The elders were very proud of them! When Library Rotano opened up to all of the ants, there were so many that wanted to read the stories! They declared that having Uncle Rotano, and now Natu, recite the stories was really very nice and pleasant sometimes, but they wanted to read them all for themselves. Natu and Rinak were very pleased that the ants were happy that they had decided to open the stories to the colony. It made them feel very good to share with everybody.
32. A colony rest-day was coming soon. This day was declared to be a day free of all work, that everyone must do whatever they wanted, but no one was to work. Natu and Rinak tried to argue with the elders that the library must stay open so the ants could read, but the elders were insistent that NOBODY works. Natu was wondering what he would do on his rest-day, and remembered the area around the berry bushes. He asked Rinak to come with him, but Rinak said that they were business-ants now and had to be responsible. He wasn’t going out on a crazy trip for no reason. Natu was sitting around with Timmy, Rabbit and Lily, telling them about the area. Timmy was very interested in the sound of the berries, and Lily, being a cat, couldn’t contain her curiosity about the odors Natu described. Rabbit said it sounded like a lot of walking and they could count her out. So it happened that on rest-day, Natu climbed on top of Lily, and Lily climbed on top of Timmy, and they all took off for the berry bushes. It seemed to Natu that they got there a whole lot faster than he and Rinak did, but he couldn’t figure out why. But on the way, he saw the rock they had picnicked on, and beside it, the puddle was still there! How could that be? It had been days and there had been no falling water in all this time! The puddle should be gone! He decided to wait until they stopped to rest to ask the others about that. He nestled in on the soft fur of Lily’s head and dozed, thinking that this was the best way to travel. Suddenly his furry bed got all jumpy and when he looked, Lily was wide-eyed with her claws in Timmy’s fur while he lumbered quickly toward the berry bushes. Just the sweet smell of them had excited him and he couldn’t wait to eat them! They smelled as good as honey! As he quickly stopped at a bush, Lily fell off of his back and Natu went flying over the bushes…. Onto the largest rock he had ever seen!
33. As Timmy tried all colors of berries, declaring which were his favorites, Lily picked her way over rocks and moss and twigs to where Natu lay on top of a flat rock. He couldn’t hear a thing, so loud was the roaring in his head. And that odd smell that he remembered from before was all around him. Lily asked if he was alright, but he couldn’t hear her, so she picked him up gently in her pay and lay him on her head. Then she made her way back to Timmy, who was still eating berries! She smacked him on the nose and yelled his name. He realized what had happened and sat down, sheepishly apologizing and asking if everyone was ok. Natu said that he had heard a roaring in his head but it was gone now. Then Lily told him that it was the water roaring that he heard. Water roaring? Timmy and Natu looked at her like she was out of her mind! So she jumped on Timmy’s back and told him to keep walking. The roaring got louder and the next thing they knew, they were standing by a line of water running very fast and pounding over rocks, with weird looking things moving around and jumping out and back in. Lily excitedly cried that she’d heard about this! It was called a stream. But what she had heard about sounded a lot quieter than this. And what were those wriggly things in the water? Timmy calmly reached in, pulled one out and laid it on the flat rock. It jumped around a bit, and then lay still. It didn’t have any arms, but had strange things sticking out of its back and sides. Instead of legs, it seemed to have a forked tail. Its eyes were very large and its mouth kept puckering up and letting go. Natu was so excited, he went and grabbed a berry, jumped up and down on it a few times, found a small twig and a flat leaf, and made a drawing of the creature. Lily pawed at its tail-feet, and the things on the sides. Timmy sniffed very closely at it and seemed quite interested. Between Timmy sniffing, and Lily pawing, the creature fell off of the rock right into the water! They watched it lay there for a moment, and then it quickly swam away. They couldn’t believe how fast it could move without any arms or legs! The three friends talked and talked about all the strange things they had seen all the way back to the colony. The bushes, grasses, water rocks, swimmy things with no arms or legs, water running to fast! They were exhausted by the time they got back, and each went to their own home to rest.
34. The next morning, when Rinak and Natu opened the Library Rotano, Natu told Rinak all about the adventure and the lovely and unusual new things they had found. He showed Rinak the drawing he had made of the swimmy thing, and they decided to look through the library to see if Uncle Rotano had any information about them. It took a few days, but they finally found a picture that Uncle Rotano had drawn. It was an exact likeness of the rough water, things in it, berry bushes, flat rocks, everything! Uncle Rotano said that the swimmy things were called fish, and that bears, cats and hawks liked to eat them, if they could catch them. He said the water was very rough sometimes, but at other times, it was much lower and very quiet and peaceful. He said that at those times, it was wonderful to lay on a rock, gaze up at the bright earth-roof, and listen to the water and dream. Natu and Rinak thought that sounded like such a great idea, but how would they know when the water was low and quiet? They decided to keep this wondrous place a secret for now until they could find out more about it. After all, it was their jobs to write down everything they could learn about life in the meadow, and if that included some travel to other places, then the ant colony could benefit from that!
Soon after that, a strange hawk came into the meadow and chased Rabbit into her hole. Word went out and Lily ran to get Timmy to come back to the meadow and help them! When they got back to the meadow, the strange hawk was gone, and their friend Hawk was sitting in a bush. Rabbit ran to Lily and Timmy, and reminded them that the hawk said he would not let any creatures of the air harm them, and that he had chased the strange hawk away! Lily went to Hawk to thank him for saving her friend, and making their lives safer. Timmy sat off to one side, looking meanly at Hawk. Timmy still didn’t trust Hawk, and was watching everything he did, ready to rescue his friends if he needed to. Since Hawk was up in the air, and probably had seen their stream, Natu ran and got Uncle Rotano’s picture and asked Hawk if he knew of this place, and what could he tell them about it?
35. Hawk knew the place well. He liked to eat the fish that swam in the stream, and the berries in the bushes. But there are times when the water was calm that he could not catch the fish because they were too far below the surface of the water. Without thinking, Timmy called out right away that if the water was calm, he could walk in and reach the fish for Hawk. Everyone was really surprised! They knew Timmy didn’t like Hawk, and here he had just offered to help Hawk get food! Of course, all Timmy was thinking about was a good excuse to try the fish and see if he liked the taste of them. Then Lily asked if she could join them. She seemed to remember that her people used to give her food from a small round shiny thing that smelled something like the odor around the water, and the fish that they had pulled up. She wanted to try it, too. Then Natu remembered that he and Rinak had brought back a red berry and a blue berry from their trip to get a black berry for ink. Natu asked Hawk if the red berries and the blue berries were good to eat, and Hawk told them that ALL of the berries were good to eat, unless they were green. That meant that they weren’t ready to eat yet. Natu ran to the library and brought up the red berry and the blue berry and offered them to the elders. The elders first licked each berry and nodded their heads that they seemed ok, then took a small bite of each. Oh, how their faces lit up with happiness! They declared that those berries were almost as good as nectar! They ordered that from that day on, the gatherers were to include the berry bushes in their gathering from time to time to bring berries home for all of the colony. Meanwhile, Natu quietly walked back into the tunnels without being seen, and went to the library and tasted his ink that had been made from black berries. He couldn’t have imagined eating ink before, but now he tried it and found it to be very good indeed. He realized that he needed to tell Rinak that no one should ever know the secret of their ink, or all of their chronicles and stories would be eaten up!!! So the next day when they went to work in the library, Natu whispered to Rinak what he had discovered. Rinak agreed, so they decided that if anyone asked, the making of the ink was a going to be a secret.
36. Hawk agreed that he would let Timmy and Lily know when the water was calm again. Natu decided it was time for him to sit down and write down all of these stories that had been happening around the meadow. They surely qualified as history! And soon the day come when Timmy came into the meadow, saying that Hawk had told him the water was calm now. Lily jumped on his back and rode with him to the stream. When they returned, Natu wrote everything down, and Rinak was going to read the story to the colony the next day. But Rinak had noticed for a while that he was having a little trouble seeing, and realized that he couldn’t see well enough to read Natu’s story! Oh my. He couldn’t take care of the library if he couldn’t read! What was he to do? About that time, two young ants came in the library and saw that Rinak was upset. They asked him what was wrong, and he told them he couldn’t see well enough to read anymore. The bigger young one told Rinak that this was not a problem, that his grandpa was like that and that they had made him reading water to wear on his head and it worked fine! Rinak didn’t understand this at all, but the children hurried out of the library and said they would be back soon. Rinak just sat down and worried and worried. He didn’t know how to tell Natu. Now all of the hard work at the library would fall to Natu if Rinak could no longer read! What good was he? After a short time, the children came running back into the library and called to Rinak. We did it!, they cried. They showed Rinak a strange looking item made from woven sweet grass that would fit on his head. They told him that all he had to do was dip it in water and he would be able to see fine through the water drop in the middle. He didn’t believe this would work, but he was desperate! He went up top with the young ants and found a water drop and dipped his reading grass into it. A small drop of water stayed inside the hole made in the reading grass. Rinak sat the reading grass on his head and couldn’t believe his eyes! He could see clearly! He ran back to the library and tried to read, and found that it worked perfectly! Again, the library and Rinak’s job was saved. Natu wouldn’t have to do everything alone and the library would go on as before. Rinak praised the boys and declared that he would go tell the elders about the magnificent reading grass they had made for him.
37. Rinak went straight to the elders who, upon seeing him with this strange grass-thing on his head, asked him what in the world he was doing? Had he gone mad? Rinak explained about the boys with their magical reading grass. He let the elders try it, for they were getting older and having trouble seeing as well, and they were so amazed! They exclaimed that they each needed some of the reading grass, and for Rinak to send the boys to them. Rinak mentioned that the boys were a little young for a job yet, and once word got out, all of the colony would want a reading grass. The elders thought about that, and told Rinak to send the boys’ fathers to them instead. When Rinak summoned the fathers, they were scared to go before the elders. They thought that their boys must have done something very wrong for the elders to want to see them. But they sheepishly appeared before the elders, hands behind their backs, heads down. Until an elder declared that the fathers had raised marvelously ingenious boys and that the elders were going to do something they had never done before! They were going to have the boys train ants who are ready for the work force to make their wonderful reading grass for whoever in the colony wants one! The colony ants would give the boys extra nectar, cakes and berries in exchange for the reading grass. The fathers, who were tunnel-workers, would no longer work the tunnels, but would oversee all aspects of the training, and making of the reading grasses, and exchanges of sweets, since their sons were too young to be responsible for these things. The fathers were so pleased and thanked the elders, and thanked Rinak and ran to their tunnel-rooms to tell their families about this wonderful idea of the elders’! A private business had been born in the meadow.
38. Rinak went back to the library and told Natu about this new amazing thing going on in the meadow. While Natu ran to talk to the fathers and sons so that he could properly chronicle everything, Rinak read Natu’s report of the trip that Timmy and Lily took with Hawk to the calm stream. Goodness, he was so glad he could read so well now. Everything was so much clearer. Natu’s story began with Hawk visiting Timmy’s tree that morning to wake him up. Hawk was calling that the stream is calm, the stream is calm. Timmy’s head slowly came out of the tree, followed by his large body and short little tail. Hawk told him to hurry, that he was hungry and Timmy had to help him eat! Oh, that did not go over well with Timmy, because he said he would help Hawk but did not promise to do it all the time! So Timmy was grumbling, and Hawk was insistent when they entered the meadow and looked for Lily. Hawk asked Timmy if he could sit on his shoulder, and Timmy just looked at Hawk and growled. Hawk just figured that you’re not supposed to wake up a bear too early! He didn’t realize that Timmy neither liked him nor trusted him. They finally found Lily, who jumped on Timmy’s back and they all started toward the stream, Timmy still grumbling, Lily chattering away, and Hawk moaning in hunger. Lily asked Hawk when he had last eaten. Hawk told them that yesterday he had flown over the stream and realized it would be calm enough today for Timmy to grab fish, so he didn’t eat yesterday, he was so excited at getting a fish this morning. Timmy growled at Hawk. Hawk told Timmy that he was sorry, he really wasn’t thinking, but now he was so hungry he could barely fly. Lily pleaded with Timmy to let Hawk ride on his back until they got to the stream. Timmy really didn’t want to, because he couldn’t see if Lily was ok while she was on his back, and he didn’t want Hawk to do anything to her. But at her insistence, Timmy finally agreed. He would just have to turn his head far one way to glance and make sure Lily was ok. He quickly got them to the stream, so Lily and Hawk could jump down. Lily carefully picked her way over the rocks to the water, and sniffed it and batted at it. She didn’t much like water. Hawk few to higher rocks so he could see the fish and direct Timmy to them.
39. Timmy stepped into the water, looking down and waited for Hawk to point out a good looking fish to him. As fast as lightning, Timmy’s long sharp claws struck out and hooked a big fish. He laid in on the rock in front of Hawk, and then looked down to find another fish. When he saw a smaller one darting nearby, he reached into the water and caught that one for Lily. Placing it gently in front of her, Timmy told Lily to try a taste and see how it is. She bit into the fish and spit out a lot of small clear hard things. She asked Hawk what was going on! Where’s the meat? Hawk explained that she had to take her claws and scrape the small hard things away, and then you could eat the meat, so Lily tried that. Oh, the meat was delicious, just as she remembered it. She told Timmy that he must try it, it was so good! Timmy’s claws were too large to scrape the little hard things off of it, so he just put it in his mouth. He bit down, and the flavor that filled his taste buds made his eyes roll! It was better than nectar and cakes! He had to have more! So he wandered back into the stream and caught another one. This one didn’t have the hard things on it, so he just popped it in his mouth without evening worrying about it. It tasted a bit different than the other one, but still delicious. After another one, he realized that he was getting full! This stuff was good for him. Hawk had almost finished his fish, but Lily sat patiently waiting for Timmy to chow down before she reminded him that he had eaten all of hers. Timmy apologized and went to find another fish for Lily to eat.
After they had eaten their fill, they rested for a while. Then Lily asked hawk what was on the other side of the stream. Hawk told them there were more rocks, more berry bushes, wildflowers and grasses. Everything they needed if they ran out of it in their own meadow. Timmy asked him if there were any other cats, bears, rabbits or ants. Hawk told him that there was another ant colony, but he kind of turned away when he said there were no more cats or rabbits. Oh, oh, said Timmy to himself. That means that Hawk has eaten them all and soon he’ll want Lily or Rabbit. I will have to watch over them very carefully. Hawk said that the ants over there were not nearly as productive or smart as the ones in their meadow. He said that they could barely feed themselves, and ran around in circles trying to figure things out. Lily jumped up on Timmy’s back once again for a ride back to the meadow, while Hawk flew overhead, happy that his hunger was gone and he felt much better. Suddenly, Timmy declared that he was going to move back to the meadow for a while. He said he didn’t really need to sleep in the tree while it was so nice outside, and he enjoyed being around his friends, Lily and Rabbit. Yep, he said, that’s just what I’ll do. What do you think of that, Hawk? Well, Hawk tried to talk him out of it! He told Timmy that a bear’s place was in the woods, that his tree was closer to his honey hive, that he needed the tree for cover in case of rain. He said that he’d never heard of a bear living in a meadow, and that the deer wouldn’t go there to eat for fear of Timmy chasing them! Lily told Hawk that the deer knew Timmy from when he was recovering from all the briars, and they trusted him. She thought it was a lovely idea for Timmy to be closer to them. They wouldn’t have to travel so far to talk and play. Then Hawk said that it was time to return to his nest for the night, and told them goodnight and flew away. But Timmy had seen the look on Hawk’s face as he turned toward his nest, and Hawk seemed mad.
40. After Rinak finished reading the account of the trip to the stream to try the fish, Rabbit looked at Timmy and asked him why he didn’t trust Hawk. Timmy just said he didn’t know, but something deep inside of him told him that he needed to really watch out for his friends. Timmy stayed in the meadow that night, and the next day went back to his tree to pack a few things on his back and bring them to the meadow, where he vowed he would stay until he was no longer uneasy about Hawk. All the ants were happy that Timmy decided to stay there. They had really come to like the big bear, and Timmy tried his best to be friendly with the ants. But his favorites were Lily and Rabbit. Partly because he didn’t have to strain to hear what they were saying! He could play with them, and run around the meadow with them. It just wasn’t as much fun playing with the ants. What Lily had told Hawk was true, too, that the deer were used to Timmy and trusted him. But Lily hadn’t noticed that the deer didn’t go near Timmy.
A couple of days went by, and again, a strange bird flew into the meadow to try to grab Lily or Rabbit. And again, Hawk flew in just in time to fight the stranger and save Lily and Rabbit. Everyone in the meadow, including the deer that were there to feed, cheered and congratulated and thanked Hawk. Everyone except Timmy. It seemed odd to him that the fighting occurred on the other side of the meadow from Timmy and he couldn’t get there in time to help his friends. It bothered him a great deal. He went to Natu and asked him if it was true that some ants could actually climb up each other and build columns of ants. Natu said yes, that his colony was in fact that kind of ant. So Timmy sat Natu on his head, took a stroll and had a chat with Natu about Hawk. Natu agreed and said he would speak with the elders. Everyone noticed that Natu and Timmy spent a lot of time together after that, and that the elders had held a secret meeting with the colony. Neither Lily, Rabbit nor the deer had any idea what all of this was about, because no one would say! Secrets! Secrets in the meadow! Oh my, they all thought they were good friends, but not if secrets were around. It upset Lily, Rabbit and deer to know they weren’t included in everything. Days went by, and things seemed to get back to normal, but there was that secret between the ants and Timmy that stayed between all them and their friends. Then, once again, a strange bird flew into the meadow hunting for cat or rabbit. Once again, Hawk came into the meadow to save them. But Hawk didn’t know about the secret. Suddenly, out of nowhere, hundreds of ants appeared, rose together in a column and knocked the strange bird out of the sky!!!! Timmy made it there just a moment later to take the dead bird away. Lily and Rabbit ran to the ants and said how brave and smart they were! They were cheering so much, that they didn’t notice Hawk slink away, looking very mad. But Timmy and the deer saw it. The deer looked at Timmy questioningly, but Timmy only shrugged and walked away.
41. Just as Timmy had feared, one cloudy afternoon, Hawk flew into the meadow calling for Lily and Rabbit. When they called to tell him where they were, Hawk flew as fast as he could toward them in hunting mode!!! Lily and Rabbit couldn’t believe it for a minute, then screamed and started running as fast as they could for Rabbit’s warren! The ants gathered, but Hawk was too far away for them to get to quickly, and Timmy was nowhere to be seen! All they could do was hope that Lily and Rabbit could make it to the warren for safety and that it was big enough to keep them safe but also keep Hawk out. Oh, how they fretted. Timmy had been right about Hawk. He couldn’t be trusted. He was just pretending to be their friend until he felt he could get close enough to Lily and Rabbit to grab one of them! Where was Timmy??? Suddenly, they saw Rabbit and Lily slide into the warren and immediately a large bear appeared right in front of the warren, rising on his rear legs, claws out, teeth bared, ready to attack Hawk. It was Timmy, and he was very angry! And, dancing around the warren, were deer! Many deer, all sizes, all on their hind legs dancing around and around! They were distracting Hawk, who only wanted to get to the warren without letting Timmy get him first. He flew this way, and that way, and the other way, trying to get around the hooves of the deer, when Timmy got him from behind. Knocked him clear out of the sky!!! Timmy lumbered over to where Hawk had fallen, and circled him within his large sharp claws. Everyone ran over to see what Timmy would do. It was so quiet, you could hear a clover flower opening! Rabbit said ‘Why?’. Hawk smirked and said that this is the way of his kind. Cunning, wiles, whatever it takes to get your prey. If I made you think I was your friend, you would never be watchful for me to attack. I expected Timmy to help, even maybe the ants, but what’s this with the deer? A large buck with many tree limbs on his head looked angrily at Hawk and told him that he had messed up! Hawk had been telling the deer that they couldn’t trust Timmy. He was a bear and it was his instinct to kill deer. But then the deer saw how Timmy worked with the ants to save Lily and Rabbit, and had decided to have a talk with him. They believed that Timmy truly was gentle and a friend, and that Hawk was the evil one. They offered to help Timmy any way they could to stop Hawk’s plan to grab Lily or Rabbit. Hawk realized he had lost. He looked up at Timmy, whose large claws still encircled him, and asked him what was going to happen next. Timmy was still so mad, his eyes were red. Natu, who had been furiously scribbling down what was happening, stopped his writing and told the gathering that they all had been wronged. But especially Lily and Rabbit since they were in such danger because of Hawk’s lies. He suggested that Lily and Rabbit determine Hawk’s fate. The elders called for the bees to come and help them. After explaining what had happened, the bees agreed and lifted Hawk up in the air, encased in a cage of bees and hung from the nearest tree. This was to give Lily and Rabbit time to decide what to do about Hawk.