Chapter 5

Grandfather, I am not sleepy at all and I want to know what happened to the little girl, what happened grandfather please please. He went on with his story. “Well my little bear granddaughter, as I told you, the earth cracked in that moment. Well, the little girl picked more delicious berries and more and more until her basket was getting full. Just then as the earth cracked a little more, all the berries spilled out of her basket. Now she was hard headed and obstinate and did not follow instructions, like to walk around bear poop, but she was very careful with baskets and with berries. So.. when the basket suddenly turned over on it’s own and the berries she had picked so carefully spilled out she was surprised and even more angry.

Now it seemed she was older in a moment and she saw a young man she had never seen before. He was very very handsome and she was now very very beautiful. (it’s a story my beautiful granddaughter so magical things can happen you know, but she was always a very beautiful little girl like you so it’s not magic for her to turn into a beautiful young woman too.) the man was very tall and strong looking, but strangely enough, she could not look directly at him in the normal way. She would look at him sideways and back and forth not focusing and then see him like he was made of light. Well, my beauty his face was painted with red stripes and it was red on one side and white on the other. His hair was long and in a braid, he was wearing a bear skin over his back and was so totally beautiful that chooki was hypnotized by him.

He had a beautiful voice like a musical growl and he said, “Well beautiful young woman. Those berries you spilled were not good anyway. They were covered with dirt and poo and I know much better ones down the path a little way. I will walk home with you, you can leave the other women, and I will show you the berries.” She followed him and felt all tingly all over and very happy and he led her to the berries and they picked them together. The day was sunny and warm with no breeze, the sky blue, the berries fresh and succulent, and she was beginning to be very very happy. When they filled the basket half full together he said, “I know another bunch of berries a little further down the path, let’s go and pick them, they are the best berries. So they walked together hand in hand down the path a good distance and found the berries and together picked them one by one. As they picked them, she looked up at him at his beautiful  handsome face, and felt so warm inside and happy, she had never been like this in her young life, he had melted her heart.

With a full basket of berries, he said, “My beautiful maiden, you must be hungry after picking all these berries in the sun, I will cook you some lunch now to make you even more happy.” And he captured a rabbit and held it over something he made that looked like a fire but was not a real fire it was hot energy and cooked her delicious lunch that tasted so good she could not believe it. and as she ate she could not take her eyes of him even though they were crossed and she could not look directly at him, she would move her head back and forth and see deeply his beauty. They ate and ate and she had never had such wonderful food or such a good time. after they ate he said, “ My beautiful maiden, it’s much too late now to go home. So I will make you a camp here and we will sleep right here, next to this stream in this wild spot. So he made her a wonderful camp, he spread soft pine branches on the ground and put leaves on top of them and bark around the edges and then he put dandelion flowers all around. They they together side by side on the bower he had made them and he said, “ My beautiful maiden mine, if you wake up before me, don’t lift your head and don’t open your eyes. Let me wake up first and then I will wake you and open your eyes so you can see.” So they went to bed. She snuggled up against his huge body, against his long long hair. She went under his bear skin robe and felt his body against hers. She was young and had never been with anyone and she melted into him and fell asleep quickly and did not remember her dreams that night at all.