The Chronicles of Urthenoga

None of the characters are meant to represent any person living or dead. None of the places are meant to represent anyone or any place in existence or not. All of this work contained herein is my own brainchild, and of my own creativity. Please do not copy to another website without my authorization. Copywritten: 2000 by John Francis

The sun sank slowly down below the horizon. We were weary from traveling as I looked down at my traveling companion and wife as she lay sleeping beside me. I began to wonder whether or not I would ever see my true love again. Being a squirrel, I was required to marry another squirrel, and my lost love was, alas, not a squirrel, but a mouse. It is not hard to doubt that anyone would believe that a squirrel could ever love a mouse, but I loved her. Slowly I began to grow tired and I lay down beside Shanika, my life long friend and companion. I slept soundly throughout the night until the sun began rising in the eastern sky which roused me, too. As I watched the sun continuing in its never-ending cycle, a deep longing grew inside of me to return to my home in Wantole. Here I would be able witness a dozen more beautiful sunrises and sunsets, but I knew my unhappiness would overwhelm me; my longing and desire would grow stronger causing me to do something drastic that I may regret. Of course a young squirrel could never leave his home without a mate, it was an unwritten law. So, I choose the only responsible mate, Shanika. Shanika was a pretty red squirrel and I had quite a fondness for her since she was born. I nudged Shanika out of her deep and restful sleep and whispered in her ear, "it is time to go." She looked up into my black eyes to find no comfort in them, just sadness.

Shanika was one of the only ones that knew about Amber and my affections for the young field mouse, and knew what she had come between. In this world my love would never be accepted because I was a squirrel and she a mouse. But the two of us could not give up to easily. That was the reason I was forced to leave my home, it was just too close to Amber. This type of closeness is stressful and we would be prone to visit and meet each other.

After we were fully roused Shanika and I continued on our wanderings until midday when the sun was high above us making traveling a troublesome task. "Zanerif, I know you don’t want to talk about her, but you’ll have to soon otherwise it will eat you whole and I will lose you. You know I love you, maybe it is not the same as your love for me, for your love is brotherly, yet mine is that of a lover. But you will have to talk about Amber, the only way you two will ever be together is if you change the world and make it a better place for you two. No one will ever accept that a squirrel can ever love mouse because in this era it is this absurd to have a lover of a different species. Unless you strike a blow and change the world’s way of thinking you two can never be together. The only way you can prove that this love is possible is by telling your story, that is your only shot at the happiness I am unable to give," Shanika scolded. "And this love will eat you alive and bloody well kill you if you keep your feelings for Amber all pent up inside of you. Don’t you see I don’t… can’t lose you, I love you all too much."

I gave quite a lot of thought to what she said and realized how ungrateful I had been for she had admitted that she loved me as I did Amber, and I then realized how right she was. If I never tell my story, someday it will disappear and be long forgotten. So this is my story.

I woke up early that mourning, earlier than usual and looked out across the field from my house. The sun was just beginning to peak over the horizon as it rose as the sign of a new day. No one else was up at that time and I decided to go on a walk in the field. I began bounding down the tree and into the field filled with feelings of pure enjoyment and mischief. The tranquility of early mourning left me feeling a bit lonely, but the sheer thrill of being alive drove away all my apprehension. According to my tribe I was still a kitten, just a little cub only a few seasons old, and therefore was not to leave the settlement alone. But I had a carefree sense of adventure and besides at that time I was not alone, a little white butterfly was gliding curiously about me. We had been warned not to adventure passed the woods, for there were many strange and exotic beasts that were waiting for some helpless meal to come strolling their way. I had just laughed at all those warnings, they had made no sense, and since I wasn’t helpless, I figured I was safe. The silenced of the mourning unnerved me and I continued into the field with a firm stick to fend off attackers. After about and hour of endless trekking I decided to rest beside a rock. The rock had been siting under the sun for longer hours and was quite warm so I decided to lie on top of it. Picking up a small stone I slipped it into my mouth as I jumped up on to the summit of the rock. Soon, however, I grew tired and took the ill tasting stone out of my mouth and threw. Then I just lay there thinking about everything and nothing at the same time. My mind kept going around in circles, thinking of the amount of trouble I was going to get into, and how respected I would be among my friends… and enemies. This entire turning of my mind caused it to grow very tired and I fell asleep on the stone. I awoke a little while later and noticed the position of the sun in the sky; it was almost above me. "Oh no!" I exclaimed aloud, "I am in so much trouble!"

That was when I hear a piercing scream coming from some where in the field. I leapt up as fast as I could and scanned the horizon looking for the source of the terrified shriek. The sun glinted off the eyes of some strange beast playing with something quite small; I could not tell what it was from this far away. Something inside of me stirred and I got a really strange feeling in my body. I quickly bounded off the rock and shot straight for where I had spotted the beast. From a short distance away I hid in the grass knowing that the color of my fur would give away my position if the animal became interested. The beast I had seen from the rock was a cat; the mighty beast was all black except for a white spot of his tail. Then my eyes turned to look at the ground where the cat was so focused; there lay a young field mouse that was strangely familiar to me. My heart gave a tremendous shudder as I noticed the small figure was not moving or trying to get away anymore, and all the cat could do was laugh. That evil laugh was all I needed to decide. Mustering up all my courage, strength, and stamina I leapt upon the mighty beast. Stick in hand I began top viciously kick and scratch my way to his head, when I judged the right moment I brought my stout piece of timber down hard and straight. A loud crack resounded, as I hit the animal hard in between his ears, but not from the cat. My stick, my only defense, had broken into several pieces. I screamed, as my small body was knocked high into the air by the enraged beast. Being a squirrel, however, I was able to manipulate my body to land safely and rebounded to avoid a hit from the irate cat. Then the cat turned to face me and gave me a sly smile and flexed his claws in plain view. "You will pay for that little love tap squirrel!" he hisses dangerously at me.

Balling up my paws into fists of rage as I got ready for the cat’s advance upon me, somewhere deep inside of me I felt a deep blood curtailing scream sound and shook my body. The cat laughed at me, "You think you can hurt me little squirrel when you do not even have your stick to whack me with anymore! HAHAHAHAHA!"

Suddenly war cries sounded out all around me as dozens of squirrels came pouring into the clearing from the surrounding grassland. I recognized each and every one of them they were all from my hometown of Wantole, from which I had traveled from earlier that day. A deep urge inside of my heart drove me into action as I followed my comrades into a heated battle with the black beast. Meanwhile the mouse I had just saved was being taken away by her fellow mice to be cared for and her wounds healed. The battle was fierce but in the end the cat retreated from the continuous onslaught from the squirrels. We had emerged victorious from the battle. But that joy was short lived as I realized that all of my fellow friends, elders, and family were staring at me in disgust. I felt somewhat strange, as the realization came to me that I was the only one in hysterics of joy. The chief of my tribe looked up at me after taking the toll of casualties and spoke, "Zanerif, go home."

"But-but!" I tried to interject.

"Now!" he yelled.

I was to young at the time to realize what exactly I had done and so the wife of the chieftain escorted me home. She left me outside the hole in the tree in which I lived and scampered back down the tree the tree towards the scene of the battle. I sulked into the house and lay down on my bed and began drifting deep into sleep.

I was dreaming, and it was a horrible dream, a nightmare in fact. It was about the battle during which I had been tortured nearly to death by the cat and then my tribe arrived to rescue me and my parents were standing boldly out in front of the line of the charge. And I stared in horror as my mother and father was impaled upon the cat’s claws. I screamed out in sorrow as they lay dying in their own pools of blood. All I could was lie there watching them wither about while all the other members of my tribe fell to similar fate and all I could think was that it was my fault. Then the cat turned back to me with the face of the chieftain and it said, "You should have listened!" and then it killed me. I woke up from the dream and cried, cried large buckets at the realization I had caused the death of several of my tribesmen. My brother was lying in the bed next to mine and he dashed over to me to see that if I was all right. "Zanerif! What is it? What’s the matter?" he asked.

"No-o-othing," I managed to stutter, "It was just a bad dream."

"So, well, will you be able to get back to sleep?"

"Yes," I lied.

Sam went back to his bed and for all I knew back to sleep. But sleep was not in my near future, I stayed awake and kept telling myself the same thing over and over again, it was only a dream. The next mourning things were strange. As I adventured outside my hole in the tree, everyone stopped and stared at me muttering to their companions about me. That was when I made my decision, there was no way I was going to continue living in a society that hated and resented me for what I did. The members of my tribe would never know how much I resented and hated what I had done. They did not understand how sorry I was that I had disobeyed laws that had been in the tribe for years. That night I slept, but not well or heavily, and made my decision I would leave in the mourning.

On the way out Shanika, who I thought as a particular friend and possibly even more, stopped me. She, in my opinion was the most beautiful red squirrel in the entire colony. "Zanerif! Where are you going?" she asked.

"I am leaving. There is no way I can live day to day with every squirrel shunning and hating me! They do not believe I had feelings of my own!" I exclaimed.

"So, what now! You’re just going to take off and have us going chasing after you? They don’t hate you! Give them some time, you made some bad choices, running off alone in to the field and then attacking a cat!" Shanika replied.

"Look, Shanika, I love you; you are my best friend you have to convince them to not chase after me. Please do this for me. And if I hadn’t attacked the cat that field mouse would have died!" I continued.

"What will you do then? Huh! Go and get yourself killed! I don’t care and besides I won’t have to convince them of anything you ungrateful squirrel!" she screamed, then I just ran, ran as fast as I could away from the settlement.

I ran through the field faster than I had the day before, I felt only the cold wind stinging my cold, sodden feet as the dew flew up in showers behind me. My feet soon grew too weary to continue and I lay down to rest in the grass. Taking out the bundle I had tied to my staff I ate an acorn as I wondered whether or not they would be foolish enough to chase after me, and deep in my heart I wish they would not. Thinking of the events that took place yesterday thoughts of the small field mouse entered my head… and my heart. ‘What happened to her?’ I wondered, ‘Is she all right?’

Then I thought of her looks and how pretty she had seemed to me. I felt a strange stirring in my heart, a feeling, it almost seemed the feeling was the same feeling I received from Shanika. I sniffed at the air, as the many scents of the field surrounded me, many of them were confusing and unknown to me, but some were very familiar to me. I followed the scent I had wanted. Running, jetting, zigzagging, through the grass did not get me there any sooner, but eventually I came to the exact spot of the traumatic experience from the night before. Feeling a little apprehensive did not stop me from advancing into the clearing in the field where the struggle had occurred. I felt the world beginning to spin as I remembered the dream and I felt faint and dizzy and I feel over and blacked out leaving me completely conscienceless. "Will he be all right?" a small shiny voice asked.

"Don’t worry Amber he will be fine. Why did you have us come back to take him here and help him?" another voice asked.

"He saved by life from the awful cat, what you think I could have just left him there to be killed by something?" Amber asked dignified.

"Hey he’s waking up!" exclaimed yet another voice in the darkness as I began to regain conscience from the black hole of my mind.

I finally awoke. Sleeping for that long had almost driven me completely insane, having that same awful dream repeating itself over and over again is enough to drive anyone crazy. Now I began looking all around me, there were three field mice standing over my splayed out body. I recognized one of them; my mouth dropped open as I looked at the mouse I had rescued on that fateful mourning. Had it been two days or three? The little mouse was just a sight to behold, as I looked into her eyes her deep twin pools of shiny clear water blue like the color of the river that ran out behind the woods. She was completely white, as white as an albino, but those eyes. Those blue eyes that luster many more deep shades of blue. I noticed that her body was not scarred and battered, but looked healthy as if a small, defenseless fly had attacked her. I felt that strange feeling again, but this time it was even stronger than it had been when I was in the field. And seeing her there, real and full of life, made me feel like I was in love. I broke down when I came to a realization that I wanted to caress her, to love her. Sam had described a feeling similar to what I was feeling when he was talking about his ex, and all I could do was think of how my relationship would not end the way his did. ‘Wait! What relationship?" I thought bitterly. But I somehow kept shaking my head and saying no inside my head.

"What do you mean, ‘no?’" Amber asked, "You don’t have a choice!"

I looked back at her in dazed confusion, "HUH!"

She stroked my head fur and repeated her question, "You will be staying with us for awhile, after all you were the one that rescued the tribe princess from that bad-tempered cat."

I stared at her in disbelief and realized that I was right there is no chance of a relationship. There was no way a chieftain’s daughter, a tribes princess could, or would ever learn to love a squirrel; it wads simply unheard of. All I could do was look up into her loving eyes and shake my head yes in answer. With that yes I had made my decision to try, there was no way I would let someone as great as Amber walk out of my life because it couldn’t be done. Amber smiled down at me shyly and I wondered if she felt that same about me as I did for her, and may be then there would be a chance at love. She reached down and helped me to my feet. "Come Zanerif, come and meet my fellow tribesmen," Amber said.

Taking me by the paw she led me out of the room I was in, "Where are we?" I asked.

"We are in Sanilve City, the capital of my father’s dominion."

"And this… is just… a city?" I asked in amazement and wonder.

I stared out across the vast expanse of this underground city; buildings were poking up out of the ground as far as I could see. "The towns are slightly smaller although this is more than just a city, this is the palace of my father’s empire," she responded.

"What were you doing in that field?" I asked needing to know how she felt.

"I-I-I don’t know I just felt it drawing me there, what about you?"

"I am not exactly sure I felt a need to go for some reason other than proving myself to my tribe that I can take care of me," I answered.

"Do you believe in fate?" she queried.

"Fate?"

"Yes fate- you know- destiny. The belief that everything happens for a reason?" she asked again.

"I guess so, a little bit, why?" I asked.

"Because I think there is something between us that drew us back together into the field," she answered staring up into my eyes.

All I could do was continue to gaze into her beautiful eyes, "Now I am beginning to sound foolish," she laughed, "Come, I would like you to meet my father."

Then she broke out into a run laughing as she dragged me along with her. She was allowing me to keep my mind focused on what she said, it wasn’t at all foolish, I believed that she was right, but I kept my mouth shut. And I understood she must feel for me the way I do for her.

"So you must be Mr. Zanerif of the Wantole tribe."

"That is correct sire," I answered giving the king his due respect.

"Now, now, young un’; there is no need to be so formal and speak up to me. After all you are of the same brand of blood as mine, royal," the old king corrected, "And forgive me, I am King Saren."

"I am afraid you have made a mistake, I am the son of Cassandra and Leon, not the chieftain," I answered.

"Ahh, how is Cassie and old Leon, well I hope?" the king continued with the small talk, "I remember the last time I saw them. You were but a newborn babe only a season old. Your mother Empress Sandra, in order to deliver you safely to Cassie and Leon, entrusted you to me. See, your adopted parents had just lost a son who was born the same time as you were. So you see you are of royal blood as I am, your mother is, and Amber is. You are also practically Amber’s older brother, since at the time I was protecting you my wife, Amber was about to give birth, and you cared for her and filled her last few days with joy and love."

"If I am the Empress’ son then why did I grow up in Wantole, raised to believe that I was indeed the son of my parents?" I asked, shocked at the resent development in my life.

"To answer that question I would have to explain what was going on in Urthenoga at that time," King Saren started.

"Urthenoga? Where, what is that?" I asked.

"Urthenoga is your mother’s empire. You were born to Sandra and Nathan, the rulers of Urtheroga. Nathan, at that time was the sole ruler of the Empire, however, he died soon after when your mother was pregnant with you. Thus leaving your mum to be the ruler. Empress Sandra was not ambitious for power you must understand, but with that newfound power she was able to make drastic changes to the policies of the Empire. Of course some people did not like her policies, mostly the ones that were high in the society change. You see, your mother wanted to change the social system by destroying the class system, which gave everyone the same amount of power. When Nathan was Emperor he began the changing, but it was slow and did naught for the people but showed that he was playing it safe. So, when your mother was in control her rapid change in the laws began the war that lasted seasons. It had been started soon after you were born and your mum wanted you to grow up with a life and not as the son and soon to be ruler. Let alone the fact that if your mother during the war raised you she would have been distracted and you would not have a real childhood. You must understand I was the long time friend of Nathan, and since all of her husband’s friends had been the wealthy and all of them were against her, she turned to me. All I could do was tell her that I could take care of you and make sure you got to Wantole safely. She then asked her closest friend Salice she and her husband wanted to move away from the Empire since they also had a newborn. You would know their child as Shanika, they traveled here from Urthenoga and gave you to me, then continued on to Wantole. As soon as you had a family you could go to they came and picked you up and soon after my wife gave birth to Amber, died due to complications, and all of the connections between our two nations were severed as I became a single parent. And that is your story," King Saren finished.

I sat perplexed by the whole story, and some how I felt that the story was true and undeniable, and I broke down crying. Everything I had believed in had been a lie. "Is there a way I can return to Urthenoga?" I sniffled.

"Yes, yes in fact there is. The great war ended and you mom, the Empress, prevailed. But not without the help of a vast army led by General Roane. Your stepfather. I am sure you have the will and determination to return to the place of your birth, it will be dangerous, though. This is mostly because Roane is very ambitious for power and he wants his son to become the Emperor, his son is also your half-brother. Empress Sandra has not told him that you were alive and had given out that you had died. Otherwise, he would have found someway of getting past the defense and assassinating you. He has not had enough time with you to be able to mold you to his evil will, you see," King Saren answered.

The news that my birth mother being alive overjoyed me tremendously, but also left me with a feeling of loss; the loss of my family, but I would be able to meet my true mother. "What about my foster parents?" I asked concerned over my family.

"You needn’t worry about them, they knew this day would come in which you will have to leave and meet your true mother. And return into the royal bloodline of Urthenoga. If not the chieftain would force you to return, he has a strong sense of hierarchy. He believes that with you as leader the two empires would be reunited into a strong, self-supporting Empire. And you are the next in line for Emperor and leader," the king said.

"Before I go back can I return to Wantole and say goodbye?" I asked.

"Yes you may," the king stated, "Now all you need is a guide to take you to Urthenoga."

"She’s already here," a voice sounded and at once I knew it was Amber’s.

"Princess Amber I’m afraid I can not allow you to be my guide. I am already in danger, having you accompanying me will only bring you into danger as well and it would be to risky for you!" I stated.

"Now hold on just a minute!" the king said, "If Amber does desire to go with you as your guide than she may, she is a lot more helpful and reliable than you might think."

"Alright, she can be my guide, your highness, I will protect her with my life," I answered.

"Yes, son, yes. I have no doubt you will you have already proved yourself to me the other day. We are wholly indebted to you after such a courageous act of bravery that you performed. Remember always fight for truth and justice, Godspeed my children."

Amber and I set out toward Wantole in silence. The sun was just about above our heads and it was pretty hard to believe that my life had changed dramatically in only a matter of a few hours. It took us only a few minutes to get back to my settlement. I pulled Amber up onto my back and she gripped me tightly as I bounded up the tree, all eyes in the village turned to us as we headed towards the chieftain’s own hole. And no one can blame them, after all it was unusual to see a squirrel and mouse, let alone a mouse princess clinging onto a lowdown member of the society. I walked boldly up to the chieftain’s door and rapped loudly at the door. "I am leaving, I would like you to gather the squirrels together. I have something that I must tell them," I announced as he opened the door.

"What do you wish to tell them about?"

"The story of my life as told by King Saren."

The chief did what I asked and the trees were bristling from head to toe with restless squirrels, after all nothing will ever calm a squirrel down and sitting around in anticipation helps even less. I approached the speaking phone and said, "You may all know me as Zanerif, son of Cassie and Leon, but in truth I am the son of Empress Sandra of Urthenoga."

I stood there relating the story to my family, friends, and elders as it had been told to me. "And that is why I must return to Urthenoga to succeed my mother, otherwise everything she sacrificed, all the death and destruction, would have been for nothing. And it won’t be easy, for her, the people, or me. And that is why I need your help. You, friends, have protected me from when I was a baby and now I will repay you. I will return to seek my mother, I thank you all for everything you have done for me and I love each and every one of you. And I am sorry for every misdeed I have committed and lives that were lost because of them. But the other day’s incident was not without reason, if I had not acted on that thought, the black cat would have killed Amber, daughter of King Saren, now I introduce Princess Amber," after this I sad down, a little nervous after the speech.

After the conference I went to see Cassandra and Leon, and Sam, Amber was busy talking with the chief as old friends. So, this gave me a little free time to say my good byes to ones closest to me. "We’ll still love you! And you will always be our little Zanerif , in our eyes. I couldn’t imagine you to be a different person and we will always be you parents no matter what happens in Urthenoga!" Cassie cried.

I began crying to and shaming myself, for ever doing this to them. They will have to live again with the fact that all these years had been lies and that Zanerif was truly dead. "Mother, I was raised by you and Father, and I’ll always be your Zanerif. Sandra may be my mother but she was never there to raise me, you were the one who raised me. You will never be anything but my mum and dad. And you, Sam, you will always be my smart and helpful older brother. All of you must remember that even across cast distances I will still love you as my true family. I love you, so long," I sniffled through my tears.

"Must you go so soon?" Father asked. "I am sorry but there is some things I must ask another family and good byes to them as well," I answered, and walked out of the building I had called home for so many years.

Shanika was waiting for me at her house. "Is the whole story true?" she asked.

"Yes, all of it," I answered, "I need to speak to you and your parents."

"Mom! Dad!" she called.

Her parents appeared inside the doorway, "Yes dear?"

"Oh! It’s Zanerif, prince of Urthenoga!" her father Alec said.

I blushed at the mention of my full title, "Please don’t call me that. I am still the same squirrel I was before I found out. Now I have to say good bye and thank you, and even though I don’t remember it I believe that I owe you my life."

I hesitated and continued, "I would like to ask you if Shanika could come with me and Amber on the journey to Urthenoga. In truth I would like to take her to see the land of her birth."

Both Salice and Alex sat down shaking. Their faces reminded me of a rabbit caught by a cat, complete and utter acceptance and shock. Yet not really accepting. Shanika looked from her mother to her father and asked, "Oh please let me go with him, it is the least you could do for not telling me the truth, and I will be safe with Zanerif. All of these questions and all the answers I seek on my heritage all lead to Urthernoga, so please let me go!"

"Your mother and I have both knew this time would come; for both you and Zanerif. And we both prayed that this time would never time, but eventually I know you would want to learn the truth. You may journey with Amber and Zanerif," her father answered while comforting Salice.

Though Shanika’s tear soaked face she could barely see where she was going and she tripped over a small table and landed in a heap of paws and furry tails on her parents laps, and she hugged them, strangling was more like it. "I thank you from the depth of my soul, and I swear to you that I will return your daughter to you, alive and well, this I vow to you. I will repay your protection," I said thanking them.

"Mother, Father, thank you, remember that I will always love you!" Shanika yelled as she disentangled herself from them.

"We love you too honey. Don’t take chances and please come back safely!" her parents yelled as we dashed out of the house to meet up with Amber. I knew that I had another debt to be paid for, I would always enjoy her company. There would never be any silence between Amber and me now.

Amber, Shanika, and me were given the opportunity to spend the night and we gladly accepted. After all it was getting darker by the minute and we would not be able to reach cover before nightfall when the nocturnal predators are about. I gave Amber the choice of spending the night with my family, and me but she rejected, saying that she did not want to intrude on what could be my last night with them, and she decided to room with Shanika for the night. I got a little disappointed because I think she was trying to postpone the inevitable. We were in love.

Mourning came and as the dawn rose so did we. We marched slowly and silently out of Wantole and headed east towards Urthenoga and my future. The sun began rising pointing in the direction allowing us to continue on the true trail. Mid-mourning came and went faster than I could believe was possible. And all this time we were getting closer and closer to my destiny. I felt the perspiration dripping down my sweaty face when Shanika stopped. She asked me, "Zanerif, what do you have to prove by continuing. We are three travelers, two squirrels and a mouse, and when we stop for the night we will be to weak to really do anything."

"Well, what else do you want to do? Just stop in the middle of the field with no cover and take a nap, or continue on towards our destination and stop at the most sensible stop along the way," I snapped, "Come on! We are in the middle of nowhere, our predators are bigger than we are and hunt in the middle of nowhere! If we stop now we will die!"

And it was true, the landscape was bleak and barren and desolate with no sign of life except the random up cropping of grass and no water. The sweltering heat, made traveling a curse. The choking heat and the hard cracked earth made the traveling hard on our paws. They were scratched and bleeding and my pads were naturally harder than both of them were and I wonder how worse off the two of them were. I dropped back towards Shanika and I apologized to her, "Shanika, I am sorry for the way I just yelled at you, I am just as tired and hot as you two are. At the first chance we have to stop we will and there we may be able to come up with a solution to our feet problem," I finished laughing.

"That won’t be a problem, we’ll be able to survive," Amber replied.

"Are you sure?"

"Yes! Just look over there, just below the horizon," Amber said guiding my hand to point at a shimmering landform, "There! An oasis."

The marching got easier, mostly because we saw an end in sight. We made it there faster than we had expected and plunged straight into the water. The crisp, clear water washed over our injured feet. We winced in unison as the water cooled off our skinned pads, but the feeling of the water eventually changed into a soothing coolness. The beauty of the spring was of a primal force. I swam over and lay down on the shore underneath a large swamp maple, thinking. Soon, however, the thinking made me tire and I fell asleep.

I sneezed. A large strand of the swamp maple was tickling my nose. That ignited the flame. I pulled a strand down and felt it. It was strong and durable, it would be perfect for sandals. The sun had long since risen and made the decision to stay unanimous. I looked on either side of me to see the two sleeping beauties. Amber lay with her head nestled against my neck and I began to stroke her. She began to stir and slowly her eye lids rose and exposed her gorgeous eyes to me once again. Her tawny fur felt like silk underneath my caresses as I continued to stroke her lovingly. I drew her in closer and hugged her, she followed by suit and wrapped her paws around me. No words were shared, yet it was still as passionate as one with speech, this silent embrace was broken when we heard Shanika stir. Quickly we broke up the embrace and stood up, as silent as ever. Staring at Amber’s face led me to a strange conclusion, it had changed. Amber was now wearing a mask to hide the pent up feelings from being revealed and I was amazed at her self control as I could never hide my feelings, and most squirrels couldn’t, either.

Yeah, yeah. I know, I know. It's a bit sappy isn't. Well I am rewriting it to make it smoother and better. Wait a moment...SH*T Okay... don't panic... Besides rewriting it I will make sure I have the complete story up ASAP!