Poppy and Ereth (3 page)

P
OPPY SAT ATOP
B
ANNOCK
H
ILL
gazing up at the twilight blue sky. Not a single cloud that might bring a drop of cooling rain was in sight. To the west, the setting sun was so brutally hot, it was as if it
wanted
to scorch the earth, as if it
wanted
to suck up every last measure of moisture from the parched forest, as if it
wanted
to toast the world into a crusty crisp. It made Poppy's eyes ache.

She shifted her gaze and scrutinized the limp, dry leaves of the nearby hazelnut tree. In the slanting rays of the setting sun, something on a high branch glittered like a small star. Her heart gave a thump of recognition.

It
is
there! Ragweed's earring! Just where I put it so long ago! Oh my, and thank goodness. Some things
do not
change! I really should bring Spruce here and show it to him. He needs to know about his great-uncle and about how I first came to Dimwood Forest.

How did I get here?
She tried to recall.

Memories flooded back: how she had risked the dangerous crossing over Glitter Creek and then entered Dimwood Forest for the first time.
Yes,
Poppy decided—
crossing the creek, that's when my old life ended and my real life truly began.

A thought struck her:
Perhaps if I returned to Glitter Creek I could start a new life once again.

Poppy smiled sadly, perfectly aware that she was being sentimental, foolishly so.
It's too late to change who I am, an ordinary-looking deer mouse with tan fur on my back, a plump white
belly, and thinning, drooping gray whiskers. I just hope my black eyes are still sharp. Silly mouse!
she chided herself.
You're too old to start anything new!

Suddenly she felt as if the whole world were reaching down and pressing a heavy paw atop her head. The notion brought tears to her eyes. “I don't want to be sad anymore,” she said aloud. “I want to be cheerful.”

Poppy wiped her tears away with a paw. At least Glitter Creek with its clear, bright waters might lighten her mood. Not allowing herself second thoughts, she whispered, “I'll go right now!” and hurried down Bannock Hill.

Poppy felt a flutter of excitement, as if she were about to see an old friend after a long time. But even as she hurried on, she heard a faint cry. “Help! Somebody! Anybody! Poppy! Save me! I'm drowning!” It was coming from straight ahead. From Glitter Creek! And she was being called!

Poppy raced along, her tail stretched out straight behind her. Darting across Tar Road, she quickly reached the banks of the creek.

Or what had been the creek. She saw now that the awful heat had dried up most of the water. All that remained were a few shallow puddles of stagnant brown water. Grasses had wilted. Not a single water lily was in sight. No water bugs, either. A few dead fish—white bellies turned up—dotted the mud. The air stank of decay and rot. Most of all, there
was a vast amount of thick, gooey mud. And half buried in the mud was Ereth.

Mud speckled his face, ears, eyes, and quills. He kept spitting mud, too. And as Ereth thrashed frantically about, he kept sinking deeper.

“Help!” he cried. “Help!”

He looked so much like a muddy pincushion that Poppy burst out laughing—not just one short snort of laughter but laughter that was impossible to stop.

Hearing Poppy's merriment, Ereth stopped struggling
and blinked away the mud from his eyes.

“Poppy!” he screamed. “You stinky slurp of scab stew! Don't just stand there! Save me!”

“But…what are you doing?” she replied, still laughing.

“What do you think I'm doing? I'm
drowning
!” Even as Ereth cried out, he sank a little deeper.

Poppy, now fully realizing the porcupine's predicament, called, “Ereth! Don't struggle so! It's making you sink faster!”

“But if I do nothing, I'll sink anyway!” sputtered the increasingly panicked Ereth.

“I'll think of something,” Poppy assured him, and she looked about to see what she could use to help.

Spying a dead branch on the creek bank, she ran to it and tried to push it toward Ereth. The branch, however, proved too heavy for the small mouse to budge.

Searching with greater urgency, Poppy noticed a tree growing out of the bank, its branches hanging over the creek bed. If she could move one of those branches low enough for Ereth to grab, he should be able to haul himself to safety.

“Hold on!” she cried.

“To what?” screeched the porcupine. “There's nothing to hold but mud!”

“I'm getting something,” cried Poppy, and she scampered over to the tree, climbed its trunk, and ran swiftly out along one of its long, slender branches. When Poppy reached its end, the branch did bow down toward Ereth, but not nearly close enough for him to grab.

“Are you going to help me?” Ereth screamed.

“I'm trying!” called Poppy. “But I'm too light!”

“Then get fatter, you dangle of duck drool! Or I'll disappear!”

Poppy looked around again. Farther back on the branch where she stood, an abandoned bird's nest was wedged into a fork.

She glanced at the ground. Small rocks and pebbles were scattered along the exposed creek bank. “Don't worry!” she called. “I think I know how to save you!”

P
OPPY TORE DOWN TO THE GROUND
, snatched up a pebble in her mouth, dashed back up, ran out along the branch, and spat the small stone into the nest. Then she ran down to the ground again and grabbed another.

Up and down and back and forth she raced.

“Hurry! Hurry!” Ereth kept calling.

Poppy went as fast as she could. With every pebble she dropped into the nest, the thin branch bent a little lower.

Puffing with exertion, and growing tired, Poppy dropped yet another pebble into the nest. The branch
was now deeply bowed but still not quite low enough for Ereth to grasp. To make matters worse, the porcupine had sunk even deeper into the mud.

Poppy saw just one more possibility. She raced to the end of the branch, grabbed hold of its tip with two paws, and let herself dangle. With the added weight, the branch dipped lower, just over Ereth's head.

As she hung there, Poppy shouted, “Ereth! You must get one of your paws free of the mud! Reach up! Try to take hold of the branch! Just don't grab me!”

While Ereth made a great effort to do as he was told, Poppy began to pump her legs up and down, building momentum so as to bring the branch still lower.

Finally yanking his right paw free, Ereth stretched up. The bobbing branch and his claws remained inches apart; he could not grab it.

“Keep trying!” yelled Poppy as she pumped her legs even more vigorously so that the branch bobbed lower and lower. Every time the branch dipped, Ereth snatched wildly at it only to miss—although once or twice his claws scraped the wood just above Poppy's paws.

As Poppy worked harder, Ereth stretched as far as he could with his paw and…“Got it!” he cried at last.

“Now!” Poppy shouted. “Grab hold with
two
paws.
Then haul yourself up!”

Using the branch for leverage, Ereth pulled another paw free from the mud and seized the branch firmly with two paws.

Though the clumps of wet mud sticking to his prickly back made him extremely heavy, Ereth began to heave himself out of the creek.

“Pull harder!” yelled Poppy.

Ereth continued to pull up on the branch until he was out of the mud.

“Now,” Poppy urged, her own rear legs just grazing above the mud, “move toward dry land.”

Clinging to the branch, Ereth edged toward the creek bank.

“You're almost there!” Poppy shouted.

The moment Ereth saw that he was over firm ground he let go of the branch.

But as Ereth fell, the branch whipped up like the released arm of a catapult. The sudden movement caught Poppy completely by surprise, flinging her with
such enormous force that she went shooting straight up in the air.

“Oh my goodness!” Poppy gasped as the wind rippled through her fur and bent back her whiskers. “I'm flying!” Sure enough, she was soaring up in the air, dizzyingly high.

She darted a look below. From the banks of Glitter Creek, Ereth was staring up at her, openmouthed in astonishment. Even in the moment she looked at him, he became smaller.

Poppy glanced toward the west. The twilight sky offered a glowing sunset—all red, purple, and orange.

“Oh my!” she cried. “So this is what the sky is like. It's really quite lovely. And flying is very cooling. No wonder birds like it.”

Poppy looked down again. The individual treetops were melding together to become a vast expanse. “Goodness! It's the entire forest!” she exclaimed. “How different everything looks from a distance!”

Then she felt herself slowing. That brought a frightful realization:
If I stop rising, I'll start falling. And since I've gone up such a long way, when I hit the ground it will most likely be the death of me.

For a fraction of a second, Poppy hung suspended in the
air. Then she began to drop—plummeting faster and faster. Though her heart pounded, and she closed her eyes, her thoughts were very clear:
Who would have ever guessed that I'd end my life by falling out of the sky?