried sour cherries, tart apples, rose hips, and honey mashed into a lump, then boiled in a bag, and the juice squeezed out for a tangy drink, before the mash was baked inside flaky, melt-in-your-mouth pastry—those were Helga’s favorite.

  A good feast requires good drink and the sparkling Phillup Phizz made from strawberries and apriot nectar was so deliciously sweet and plentiful that many beasts “grew fat simply by smelling it,” as Breister put it. But Burwell, true to himself, preferred the bubbly Lamb’s Wool Sparkle—mashed carrots mixed with apple cider and sparkling water—soft and smooth, but full of fizz.

  As the day passed and light began to fail in the LuteWoo, the glorious celebration gradually finished with the beasts swapping yarns while sucking on hard dark chocolate nuggets. The delectable sweet nuggets, rock hard and too solid to chew, took nearly an hour to melt away in the mouth. Stuffed silly and tired out, a contented happiness settled over the feasters. On all sides, beasts of all shapes, sizes, and ages—young and old, male and female, large and small, gathered to share final farewells as the celebration began to break up. Spontaneously, as if by some unseen signal, the beasts gathered around Helga—all knew that she was the root of the great change that had occurred and, beyond that, the first stranger to walk willingly into the WooPeace in living memory!

  Almost without a conscious thought, the simple song began to rise again, the words sung with a simple, heartfelt pleasure that was a fitting dessert for the feast:

  A family is

  a circle of friends.

  Unbroken,

  let the circle be.

  The song drew long-separated hearts closer together, like scattered iron filings clinging to a magnet. Then the celebrators gradually began to go home or pitch in on the clean up. Late into the night, the spirit of unity kept tired beasts working together, helping the WooSheep depart and cleaning up the remains of the feast. Amidst the crush of beasts coming and going, Helga and Breister did not work together, each picking up whatever needed to be done. Helga, in fact, worked side by side with Janty, her tiredness having no effect on her happiness as she enjoyed every moment with her new friend.

  As the clean-up operations ended, Helga found her father and told him that she was going to walk Janty back to WooSheep Bottoms. “The night will be nearly over by the time we get to the Bottoms,” she said, “so I’ll catch some sleep at Janty’s place, then meet you at Toshty’s cabin tomorrow afternoon.” Breister agreed and Helga climbed the ladder out of the LuteWoo with Janty.

  Soon after, Breister dragged his own weary body up the ladder and made his way
back to Toshty’s cabin. With a brief greeting and good night to Toshty and Annie, Breister tumbled into bed and fell into a deep exhausted sleep.

  The sun was already well up in the sky when Breister awoke. Slowly waking, he lay quietly for a while, just enjoying the soft morning light and cool breeze blowing in through the window. Gradually rousing himself, Breister pulled on his clothes and wandered out of his room, looking for Toshty and Annie.

  He found them sitting at the hearth drinking coffee. Upon seeing Breister, Toshty came to him and said, “Here’s something you’ll like to see.” Smiling gently, but with a look of sadness, Toshty handed Breister a neatly folded piece of paper. “This message arrived from WooSheep Bottoms via Courier Hawk a little while ago.”

  Breister read the message, which ran:

  Beloved father,

  I am sorry to miss my meeting with you. But I am leaving WooSheep Bottoms in haste because a most unusual encounter left me no choice. Going back to the Bottoms after we left you last night, we took a shortcut through a place locals call Scurryvaig Haunt, because alot of strange wanderers and beasts from foreign lands roam through there. Not far away, Dismal Pass leads through the mountains to the Great Sea and many a vagabond comes through there. Anyway, there we met a Seabird who says he saw a ship in great trouble as he flew along the coast.

  The ship was run aground and badly damaged, but the Seabird does not know much else about it, except that the crew will be in great danger from Wrackshees. I must help them if I can. They will need a good carpenter and I would do anything to prevent them being taken by Wrackshees. There is no time to waste. I must go quickly if I am to make a difference. Do not worry. I will return soon. Toshty won’t mind you resting there at his cabin until I get back.