Poppy and Ereth (6 page)

Alone again, Ereth snorted, “‘
Something short
'! I'll show them what a best friend can do. I'll show them a funeral that no one will ever forget!”

Next moment Ereth became quiet. Then he said, “Of course if Poppy hadn't died, I wouldn't have to do any of this! She should have known how much I dislike making speeches. Lazy creature! If
I
died, I'd be making my own speech!”

P
OPPY WOKE SLOWLY
, trying to understand why she was so cold.
Has the heat wave
finally
broken?
She opened her eyes.
Why is it so dim? Where am I?

Next moment she recalled everything that had happened the day before: spending time with Spruce; visiting Bannock Hill; saving Ereth; being catapulted into the sky; Luci, the young bat, catching her; flying into a cave. And now here she was.

She sat up and stretched. Licking her paws, she washed her face, starting with her nose and ending with her ears, inside and out. Only then did she really look about, sniff the cold air, and listen.

Unlike when she'd entered the cave, it was no longer completely dark. A beam of light burst through the high, jagged rock wall so that Poppy could see a little. As she
looked on, the light steadily increased, becoming brighter and broader: the rising sun shining through a high hole. The light cast a soft golden glow that illuminated most of the cave.

“Oh my!” Poppy exclaimed. For what she now saw was a vast, vaulted, irregularly shaped open space with countless nooks, crannies and cracks, steep rock walls, a rough and pebbly floor, and a ceiling mostly shrouded in darkness. From the ceiling hung stone cones, some small, others huge. Thrusting up from the floor of the cave were just as many cones. Some of these cones—above and below—met and stood ground to roof, like lopsided pillars.

As the light grew brighter, Poppy noticed other shapes: a cluster of berries, not edible ones such as she knew but more curious stone formations. Overhead, long stone ribbons were arrayed like partially dropped curtains. In two other places Poppy saw what appeared to be delicately intertwined threads—like loosely woven birds' nests—but, again, made of stone. The stone, shining in various tints of gold, seemed alive and flowing, changing form as the light shifted.

“How magical!” Poppy whispered. “How wonderfully strange. I never could have even imagined such a place! I'm
so
lucky to see it!”

Aware now that she was standing on something like a stone platform a few inches off the ground, Poppy crawled down upon the cave's cold, hard floor and moved in and about the stone teeth. She soon came upon a small pool of clear water noiselessly bubbling up from below.

She took a sip and found it cold and sweet. But while the water quenched her thirst, it reminded her how hungry she was. Her stomach gurgled.

She looked about. As beautiful as the cave was, there appeared to be nothing growing or, for that matter, even alive—except her. And the silence! It was the deepest, purest silence she had ever heard—as if the whole world was holding its breath.

Poppy wondered where Luci was. She assumed the bats were somewhere near. She shuddered a little at the thought.

Poppy looked up at the beam of sunlight again. As she watched, the light gradually shifted its angle downward—an indication that the sun was just rising. Poppy supposed the light was coming from the same hole Luci had used to enter the cave. That gave her an idea: if she had arrived through that hole, surely she should be able to leave the same way.

As Poppy considered the hole, she began to think about her family. They might be wondering where she was. Ereth,
too, of course, though she did not think the grouchy porcupine would worry much about her.

And the cold was really bothering her. While it would be fastest to persuade Luci to take her home, Poppy asked herself if she really wanted to
fly
back. Luci
was
just a beginner, and the young bat had said Poppy was heavy.
What if she dropped me?
thought Poppy.

No, best to do it on her own.
That's always been my way of doing things,
she told herself. The thought gave her strength.

Poppy scrutinized the wall until she spotted a zigzag path leading from the floor of the cave up to the entry hole. When she drew closer, she saw that the path was actually a small ledge on the stone wall's face. It required very little effort to climb onto it. Though the ledge was narrow and
rough, Poppy was able to move along with ease until she stood several feet above the floor of the cave. There the path ended.

She had reached the first of the many zigzags that she had previously noticed. Another ledge, a little higher, cut back in the other direction. It would take her farther along.

Standing on tiptoes and pressing her plump belly against the cold stone, Poppy extended one paw up as far as possible, and then grasped the edge of the higher ledge. It crumbled, bringing a small shower of pebbles onto her head. A second try was successful.

Tightly grasping the ledge, Poppy pulled herself up so that she was dangling from one paw. She reached up with another paw. Hanging by two paws now, she summoned all
her strength and, pushing with her rear legs, pulled herself to the next higher ledge.

Panting hard, but safe on this third ledge, Poppy sat, rested, and caught her breath.

Once refreshed, Poppy moved on, going upward at a steep angle. She glanced at the beam of light. It was now pointing down, a sure indication that the sun was higher in the sky. It must be midmorning. As the day progressed, the cave would eventually become dim and then dark. If Poppy knew one thing, it was that she did
not
want to climb in the dark.

She hurried along the ledge. It narrowed, but it took her a good way up before coming to an end.

Poppy looked down only to discover that she was much higher than she had thought. The pointy rocks below no longer seemed beautiful, but menacing.

A tremor of nervousness swept through her. “It's a good thing I'm going up,” she told herself, “because I won't be able to get down.”

Unless I fall
.

Poppy began to tremble so much she had to sit. “Foolish mouse,” she scolded herself. “Coming up here was not smart. I need to accept that I simply cannot do everything I want anymore. At least, not alone.”

She licked her lips. Her tail and whiskers twitched. She felt cold. She made up her mind not to look down. Or back. Or anywhere but up.

Forcing herself to stand, she stole a glance up toward the hole. It still seemed very far. Not that there was a choice. She had to continue going higher—except it now felt as if she had a very long way to go. The realization made her feel tense.

Taking a deep breath to calm herself, Poppy reached up and wedged her paw into a small crevice. The rock pinched, but her paw held. Using her rear toes to push into the rock, she lifted another paw and searched for a crevice higher than the first. Not finding one, Poppy glanced up—only to slip a little. Her heart pounded. To steady herself, she pressed her body against the rock.

Not daring to look, Poppy again reached higher and searched with her paw for another hold. After much fumbling, she located a small crack, gripped it, and pulled.

Though higher up, the climb was beginning to make her feel dizzy. Still, Poppy knew she had to continue on. Which she did. Slowly. Painfully.

Then, like a bubble bursting, Poppy's strength collapsed. She could not go up any higher. All she could do was cling to the cold rock. As she hung there, suspended, her paws
began to ache. A painful cramp seized one of her legs.

Her grip weakened. She started to slip. A frantic snatch at the rock proved useless. The rock gave way. Poppy began to drop.

“Help!” Poppy screamed as she plummeted toward the rock teeth below. “Help!”

A
S
P
OPPY PLUNGED
, she felt a sharp pinch on her back. She was no longer falling. Gasping for breath, heart pounding, she twisted around and looked up. Luci was holding her.

“Miss Poppy,” said Luci, “are you sure you can't fly?”

“Really, I…can't,” Poppy managed.

“Then how come I keep finding you up in the air?” asked Luci. “I mean, how do you
get
there?”

“I was going up but then fell,” Poppy explained.

“No offense, Miss Poppy, but Mom is always saying, ‘Luci, always decide which direction you want to go—up or down.'”

Poppy sighed. “I'd like to go down.”

“Okay,” said Luci. The bat glided down to the floor of the cave and set Poppy loose.

Poppy stood up on weak hind legs and looked about. The light was softer now, and Luci was nowhere to be seen.

“Luci?” Poppy called.

“Over here.”

Poppy turned. Luci was hanging upside down from one of the stone cones.

“What I don't understand,” said the bat as if hanging upside down was a perfectly normal way to have a conversation, “is, if you can't fly, how did you manage to get up so high on the wall?”

“I climbed.”

“
Climbed!
Why would you ever do that?”

“I was trying to go home,” Poppy admitted, slightly embarrassed.

“Please don't go home yet,” said Luci. “I told everybody about you. They really want to meet you. We
never
have visitors. Would you be willing to meet some of them before you go?”

“Can I walk?” Poppy asked, greatly comforted that Luci had at least acknowledged that she would be leaving.

“Much better to fly.”

“What time is it?”

“Almost noon,” said Luci.

“Promise not to drop me?”

Luci giggled. “Miss Poppy, no offense, but you're the one who keeps falling.”

“All right then,” said Poppy.

Luci spread her wings, dropped down, gently pinched Poppy's furry back, and lifted the mouse into the air. In moments, the two were flying through the cave.

Now Poppy could see that the cave was much bigger than she had imagined, filled as it was with endlessly strange shapes and formations. It also extended in countless directions, like the branches of a tree. Luci, however, seemed to know exactly where she was going. She swooped, turned, and entered a dark tunnel, emerging at the other end into a spectacular space: a great domed area with golden arrows of light streaming down from above.

The beams shone on an almost perfectly round lake, its blue-green surface eerily translucent and surrounded by a
beach of what appeared to be white sand.

“Where does that light come from?” Poppy asked.

“Small holes in the cave roof,” replied Luci. “Oldwing says this place used to be a volcano.”

“Who's Oldwing?”

“Our leader. Anyway, we can fly in and out up there, but it's easier to use that big entryway.”

“Where do you all stay?” asked Poppy.

“Look around!” cried Luci.

Poppy looked and saw that the walls of the cave were covered with bats huddled together upside down, clinging to the walls. She could hear a multitude of squeaks and rustling noises.

“Welcome to my home,” said Luci, as she glided down to the beach.

“Is this sand?” Poppy asked.

“Salt,” said Luci.

“Salt!”
I must tell Ereth,
thought Poppy, only to be distracted by a great fluff and flutter of leathery wings as a large number of bats dropped down all around her. As they landed, they drew their wings up to their ears and hunched over, their beady-bright eyes focused on Poppy.

Like Luci, these bats were covered with brown fur. They had stub noses on flat, dour faces and large, pointy, twitching ears.

Wanting to show her good manners and friendly intentions, Poppy sat up on her hind legs, smiled, took a deep breath, and, in her most cheerful voice, said, “Hi! My name is Poppy. I'm a deer mouse. I live in Dimwood Forest.”

The bats stared at her with their bright eyes. Now and again ears flicked, and occasionally one of them opened a mouth, as if yawning. That's when Poppy noticed the bats' teeth—and how sharp they were.