On Beginnings

Way deep in a dark wood, Mother Fox was in the old Oak tree, preparing lunch for little Nate Fox. Nate had wandered from the Oak tree to the creek. Against his mother’s wishes, he was splashing around in the creek, painting himself in a thick, brown coat of mud.

He chased crawdads around the creek bed, trying to trap them beneath his paws. One crawdad was swimming around from one rock to another, trying to hide from Nate. Nate stepped carefully from rock to rock and paused above the crawdad. He shoved his arms down into the water and looked down. He had trapped the crawdad beneath his paws.

He pushed his arms against the crawdad to hold it still. The crawdad struggled for a few seconds, then laid still. Nate peeked down between his paws at the crawdad. As he did, the crawdad snapped a claw at Nate and then shot away.
While Nate was busy with the crawdad, Albatross Albatross came loping through the woods right toward Nate. Nate ignored him, though, and continued splashing around in the creek.

As Albatross hiked through the woods, he heard a commotion coming from the stream. He turned his head toward little fox to see him splashing in the stream. The old bird shook his head in disgust as he passed little Nate on his way to see Nate Fox’s Mother, Kit Fox.

Albatross arrived at the old Oak tree and poked his head through the kitchen window. "Good evening, Kit," said Albatross. Kit Fox was busy preparing lunch.

"Do you have any idea what your child is doing?" asked Albatross.

"He's just playing in the stream."

"Squawk! Just playing in the stream? He's throwing sticks and stones around and disturbing the delicate balance of nature. Do you know what kind of effect that could have on the grove?"

Kit looked blankly at him.

"Well, I shudder to think about it."

"Come on, Albatross, he's just a kid."

"Just a kid? Just a kid! I can just see it now. Knocking down small trees, disturbing the fish, and disrupting the entire forest."

While Kit Fox and Albatross discussed little Nate Fox, little Nate Fox was playing in the creek bed and disturbing some crawdads.

Getting into trouble was tough work for Nate and after a while he looked for something else to do. He hiked off into the woods to find his best friend, Booey Skunk.

Nate Fox and Booey Skunk usually spent their days playing pirates for pretend or star voyagers. Sometimes they pretended they were giants invading the crawdad villages, often spending the entire day throwing giant boulders down into the stream, making more of that awful noise Albatross hated.

After a short gallop through the woods, Nate Fox reached Skunk's house. Skunk lived in a burrow just down the creek from the old Oak tree where the Fox family lived. Nate poked his head down into the burrow and shouted for Booey, trying to wake him. There was no answer. He called again, but Skunk was sound asleep. He picked up a stick and poked it down into the burrow. Nate pushed the stick into the hole as far as it would go, but still there was no answer from Booey Skunk.

Nate tried squeezing down the hole, but it was much too small or him. Nate decided to run around and gather acorns to roll down the hole. He rolled one and then another. The small acorns clinked and clunked as they rolled down and hit the sides of the burrow.

"Yoo Hoo," he called into the dark hole.

A moment of silence then:

"Yoo Hoo!" echoed the tree.

"Is there anybody in there?"

A moment of silence then:

"Is there anybody out there?" it echoed back.

A little black nose popped out of the hole.

"Good morning," said Booey Skunk as he rubbed the sleep from his eyes.

"Good afternoon you mean," said Nate.

"Omigosh, I was supposed to meet you a long time ago," said Booey Skunk.

"Yes you were. Hurry up, we don't have a moment to lose," said Nate.

Nate Fox waited for Booey as Booey rinsed himself off in the stream, taking his morning bath. Booey quickly jumped out and shook himself dry. Water sprayed all over Nate Fox.

"What are we going to do today?" asked Booey.

"I wanted to play hide-and-go-seek," said Nate.

"With only two of us? That doesn't sound very fun."

Nate Fox rubbed his chin for a moment.

"But what else is there to do?" asked Nate.

"I don’t know. Let’s just play hide-and-go-seek."

"Okay. Who’s it?" asked Nate.

"TAG!" shouted Booey as he poked Nate on the arm and quickly darted away,
"You are!"

Nate stood there for a moment, then realized if he didn't want to stay "it" he would have to quickly catch someone, and the only someone around was Booey Skunk.

Booey darted off into a patch of jewelweed at the side of the stream. He crossed the stream and looked around. After a few moments, he scampered into the hollowed out trunk of a dead tree. He waited patiently, ready to surprise Nate. He poked his snout out of the trunk and looked around. There was no sign of Nate anywhere. He wondered what was taking Nate so long to find him.

As he looked out, something moved in the bushes next to the creek. Booey Skunk sat silent, waiting to see what was moving in the bushes. A tail whipped out from under the bushes. It was green and scaly. He had heard Albatross talking about big, strange monsters in the swamp. Until now, he thought Albatross was just making up stories.

Suddenly, the big green lizard’s head popped out from the undergrowth. The big green lizard dove into the stream and snapped its jaws. As he rose out of the water, a fish wriggled around in his mouth. The big green lizard chomped down and the fish was gone. Booey Skunk gasped. The big green lizard turned and hissed at him. Little Fox heard the commotion from his lookout point at the top of the ridge, and came out of the woodwork to investigate.

"Whoa!" cried Nate as he saw the giant lizard looking at his best friend as if he was lunch.

The big green lizard turned and growled at Nate. Nate thought he was a goner. Just then, Booey hopped on his front paws and did a handstand. Fox jumped up two big steps backward.

"Cute trick your friend has there," said the lizard, "Next, I suppose he'll do a cartwheel for us, right?"

It's a threat gesture," said Nate.

"It's a what what?" asked the big lizard.

"A threat gesture," said Booey, as he balanced on his front paws, "It means I'm going to spray you with perfume."

The lizard had no idea why a little perfume was so scary. He let out a toothy grin. Skunk and Fox fell back in fear.

"This is my threat gesture," said the lizard, "Cool, eh?"

"Uh huh," they answered in unison. They could see all of the big green lizard’s pointy teeth.

"Luckily for you, I'm more into seafood," said the lizard. He opened his mouth and showed them what he had been eating.

"See? Food." He gulped down the trout and carp in his mouth and grinned at Nate and Booey.

"Wow! That’s a mouthful," said Booey.

"It sure is," laughed Gus, "By the way, my name is Augustus Gator. My friends call me Gus, but you can call me Mister Augustus Alligator," he announced proudly.

"Okay, Mister Augustus Alligator," answered Skunk.

It's a joke," said Gator. He looked at the two small mammals. They stood there, without saying a word. Apparently, Nate and Booey didn’t get the joke.

"Wanna play a game of hide-and-go-seek?" asked Booey.

"Who's it?" asked Gator.

Booey tapped Gus on the shoulder, and then ran off. Nate sped along, only a few steps behind Booey. They laughed as they left their new friend far behind.

"You are!" he shouted back over his shoulder.

Now Gator was the one who didn't understand the joke, but soon enough he would have to learn.

Gator shouted after his newfound friends, and they chased through the woods most of the afternoon. He chased them over logs, and through weeds, but never caught either Fox or Skunk. He finally stopped to catch his breath. Booey and Nate came out of the woodwork to join their tired friend.

"Hey," he said, "Let's do something else."

"Like what?" asked Nate.

"How about we play 'the cloud game?' "

"The cloud game?" said Booey.

"Yeah, follow me."

So Skunk and Fox followed Gus Gator out of the woods to a small hill nearby, where he plopped down on the ground and looked up into the sky.

"Do this," said Gus.

They obeyed his command, not sure what Gator was up to. After a few seconds, Nate looked at Booey and Gator, who were both staring towards the sky.

"Um Gator…what are we doing?"

"Playing the cloud game."

"We are?"

Gator nodded.

"But how do we win?"

"By being the first to fall asleep."

"That's it?" asked Nate.

"Yup."

Nate looked up into the sky. All sorts of clouds floated above them in the sky. One cloud was a giant hickory tree. One was a teapot. One looked like Albatross Albatross. One looked like chicken dumplings, which was Nate’s favorite thing to eat. Suddenly, he realized he had forgotten something.

"Oh no!" he exclaimed.

"Oh what?" asked Skunk.

"Oh lunch!" said Little Fox.

They got up and began to leave for Nate's house, but Gus had fallen asleep.

"Who's gonna wake him?" asked Booey.

"Not me," said Nate.

"Me neither," answered Booey.

They started off for home, then Booey decided it would be better if they didn't leave Gus there all alone. Booey poked Gus in the ribs, trying to waken him. Gus snorted and swiped a hand at the little skunk. Booey then picked up a stick and prodded it at Gator's snout. Gator snorted and shooed the stick away. As he did, the tip broke and went up his nose.

Gator snorted and shook his head violently. He rose to his feet, wondering what had lodged itself in his snout. He snorted and snorted, until the piece of stick finally came out.

"Whew," he exclaimed, "What happened?"

"You were asleep and now you are awake," said Skunk.

"I dreamed that a big bug had walked up my nose and was making a nest."

"A walking stick?" said Skunk with a thoughtful look

"How would I know what kind of bug it was?"

Booey and Nate chuckled for a few moments while Gator tried to figure out why Booey and Nate were laughing. They sat in the middle of the forest, laughing about walking sticks and enjoying their newfound friendship when Nate stop laughing and looked around for a second.

"What is it?" asked Booey.

"Do you smell that?" asked Nate.

"Smell what? I don’t smell anything," said Booey.

"Me neither," said Gus.

"Well, I do. I think Mom is cooking some chicken."

"That sounds good," said Gus.

"But it’s too early to eat," said Booey.

Nate looked up at the afternoon sun. "Too early? It’s always a good time to eat!"

"I agree. It’s always a good time to eat," said Gus.

"Well come on, she always makes enough for Booey and me, with some left-overs."

So home they went, in search of some of Kit Fox’s home-cooked chicken.