

### Leaving Nora's Garden

By Michael Damien Harrison

Dedicated to my daughters and to my grandchildren.

Copyright © 2013 by Michael Damien Harrison

Cover design by Michael Damien Harrison

Published by Michael D. Harrison at Smashwords

All rights reserved

ISBN 978-0-9834881-8-7

This e-book is licensed for your personal enjoyment only. This e-book may not be resold or given away to other people. If you would like to share this book with another person, please purchase an additional copy for each recipient. If you are reading this book and did not purchase it, or it was not purchased for your use only, then please return to Smashwords.com and purchase your own copy. Thank you for respecting the hard work of this author.

Table of Contents

Part I: The Story of the Lizard's Children

Chapter 1: Her Children

Chapter 2: Almost Learning to Swim

Chapter 3: The Glass Butterfly

Chapter 4: Cheating the Cat

Chapter 5: The Black Widow

Chapter 6: The Waggle Dancers

Chapter 7: The Changing Seasons

Chapter 8: Noah's Worst Day

Chapter 9: Nora's Garden

Chapter 10: The Traveler

Chapter 11: The Blue Chest Wars

Chapter 12: Hailey Meets the Mouse

Chapter 13: Mariposa and the Search Uphill

Chapter 14: The Recovery

Chapter 15: Leaving Nora's Garden

Chapter 16: Rallying the Troops

Chapter 17: The Hairy Spider in the Pyramid

Chapter 18: The Battle for Freedom

Chapter 19: The Return Home

Part II: Hagador's Orchard

Chapter 20: Taking Hailey Home

Chapter 21: From the Highlands of the Yucatan

Chapter 22: The Orchard

Chapter 23: The Return of Cuella

Chapter 24: Daniel Moves On

Chapter 25: Glider the Hawk

Chapter 26: Daniel Finds His Friends

Chapter 27: Miguel Returns to Corona

Chapter 28: Mariposa to the Rescue

Chapter 29: Friends in Need

Chapter 30: Captured

Chapter 31: Hailey's Family

Chapter 32: The Ground Squirrels

Chapter 33: Fate

Chapter 34: The Escape

Chapter 35: Daniel's Tale

Part I: The Story of the Lizard's Children

Chapter 1: Her Children

"Good night, Momma. I hope you feel better," Hailey said.

Miss Julie was tired from laying the seven eggs. They had arrived steadily, one per hour. Hailey saw her mother's eyes were still moist from the effort.

"I'll be okay tomorrow," Miss Julie said.

Hailey was relieved her mother's ordeal was over for the year. Even so Hailey was excited by the magical birth thing and how there would be siblings for her to play with. Miss Julie had explained it to her many times so Hailey knew it was how she had also come into the world. Yet she thought seeing them hatch would complete her understanding.

Miss Julie told her the eggs needed to be covered with a thin layer of sand for four weeks and at the end of the time the babies would hatch. She said during the weeks of development the eggs' soft shell would become transparent so they could see the gender each of the eggs had become. Once they knew the gender she could help her mother give them names, even before they hatched.

As she readied for sleep Hailey grew excited thinking about having younger siblings. She decided it would be nice to have one of the eggs to take care of as her own.

Being careful her mother didn't see her Hailey crept to the neat pile of eggs. Watching for a moment to see if any egg was more special than the others, she selected the largest. Taking it very gently in her mouth she carried it back to her sleeping corner. With the wall at her back she protectively curled her tail around the egg before she fell into a restless sleep.

They came during the dark hours. There was no sound. The Black Widow Spiders dropped from the ceiling unraveling silken strings from their spinnerets at the rear of their grape-sized bellies. Each of the seven Black Widows had come to steal one of the seven Lizard eggs. The cruelest of them, the hag Lillian, watched as the others quietly lifted the eggs to secure in their own web sack. They waited in silence for Lillian to lead them back into the darkness of the ceiling.

"Where's the last egg?" said Lillian. She always hissed when she spoke.

"There aren't any more," one of them whispered. None of the subservient Black Widows wanted to tell her. They knew how furious she would be. She had told them there would be seven eggs and there were only six to be found.

"What do you mean? There were seven," said the hag. She searched the sacks her coven held to see if any of hid an extra egg. An extra egg would have been a very hard prize to resist. Below them the sleeping Lizards lined the brick wall.

"Search the nest. Find the egg. Do it now," she said.

In such close quarters not one of them would have come out of a battle without some injury. Miss Julie was weak from the birthing. Hailey was not experienced in the art of night fighting. The Hags were vulnerable in close quarters because they'd become so excited they would end up fighting each other in the confusion and could not avoid each others blasts of web.

Just as the Spiders split into two groups of three the room was flooded with bright light from above. The old man and his wife had come to hunt Black Widow Spiders in the moonless night to re-supply the science class with specimens. While the old man pulled the plywood cover off the nest she exposed the Black Widows in her flashlight beam.

"Look, there are six of them. We have to be quick," he said.

The old woman did her part. She spun the long stick tipped with molasses inside the den so by brushing it against them the Spiders were captured but not injured. The helpless Spiders jetisoned webs upon each other.

"That ought to do it," said the old woman as she pulled the stick up from the brick stack, and held it away from her body. She hobbled next to her husband back into the light of the patio. They placed the grape-sized Black Widows into separate preservation jars for the science class donation. Afterwards the old man forgot to cover the nest with the plywood board so the damp night air settled into the sleeping chamber, putting the Lizards deeper into slumber as their hearts beat slower.

Lillian avoided the capture. The instant the light flooded the nest she'd climbed into an empty corner and clamped herself into a dark ball of web and venom, waiting for the humans to go away. After their shuffling feet had gone back to the patio she dropped silently to the floor. From her hiding spot she'd seen behind Hailey and spotted the seventh egg.

Lillian looked savagely around the nest for any other sign of life. She considered for a moment whether she could steal the last egg from behind the sleeping Lizard, but the risks were too high for her. She paused, illuminated by the seething glow of the hourglass on her belly. Then she loosened a climbing web from her spinnaret, which vented upward into the night sky the way air goes up a chimney flume.

In the morning Miss Julie was the first to awaken. She knew at once what had happened. The awful smell of the Spider remained in the air. Her egg pile was gone. A few strands of climbing web dangled from the walls. Miss Julie shuddered, realizing there had been more than one Black Widow. She knew she and Hailey might have been wiped out. But she did not know the humans had again intervened in the fate of the Lizards of the yard.

"Hailey," Miss Julie shook her, "Hailey, wake up."

Hailey's mother was saddened by her unborn childrens' demise. But she could not have withstood the pain of losing her living daughter.

Hailey awoke and smelled for the first time the rottenness of the Hags permeating the room. She uncurled from around the remaining egg. "What's wrong Momma?"

"Oh thank goodness," Miss Julie said when she saw the seventh egg. "The Hags came last night. We're still in danger. We need to go, now."

She looked at the last egg and knew Hailey had slept with it. She guessed it was because Hailey had overcome her jealousy of having siblings and had chosen the one she would share her time with until it was ready to be on its own. Miss Julie smiled at her. "What are you going to name it?"

"Noah." Hailey said it as a matter of fact.

Miss Julie was pleased how without the eggs maturing into transparency Hailey guessed it was a boy. The name sounded nice. It was strong, too. With Hailey carrying Noah's egg gently between her jaws, the three left the nest to search for their new home.

Chapter 2: Almost Learning to Swim

It had been a large backyard project for the old man and his daughter when they were younger. Made resourcefully with fired-clay red bricks for the raised deck platform they'd supported it with a slump stone bearing wall, the blocks glued unevenly with mortar because he was not a skilled mason. The platform cured and hardened beneath the hot sun. It held strong for many years and was just beginning to show cracks where the weed seeds had taken root. But the purpose of the deck was still served because the platform rose a full twenty-four inches above the pool decking and allowed anything that sat upon it to take in the full extent of the backyard and the Corona Valley below.

The sun was so warm Hailey Hagador Lizard could not help but want to doze beneath it. She skittered to a stop on the huge red brick deck the way little girl Lizards do. The sun heated the bricks to toasting warmth and resting upon it was the best way to enjoy down time from watching her little brother. Hailey loved the heat almost as much as having her back rubbed by her Mama. She daydreamed how with Mama, unlike the sun, she had to pay attention and kind of squirm to get her to focus on the best spot. Beneath the sun she could just push up and down the way little Lizards do to increase the pleasure. The sun wrapped around her and she thought mmmmm....

Hailey awoke with a start. At first she thought it was because she had fallen asleep and her body had gotten too hot under the sun. But then she remembered Noah. She was supposed to watch him.

She knew Noah was growing up. He was able to run in short uncontrolled bursts. Only he did not know like she did about the dangers around the yard. To him everything was fun. Hailey didn't want to lose him so she'd decided to teach him to play it safe. She'd already taught him to climb head first straight down all the wooden and slump stone fences. And she was working on keeping Noah away from the pool until he knew its danger. Then she heard the splashing and a cry for help from her brother.

Hailey's mind raced. She elevated on all her feet, looking franticly across the dangerous blue pool from the brick platform. Hailey ran to the front of the brick deck where she could see almost all the pool surface. Nothing! But from where she stood she could see the water rippling at the waterline. She knew at once she must go closer to the pool edge.

Normally Hailey would leave the brick deck by way of the three steps. But she was in emergency mode. She jumped the entire twenty-four inch height of the platform to the concrete below. It jarred her for a second. She dashed to the pool edge, where the white coping sloped up and rounded before it dropped off into the dangerous pool. The coping was easy to hold onto up to a point and she remembered how it'd once given her a false sense of security. She could see over the rounded edge, but not down at the waterline. Hailey knew from experience a Lizard's reflection would be visible at that point.

Hailey recalled how the desire to see her own reflection in the pool had enticed her to it. In the past she'd wanted an even better view of herself. She'd guessed that where the sun did not shine directly into the water her reflection was better. So she'd edged onward until she'd stared into her reflection in amazement, where falling was unstoppable. Frantically she'd tried to back pedal. No longer in control then, she recalled the panic of being pulled to the water by a force stronger than anything she could imagine.

Suddenly she'd hung in mid-air with her back feet no longer touching the coping and her nose touching the water. Slowly and steadily she'd felt herself being pulled back up by her tail onto the coping. Hailey remembered her mother let her cry for a short time. And then she listened to her mother scold her about how dangerous the pool was for Lizards and why she shouldn't be near the edge. And then she saw her mother cry.

The thoughts flashed through Hailey's mind as she raced to the edge of the pool to peer over the side. As she guessed, Noah was clinging to the side of the pool where the water and tile met. He was gasping because he'd swallowed water and was already getting weak from the cool water temperature stiffening his legs.

"Help me," he cried through a liquid hiccup.

Hailey could see he still had some strength and if she acted quickly she could save him. She knew there was no time to run for help. And she did not have anything he could cling to in the water.

"Hold on, Noah. Grab the wall. Face up towards me!" Hailey made sure her instructions were specific. There was no time to waste. She knew if her brother worked with her she could save him from the pool.

Noah obeyed her. He turned and clung an inch up the wall. He was stuck at the point where a very small Lizard is held down by the water's surface because the surface tension is like a clinging thin film. Miss Julie had taight her it's a transparent skin which keeps all things in their place from above and below and keeps water from floating away into the air.

Hailey had done well with training Noah to climb up and down fences. His legs were strong and his tiny toes were abnormally agile for a little Lizard his age. Hailey saw he was in position. She turned around on the edge of the coping, facing away from the pool. Then she let her tail hang over the coping as she backed over the edge.

"Grab on and don't let go!"

Hailey backed further without concern for her own safety. Her long tail came within reach of Noah and she felt his tiny sharp teeth grip her tail tip. With great effort and a burst of strength she did not know she had Hailey pulled them both up over the coping.

They lay gasping for air. Noah spit out water and began to cry for himself.

Hailey waited for him to stop crying. After he did stop, she scolded him like her mother had scolded her. When she felt he had heard enough to have learned his lesson, Hailey Lizard turned away so Noah could not see her crying.

That day she learned what had made her mother cry. She knew Miss Julie was also a first born. Going forward from that day Hailey Lizard began to think of herself as Miss Hailey, brother protector. And she did not mind the taunts from her little brother as she taught him to be safe.

Chapter 3: The Glass Butterfly

"Oh no you don't!" yelled Stinky Caterpillar. Then she reared up and somehow slapped Hailey across the jaw with some of her many little feet. "I'm not your meal ticket or anybody else's!"

Stinky was always angry. She glared at Hailey, eye to eye, holding her stare until even Hailey had to blink first. And little Lizards are famous for not blinking.

Something in Hailey made her think. She really was not hungry. This bug was mean and probably not worth the fight. At least it did seem like she could fight. So better to make a friend than an enemy, she thought. This might be interesting.

"What's your name?" Hailey offered the question in friendship.

"Stephanie Belladonna Butterfly," snapped back the obviously angry caterpillar. She was standing as tall as she could, with half her brown four inch body pressed against the ground and the other half straight up in front of Hailey Lizard.

"They call me Stinky for short!"

Hailey was surprised. "Why?"

"My mom said because the birds can't stand how we taste, so they leave us alone! Good enough for you?" demanded Stinky.

"Whatever," Hailey said. She was already getting a little tired of this conversation. But at least she'd learned Stinky would not taste very good.

Just then a new noise surprised both of them. It was a buzzing rumble deep in the wood pile which was at the side of the yard. Hailey was interested. She asked Stinky if she knew what the sound was. Although it was a simple question it had the effect of bonding them in a friendship of necessity. Both knew it would be safer to check out the sound together. So instead of Stinky curling into a circle like she normally would when she was in doubt, she urged Hailey to join her in looking. Of course this was a little silly since Hailey Lizard could cover the distance to the wood pile twenty times over before Stinky could make it once.

Hailey turned her back and waited. "Climb on!" she commanded. Stinky did not know why, but she did as she was told. They were an odd sight as Hailey darted over to the wood pile and Stinky hung on for the first Lizard ride in her life.

Hailey arrived at the wood pile with Stinky hanging on the best she could. Stinky was laughing from the jostling of the ride. Which was another first for Stinky. She had never laughed before.

The two new companions waited at the bottom of the wood pile. From the resting spot they heard the echoed sounds becoming louder, like a deep hmmmm combined with scuffing and mumbling in a baritone voice.

Out came the big black Carpenter Bee. He had been in a tunnel deep within the woodpile on this farthest part of the yard. He had been rutting around, making lots of noise as he did what he liked to do the most; which was to put his nose into areas other little creatures had left behind as junk. The space he'd gone into was so tight he could not turn around.

"No problem" he'd muttered to himself, as he started to buzz backwards very, very slowly. He was scuffing his feet and bumping the walls of this dark web covered tunnel, making a lot of noise as he backed up. He was mumbling with contentment each inch of the way.

Hailey and Stinky heard all the commotion. They readied themselves to run as they waited to see what would come out of the tunnel. To their surprise they saw a Bee's shiny fuzzy deep black rear emerge and they felt the slight wind made from its rapidly moving wings. Since Busterbee did not know they were watching he continued to mumble to himself all the way out of the pile.

The entire scene was so silly, with Busterbee covered with cobwebs, built as wide as a little bulldozer and so oblivious to anything else around him, Hailey started laughing. Busterbee heard her. He stopped his wing fanning and turned to face the laughing noise. Since most creatures were afraid of him the lack of fear he heard was a new experience. Busterbee smiled.

His wings were no longer lifting him so Hailey could see how solid he was. Busterbee stood facing Hailey Lizard on all his six legs. She laughed even harder. Because even though he smiled the cobweb on his face had formed a mask of beard and mustache and eyebrows. He looked like an old man in a young Bee's body. Busterbee liked her melodious laugh so much even he laughed at himself too; which shook his beard some more, which made Hailey and Stinky laugh harder. At that moment they all were defenseless and could not resist becoming friends.

They became an odd trio of friends. Hailey had not intended to exclude Noah. But over the next month it just seemed to work out that way. Busterbee would come early to see if she could play. They would go find Stinky, the mostly angry Caterpillar. Stinky would take several minutes to remember who they were. After a bit of time the threesome would begin their slow search around the yard. Stinky would ride Hailey across the hot concrete. Busterbee would fly back and forth above them. Between the three of them they were sure to spot any danger. Then they would hide and laugh and throw taunts out when they could do it safely.

They never really had a plan. It was the way the young friends liked doing things. "Discovery!" was what Busterbee called it. Stinky would wag her upper body back and forth as she rode Hailey. Hailey would lead the way across the yard; darting and stopping the way Lizards moved to be sure it was safe.

The trio could not possibly last long as a group of growing friends. The odds were against it. The day of changes eventually came which altered their view of each other forever. The feeling the summer was coming to an end was growing within each of them. They did not even know there was such a thing as an ending. But each of them had their own natural template which controlled their growth rates in balance with their life spans.

Busterbee wanted to range further, faster, deeper into more dangerous spots. He was so oblivious to danger because he had grown even larger. He was built so solid that when he bumped by accident into Stinky it hurt her and she would yell at him. He would yell back. And then they would call each other out until Hailey would intervene.

Stinky asked often if they were going to slow down. She liked to graze on plants. Since they didn't stop often enough Stinky was even angrier than at the beginning of their travels. Sometimes she dozed in the middle of eating, which drove both Busterbee and Hailey crazy. Eventually Busterbee would buzz and bump Stinky awake. Arguments would begin. Hailey would sit beneath the plant as a guard in case they attracted unwanted visitors.

On the patio, behind the old man's chair was a large potted bush. It was called a Ficus. The old man did not really like it because there were always leaves falling off. The leaves were in various of stages of life. There were the pale green young leaves which were a lime color when the sun shone through them, and there were the darker mid-life leaves which passed no light, and there were the yellow leaves which had gotten old and hardly needed a push to fall off the potted bush. He did not like having to stoop to clean them off the patio.

However the old man did appreciate the eight foot tall bush because it attracted an interesting array of backyard creatures. To the little oasis Antsy Hummingbirds' parents came for a brief rest each evening. The Mockingbirds might stop once per week. Miss Julie Lizard would climb up onto the pot and roll in the soil to cleanse her skin when it molted.

The old man recognized the potted tree had become a sort of animal Coffeehouse. So he introduced Lady Bugs. He released young Earthworms to help the roots breathe. He made sure there was the correct amount of water added so the worms did not drown when the roots of the Ficus were soothed by the watering. He positioned the pot so based upon the morning sunlight the bush got direct light for half the day.

In the same green planter, beside the Ficus bush, the old woman had stuck a lawn ornament. A small Lizard could look up three feet of post to see on the top of the post a wonderful stained glass Butterfly. It was attached to the post by a coiled spring, so when the wind blew, the glass Butterfly also moved back and forth as if it were a real Butterfly in flight. The wings caught the sunlight so the varicose stained-glass wings flashed purple and green and yellow.

On this special day in October the wind blew, the sun shone through the glass wings and the result was a light show on the patio floor behind the old man's chair. Stinky had crawled off of Hailey's back and was beginning her movement towards the potted bush when the flashing lights hit her in the eyes. She was startled. Being a camouflage brown Caterpillar with no other colors, she had longed for such beauty to be hers. Stinky noticed immediately how lovely she felt when the colors flashed on her skin. She did not know that in the next spring she would come to life again with all those wonderful colors.

"Hey, what's that?" asked Stinky as she looked into the source of the lights.

"It's just something the old woman planted," grunted Busterbee. He had seen it many times in his jabbing brief flights around the patio.

Stinky stopped in her tracks. She was mesmerized by the play of the stained glass colors on her body. She fell into deep thought as she stayed exposed on the open patio.

"What's wrong Stinky?" asked Hailey, looking nervously around to ensure no danger was near.

Stinky had always been a little angry when she spoke. It was something she seemed unable to control. Her voice just came out that way. Either a friend put up with it as a friend or it made them mad. But the next words she spoke were softer. "I want to go up there," she said nodding her little head towards the glass Butterfly.

"Bad idea," grunted Busterbee. He knew how long it would take her. He was in no mood for her slowness today.

"No, I have to go up there now," Stinky said again in a soft firm tone. Her voice floated in a gentle trance, as pretty in sound as the glass Butterfly was in the sunlight.

Hailey heard Stinky and knew something had changed in her. It was as if Stinky had passed through a magic door. Hailey stepped in front to block her as Stinky moved forward on her many feet. Without another word Stinky walked across Hailey's back, over to the planter and up its side wall. She climbed five feet up the trunk of the Ficus bush, selected a very leafy branch and settled into eating. As she ate she hummed with contentment to herself. It was obvious she did not intend to come down for a very long time.

Hailey climbed into the planter after Stinky. But she did not follow her up into the bush. Busterbee was distracted in different directions so occasionally Hailey could hear him come back to yell "Hey! Let's go! I'm getting bored here!" Hailey could tell even those yells were half hearted. Hailey felt a heavy sense of change in her heart.

Hailey turned and climbed down from the planter. It hurt to have someone change so much. It was painful for the separation to become so clear in just those short moments. Yet she was relieved a little as well. Stinky had been a chosen friend. But there had been growing tension which was wearing the three of them out on being together. The increase in their natural differences, even if they had been friends, was bound to make them drift apart. Maybe it was what was meant to be, Hailey thought, because the last words from Stinky were the most pleasant and happy she had ever sounded.

Hailey jumped to the ground from the planter and turned to look back. The sun no longer shone through the stained glass Butterfly. It was silent and dark and nearly invisible against the background of the bush.

"Hey, where's Stinky?" buzzed Busterbee. Without waiting for an answer he asked "What do you want to do now?"

Hailey suddenly recognized how Busterbee had also changed. He didn't pay attention. He did not stop for a minute. This was upsetting her more and more. If they have changed so much, then I must have too, she thought. Maybe I haven't been so nice either she went on in her mind as she recalled the last time she saw Noah. She had told him he was too young to play with her friends. Noah had started to argue. Then with a hurt look his little shoulders drooped and he turned and walked away.

Hailey looked up at Busterbee. "I'm going home to play with my brother," she said. Busterbee glared at her.

"Yeh, it's getting late!" he replied. Without another word he buzzed away. They never spoke again.

"Noah!" Hailey called out from the front opening at their den. "Where are you?" From the shadow of the entrance stepped a young buff boy Lizard. It was Noah. His throat had turned a slight tinge of blue in just the past month. The voice was still Noah's young voice. "Here I am! Want to go play on the fence?"

Hailey looked at him. Yes, she thought, things were different today. She knew he would be harder to beat at the fence chase game. He was so much larger. His muscles flexed on his shoulders without him trying to show off.

"Sure, let's go. Race you there!" she yelled back over her shoulder as she tried to get a head start. During those last shortening days of summer Miss Hailey became again the playful sister she wanted to be.

Chapter 4: Cheating the Cat

From the chair in which nobody else sat he read books and newspapers. Or he watched the simple animal activity on the bricks and among the plants across the blue pool. Hailey observed most often he stared unmoving beyond the fences to the south and west.

Hailey's mom explained it was what old men do most of the time. Hailey noticed she scoffed as she said it. Which seemed odd to her because, Hailey thought, wasn't that what Lizards do too. Sometimes the old man did move around, adjusting the direction his chair faced or letting down the rolled-up sun shade in the early afternoons. But to Hailey it seemed he just sat and stared. His stillness did not bother her because it was easier to keep track of his feet so he did not step on her.

One day, not long after she'd saved her brother from the deep pool, Hailey heard Mama Lizard say "Oh good, he's done it again," like it was something she had been waiting to happen.

"What's that Mama?" Hailey asked, sensing it was going to involve her.

"Oh don't you worry little miss big ears."

The words puzzled Hailey since she knew she did not have any ears because, of course, she was a sleek little Lizard. Nonetheless, she did brush her head against the fence post she was sitting against just to be sure. She saw Mama bobbed her head up and down as if to say "You'll see. Just wait and see."

Hailey was curious. But soon she was distracted by playing with Noah. The upper portion of the fence facing east got the first of the morning sun. It was a great place to play tag. Playing tag always sharpened the senses and got Noah ready for the training exercises she planned for the rest of the day.

"Come on, Noah. Let's go race on the back fence."

When they got to the fence top rail, they saw the dragonfly twins flash sharply across the blue pool. Sometimes, only an inch above the water, they held in a helicopter formation. Then as quickly as a blink they were gone across the yard, over the fence, and out of sight. Hailey and Noah watched with their mouths open.

"That's amazing!" said Noah. He had begun to mimic Hailey, which made her self conscious about what she said in front of him. But the phrase really did express her feeling about how the dragonfly twins could bounce above the pool with so little resistance from the air. They were so sharp in their brilliant orange and neon blue colors Hailey was a little jealous she was not also those colors.

"Yeh, Noah, that is amazing," Hailey echoed. Then she pushed him off the top of the fence in a move which surprised him. "You always have to be ready for the unexpected," she yelled down to him as he scrambled back onto his feet.

As Hailey looked down into his eyes she saw him freeze in terror. His eyes were fixed behind her. Noah was frozen in place. In natural defense she did the same. She saw he could not make himself move. With a slight bend of her long neck to see behind her Hailey saw what scared Noah. On the fence top rail was crouched the Cat they called Softfoot.

True to his name Softfoot had come silently from his hiding place on the ground from the dark side of the fence in the green yard. There had been no vibration when his leap had landed him on the rail behind Hailey.

Hailey saw Softfoot's tail lash back and forth which meant there was still time before he would pounce at her. Softfoot crouched lower over his feet, tensing like a spring. He was still a little out of balance from the adjustment he'd made during his landing.

Hailey could tell he was considering which Lizard would be the easiest to get; the little one on the ground who looked so confused or the feisty one on the fence in front of him which had turned to face him? Softfoot's pupil thinned as he let out a thoughtful purr. His yellow eyes thinned like elongated candle flames as he slowly inhaled.

Hailey yelled to Noah without looking away from the cat "Don't look at his eyes! Watch his lips!"

Hailey knew Softfoot always took a deep breath just before he jumped. At the moment of hesitation he was the most vulnerable to being outsmarted. That was the brief instance where he was not really in himself and his body acted from habit. When he blinked he couldn't see so his mind was just filling in the gaps.

She saw her warning was no use because Noah was stuck in a trance, hypnotized by the Cat's bottomless eyes. Hailey felt helpless. She had missed the coming of the cat and it was her fault Noah was in danger.

She decided she had no choice. She moved directly at the Cat until she was five feet away from him. Hailey knew she had to do even more to distract him. Softfoot shifted his weight, a little unsettled by her approach. Hailey darted forward another two feet. She reasoned there was nothing else to do to distract the Cat from Noah. If necessary she would sacrifice herself to save Noah.

Softfoot made up his mind. Hailey saw his eyes adjust on her and she felt the vibration of his purr through the wood beneath her feet. She knew he wanted her, the Lizard in front of him. Her heart beat faster, so she sighed to calm her mind and keep from blinking. She pumped her body up and down in defiance, taunting him. He backed a little off the forward lean of his crouch and then lowered his body over his legs as he prepared to spring at her.

"Bam! Bam!" In that instant Softfoot was struck across the top of his head. Not knowing where the strikes had come from or why he felt the hair being torn out of the top of his head, he jumped off the fence back into the green yard from where he'd come.

Hailey did not hesitate. She jumped off the fence rail and barely touched the wood on the old fence on her way down to Noah. Bumping him into action, she led him along the fence bottom, across the red brick deck, and did not stop until they were safe underneath the slump stone stacked at the side of the house.

In the meantime they could hear the "Scree! Scree!" taunts by the Mockingbirds as they harassed Softfoot in his hiding place at the base of the fence in the green yard. He growled in fury, but there was not much he could do.

Noah looked at Hailey in awe. "That was amazing!" he wheezed. He was still breathing hard. "Who were they? How did you do that?"

Hailey said, "They are the bully birds. Their nest is in the giant tree in the green yard. The same tree that Antsy Hummingbird lives in. They are noisy neighbors, she says. Whenever a Cat is out in the open they attack it from up above. They even have Cat hair lining their nest which they pull out during their Cat attacks, Antsy says."

She continued speaking as Noah's breathing slowed. "They are the birds that make noise throughout the night. Don't you remember hearing them brag in the middle of the night about how strong and fast they are. Well they really are. You have to be careful because they can also pick you up, coming from above the way they do."

Noah had recovered enough to remember what his big sister Hailey had done on the fence. "Why did you run towards the cat? He could have caught you."

Hailey looked at him, thinking for the first time about what she had done. Realizing she did not want Noah to think it was the right action to take in the case of all encounters with Cats, she said, "I got scared and confused. I think that I meant to run away. So you shouldn't do that when you see a Cat. It only works once."

Just then Mama found them in their shelter. "There you are Hailey. Come with me. Noah, you come too. It's time you learned to swim."

So off they went to the side yard as they followed Mom. On the ground was a tin baking pan. The sides were about one inch high. It was flat and about eighteen inches long and twelve inches wide. Water in the pan brimmed to the top.

"There it is," said Mama.

Hailey was confused. "What do you want me to do with it? What is it?"

Mama smiled. "The old man puts this out every now and then in order to get snails to climb in and drown. But he forgets that he needs to use something better than water to attract them. The old woman will tell him in a day or two. In the meantime, Miss Hailey, you can learn to swim. You too Noah."

Noah was the first to complain. "But it'll be cold. I'll swallow water."

Mama was ready for the excuses. "Noah, the sun has warmed the water already. Now don't be such a cry baby," she said in a calming tone. "Besides, Hailey is going to go in first."

Hailey was also ready to object. "But Mama," she said, "Lizards can't swim, they're too heavy and we don't have webbed feet!"

"No we don't, but we can hold our breath, and float, and wiggle our tails just enough to save ourselves. So if you ever want to play near the pool edge and admire yourself in the pool reflection, I suggest you do it just like I'm going to show you."

Mama struck a soft spot in Hailey, only because she recalled she'd also liked to admire herself at that age. It was a perfect incentive to learn to swim. Or better yet, to survive by floating. Hailey blushed a little about how Mama knew about the things she did in secret.

Miss Julie slowly got into the water. Hailey saw even she did not like the sense of having no control. Mama took a deep breath, held it, bobbed a little, and wiggled her tail side to side. By doing that she drifted steadily across the water filled pan and climbed out the other side. Then she looked across the tin pan pool at Miss Hailey and said, "Do it for Noah."

Hailey felt fear. But she thought, I am a brave little Lizard. Haven't I outsmarted the Cat? Haven't I saved Noah from the dangerous pool? Yes, it's time to act grown-up so I can get him to be smarter about the dangers of the yard.

So Hailey looked across the water filled pan at Mama and said "That's amazing!" She took a deep breath, held it, jumped in, and came up gasping for air, thrashing around like crazy. Then she heard Mama laughing, "Your feet can touch the bottom, Hailey!" Noah was laughing also. And Miss Hailey did not mind.

And so the little lessons continued on the very busy day in the late hot summer, in the backyard where the old man often sat alone and stared from his chair on the shaded patio.

Chapter 5: The Black Widow

When Noah did not return home for dinner Hailey began to panic. She recalled where he had been playing earlier. There had been stories about small Lizards disappearing forever in that corner of the yard. The weather was warming to the temperature at night during which the round black Spiders became very hungry and would even take away unwary young Lizards.

In fact Hailey recalled how Noah had eyed with interest the dark entrance to the hole in the brick pile the old woman had long ago stopped urging her husband to restack. Hailey had heard her say she wanted each brick to line up edge to edge so no Spiders lived near the house.

"No, Noah," Hailey had warned, "That looks dangerous." She regretted she had not said why it was dangerous. She realized she might as well have said to him "That looks interesting." She worried because she did not tell him the Black Widows hide in those places and they eat little Lizards. And she felt guilty she had not taken the time to teach him about the danger. Hailey was certain Noah had gone back to look when he had the chance to slip away.

Hailey began to retrace her steps in search of her brother. She knew if she was correct about where he had gone there would be little time to save him. Hailey ran straight to the dark entrance of the passage into the bricks. She paused to listen outside the opening. The noises from within scared her.

Hailey recognized the sound of a small body being dragged deeper through interior passages. She heard the hissing cackle of the shiny Black Widow become dimmer as she went further inside the brick stack. Hailey sniffed at the entrance to smell if it was Noah she dragged to her nest.

"Oh my gosh," she gasped, "It's Noah, she has him."

Hailey heard him thrash against the web net. She pictured Noah bumping against the passages walls as the Hag dragged him further toward her chamber.

"Stop fighting," hissed the red-bellied Spider. "Stop it or I'll finish you right here."

The words floated back out the passage so Hailey grasped how little time she had left if she were to save Noah. At least Noah's still fighting, she thought.

Hailey knew the Black Widow Spider kept few friends. Mama had taught her the female Spiders ate their mates when it was convenient; which was most of the time. So it was likely no other Black Widows were in the passage.

Hailey took a deep breath and held it. She felt the cadence grow faster inside her, steady and strong female warrior readiness, like the deep beat of a drum.

Without further delay Hailey ran through the entrance and the sudden darkness closed behind her. Even though she was frightened she ran confidently along the unlit passage. Her body was built for the environment and her mind immediately tuned into the change in the air. She tasted the dampness and the stink of fungus lining the walls.

Her heightened senses acted as an aura which felt the brick walls of the passage without her skin touching them. The protective sunlight sheath on her eyes retracted so within the passage she saw nearly as well as when outside in the sunlight. The scales on her skin around her neck and head expanded so any Spider trying to bite her would have had to get through her sharp armor coat.

Hailey was more than angry. She had come of age with her new realized confidence. Hailey was ready for the fight. Nature had turned her from the yearling Noah was now, into one of the finest fighting machines a Black Widow could meet.

She knew she had to win quickly or Noah would die.

The passage was thirty inches long before it opened into the breeding chamber of the Black Widow Spider. The sounds of Noah being dragged helped Hailey estimate the Spider had gone about twenty inches along the path. Hailey knew she needed to get to them before the Hag reached the central breeding chamber. Otherwise the Spider would gain the advantage of climbing overhead. She would drag Noah up to the web nest with her and inject poison into him where he would become the birthing feast for her brood.

Onward Hailey sprinted. She gained speed as the passage curved downward. Hailey hoped the Black Widow had not heard her so she still had the element of surprise. Hailey felt the youthful power in her; she was art in motion. She did not brush the walls nor scrape her feet on the floor as she ran onward in the darkness.

She wondered as she ran down the passage where the thumping sound, which had increased in tempo and strength, was coming from. She wondered how the Hag Spider was making it.

At the last six inches of the passage way Hailey saw the bowed leg Spider straddling Noah. Hailey launched herself in a fury with the strength of a hundred big sisters.

"Nobody is going to hurt my brother," she screamed. "Nothing will stop me!"

Hailey slapped aside the web the Spider spit from her belly. Hailey ripped the webbing with her pin-sharp teeth as she went past the Spider. She spun while she slashed out with her tail. Hailey's spinning turn around tore the web away but it did not stop the huge Spider. At its feet Noah lay wrapped in more webs. He was helpless, trussed on the ground looking upward as the Spider lowered herself to inject him.

She paused to look at Hailey, taunting her, poised to deliver the death strike into Noah's forehead.

Hailey snarled. In one blur-swift motion she gathered herself, she leapt forward. She avoided the strike of the Hag Spider, flashed past the right side of the Spider as she snapped her tail like a whip. The Spider had no time to adjust. Hailey's tail hit the Black Widow's grape sized body so fast and hard it collapsed like a wet paper bag.

The Hag Spider shrieked in pain and anger and fear. She curled into a ball on the ground next to Noah, mortally wounded yet still dangerous. Hailey saw it was preparing for another move, as her last act, to poison Noah. With another lightening move Hailey spun again and snapped her jaws around the horrible bug, crushing the life from it before she could release any poison.

In the darkness of the breeding chamber the drum beat continued. Hailey touched her brother's head and felt him smile.

Hailey took a moment to consider their situation deep within the brick pile. The webbing around Noah pinned his legs against his body. She knew if she took the time to unwind the webbing other Spiders might come to investigate. Hailey grasped Noah by the snout and he did not protest. Slowly she backed out of the tunnel.

Noah did not speak during the entire trip. It took several minutes but finally Hailey backed clear of the tunnel into the sunlight.

Hailey noticed again the thumping sound. It was not as loud as before but it visibly shook her body. She cocked her head trying to gauge where the sound came from. As she looked at Noah she saw he was still staring at her chest. He'd heard it too. At the same time they understood the sound was the heavy beating of her heart. It had pushed her forward, giving her the power of a big sister.

As Noah lay silent Hailey began the work of unwrapping him from the sticky web. She unwound the webs which held his legs. Then she tore the web from his back and tail. And she continued until not a silk strand of it remained on him. By the time she was done her own heartbeat had returned to normal.

The siblings rested outside the tunnel of the cruel Spider. Hailey looked at Noah, happy he was safe. She knew the time of watching over him would soon come to an end. Hailey understood after the next winter hibernation their world would be changed.

She had no doubt when it was his time he would become known as the second best Spider slayer in the history of the yard.

Chapter 6: The Waggle Dancers

Hailey peered over the back fence, into the green yard as she searched for the droning sound. Yesterday it had not been there. Today she could feel the vibrations in the air. It felt like a very busy sound.

Hailey was intrigued. There did not seem to be any danger. As she got used to the noise she began to enjoy the feel of it around her body. Like any curious and intelligent little girl Lizard, she ran along the top of the fence seeking a way to get a better view. At the point where the fence stopped in the corner of the yard she heard more of the 'hummmm'. From her new position on the fence Hailey could see what was causing the sound.

T the bottom of the fence grew a plant known as a Rosemary Bush. It had small herbal scented blue flowers. On many of them were busy Honey Bees. Hailey was entranced by the activity which went on without out a single Bee taking notice of her presence. She was so interested she climbed down the fence head first, clinging with her sharp toes to the dried fibrous wood of the old fence. She pushed her nose into a flower near the fence. The raw smell of the plant was so pungent even being near it got the odor on her skin. She felt it refresh her lungs as she inhaled.

Hailey was captivated by the unstopping activity of the Bees which buzzed from blossom to blossom, mindless of her presence. As she edged closer Hailey accidently brushed against another flower a Bee was cultivating.

"What are you guys doing?" Hailey said in her most pleasant tone. The worker Bee did not reply. She tried again. "Tell me what you are doing, please." The only response was a pre-occupied glance from the little Bee.

"Pssst. Hey. Come here." The voice came from behind the plant. And it was certainly not one of the little workers on the plant. Hailey looked back over her shoulder.

"Who are you?" said Hailey.

"Just get out of the way. And don't get any of it on you."

Hailey was getting upset. She had tried being nice. Nobody was answering her questions. Just like I'm supposed to be, I'm going to be polite, she thought.

"Come on, come on," repeated the hidden voice. "I can't see. Get out of the way."

Hailey moved in the direction of the voice. She blinked like Lizards do to reset their vision. She knew sometimes animals looked so much like what surrounds them they are invisible to the mind's eye. Hailey saw the long Lizard snout and two eyes staring back at her. Then there was a friendly flick of its tongue.

"Over here. You don't want them to sting you."

"Why would they do that?" asked Hailey, still a little surprised by the presence of the different Lizard which was much larger in length and weight than her.

"It just takes one mad Bee to get the rest of them upset. No good reason, sometimes they just do that."

"Who are you anyway?" Hailey said.

"I'm Whendy," said the fine miniature Alligator looking Lizard. Hailey recalled she had seen her playing across the yard at times and had wondered if they would ever get a chance to meet.

"Wendy?" Hailey repeated.

"No. Whendy," corrected the athletic Lizard as she stretched the beginning of the word like a piece of bubble gum so Hailey could hear the 'h' sound right after the 'w' sound. There was something like a nasal twang in the sound. "Whendy."

"Oh. Wendy," Hailey repeated with no effort to pronounce the 'h' just to tease the new friend. "What can I do for youuuu?" Hailey giggled as she stretched out the end of the word 'you', also as if it were stretched like a piece of bubble gum.

Whendy stared back at Hailey for a moment, seeming to consider if she should even try to help this smart aleck little Lizard who just might get herself stung.

"You are not supposed to be there," whispered Whendy very slowly.

"Where?" Hailey teased some more as she rubbed her nose against a different blossom.

"Hey! Hey! Hey," said an exasperated buzzing voice from the other side of the blossom. "Mine! Mine! Mine!" yelled another Bee at Hailey. The Bee levitated up like a helicopter. It looked dangerously at Hailey and then at Whendy. Hailey saw it decided Whendy was too much to deal with and yelled "Away! Away! Away!"

"Do as she says," whispered Whendy. "Or she'll bring a hundred friends to help her."

Hailey became more aware of the other flowers in the same plant and how each of them seemed to have a different Bee working on it. There were too many to count. Hailey jumped from her spot on the fence to the flat granite surface of the rock where Whendy was standing.

"Wow, you can dance!" said Whendy in admiration of how swiftly and easily Hailey had jumped from the fence to the rock.

Hailey had always been the best of jumpers in her family. It was an impressive move which demonstrated the spring in her legs. The move had instantly cleared Hailey from the danger of the bees in the flowers.

From her new position Hailey could see from Whendy's eyes and face they were about the same age. But Whendy was different with her longer body, her skin colors, and how her eye brows attractively raised up in her long forehead.

"My name is Hailey."

"Whaley?" repeated Whendy with a smirk Hailey did not see.

"No, not Whaley, Hailey, just like hay-lee sounds." She corrected Whendy because she did not realize Whendy was teasing her.

"So when I see a Lee should I also say Hey?" teased Whendy again.

Hailey was perplexed at the communication problem. What was wrong with this Whendy, she wondered. Hailey looked Whendy up and down as she considered how to get her meaning across to her. Hailey tried again.

"My name is Hailey," she said specifically sounding out the words hay and lee.

Just then all the Bees in the Rosemary plant rose up into the air above the fence. They buzzed erratically in a ball of activity. Then they flew noisily into the next yard.

"Come on, let's go. Follow them," yelled Whendy as she moved up the fence. Whendy was done with her teasing game and had accepted Hailey as a new friend, too.

"Why?" Hailey was careful about going beyond the fence ever since the encounter with the Cat.

"Don't you want to learn the dance?" said Whendy as they topped the fence.

Hailey loved to dance. It came so naturally and felt so good to do. She just couldn't get any of her family to do it like her. Hailey had perfect strong legs. They were better than most Lizards. Because girl Lizards were almost always bigger than the boys, she had grown to be quicker and stronger. There was something about her leg strength which made her bounce like a spring whenever she danced. She was tireless and nobody could keep up with her. Her decision was made. She would go along with Whendy to see what type of dance this was going to be.

Whendy led the way over the top of the fence, pausing first to see where the Bees had flown in the green yard. She located the sound in the giant Ash tree in the middle of the grass lawn. It wasn't as far away as the bushes which covered a brick pyramid stack at the side yard. Without any more delay, they worked their way along the slope beneath the fence which had protective flowers and bushes. Soon they were beneath the Bee's tree.

The young Bees were still swarming. Hailey heard a small voice command, "Come to order. Come to order, now." The Bees settled on the hive, forming a circle which left an opening in the middle.

"Honey, begin the dance!" the queen Bee instructed. She was at least three times larger than the rest of them. One small Bee stepped into the circle. It was obvious she was nervous. Hailey thought it was her first dance in public. The diminutive Bee began uncertainly. As she gained confidence she developed a rhythm which was contagious. Hailey watched and absorbed the cadence of her dance.

Five steps straight up the hive toward the sky

Waggle the belly

Turn left and take two steps

Turn to the right

Waggle waggle waggle

Three steps to the left again

Turn in two circles

Repeat from the beginning

The second time she did the dance the other Bees crowded closer, touching her at each step in the dance. There was increased excitement and buzzing and several other Bees began to perform the same dance.

As she watched, Hailey felt herself getting into the movement of the dance. She began shifting her feet, moving the five steps straight, turning left taking two steps and waggling her long body in timing to what the Bees were doing. She would have bumped into Whendy, but Whendy was also following the same dance steps. They both giggled as they overcame their shyness about dancing in front of each other. The waggle dance was fun. Without restraint the two Lizards copied the dance for as long as the Bees danced.

When the Bees wanted to tell where there were more flowers for pollen they danced to instruct the others how to go there. So a straight climb up the hive meant the pollen was in the direction of the sun. The turns and spinning gave instruction as to distances and directions a Bee would need to go. It was their living map. All the touching and copying by the other Bees was how they learned and memorized the instructions from the first Bee dancing.

Suddenly the entire swarm of Bees rose into the air above the tree, turned as a buzzing clamorous team and flew away to wherever it was to be they would find the flowers with the pollen. Hailey and Whendy were left behind to catch their breath. They did not notice the old man watching them over the fence from their yard.

They had danced until they'd become dizzy with the waggle this away and waggle that away. Recovering their strength as they sunned on the flat granite stepping stone they agreed they would do it again sometime soon. Together they darted from bush to bush and finally up the backside of the fence until they had reached the top rail. Being careful no predators were near, they paused to look across the blue pool.

In the shadow of the patio cover the old man of the yard slept in his chair. His head was tilted forward onto his chest and he snored softly. The two girl Lizards looked at each other and giggled as they watched. It had been an eventful day for both of them.

Friendship seems to happen by accident, Hailey thought later. It comes from the most unexpected places. My new friend isn't afraid to try different activity. And she is smart enough to have a sense of humor.

Their times together in the future were filled with shared secrets, bonding in the way good young friends do. Each time they met afterwards they'd laugh and do a quick waggle of their hips in greeting. Whendy would greet Hailey as "hey-lee" and then she would snort just like a snore from the old man. Hailey did not mind as she responded by making fun of Whendy as "Windy", which was also followed by the long snoring noise.

Chapter 7: The Changing Seasons

Hailey struggled awake from the months of hibernation. It had been an odd winter, even by Southern California standards. There had been less than the normal amount of rain in those winter months, the dry air cold enough to keep the Lizard family deep in a restful sleep.

The hibernation protected the family in the well chosen den. The ground temperature had never fallen below freezing or risen above the level which would increase their hibernating metabolism. So she, as well as her brother Noah and her mother, Miss Julie, had rested comfortably against each other without intrusion from the rest of the world outside of their winter den made simply within the old brick pile. Since hibernation had shut down their heart rates to about one beat per hour, their stored energy had been used solely to support breathing.

Hailey had been the first to awaken, then Noah, then Miss Julie. Miss Julie was the slowest to regain her senses. It had been her fourth winter and she was quite old for a Fence Lizard. Hailey worried as she watched Mama try to shake off her drowsiness. Hailey nipped her on the tail.

"Mama, what are you doing? You haven't checked for the Cat."

"Oh my, I forgot," Miss Julie said with dismay. She was embarrassed.

"What's going on?" said Noah as he tried to push past them.

"Get back, Noah," snapped Hailey. She was upset, afraid she could not control both of them for their own safety.

"I just need to eat," said Miss Julie.

It was obvious to Hailey she could not have caught anything.

"Okay Mom. You wait here. Noah and I will get us food."

Noah looked proud to be included. "Noah, come with me. Mama, we're going to the back fence. We'll bring back some grubs before you know it."

Hailey nodded her head in the direction of the fence while making eye contact with Noah to get his support.

"Yeh, Mom, we'll be right back. Why don't you just rest?" he said.

"Okay," she mumbled, still confused from the long sleep. "Don't be long or I'll worry." Miss Julie was slow to turn and crawl back inside the nest.

Hailey and Noah briefly rehearsed the travel routine. They called it cover and go. Each sprinted leap frog style while the other watched for the Cat, Softfoot. Somehow the Lizards were aware during in the spring Softfoot was most likely to be out hunting for sleepy Lizards. In the steady leap-frog method the two Fence Lizards made their way to the backyard fence where the hunting was the best.

Noah was much more athletic than he had been last spring. He also had developed a very unique skill as an accident of nature's genetic engineering. Where most Lizards were right side strong, also known as right footed, Noah had been born as one of the few left foot strong Lizards.

When hunting or fighting his first move was made from the left side. Since normal Lizards started movement from the right side they expected the same from hunted insects and opponents. Noah's first move always surprised his opponents and prey, which gave him the advantage. The skill helped him to capture a second Cricket before Hailey had a chance to catch her first meal.

"Hey, slowpoke," Noah said with a grin "Do you want some help?"

Hailey grinned back, letting him relish the moment. She was proud he was able to take care of himself. She had been a big part of his training before the hibernation.

"Go ahead, eat your meal. Then catch one for Mom." Then with blinding speed Noah must have forgotten his big sister had, she jumped over him onto the fence to catch another Cricket trying to escape. Together Noah and Hailey ate their first meals of the early spring. Then they hunted more Grubs to take back to the nest before it got dark.

Their careful cover and go routine had taken longer than expected. Since they had not come out of the nest until after the sun had warmed the concrete for many hours, the daylight hours were almost done before they headed home.

Meanwhile Miss Julie slept poorly. Her hunger pangs awoke her from sleep in the early afternoon. At the exit to the den Miss Julie paused. Then she took a deep breath, and counted "1,2,3." She began a very slow run, heading for the protection of the old man's chair on the patio. From the fence top behind her Softfoot blinked. Without a second glance he leaped from the fence to the ground. In one more pounce he was almost upon the slow old Lizard.

From the shadow of the patio Softfoot saw a flash of movement. He was knocked sideways when he was in the middle of his last leap towards Miss Julie. At the same time Miss Julie saw Softfoot and she froze in position. There was nowhere for her to escape.

Neither one of them had seen the old woman in the shadow of the patio standing behind the old man's chair. She had been watering the potted Fuchsia and seen the entire scene develop. The old woman recognized the aged Lizard by its girth as one of her husband's favorites from last summer. She turned the hose on the Cat to stop him. The Cat ran for the next yard forgetting about the helpless Lizard.

The old woman walked over to Miss Julie, still frozen in fear upon the concrete. She bent over and grasped Miss Julie gently on the nape of her neck and carried the Lizard back to the small hole from where it had come. Gently pushing the Lizard back inside she said "I know Dad wouldn't be happy if something happened to you, little old Lizard. Wait awhile before you come out to play. He'll be back tomorrow." She turned and walked back into the house.

The fence shadows grew longer across the yard from the west and the damping air cooled the concrete. She slept just inside the entrance until her children came back from their hunt.

Hailey assisted her further back into the den while Noah carried the Grubs. Together the three of them ate the insect meals. Miss Julie brightened for several minutes, becoming more aware of her surroundings. However it did not last for long. She was so tired.

With Hailey on one side and Noah pressed against her other side, Miss Julie fell into a deep sleep which was not normal after a spring awakening.

Chapter 8: Noah's Worst Day

Hailey was ready for the change. The home she'd known for the last two years was too small for the new life that grew inside her. She felt the eggs developing and understood in several months they would be the beginning of her own family.

Her swelling sides made movement more difficult. Each time she climbed the fence her breathing was laborious. And more often in the last days when she looked down into the green yard she knew she wanted to be there in the worst way. Its lush grasses were surrounded by bushes sagging under the weight of spring growth, the branch tips dragging like kite tails whenever the wind blew. The beehive where she had learned the waggle dance was invisible behind the lime green leaves of the huge Ash tree

As she climbed the fence Hailey knew she might never see her mother or her brother again. She paused at the top of the fence which separated her desert-like yard from the green yard below. The yards had such vast differences. The cool colors of the lawn below appealed to her need for change. With a final backward look and a resolute sigh, she let her excitement push aside her fears. Hailey accepted what she must do for her coming family. She went over the top of the fence and into the yard below.

Noah awoke from the night sleep with a sense of unease. The fact Hailey was gone was not the problem. He was used to her early rising and departure. It was the way she met the day. But Mama was gone. She had not bumped him awake as she normally did in the morning.

The uneasy awakening bothered him. However it was not the way of little male Lizards to worry about such things too long. So he turned several circles to stretch in the place he'd slept. He figured he would see both of them while he was hunting.

When Noah came out of the den the sun already broiled as the heat of the day still increased. Noah felt the silence of the Mockingbirds before he saw their silhouettes on the far fence. They stared behind him to where the feline shape moved toward the brick deck. Noah turned to see where the Cat was going. Noah's quick young eyes recognized it as Softfoot, the neighborhood Cat which haunted their lives. Softfoot glided onward gaining speed as he bound onto the raised brick deck.

Noah's little heart stopped as he grasped the scene unfolding in front of him. He wanted to charge at the Cat but his survival instincts did not let him move. He was horrified. He could do nothing. The Cat was on the burning bricks as Noah saw Mama resting oblivious in the middle of the deck. Noah estimated two more paces before Softfoot would have her. Noah saw Mama had no idea Softfoot was even near.

Miss Julie ached throughout her body when she awoke in the morning. She was not hungry, but she did yearn for greater warmth. She decided it would be good just to get out onto the overheated deck beneath the sun. Miss Julie mourned what she knew, as mother Lizards do, that her daughter had gone from the den for good. She wanted the comfort of the heat of the sun one more time, the way she and Hailey had shared it many times before.

In a very short time her legs failed her and she could not move out of the sun. Her mind bubbled with a cyclone of memories. She saw the father of her children as he courted her, his muscular chest rich in brilliant blue colors as he pumped up and down on his legs. She smiled as she recalled Hailey and Noah learning to swim in the old man's cookie tin filled with water to capture snails. She relished the weight of her children sleeping against her sides each night.

Then her blood came to a boil in the unrelenting fire of the sun. She closed her eyes and no longer felt cold or hot. Her eyes ceased seeing, her moist eyelids fluttered a last time and her jaws froze in a smile. Too late, Softfoot pounced upon the dead Lizard.

Noah saw the Cat crouched over Mama through the heat waves rising from the bricks. He heard the Mockingbirds start from the fence top across the yard beyond the pool. He heard them cawing as they mimicked Crows. He saw them darting and swooping Softfoot, nipping hair from the top of his head as he ran away along the side yard. He saw Mama's dangling tail and head sticking out the opposite sides of the Cat's mouth. The echoes of the Mockingbirds fell away in the distance.

Noah looked around the yard. As he felt the smothering heat of the day wrapping around him too he saw the pool shone blue in the middle of the yard. The patio was still covered with the old woman's potted cactus and plants. Yet nowhere in the yard was there a sign of his family. At that moment Noah felt like he was the only little male Fence Lizard left in the world.

He turned and crept back into the dark depths of the family den. The smell of his mother and his sister were still there. Noah lay down where the family had slept the previous night. Alone in the nest for the first time in his life he grieved until hunger roused him several days later.

Chapter 9: Nora's Garden

Noah awoke from the deep sleep from the vibrations through the bricks. The adrenalin in his little male body restarted his mind, lifting him from the floor of self pity in the lonely cave to scampering through the short tunnel into the daylight. Without checking for danger he darted the twenty feet onto the patio and into the protection of the old woman's potted cactus.

As he clung to the back of the pot he heard the rough laughter of two men. After several minutes Noah recovered his breath. He poked his head around the edge of the planter, enough to see the men in orange shirts taking apart the brick pile which had been his home for the past two winters. They hefted two bricks at a time, one in each hand, checking the underside for Black Widow Spiders. Each time a man found a Spider he clapped the bricks together.

When Noah understood why the men were doing that, when he realized each time he heard the sound another Black Widow died, his little heart rejoiced. Noah had not forgotten the way the Black Widow had trussed him and dragged him into her tunnel before Hailey saved him.

The slump returned to his shoulders. For the first time in his life Noah made a decision without the safety net of his family. He decided he must leave the yard. As wonderful as it had been over the last year, there was no family left for him in the yard with the deep blue pool. He turned to study the fences which surrounded the yard.

The old peoples' yard was in the center of the neighborhood. Over each fence around the yard was another yard. At the corners of the fences were two more backyards, so in total there were five backyards which were available for his immediate escape. Noah climbed to the top of the backyard fence and began to walk its length downhill. He was so intent, so careful looking ahead he did not see Hailey as she sunned in the green yard on the flat rock beneath the beehive tree.

The next yard to the north looked like a canyon that widened at its mouth into a large garden. It had been designed to be many different desert and mountain micro-environments of Southern California, combined in one place. There were large granite rocks, clean sandy soil, and colorful desert plants. The native California plants bearing purple and yellow and gold and red flowers turned themselves to face the moving sunlight throughout the day. He was intrigued by what he saw.

Noah ran down the face of the fence and into the place the neighborhood called Nora's Garden. When he reached the ground he paid little attention to the surroundings. It had been a long time since he had eaten. A few steps onto the sand Noah saw a soft young Cricket waiting beneath the sun for its skin to harden. In one skilled move Noah grabbed it and began to eat it. From nowhere a solid blow to the side of his head sent him rolling across the sand. Noah came up on his feet, and spun to face the direction of the attack.

"You Blue Bellies are all alike!" The attacker was a large Lizard. Its words gurgled through heavy drool.

"Back off or you'll pay for being stupid," Noah said.

He was surprised by the attack but he was a gifted fighter and he'd decided he would no longer give ground. He was mad at himself for being snuck upon so easily.

"Hah. You steal my food and get caught and you call me stupid?"

The Lizard was easily six inches longer than Noah. He was an oversized reproduction of Hailey's friend Whendy except he drooled as he spoke. Somehow it struck Noah as comical because that was why its words were gurgled. Noah knew he was outsized and the brute strength was on the other Lizard's side but Noah didn't care. Noah bit down once more upon the Cricket to taunt the large Lizard.

"Crunch!"

The sound of Noah biting down threw the larger Lizard into a fury.

"Augh!"

The response told Noah a lot. The giant was not in full control of his emotions. It was unsure of its own quickness and fighting skill. It was not used to being pushed back which meant it was vulnerable. Noah bit down several more times. Each time the larger Lizard screamed and scattered sand with its feet and shook its head side to side. But it did not come any closer.

"Tastes good," said Noah. Although he did not realize it, Noah's own chest and muscular shoulders had turned bright blue as a sign of extreme aggressiveness.

As they faced each other, Noah remained calm while the huge Lizard screamed like he was being tortured. Other garden inhabitants heard the commotion and stopped to watch. One of them laughed. Then another laughed and a third and a fourth. Whoever they are, Noah thought, they're enjoying the show.

Later he learned there was the stinger-less Scorpion, known as "Sting." There was "Jake", the fangless Rattlesnake who could not put out venom. There was "Tartar", the Tarantula who had only six of his eight fuzzy legs which waved in the air as he laughed out loud showing his gaping red mouth. There was the small burrowing Owl known as "Bottoms Up"; "Bot" for short because he only had one wing and a scar along the side of his body where the other wing should have been. All were ravaged in some way before they had come to this garden.

Together, their laughter ringing in the background made Noah realize there was something different about the place. From the tone of their laughter he realized they were happy to see somebody stand up to the large Lizard.

"All this food is mine." The large Lizard spoke again, but it was clear to Noah he'd tired himself out with the screaming and thrashing in the soft sand.

"Hey, Bump, who's your friend?" The voice of the owl floated across the garden. "Has he got something you want to sink your teeth into?"

When Noah heard that he looked again at Bump's mouth and saw he had no teeth. Noah realized it was why Bump was drooling and splashing when he swung his head back and forth. He also saw Bump was embarrassed by the comment.

The garden was a patchwork of many micro-environments. Nora had created an environment in her backyard garden for each of the little creatures she'd saved, selected because they were indigenous to the Southern California desert and mountain environment.

Where Noah met Bump she'd built a basin of loose sand surrounding several wide flat granite rocks. Each day Nora left him several soft crickets to eat. Bump had learned the best method for him to capture them was to wriggle down into the warm soft sand so only his snout shown. When a Cricket came within reach he slapped out with his tail, stunned it, and then clamped down on its soft skin with his toothless jaws. He survived in the specialized environment, unaware it had been built for his special needs. Because of the unnatural conditions he had not matured, so he did not play well with the others.

Even though the blue-chested Lizard was half a foot shorter than Bump, Noah did not flinch or back away. Bump stopped tossing the sand. Then the blue-chest Lizard crawled over to Bump. Noah spit the cricket into Bump's face and then scuffed sand into his eyes.

"Is this what you want?" Noah said. The Cricket slid off Bump's snout.

"Yeh, that's right," Bump said. He was not enthusiastic.

"What's wrong with blue?" Noah pushed up against Bumps face, his blue chest pulsating. "It's my favorite color," Noah added.

It took some self control to resist biting Bump on the snout. Noah thought to himself how rude Bump had been. The comment pointing out his own blue-chested difference angered Noah. He did not know why. He felt a sudden emotional response which made him want to fight forever with Bump, to punish him for what he had said. Noah was a proud he was a Blue Belly Lizard with a great heritage of his own.

"Nothing," Bump said.

"Good. Now where can a Lizard get some food without being bothered? Maybe a polite greeting as well?"

Noah saw he didn't need to punish Bump anymore. The fight was gone from him. In fact Noah actually felt sorry for him and a warming desire to be friends.

"Does anybody else live in this yard?" Noah said as he looked across the yard to locate where the laughter had come from.

When Noah did not get an answer he turned around to face Bump. He saw Bump had wriggled beneath the loose sand. Only his snout was visible.

Chapter 10: The Traveler

"Watch out below! I'm coming in!"

Hailey heard the words just as the little body bounced off the leaves above her head. Then Hailey felt the weight of the girl Lizard drop on her through the leaves.

"Ouch. That hurts," the new arrival said.

"What are you doing?" Hailey said. "Lizards can't fly."

"Hitched a ride," was the curt answer from the Lizard struggling to her feet in front of Hailey. She checked for injury to her backside. "Oh darn, I lost another one. That looks so ridiculous," she said, looking at where her tail had been.

"Does it hurt?" Obviously she'd never seen a Lizard without a tail.

"Oh you get used to it pretty quick. They grow back, you know. I had a friend once who ended up with two tails just because the first one didn't come off all the way." Then the tailless Lizard stopped talking because she realized she had landed on another Lizard who looked a lot like her sister in the mountains. And she remembered how her sister always said she talked before she thought and maybe she should stop and listen sometimes too. So she stopped and looked at the confused Lizard staring at her.

Neither spoke for several minutes. They simply studied each other's face because it looked familiar.

"Okay, you first. Tell me your name," Hailey said.

"Mariposa. It means traveler," said the young female Lizard that had fallen through the leaves of the tree. "I come in pieces." Mariposa always made jokes when she was nervous.

Hailey said nothing.

"Don't you get it? My tail is gone. It came off," Mariposa said.

Hailey did laugh then, and it was clear to Mariposa that Hailey understood the joke the first time.

"This is so odd," Hailey said. "Only a couple of days in my new yard and I was so lonely." As she spoke she stroked her sides and Mariposa recognized the motion.

"Your sides must be sore. It's from the eggs inside you." She wondered if she could do all of this if she had been carrying eggs. And bam! I land on her like a rock from the sky. "What's your name?"

"My name is Hailey. It doesn't mean landing pad." Hailey laughed and Mariposa snickered, relieved she was in friendly company. "Now tell me how you managed to come from there," she said looking up at the sky.

"Oh that." Mariposa tried to look bored. "I was messing around in the open. Well, really, I got lost and went up onto a rock to find out where I was. I always get lost even though I travel so so much. There was nowhere to run when it came, one of those black birds that caw swooped down and grabbed me by the tail. I was able to wriggle hard enough to make my tail break off. It's one of the defense tricks we can do you know, our tails break off just below the rear end, surely you know. Our bodies automatically stop the blood flowing to the tail so we don't bleed. Just wait, you'll see, soon a new tail will grow. So here I am. Taa daa!"

Mariposa realized she was getting very tired due to the loss of her tail and being hungry. "Do you have some place I can rest?"

"Of course," said Hailey. "Maybe you'd like to stay and help around here while you get healed."

Mariposa suspected there was more to the offer than she knew, but she did not want to refuse. It did seem like the best spot for her to rest and heal, at least for a short time. "Of course, I'd be happy to help. What do you have to eat?"

During the following days the air temperature warmed enough the two new friends were able to be outside from dawn to dusk. The nest was cleaned in preparation for the eggs. Mariposa knew the eggs would need a clean dark place to develop after they were laid. For weeks the embryo would grow inside the eggs, which would be stored beneath a thin layer of sand until they hatched.

Hailey got more tense and demanding as the birthing day approached. Somehow her new friend Mariposa had the patience to stay with her. Perhaps because Mariposa had no intention of having her own babies any time soon. She persevered through the edgy moments, almost as if she were studying the process to see how it could be improved if she ever chose to have her own babies.

One afternoon the sounds from the beehive buzzing above them changed. Mariposa heard it first. The regular pleasant drone of busy activity in the beehive above their heads erupted into angry wing-hitting confrontations. A battle of giant proportions was carried on inside the beehive. Invaders had gotten in. The sweet Honey Bees were being attacked by their distant cousins known as Africanized Killer Bees.

The Africanized Hybrid Bees were much more aggressive than anything the Honey Bees had ever encountered. The attackers' advantage was they fought in groups. They remained angry for a very long time when they chased their enemy. They were so fierce they could kill Dogs and Cats and Humans because of their overwhelming number of stings. Like female Honey Bees who lost their stinger on the first stab, Killer Bees also lost their stinger. But they did not hesitate in giving up their lives when in battle.

Sadly, the Honey Bees had no chance of survival in the contest. They fought with determination to protect their queen. They fought until none were left alive. The queen was overcome, in spite of her great strength and size and potent stinger. Many attackers were killed, but there were just too many for the queen to combat. Within the hour the massacre was done and the beehive was overcome by the Killer Bees.

Hailey wept as she and Mariposa watched from within their den. The sounds of the Honey Bee bodies dropping to the ground had continued for an hour, until none of the waggle dancers survived.

The Killer Bees really had no use for the Honey Bee hive. They only wanted the processed honey created from the hard work of pollen gathering. So in a few hours they were gone. What was left was the remnant of a once productive beehive in which remained one hidden pupa of a future queen Bee.

Mariposa was a traveler. She had seen the cruelty of other species of animals. Mariposa recognized the new peril she and Hailey were in. It was not from the Killer Bees, which surely would have killed them if the two Lizards had not stayed hidden. The new danger was the corpses would attract a horde of ants. And if the timing were bad, the ants would sense Hailey was weakened as she laid her eggs. Surely Hailey would lose her eggs to the army of ants.

Mariposa talked to Hailey about her fear of the ant swarm which was sure to come. The night hours were too cool for their body temperatures so Lizards did not stay active during the night. Mariposa reasoned to work in the dark to remove the dead Bees would make them easy targets for predators. So the Lizards friends did what they could to shore up a sand wall in front of the mouth of the den. Then they slept.

"Shhh, they'll hear you."

Mariposa had poked a tiny hole in the sand wall at sunrise hoping to get an early start on the Bee removal. She was startled by the vastness of the ant army busily hoisting Bee bodies. Mariposa looked over her shoulder at Hailey. Behind her Hailey pressed forward to see why she had gasped.

"How many are there?" Hailey said.

Mariposa was more concerned by the type of ants than the amount. She saw an army of the red ants; Warrior Ants four times larger than the industrious black ants. They had severe bites. Even a strong Lizard could be overwhelmed by those warriors. Mariposa knew the type of ant from her life in the nearby canyons. She made the decision for both of them and gently covered the small hole she had made.

Hailey was more than happy to go back to sleep. Mariposa did not burden her with the knowledge of the grave danger beyond their den. But she wondered to herself about how wise it was to raise a family in this yard. She rested beside Hailey until Hailey awoke in the afternoon.

"How did you sleep?" Mariposa said, already aware from Hailey's fidgeting in her sleep she awoke because of the pre-birthing pain. It would not be long before the eggs were laid.

"Not so comfortable. I had lots of bad dreams too. I was so sorry to see all those Bees die." Hailey spoke for awhile about how she and Whendy had learned the waggle dance by watching them. Mariposa did not tell her she was repeating herself.

Mariposa knew it was too late to move the nest. She hoped Hailey would be able to wait one more day before laying her eggs. By then there would be no more danger of the ants discovering them.

It was during the waiting when Hailey and Mariposa shared their life stories. Hailey told of her mother, Miss Julie, the swimming lessons, about her brother Noah who she missed, about the old man who slept in the chair on the patio, about the old woman who watered the plants too often in the yard. Mariposa shared in more detail about where she had come from in the mountain canyons, about how she avoided death by bird by letting her tail be grabbed, not her body. It was a trick her older brother had taught her, she explained, why he always seemed to be growing a new tail. "Present the tail," he'd always told her as if he were offering a gift.

The laying of Hailey's eggs did begin in the middle of the next night. For six hours she laid the eight eggs in the sandy depression they had prepared in the corner of the den. The ground was soft sand so as Hailey birthed the eggs Mariposa helped to cover them. That way the eggs would maintain a steady core temperature as they developed over the next sixteen days.

On the third sunrise after the Bee war Mariposa pushed aside the sand wall. Outside the den no more Bee bodies remained. There was no buzz from the hive above them. She saw the Killer Bees left after harvesting the stolen honey. The Red Ants retreated after harvesting the last dead Bee.

Chapter 11: The Blue Chest Wars

Noah never imagined it would be so hard. For a month he'd fought every day to hold the high ground atop the fence. Many competitors had given up. He knew more than anything else he had to have the territory. He just did not know why. It seemed to be the right thing, nothing more. So he fought for ownership of the fence-top each day.

They came from three sides at the same time. He'd managed to fend off the attacks twice already because of his superior fighting ability. The uniqueness of his left-sided counter attacks gave him an advantage. Yet he'd paid in the attacks because of the three against one odds. Noah felt the pain in his left front foot from the cut made by the slowest of the three Lizards, which always waited until Noah was locked in battle with the other two. The light trail of blood on the fence top where Noah moved in circles was testimony to his injury.

He thought with the damage he'd done to the attacking Fence Lizard brothers, the most devastating done during their second try that day, it was possible to hold his position until nightfall. The largest attacker had lost a right eye from a slash of Noah's clawed toes. Noah knocked the second brother, the best fighter of the three, off of the fence top and it'd been impaled through the abdomen landing upon a prickly cactus needle. That warrior was able to twist sideways and snap the cactus needle at the root. It scrapped the fence as he climbed back up, still pin-cushioned through the chest.

The last brother waited until Noah turned his back. He bit Noah where the flesh is softest under the left front leg. Responding with gladiator effort Noah yanked free of the jaws even though he felt his own flesh rip away.

One more hour, Noah thought, panting as he held back his pain, one more hour until I can rest.

His thoughts drifted to simpler times. He daydreamed about when Hailey and Miss Julie had taught him to swim. He felt the wetness gradually cover his body and as he held his breath his body started to float in the water. Then he shook his head to clear his mind because he realized he was defenseless if he went to sleep.

It had been several days since he had eaten. Exposure all day in the made his blood too hot but he reasoned if he tried to cling to the shady side of the fence in his weakened condition he might lose his grip and fall to the yard below.

The third attack of the day began at dusk. Noah felt his adrenalin surge as he beat back the rear approach by the large one-eyed Lizard. Its blinded eye made its timing poor. Noah easily countered his moves. A jab to the right and in response the large Lizard stumbled and overextended his neck. Noah's flashing teeth opened a long red gash upon its throat. The large Lizard quit the fight by jumping off the fence.

The treacherous Lizard, the third one, still hung back from the fight.

The toughest brother was angry about the cactus needle protruding from his body. But Noah could tell by his approach he would be more respectful of Noah's skill. The tough brother stopped to brush his snout against the weaker Lizard. Noah guessed they would attack at the same time, after they got set on the opposite sides of the fence. The stronger Lizard took the sunny side for his approach. The coward Lizard hung to the shady side, resting himself. They waited. When the sun set over the mountain they rushed from opposite edges of the fence.

Noah felt the vibrations of their feet through the wood before he saw them. He saw the Lizard in the shade was slower with his approach so Noah turned to face the more aggressive attacker. With a slam of their miniature bodies they locked jaw to jaw, pushing as wrestlers grunting with the effort. His back exposed, Noah felt the weaker Lizard's teeth clamp onto his tail above where it could break off.

Noah knew he was pinned. But he knew the enemy was stuck too since he could slash either of them if they let go. The two attackers held onto Noah, unwilling to chance being hurt by letting go to adjust for a better position.

Sometimes the three combatants shifted a few inches in one direction or the other. They were exposed to the open sky and to the eyes of any foraging predator.

The Southern California desert air cooled rapidly once the sun slipped behind the Santa Ana Mountains. In spite of the danger the three combatants remained together, unwilling to give ground. Only Noah noticed the Cat-sized figure climb up on the fence rail behind them. The splash of bandit markings across its eager young face told Noah it was a Raccoon.

When it was within inches of them Noah exerted a strong hip twist that surprised the weaker Lizard, which loosened its grip on his tail. At the same time he tested the weight of the other Lizard still locked on him with its jaw grip. That fighter was still strong and resisted, as Noah wanted. It tightened its neck muscles and set its feet, giving Noah the fulcrum he needed to jerk his own tail clear of the Lizard behind him. Then Noah rushed forward, pushing the tough Lizard ahead of him several inches. Overcoming its surprise, the Lizard responded by tossing Noah sideways. Noah expected the move and went with it, letting the momentum of his own body be carried into the air as he released his own jaw grip. Clear of the fence he fell to the safety of the ground below.

The victorious Lizard had only a second to enjoy his win. The young Raccoon straddled over him and crushed his small body in its sharp omnivore teeth. The battle won, the war lost, the fight for the territory had cost him his life. The third Lizard crept away unscathed.

Noah hit the ground with a soft thump. He scurried to find a safe spot for the night. It was already dark on both sides of the fence. As he ran he recognized the path. He knew a hiding spot where he could rest.

Once he found the place he squeezed between the fence slates and the wooden foot-rail. It was tighter than it had been when he had played hide and seek as a young Lizard. The pressure compressed his wound so the blood seepage stopped. Hungry and in pain from the wound, Noah fell asleep for the night.

The sun rose and warmed Noah's side of the fence first. As he awakened he felt the fever raging in his wound. All movement was painful. He knew once he began moving he would need to continue without stopping until he found a place where he would be safe for a long time. He remembered the garden he'd left a month ago.

The trip back to Nora's garden is not far. It has food and friends. If I can make it there, he thought, I will be okay.

Chapter 12: Hailey Meets the Mouse

Mariposa and Hailey finally agreed. The events of the past days had been too much. The wonderful green yard was too dangerous for Hailey to raise young Lizards in it. The Africanized Killer Bees could come back at any time. The Warrior Ants were always around, scouting for fresh sources of food. No other Lizards lived in the area, which was not a good sign. As colorful as the yard looked there was something not right for them.

There were two problems. They must first decide where to move. Then they must figure how to move the eggs before they hatched, which would be in about ten days. Left alone the eggs could be found by predators and eaten. So they agreed Mariposa would head south up the hill the next morning since she'd already had a bird's eye view of the surrounding landscape. Hailey would figure how to carry the eggs to the new home site. Since the decisions had been made they were both eager to get started. It was already too late in the afternoon to get a good start so Mariposa ate the soft green grasshopper she had caught and settled herself next to the egg clutch for the night.

Meanwhile Hailey sat at the front of the den and tried to imagine how any verdant place as pleasant as this could have been so wrong for them. After sunset turned into dark night she went back into the den and lay across the egg clutch hidden in the soft sand. She did not know when she fell asleep.

She slept fitfully; tossing and churning the sand beneath her with her feet so much so several eggs were exposed. Still she slept on, dreaming in snapshots of the past, seeing in her primitive mind the dangers avoided in her short life. They clung like cobwebs, trailing after her during the restless dream-sleep the way webs snag onto feet in the underbrush. By the morning Hailey felt like she had not rested at all. But Mariposa was refreshed and preparing to make her journey.

"You sure moved around a lot last night," Mariposa said as she looked at the exposed eggs.

"I guess I was worried about you going." Hailey was not quite ready to talk about her dreams.

"Well you should cover up those eggs. I think whenever you aren't in the den you should block the opening too." Hailey felt the sisterly fondness in Mariposa's instructions. Their kinship was unclear, but they looked very much alike and their personalities were a good match the way some sisters are different but compatible most of the time.

"Yeh, I'll do that. Now remember you don't have a tail to use in a fight, stubby." Hailey was feeling motherly, like she had when she'd taught Noah to fight and climb. "You'll have to use the shadows. Try to find us a place where it's dry and the ground heats up early in the day."

Mariposa's body language told Hailey she was agitated by being told what to do. Hailey recognized the same response as when Noah was tired of listening and was going to do it his own way no matter what she said. Hailey did not know why, but it was the way it her younger brother and now Mariposa responded.

After all, Hailey thought, I am the older one. Some things I have learned with experience. Mariposa leaned forward and rubbed noses, as if reading her mind.

Mariposa said, "Always keep track of the tree with the beehive. It's the one you dropped through to get here." They both snickered at the memory. Then they rubbed snouts one more time as a good-bye and Mariposa left on her journey.

From the opening in the den Hailey watched as Mariposa's tailless form darted across the gravel pathway. Then she heard the leaves rustle out of her sight beneath the hedge of bushes which rimmed the base of the hill. After that there were no more sounds in the yard. Mariposa had been a presence which filled the air around her. And now Mariposa had left.

Hailey was alone with her un-hatched eggs in the den. She went back inside. The den felt vacant, devastating her with its stillness. It was as if she were totally deaf. Slowly she began to hear the ringing in her ears which was only the sound of her blood circulating in her brain. Hailey knew she couldn't continue waiting. She must take action or she would simply be overwhelmed with worries. Hailey understood then, unlike male Lizards who did not mind the solitary life, she liked being around other Lizards her own age. It's time, she thought, to get out of the den and figure out how to get the eggs moved to a new home.

After blocking the opening into the den with a wall of sand, Hailey ran into the underbrush to the north towards Nora's garden. She had almost the full day left in which to explore. Moving refreshed her mind and helped her regained her confidence that she could figure a way to move the eggs to safer home.

Near mid-morning she found a beautiful clump of brush named Lantana. The smell of the leaves came from the pungent oil which oozed from their capillaries. The small flowers were bunched in bouquets on the wildly strung vines. The flowers overhead were brilliant shades of purple and yellow as the sunlight streamed in from above. And the ground beneath the bushes was covered with generations of dried crinkling leaves.

The cobwebs she saw in her dreams lay around everywhere. They are real, she thought, recalling the previous night's dreams. Each step tangled more web in her toes and along her neck until she had to stop and remove them like loose clothing so she would not be hung up on every branch as she scampered along the trails.

It was then she realized the answer to how to carry the eggs. She thought, I can make slings from the webs of a Spider and carry the eggs across my back. With the help of Mariposa, I can move all of the eggs in one trip. Hailey continued with her exploration, satisfied she had the answer. Then she heard a voice.

"Stop."

Hailey could not see where it was coming from, but the squeak in the voice revealed to her it was a Mouse.

"A friend," Hailey said. She had learned in the past the response would help calm the stranger's fear of her. Mice, she knew, were very nervous.

"Where do you come from?" He was less nervous already and it came through in the tone of his voice.

Hailey remained unmoving so when he spoke she was able to focus on where he was standing. He was hard to see against the gray underbrush. "I was from the yard with the pool. Now I am from the green yard with the beehive," she said.

"Ah yes, a sad thing about the Honey Bees," he said. "No more honey for me."

The Mouse turned his big round ears toward Hailey as he spoke. She decided to overlook the insensitive comment about the Bees. She watched him for a moment as he kept turning his ears in different directions in order to continue to monitor all the sounds around them for danger. Hailey knew Mice had many enemies so she understood why he would be so nervous.

"I'm named Hailey. What are you called?"

"Daniel. My family calls me Daniel. I hope you don't mind me asking, but why are you here? There is some danger you know."

"Anything I should know about?" Hailey decided to play along with him to get information.

"Well, across the fence there is a strange yard. A human comes out every day and releases crickets. That's not so bad. The bottom of the fence is completely sealed so to get in it you have to be able to climb over the top. But avoid the wire on the top."

The yard was Nora's garden. She had installed hot-wires after finding the injured Fence Lizard on the ground one morning. Lizards and Mice could easily pass underneath the wire.

Hailey said, "I won't be going that far today. What about around here? Are there any Hags?" It was a common name the small creatures had for the female Black Widow Spiders. She'd decided their webs would be the best to carry the eggs.

"Deep beneath the woody bush to the west there is a pyramid of bricks. It is almost all the way to the house." Daniel motioned in the direction. "Be careful of that Spider. She is fast and smart. She is not a Hag. She is many times larger. She sets traps and comes from above when you get stuck in a web. She does not hesitate like most of them do."

Suddenly he stopped speaking. Daniel had heard a sound even she could not hear. He nodded at Hailey as a sign of good-bye. With a silent swish of his tail, which was twice as long as his body, he was gone into the background of brush.

Hailey waited several minutes to let the silence settle around her. She listened for danger. Then she turned to the west to find the huge Hag's home. After an hour of foraging and snacking in the dead leaves and twisted vines of Lantana and Honeysuckle, Hailey found the pyramid of well stacked bricks.

They had long ago taken on a musty moss look. Daniel had been correct, she thought, as she looked at the many dark openings in the face of the pile. The Spider could be anywhere, in any dark hole. This would be dangerous. But she reasoned she did want the web material to be from a Hag. Maybe a Hag hid in there too. After all, she thought, hadn't it been a Hag that had tried to drag off Noah. This would be like revenge.

Hailey mentally checked through her plan, like she always did in order to be sure there was nothing being forgotten. Later would be too late, as Miss Julie had taught her. She had eaten on the way to keep up her energy. She would rest now in the sun in order to increase her body temperature which would help her react faster because if too long inside the brick tunnels the walls would tend to cool her down and make her slower. She visualized in her mind all the possible attacks that could occur in the tunnels. Then she worked through the reactions she would have to use to beat back any attacks. When she was finally ready, Hailey climbed onto the brick pile and entered the largest tunnel in the middle of the brick pyramid.

Chapter 13: Mariposa and the Search Uphill

In the underbrush Mariposa realized it was easier moving without the weight of her tail. With a little practice she found her balance as she stepped over rocks and twigs. Mariposa's intended to go up the long hill at the southern side of the yard. From the high point she figured she'd be able to get the best view. It was as close as she could come to being at the altitude of a flying Crow.

She thought as she traveled about all the things she had learned during her short life. There were friendships, traveling, and fighting. What a marvelous life she was leading now, she thought, with all the accomplishments even though she was the youngest in her family.

Her thoughts kept her mind busy as she rested from the exertion of each new dash up the hill. When resting she glanced back to use the beehive tree as the marker for where she had come from in the morning.

Because of the way water drained off the hard packed soil of the hillside the yard below bubbled with greenness. Because the hillside could not retain water the human gardeners had scooped out small half circles of dirt to make little reservoirs where bushes and trees had been planted. These mounds created evenly spaced protective oasis in the barren expanse of the hillside where Mariposa climbed.

Mariposa dashed from oasis to oasis, progressing up the hill at a steady rate without any incidents. Her method was to travel at a slight angle versus the ridgeline so she never ran straight up the hill. To run straight uphill would have left her no evasive options if she were to be attacked from above. At most of the oasis stops she was assured some moisture was available to be licked from the plants. There was an occasional ant or earwig for eating.

It took all of the morning and afternoon to get within reach of the top of the hill. As she looked at the last section of hillside she was pleased to see there was no fence at the top. For a creature the size of Mariposa, a small Fence Lizard, the climb in one day had been a major effort.

As she rested beneath a small Palm tree she studied the top of the ridge again. She had the sense she was being watched. As she looked at the sky overhead, the air seemed smeared, less clear, the way it was when she opened her eyes under water.

There was no movement in the yard. There was no barking Dog or hidden Cat waiting to pounce. She was certain of it because of her acquired skills from traveling. And there really was no more time to rest, she thought, to wait for nothing. She planned the last dash to go directly uphill to reach the cover of the fence post. It did not occur to her a fence post without a fence wasn't right. With one last deep breath she began her dash for the crest of the hill.

Out in the open, midway between the top and the protection of the Palm tree, Mariposa saw the bird of prey rise into the sky. The Sparrow Hawk had been hiding behind a chimney on a house beyond Mariposa's sight. She could not have seen it earlier. She knew at once she was committed and defenseless. There was nowhere to run.

Mariposa froze in position. She visualized herself as if she were looking down from above. She saw the wings of the attacking bird folding back into a stoop, racing at her in a steep dive from the sky. She was awed by the little wings arched against its sides and its feathers rustled by the wind on its chest. She saw its feet stretch forward and its sharp toes reach for her, closer so fast she stopped breathing.

Mariposa braced herself for the last moments of her life. She cringed as she thought I do not even have a tail to offer as a disguise, all my tricks are used.

And the bird which flew at her like a screaming missile exploded against the sky. Feathers blasted everywhere except towards Mariposa. It was as if there was an invisible wall which had saved her.

The slam of the beautiful little Hawk's body into the glass fence panel made one solid thud. Its neck was broken at once. There was a moment of hesitation after its body struck and compressed against the plexi-glass fence. Then the dead Hawk slid to the ground. As the Bird hit the ground a little puff of downy feathers rose around her. One drifted through the gap between the fence bottom and the ground and landed on Mariposa's snout. She remained frozen in place.

Mariposa sat still for awhile. She tried to get her mind around what had happened. She could not believe she was alive. Then, step by cautious step, she crossed the final few feet to the fence post. She realized there was a fence in place which she could see through. Resting within inches of the bird, she stared at the Sparrow Hawk whose lovely little feathers moved slightly in the breeze slipping through the open bottom of the fence.

"Wow that was intense." The comment came from the next fence post, eight feet away. Mariposa snapped her head around. She could tell another female Lizard's voice when she heard one. It was a large Alligator Lizard, lanky with heavy-boned eyebrows.

"Intense? It scared my tail off!"

Mariposa heard herself shouting like she was talking to a deaf Lizard. She still had her sense of humor, though.

The other Lizard stared back at her.

"Pretty funny stuff. You lose your tail and you kill a Hawk in the same day. What else can you do?" The lanky Lizard seemed comfortable in this situation. Even after all she had witnessed. "Hey, you look kind of familiar," she continued. "Do you know another Lizard named Hailey?" Mariposa's jaw fell open with surprised.

"Of course. She's a friend of mine. She just laid some eggs. I'm trying to find us a new home before they hatch. That yard at the bottom of this hill is too green." Mariposa realized she was rambling, like her brother had said, and she stopped herself.

"I know what you mean. I like it drier," said the lanky Lizard. Then getting back to the first comment about Hailey she said "We learned to dance with the Honey Bees in the green yard. We called it our waggle dance. There were a lot of fun times we had by the pool in the old man's backyard. It would be nice to see her again."

Mariposa studied her for a moment, letting the words sink in. As large as the world was, Mariposa was starting to realize it was also surprisingly small. She could use a friend the size of this Lizard who already knew her friend Hailey.

"Do you know your way around here?" Mariposa asked.

"Of course," said the lanky Lizard. "I know the best places to rest and to live. I think I have just the right place for Hailey to move her family." The lanky Lizard smiled slyly. "What's your name?"

So they traded names. The lanky Lizard was called Whendy. Hailey and Mariposa and Whendy formed a circle of friendship whose odd lives were intertwined forever.

The two new friends rested atop the hill for the night. Whendy described the place where she thought Hailey would have the best time raising her children. Because she was so perceptive, Mariposa understood Whendy and Hailey already had a bond. The place Whendy described sounded like it was the right place for Hailey to settle. Mariposa decided once she got Hailey settled and her eggs safe she would move onto her own life as a traveler. The new friends agreed they would make the journey downhill to retrieve Hailey in the morning.

Before they slept Whendy asked one last question. She was puzzled. "How did you know the invisible wall was there?"

"I didn't," Mariposa said as she closed her eyes and fell asleep.

Chapter 14: The Recovery

Noah reached the top of the fence. On the other side was Nora's garden. The pain under his front leg made him dizzy. He knew if he could get back to the garden to his friends he had a chance to live. At the lip of the fence he simply rolled over the edge and felt nothing when he hit the soft sand at the bottom.

Nora was surprised when the little Blue Belly Lizard landed on the ground behind her. She studied his wound for a minute and could tell by the swelling it was infected. So she spread some antibiotic ointment on his wound before taking him into the house to place him in the terrarium to recover. Then she added Bump to the terrarium to keep the hurt Lizard company. With a beaker she dripped mulched Cricket into his mouth, massaging his throat as she held him upright so the liquid would drain into his stomach. Noah did not resist.

"Wake up! You've got to wake up!" Bump nudged Noah roughly with his snout.

Bump was not very pleased to be inside the glass cage, even if it was with Noah. Even though Bump had come to idolize the smaller powerhouse Lizard during the summer two days inside the cage was way more than he felt he could take.

Bump decided it was time for Noah to wake up. He knew Blue Belly's could sleep a lot, more than his breed of Alligator Lizards. But sometimes, Bump reasoned, you just have to get the blood moving. He saw the wounds were nearly healed. The blue color on Noah's chest and sides were showing, however in an unappealing dull-slate color. And Bump was used to seeing his friend vibrant with color and energy. He figured if Noah could be outside in the healing sunlight he would recover faster.

"Get up you blue belly." Bump taunted Noah.

"Leave me alone," Noah said.

He pushed Noah's limp body in circles around the terrarium floor. Noah's eyes stayed open.

"Good, you're awake. It's about time. I'm going crazy in here," Bump said.

"You have bad breath," Noah said as Bump drooled over his head. "Can you get me something to eat? I'm starving."

Bump was proud his friend asked him for help. He dashed to the rear of the glass cage and snagged a sleepy Cricket. Chomping with his toothless gums he prepared the Cricket for Noah to eat. Noah accepted the food and then several more that Bump caught. Exhausted by the effort of being fed Noah fell asleep again while Bump proudly kept watch.

Chapter 15: Leaving Nora's Garden

Bump kept Noah well fed with Crickets and within a week Noah was healthier than before the start of the Blue Belly wars. Nora released the Lizards back into the garden soon after Noah started to spar with Bump for food. Noah continued to hone his fighting skills once loosed in the garden even as he renewed his old friendships. He knew in the future there would again be a need to fight and he did not want his limp to put him at a disadvantage.

Tartar was one of Nora's garden other injured inhabitants. He did not mix well due to his abrasive personality and rudeness. He had six legs where there were supposed to be eight. A neighbor had brought the damaged Tarantula to Nora, explaining their young son had shot off the rear legs with an air gun. His presence allowed Noah to learn some things about hairy Tarantula Spiders fighting techniques while he wandered restless each day in the garden.

Without his rear legs Tartar could not protect himself the way Tarantulas do. Those with eight legs reach back with their two rear legs to pull poisonous hair from their abdomen top and fling the hair into the eyes and mouths of their enemy which was the reason, he'd explained to Noah, Tarantulas normally have a bald spot on the top of their abdomen. Tartar explained why he did not have a bald spot. No rear legs to throw the hairs, he'd told Noah as he shrugged with the other six legs. Tartar also told him the female Tarantula lives up to fifty years, unlike the males who only lived four years and therefore were fearsome fighters with many years of experience.

As Tartar and Noah grew to know each other they conversed about fighting methods. It was a natural topic of conversation since it was a line of thought which seemed to occupy their male minds. Tartar recounted with delight how his opponents had suffered once a thrown hair lodged in their eye or mouth.

"There is no need to hurry to die," he'd said, "when you can wait to win. Lesson done."

Noah listened, although he felt sick in the stomach at the brazen pleasure the Spider took in his description of his uneven battles.

The morning the Mouse skirted the top of the fence, accidentally touching the hotwire, Noah had just finished visiting Tartar. Daniel jumped so high from the shock he missed the fence on the way down and fell in front of Noah.

"Why does she do that?" Daniel was infuriated as he dusted his side off. His heart beat so fast the little bristles of hair inside his ears stuck out.

"Yeh, you need to be careful." Noah said with a schoolyard grin. It wasn't he didn't care. Just it was always funny to see the reaction to being zapped.

"What's so funny?" Daniel clearly was in a bad mood.

"Do you always ask questions? Why are you here?"

Noah was still perturbed by his visit with Tartar and decided he wasn't going to be intimidated by a comical mad Mouse. Besides, he thought, I haven't had a good fight in a long time.

Daniel heard the hard tone of Noah's voice. He looked closer at Noah and recognized him.

"You're the one I heard about. She said if I could find you, you could help."

"Who?" Noah was abrupt. His chest color darkened a healthy blue.

"The lady Lizard. Name's Hailey. Said to tell you to be very careful. She can't see anymore. It's way bigger than the Hags. And hairy." Daniel paused to take a breath.

"Where is she?" Noah said. Daniel explained and Noah nodded his head in recognition of the place.

"Are you going to help her?" the Mouse finished.

"Pretty dangerous," Noah said more to himself than to the Mouse. Noah was already devising a plan as the Mouse disappeared over the fence without saying good-by.

Noah contemplated his surroundings in the protective garden for several minutes. The place was a crossroads for him. Within this fenced garden, he thought, I could live forever and never really test the potential of my life. I've been given a second chance to become more than the confines of the garden will ever allow me.

Decision made, Noah bound from his rock near the fence to the fence to the top and down the other side more like a Cat than a Lizard. His energy level was so far above the other garden inhabitants he was not meant to stay any longer.

Chapter 16: Rallying the Troops

Daniel was waiting outside the den when Mariposa and Whendy arrived.

"Where's Hailey?" Mariposa immediately sensed there was something wrong. The Mouse sat fidgeting with his very long tail, either unable or unwilling to speak.

"What do you want?" Whendy spoke painfully slow, pronouncing each word as if the Mouse spoke another language and would understand better that way. She circled around to his backside while Mariposa remained in front of him.

"Sorry," he said. "Nervous. Always nervous. Just Mouse, see. Hailey friend too." Mariposa saw Daniel was trying to figure out how to tell them without upsetting them. But she guessed the news would upset them no matter how it was told. "Name is Daniel." His whiskers shivered even though the sun shone.

Whendy and Mariposa looked at each other. Whendy nodded her head towards the den for Mariposa to go inside and check on the eggs.

Mariposa reappeared shortly. "They're good." Both Lizards were stern. They wanted an answer, which made the nervous Mouse fidget even more.

"Okay, enough of the suspense. Tell us what's going on." Whendy looked larger to Mariposa than even before. She saw the Alligator in Whendy rising to the surface as the line of her jaw tightened to expose her fine teeth.

"She trapped. She trapped in the brick pyramid by the Spider who throws fur."

Mariposa had trouble understanding the Mouse was describing the aged female Tarantula. She had lived in the brick pyramid for over twenty years, Whendy said, explaining to Mariposa she'd fought one of her less dangerous mates near there last spring. She felt she was lucky to get away with the lingering cough from his thrown hair piece in her lungs.

"Is she alive?" Mariposa was agitated by what she had heard. She figured immediately the fur throwing Spiders should be avoided and she could not fathom how Hailey let herself get caught. She recalled one of those hairy Spiders had dragged her cousin away into the dark night when she was but a year old in the canyon.

"Yes," he said "but is trapped and it only matter of time."

"Can you take us to her?" Mariposa said.

Daniel looked back and forth at them as he considered his answer. "Have other things do." Next he tried to change the subject. "Told other Lizard too."

"What other Lizard?" Whendy snarled as she spoke.

"Strong fighter in garden," he said. His sides shivered.

The thought that Noah was there startled Whendy. All the animals had come to know the place as the Garden. To them it was a refuge for the unlucky that had borne some great injury.

"What does he look like? What's his name? How good of a fighter is he?" Whendy fired the questions so fast Daniel could not answer. So he waited until she was done.

"Has a big blue chest. Very muscular. So fast it's incredible. Forget name. Nomad, something like that. Limps a little on left side. Has a scar under front leg."

"Is he going to meet us?"

"Yes, gave directions. Better hurry or try to help by self. Could be trapped too." The Mouse looked over their backs and gasped. When the two Lizards turned to see what had surprised him, Daniel darted away into the underbrush.

"Hey! Hey, come back here!" Mariposa was upset.

"Let him go," Whendy said. "I know how to get there. But first we need a plan. And we don't have much time."

Whendy said she suspected the other Lizard was Hailey's brother, Noah. But the limp and scar was new, which created some doubt. His great speed was common knowledge.

Chapter 17: The Hairy Spider in the Pyramid

The aged hairy Spider roused herself when she felt the vibrations coming from the disturbed silk web curtains deep within the brick pyramid. She listened the way a musician tunes an instrument, tracking the progress of Hailey as the Lizard floundered in the pitch dark below. The aged Spider squinted to listen over her own labored breathing.

The Tarantula had used nearly every room in the brick pile as a birthing lair during her forty years of life. The web curtains which hung from the ceiling of each abandoned room in the brick pile hummed a consistent pitch as the silk floated unimpeded outward and back in through each doorway as the air vented. Whenever Hailey brushed against a web the tone changed and the note was heard by the Spider.

She smiled when the altered sound echoed upward again from the corridors. She preened her abdomen hair with her rear legs. And she smiled again. At last she began the chase.

Her eight eyes blinked, four to each side of her face, as she stood. She was stiff. She felt the stab of pain as she lifted herself onto her crab jointed legs. The last shedding of her external skeleton had not completed properly. There was a slight curve at her body connection between the thorax and the abdomen. It had made her infertile. Still, she must eat and that she enjoyed doing very much.

The past forty years of her life had been an accumulation of yearly mating, killing and feeding the mates to the hatching thousands and thousands of baby Tarantulas. Then the months of self-imposed solitary confinement followed, enlivened by the eating of hapless insects, mice, small birds, and unacceptable suitors.

Hailey wandered through the tunnels for several hours, disorientated by the abundance of rooms, dodging the flags of moving web curtains. When she brushed a web she felt how it vibrated, knowing it sent a signal about her presence to an unknown monster somewhere within the pyramid of bricks. Hailey could taste its presence.

Hailey had never seen such a place or any Spider able to make the wonderful type of web. But wonder became terror when she realized she was lost in the dark interior. She thought such a place must house some awful animal. As time in the dark cool brick pyramid wore on and reduced her body temperature, panic overcame her confidence. She feared she would never see her children born.

The tunnels formed a corridor which worked in a circular pattern. As Hailey worked her way through them she could feel the corridors slanting upward. The paths were getting shorter and the air fresher. She stopped to rest.

As she gathered her thoughts she had a renewed sense of danger. The heaviness of being watched made her spine tingle. She focused her eyes into the tunnel ahead and saw the movement of the largest Spider she'd ever seen. It was larger than her little body. The eight eyes shined greedily as they turned toward her.

For a split second Hailey froze. That was enough. Hailey saw how quickly the huge Spider reached backwards with her two rear legs to the top of her giant abdomen and grasped the hairs. Then she cast the hairs at Hailey's face. Hailey closed her mouth in time but could not blink fast enough to keep the hairs out of her eyes. She felt the hairs lodge in her eyes while she spun around and ducked into a room off the corridor.

Racing wildly, gripped in fear and already beginning to lose her eyesight, Hailey burst through web shrouded doorway after doorway. All the while the aged Spider followed her downward through the pyramid of bricks. The Spider created horrendous hissing sounds as she rubbed her two front legs together.

It got worse for Hailey when she realized the Spider was enjoying the deadly game. It was in no hurry. It paused often to rear up on its legs and laugh through its great open pink mouth.

This giant Spider must have done this many times before, Hailey thought. She must get pleasure from it. She must not be hungry enough now so she wants to save me for later.

Hailey was exhausted. Her little heart pumped harder. Her fatigue was obvious as she dragged her tail behind her, no longer making any effort to keep it off the brick floor. Behind her the Spider's hiss came closer.

Hailey arrived at a spot where the push of air came from below. She did not notice the open shaft because her eyes hurt too much from the imbedded Tarantula hairs. Her body was extended over the hole before she could stop. Gravity took over next. Her exhaustion complete, Hailey gave in, falling without resistance into the central shaft of the pyramid. The fall was unbroken and lasted a mere second. It was enough time for her to lose consciousness. When she hit the bottom she did not feel the impact as the bones of many past victims cushioned her landing.

The gross old Spider peered over the edge of the shaft, cackling when she saw where the Lizard had fallen. It was not the easiest spot for her to climb down to with her crooked back. But experience had taught her the Lizard was not going anywhere after being hit by her hairs. With one last hiss she went back to her lair to rest for the day.

Chapter 18: The Battle for Freedom

Noah studied the pyramid of bricks for several minutes. He saw how each of the bricks had been stacked four inches apart from bottom to top, so in between each brick an opening vented air into the interior. That also created countless dark passages in which he knew danger was possible. Above the foundation layer, which was a square of twenty bricks by twenty bricks, another layer of nineteen by nineteen bricks was stacked. Each new layer afterwards was laid with one less brick, creating the pyramid.

The tower of bricks was eighty inches high and topped out with four bricks. Due to the design there was a central shaft in the middle which went from the top to the bottom. Noah considered his options as he got ready to enter the pyramid to search for Hailey.

Whendy and Mariposa made no noise when they came out of the underbrush to stop behind him. Noah sensed how Mariposa stared at the natural flex of muscles in his back and neck as he shifted his weight on his feet. He turned to the side so she would catch a glimpse of his wonderful blue sides and chest. She said nothing.

"Hey, Whendy, the Mouse found you too." Noah spoke without acknowledging Mariposa.

"Yes," she said, "the little runner said Hailey had gotten in trouble. Then he took off." Whendy shook her head in disgust.

"Well don't be too hard on him. He took quite a jolt from the hotwire when he found me. He stayed long enough to give me the message."

Noah continued to act like he had not noticed Mariposa as she stood next to him. But he began to push up and down on his legs to show off his blue muscular chest. She said nothing.

"Have you ever seen one of these before?" Whendy asked. Noah could tell Whendy wanted to know if he was going to be of any use fighting the huge Spider.

"Got some experience. Keep away from her hair. She's not fast for long, but she is at first." Noah scuffed at the ground with his hind feet.

"We should find Hailey first. The place is a maze," said Whendy. "Each corridor leads into more corridors. You get tangled in the webs before you know it."

Whendy and Noah continued to review their plan. Mariposa, still silent, seemed to Noah to absorb it all. He liked the way the heat radiated off of her side against his.

From above them the sound of several Hummingbirds whooshed. As the three Lizards looked up, four Hummingbirds settled into the Lantana bush. The bush was clustered with many bright yellow and purple flowers. The birds were so tiny when they settled on the same branch the flowers were not jostled. In unison they turned their heads toward the sound of Hailey's voice, which came from inside the lowest level of the pyramid.

"I'm in here!" It was obvious she was trapped. Otherwise she simply would have walked out to them. "I can't see. The Spider threw its hair in my eyes. And my feet are tangled up in the webs."

"How's your breathing," Whendy yelled back. "The hair in your lungs will cause bleeding."

"No problem. They missed my mouth. Got my eyes though," she repeated. "I can't see anything."

"Noah and Mariposa are with me," Whendy said.

Noah heard how his sister's voice no longer strained in panic. He knew their presence had calmed her. But when Hailey heard Noah was outside with Whendy and Mariposa she spoke to them expressing concern about Noah's safety.

"Don't let him take any chances," Hailey said.

"Don't worry about him. He looks like he can take care of himself," Mariposa said. Even in the gravity of the situation Noah noticed the admiration in Mariposa's voice. He was pleased and pressed his side against her to communicate it.

As if by some secret signal, the four Hummingbirds rose off of their perch. Hailey heard the drum of their wings.

"Guys, have you met Antsy and her family? How did all of you find me?"

"That odd little Mouse," Whendy said.

The little birds nodded down at them in agreement. Without a word they rose off the branch and flitted over to the nearest set of flowers, where they plunged their long beaks into the Lantana flowers for the nectar.

"They just went to eat," said Whendy. She sounded exasperated.

"Don't worry," said Hailey, "they'll do something to help."

In unison the Hummingbirds flew to the top of the pyramid and dribbled the nectar they had gathered, leaving a sweet sticky mess over the top level of bricks. They returned to the flowers and without paying any more attention to the Lizards they repeated their actions. Over and over again they worked from the flowers to the pyramid until it was covered at the top with the sweet mess.

The Lizards were not sure why the Hummingbirds were creating the mess so they went back to planning how to recover Hailey. Soon they heard the hairy old Spider awaken. She created new hissing sounds by rubbing her two front legs together. Then they heard her begin the long downward walk to where blinded Hailey struggled against her webs.

Without warning the Red Warrior Ants rushed forward in a shocking wave. It was a scouting party attracted by the overwhelming sweetness of the nectar splashed upon the pyramid.

"Red Ants." Mariposa saw them first. "We'll have to move fast."

Since Mariposa was without the hindrance of a tail, they agreed she would be the best to find Hailey in the bottom corridors. Whendy and Noah ran up the opposite sides of the pyramid to the level of the fifteenth bricks. They snuck towards the central shaft in the dark interior, being careful not to disturb any of the silk web doormats.

The gross old Spider made so much noise with her hissing as she made her way down the inner passages she could not hear them. She had gotten careless and overconfident in her many years.

At the bottom Mariposa silently reached Hailey's side.

"Don't touch my eyes. Just untangle the webs around me. Roll them into a ball and stick them to my back. I want them for later."

Mariposa did as she was instructed, maneuvering easily without her tail to restrict her in the tight quarters.

The entire Red Warrior Ant army had come and covered the outside of the pyramid in waves, frenzied by gathering nectar. Although they had come for the nectar they sensed the other activity within the pyramid. They began to flood the upper chambers.

The old Spider heard, but she did not appear to care about them. They had never been a threat to her before. Her stomach growled and she turned towards the Lizard at the bottom. Noah and Whendy were already in position for her passing. They waited in the dark for the right moment.

As her bulbous abdomen crossed through the fifteenth level's central shaft, Noah snapped his jaws onto her rear right leg. In perfect unison Whendy clamped onto her left rear leg. With her hind legs stretched between the two powerful Lizards she could not reach for the deadly hairs. The two Lizards exerted all of their strength, pulling back so hard she could not spin and bite them with her gaping pink mouth. With even greater exertion by both of the Lizards, bracing back on their legs, Noah and Whendy pulled tug-o-war until both her rear legs popped out of their sockets.

She had never known fear before. It flooded over her. Even though she could have attacked on her six remaining legs she hesitated. She faced them with her mouth gaping in rage, unsure of which way to go. Noah yelled "Now!" Both of the Lizards spun in a circle sweeping out with their tails, knocking the enraged Spider down the central shaft. She fell two levels before she grabbed a hold of the sides.

From below Mariposa had already led Hailey to daylight.

From above the Warrior Ants smelled the gore of the Tarantula's body fluids leaking out of her leg sockets. They jumped in eagerness down the shaft. Looking upward the wounded Spider saw the walls of the shaft moving against the background of the blue sky. The first bites at her seeping leg sockets were an aggravation. The next and more and more were painful. Finally she was swarmed by the Red Ants so heavily she fell to the bottom of the shaft, landing on the bones of her many years of victims. She could not close her mouth as the voracious Red Ants climbed inside to bite her.

Within fifteen minutes her forty years of hard life was ended. Only her dried external skeleton was left in the bone yard at the bottom of the central shaft of the old brick pyramid.

Chapter 19: The Return Home

Inside of Hailey's den they discussed how to move the eggs and told Hailey about where they would move her and her soon to be hatched family. Hailey told them how she planned to use the silk webs to form sacks for carrying the eggs.

"Form a sack to hold several eggs. The eggs are getting heavier so you can't put too many in together."

They followed her instructions. Whendy had the most success in creating a pouch from the very fine silk webs.

"Now use a length of it to create a sling." Hailey was warm with the happiness of having all of her friends and her little brother around her, even in her blindness. They were going to a new place to live which Whendy guaranteed her she would love.

It was time to move out. The four Lizards emerged from the den, one at a time, into the brightness of the late summer sun. Once outside, Whendy and Mariposa checked their loads. Each carried four eggs slung in a pouch hung over their necks. Noah foraged ahead to ensure the path was safe for all of them.

As they moved they took turns leading Hailey by bumping her sides or letting her grip their tails at the spots where the path was too thin to walk side by side. At last they reached the eastern fence line of the green yard where so much danger had come to their lives. Noah was chuckling when Hailey was brought up to the front.

"Noah, what are you laughing about?" Hailey could not see but she could hear very well.

"Just wait," he said.

The three Lizards smiled at each other as they guided Hailey to touch the fence. Something, she knew, was familiar about the feel.

"Okay Hailey, you're going to have to climb on your own," said Noah. "We'll be ahead of you and beside you."

Hailey grasped the wooden slate in front of her and began to climb. The grain of the wood began to stir memories within her mind. When she reached the top she remembered what it was.

It was the breeze on her skin, the sound of the water lapping against the side of the pool, the reflected heat rising from the concrete and brick decks. It all formed into the happy memory. Even the smell of the potted cactus which got far too much water wafted up to her nostrils as she sat astride the old wooden fence. Hailey's eyes bubbled with tears. As the tears lifted the first of many veils of blindness from her eyes, she began to see sunlight. Her eyesight had begun to recover.

Whendy ushered the little group off the open danger of the fence top. But not before the old man in his chair in the shade of the patio saw them. He saw four Lizards together coming back into his yard. Tears ran down the creases of his stroke stiffened face. And he did not move as he watched the Lizards come into the yard.

Mariposa and Noah stopped atop the fence, shoulder to shoulder, looking northward beyond the old man's yard and far beyond the many fences going down the hill. They paused together for a moment before they went down into the yard. Noah was eager to run along the rails in the full sunlight. Mariposa felt a tug only so slightly to be on the safeness of the ground below. There were many other places she wanted to see before getting too comfortable. Hailey and Whendy waited for them at the bottom.

Hailey was home. It had been a full circle. Being there again was not going to be the same. Miss Julie was gone. Hailey's life was meant to start its own cycle which included her own children and maybe their children later on. She realized her feet loved the feel of the warm concrete in the old people's yard with the pool.

"Whendy, would you take me to the den?"

"Hold onto me then," said Whendy. "It's better than it was before."

The old man had re-stacked the bricks. He'd added some bricks with holes clear through them so little Lizards could run in and out. He'd stacked them neatly near the pool filter to form a bench where he could sit to rest half way around the backyard. He'd left room in the center for the Lizard den.

"We'll be there in just a little while." Whendy spoke with an assurance to comfort Hailey.

The old man sat in his chair for a while longer after the Lizards had come cautiously back into his yard. Since their departure weeks before he'd sat each morning on the patio, squinting as he looked across the pool at the fence until his wife told him to come inside for his afternoon nap.

Within two weeks there were eight baby Lizards darting around the brick deck and up and down the shaky wooden fence. Hailey's eyesight had returned.

When the old man was alert he followed their movements among the potted cactus. Hailey saw one time he shuffled to the edge of the pool to fish out a struggling young Lizard. Mostly he slept with his head fallen forward on his chest, fidgeting in a way Hailey recognized as dreaming. Much the way her Mama had dreamed and told her about warmer seasons when she'd chased her children around the clear blue pool.

The cooler days of autumn came rapidly over the short Santa Ana Mountains. Fence Lizards hibernate for the winter, even in the casual winters of Southern California. They rest in a deep cooled state of sleep where their little heartbeats keep them blissful on the edge of life with one heartbeat per hour. Hailey and her family of eight slept well in the new brick stack.

Whendy departed for the winter of her own making. Alligator Lizards do not sleep through Southern California winters because there are many bright and warm days in between the odd weeks of cold and rain. So she went on with her larger life looking for the adventures the complacent winters of the desert Southwest would bring her.

Noah and Mariposa formed a pact. They cared for each other but the seeds of settling had not yet germinated in either of them. They took the high road along the fence tops through the many yards. They had many places to see. When it was too cold to continue for the year they found a convenient hiding place which was sure to be the first to warm come the spring.

Daniel, a most enterprising California Mouse was satisfied with his summer. After all, he had orchestrated the demise of the horrible hairy Tarantula. He planned to get on with his life. It had been time consuming to communicate with the Lizards and Birds, yet that had served his purpose. He'd avenged the killing of the hundreds of his ancestors by the beast of a Spider in the pyramid of brick.

A Mouse's life is too short, he thought as he sat near the giant lava rock warmed by the late afternoon sun in November. It would be nice to have my own family now. Daniel watched the old man and woman on the patio from his secret place beneath the rock until he fell asleep to the pleasant murmur of their voices.

Part II: Hagador's Orchard

Chapter 20: Taking Hailey Home

When it came time, breaking the news to the old man the house was sold had been hard enough for his daughter to do. Moving day was coming soon.

Of course Daniel, the California Mouse did not know anything about that. There was the soft smell of Orange blossoms in the evening air. It did seem to Daniel the air was scented with the blossoms whenever something new was going to happen in his life.

Daniel sensed changes were coming to the yard as he studied the agitated old man pace near the pool and stand staring at the Lizards' brick stack. He watched as the old man prodded the bricks with his cane, stirring the Lizards from their hiding places. Later at night he felt the ominous clump-clump of the old man's walker vibrate through the wooden floors of the old house, all the way into his den beneath the large lava rock. Daniel reflected how he had also spent the past winter and the early spring season in growing anticipation. He knew somehow the attention the old man paid to the brick stack home of his Lizard friends was the reason for his anxiety.

It was before moving day Daniel saw Nora, the elder neighbor lady with the red-knob knuckles, gather the Lizards into the mesh cage carrier. She caught them through trickery and by tempting them with baby crickets. Daniel remembered how Noah, the brother Lizard to Hailey, had told him Nora was not to be feared. He'd said she would never hurt the backyard animals.

Nora assured the old man she would let the Lizard family go at the old orchard house foundation, which lay on the front edge of the plateau below Hagador Canyon. He was pleased when he heard that because it was the place where he had captured the Lizards' ancestors many years ago.

The orchard house had been a poor man's house and so its frame had not been elevated above the ground like the houses on the wealthier Corona Valley plantations. It'd been built solid and small on a hardened mix of dirt and gravel cured with lime for the foundation. To the side yard there was the remnant of a collapsed cellar which was once used to keep produce and liquids cool during the summer months.

Daniel watched as the little mesh cage full of frightened Lizards was carried out the side gate. He rushed to the front yard in time to see the humans close the car doors and start their journey to the last foothill orchard in Corona. He did not know they were being taken to a better home. He saw Hailey and her brood of eight with their tiny snouts pressed against the wire mesh as they looked for Daniel to help them. It had all happened too fast for him. He felt devastated he did not have a chance to figure out a plan to save them.

After the sound of the car had faded beyond Daniel's fine hearing, he looked around the empty backyard. A slight breeze ruffled the pool's blue water. The wind whistled low through the slats in the fence where he'd often watched Hailey's children play. At the side of the house the unlatched gate swung on rusty hinges. Daniel's long tail dragged in the dirt and his large ears drooped in despair.

Maybe, he thought, tomorrow they will be back.

Chapter 21: From the Highlands of the Yucatan

Her mother had laughed gently at Cuella's eagerness to have the rich red skin colored neck of the mature of her kind, the Turkey Vultures. Cuella adored her mother's fine appearance. She was mesmerized by the flurry of costume feathers draping her mother's broad dark shoulders. She followed every movement of her mother's imperious head as it swiveled, her bead eyes never blinking, her head turning nearly full circles atop the angular red neck. How I would look, Cuella thought, no more gray neck like a young bird. Then they would know I was old enough to float in circles with them on the highest air currents. We are taken seriously when we have red necks and bald heads, she thought, as she mimed her mother's sounds and movements during the morning, wondering if she would ever see her again.

Turning her back flush against the rising sun she stretched her wings to drape her flight feathers as if on a clothes line to wick away the night dew. Looking sultry over her left shoulder and then the right, Cuella felt the warmth grow within each of her young feathers. She felt them taking in the new day's sun power. Soon the dried feathers would enable her to float from her perch, making it possible for her to never have to touch the ground again. So at last her migration day began.

The great flocks of Turkey Vultures had gone ahead of Cuella by several days, circling as they shrank smaller and flew higher. By jumping into adjacent thermals they were soon beyond her sight. Cuella had hung back hoping to find her mother. She had lingered until at last there remained none but Cuella.

Two years old, strong and still hopeful she would find her mother, not yet understanding how being alone was the way of her kind. She flapped her wings as she faced into the temperate morning breeze, timing the lift as she stepped off the desolate rock. The Yucatan highlands fell away beneath her as the updraft caught under her wings, dimpling her soft belly feathers. Before the shadows of afternoon began to grow Cuella had ridden many northbound thermals on her solo return to the cherished jewel of Corona Valley.

Chapter 22: The Orchard

The Corona orchards were not first. In the times before their creation there were the huge feudal grants of the Mexican ranches which encompassed the Santa Ana Mountains and the dry valleys below. Prior to that time the valleys and mountains were inhabited by the Luiseño for nearly twenty five hundred years, the southwestern branch of the Takic people, whose language flows backward into the great stream of Uto-Aztecan peoples.

The magic Hagador Canyon which cleft sharp and rugged into the northeast flank of the Santa Ana Mountains could have been called by any of their names. But Mr. Hagador was the orchard owner at the mouth of the canyon when the detailed white man's maps were drawn. He had been a man of some influence since he then controlled the use of the seasonal creek which fed his orchards first before the water flowed to the growing town below named Corona. Eventually he had been forced to give up his water rights for the good of the community. But his family name was given to the mountain and the canyon and also the creek which rushed from it. Later it was a reminder he had been there and done something with the land.

Their way of life had not been easy. Yet the Hagador's persisted in building their small house on the short plateau next to the canyon mouth. Soon afterward a small dam was dug and then three wells and afterwards the acres of Orange orchards were planted, to be watered by the basic furrow irrigation system fed by his Hagador's creek and his wells.

Like a finger tracing in sand which turned into a pressed down palm print, the orchard straddled the withering creek out of the canyon and spread east along the alluvial slopes for a mile. Eventually the rigors of poor fertilization wore the orchards out. The pieces of the orchards were sold to other growers and at the last only the remnant within the Cleveland National Forest boundary survived.

Chapter 23: The Return of Cuella

Cuella liked her seasonal routine, comfortable in the predictable jet streams which were her roadways from Central America.

The onshore wind was a river with no beginning, flowing inland from the west from over the endless blue Pacific Ocean, bumping the base of the San Juan Capistrano foothills before pushing as a clogged mass of invisible unbridled energy, boiling itself upward to lift in a rush over the Santa Ana Mountains, to then turn into a deep cooling calm air eddy beyond the last upward thrust of the Santiago Peak, finally circulating over the bright citrus orchards of the Corona Valley.

They did not see Cuella when she appeared as a speck on the glass of the pale sky, tacking northward on the winds from the far horizon, gathering shape the nearer she came. Her dark winged gracefulness was yet unclear, steadily larger as the cool coastal winds floated her in wind drifting milkweed circles. At last she shifted onto the inland thermals, taking form as she drifted closer. They noticed her first as she settled in the lower wind eddies above the valley, come once again in the last days of spring to spin languorously at the rim of their sight. Very soon they, the creatures bound to the ground, forgot Cuella the Vulture was back for the summer.

She was a carrion eater, a cleaner for nature, and in a dull thoughtful way she was one of those floating wanderers which served their life's purpose for up to sixteen years as they sought their meals as much by their powerful sense of smell as by their acute eyesight. Until the methane of decay alerted Cuella to go lower to find her meals she stayed afloat above the world while reveling in her secret knowledge of what she saw below.

She saw how the rabbits stuttered into the brush in nervous anticipation of danger, and how the Lizards darted, never walking, in playful sparring and how even the ground squirrels guarded everything in rotund belligerence throughout the man's orchards. For hours she heard only the nylon scrape of her feathers as the shifting wind tweaked her graceful wings. Seldom did she drift lower, but when she did her shadow rippled across the Orange trees and startled the muttering Ducks on the dismal pond which watered Hagador's orchards through the swelter of summer.

Life for her during the daylight was as predictable as the glorious sun which warmed her on the soft bubble of the blue skies.

Chapter 24: Daniel Moves On

The fighting over a mate was the way of his species. For them it was one male one female, together until the death of one or the other mate. It was a unique predisposition of California Mice in how they raised their young in the otherwise polygamous Mice world.

Melody was ready to settle, as was his brother Francis, so evolution used competition as a way to clear the nest to make room for the future family. In the big picture of family development Daniel was a hindrance and it was time for him to move on.

Melody's instincts had been correct about one of the males in the nest being ready to have a family. She'd simply guessed wrong when she bumped Daniel in the entrance tunnel as a way to meet him. It angered him more than he understood and he squeaked and chattered his teeth in protest of her presence in his tunnel. Even so, she slipped past him into the darkness of the tunnel when he had not reciprocated her mating interest.

Of course Daniel was half-right. But besides Melody, his brother Francis also wanted him to leave. Daniel did try to fight Francis a little half-hearted at first, but he could not make himself injure his brother. He ran from the nest even though he was the better fighter, struggling with the conflicting feelings of loss and relief. He hoped he could remember all the good times they had shared as brothers and he wondered if he would be back some day.

After dashing from the nest Daniel ran towards the mountains, a place where he'd longed to go for many weeks. In the darkness he ran not caring if he attracted attention with his noise and movement; along the base of the fences and when necessary over them and on into the uphill yards.

He was lucky often that night, going through places which would normally have had predators eager to catch him for a quick meal. He was as lucky as any mouse had a right to be. Perhaps it was his reward for his leadership in the demise of the hairy Spider in the green yard the previous year. Maybe it was because he did not matter very much in the grand scheme of life. For that one night he was forgiven his carelessness. His path uphill was guided by the huge shadow of the mountain up ahead, which led to the place known as Hagador's Canyon.

Daniel stopped in the brush at the side of the road when the oncoming headlights made his eyes glow like little green lanterns. After the group of cars passed he was left in the sudden silence of the late night air. As he considered his next move he rested. He had traveled for many hours. But, he thought, there is still time to turn back.

In the end his pride pushed him to go further. In the back of his mind he recalled the sum of his experiences. He liked the confidence he felt, which he understood few mice ever lived long enough to enjoy. He realized he was no longer nervous the way mice were supposed to be.

Daniel looked down the hill at the twinkle of the lights from the houses where the humans started to waken for their days. He saw he'd gone a long distance, traversing many fences. The dawn lightened the edge of the horizon, increasing the barrier to returning home. It reinforced what his gut instincts told him throughout the night. He could no longer return home and he must go forward across the road to find safety before the sun came up.

Daniel faced the road, listening for the sound of approaching cars. Another sped past in the gray shade of the dawn. He closed his eyes as it passed so the headlight blindness was prevented and he could start across sooner. In the wake of the exhaust fumes he dashed across the old asphalt road, resting only when he had cleared the road, the concrete curb, the dirt path beside it, and run half-way up a very thick Orange tree.

He curled-up into a big eared ball of fur in the crook of a branch tree trunk and he immediately fell asleep. He felt no fear anymore. He had run it out of himself.

Chapter 25: Glider the Hawk

"I am the winged one, my blades cut the air, I am a knife, I am the winged one, I suck in the wind through my mouth, through my eyes, through my skin, through the length of my body, I am as porous as the air, I am the winged one, and I scream with joy." Glider's pure voice screeched announcing his presence as he sliced through the sharp morning air with his wing edges.

A muscular rolling twitch of his wings, bracing forward at the shoulders, careening through his dive, feathers tamped flat against his body, turning into a flat glide, banking around the orchard rows, screaming for the sheer joy of being young, leaving a vacuum, a stillness in his wake, effortless in flight, Glider the young Cooper Hawk slipped past the ends of the orchard rows below tree top level scanning the ground with no real interest in hunting that morning.

Daniel the Mouse sensed Glider's approach in the orchard only after the Hawk had already passed overhead. The power was daunting, even for a Hawk as young as Glider, so much so when Daniel awakened he thought to himself, when I die he I hope it is that fast. Then he fell back into a well deserved sleep for another day.

Chapter 26: Daniel Finds Friends

It was not until late morning on the second day when the commotion among the dried leaves on the ground awoke him. Daniel remained motionless with his back pressed against the tree trunk. The color of his fur matched the color of the gray bark so to the creatures on the ground he was invisible.

In the sun drenched clearing he saw two speckled furry Ground Squirrels wrestling with each other. Daniel had never seen that type of rodent, so large and waving their big fluffy tails in each others faces. They were not being careful enough as far as he was concerned. But it was their business. Daniel remained hidden until they disappeared into the undergrowth.

Over the next two days Daniel spotted the Squirrels off and on. He guessed from the amount of fruit and seeds he saw them eating they were not actual predators, but he decided to stay away from them just because they were so large. During those days Daniel got a good idea of the animal patterns in the orchard. He saw the Hummingbirds favored the tree tops around the open spaces. The Squirrels always seemed to have a hole available to dodge into when they sensed danger. The young Hawk ineptly raced around the orchard each morning, so far causing no harm.

Late in the afternoon of the second day Daniel swung in a semi-circle of exploration a safe distance from his nest. He always planned his days so he could return to it to sleep in safety. It was during the afternoon when he found Mariposa and Whendy as they continued their road trip, as they called it, into the Hagador Orchard.

Daniel was comfortable around Mariposa because she did not present any danger. But Whendy was huge. Even more so, because of her pregnancy her eyes had a very hungry look. So Daniel decided it was good enough to trade a few words, ask about Noah and Hailey, and then say he had to be on his way. It was with relief he left Whendy behind, particularly when he saw her nostrils flare a little as she caught his warm blooded Mouse scent.

By the end of the third day, Daniel decided he would begin to move further uphill in the morning to search for a better nest. He pictured something near water, more open and with less trees and hopefully having other California Mice.

Throughout the night the sounds of a Barn Owl kept him awake so by dawn he needed more rest. His nest was still safe, so after snacking on some seeds from the ripe grass beneath the tree, Daniel climbed back into the nest and fell asleep. Several hours later he awakened to a familiar sound which came from below. To his surprise Daniel recognized his old friend Noah, the Blue Belly Lizard, scuffing in the leaves on the ground below his Orange tree. He watched Noah without calling out to him. It was not long before he saw the strong young Lizard with the scar on his side fall asleep in the morning sun.

Chapter 27: Miguel Returns to Corona

Miguel's knees ached, making his sleep less restful. The touch of the large Spider walking across the back of his outstretched hand awoke him. He lifted one eyelid, staying motionless, forcing himself to act as if he still slept. Miguel knew whether it was man or animal that awoke him he should not move.

The Tarantula balanced delicately on the back of his hand. It hesitated the moment it sensed the change in Miguel's breathing. Each looked at the other's face.

Miguel smiled as if greeting a new friend. The sensation transferred relief to the Spider. With dainty steps on pipe cleaner legs the Tarantula stepped down to the ground. Watching with only one eye open, Miguel waited until the Spider disappear into the old Squirrel hole at the base of the Orange tree.

He rolled over onto his side so he could put his legs under himself to get up. Miguel could feel the soreness in his knees. The route he'd taken over the Santa Ana Mountains had been rough. But it had been the shortest to take by distance. In many places the trail disappeared into matted brush and tree trunks and wild askew vines. The walls of the long Hagador Canyon closed in where the ridges sharpened in turns so the creek thinned and deepened, leaving no easy place to walk. He was forced to balance on top of the tangled tree trunks upon the worn bottoms of his shoes. It had been a tough going for the Bracero, fighting to keep his balance. However there was nobody to slow him down.

Afterwards he knew he had under-estimated the difficulty of the path versus his age. His knees were so sore he had trouble rising to his feet. He knew he must get moving to relieve the soreness in his legs. The journey returning to the orchard was near its end.

Miguel sat soddenly upon the crate, thinking about his hunger. The intestinal cramps from a diet too heavy with citrus and too little bread had weakened his legs. The crate seemed a convenient place to rest. Miguel should have remembered a crate in the middle of an orchard could have only the business of being a beehive.

The wooden crate was weathered to a soft gray. From a distance the crate had appeared abandoned and he paid no attention to the busy Bees circling him when he sat upon it. From the two inch crevices at the top slates of the crate the Bees seeped out in mass. Overflowing like honey they rose into a low cloud around him in response to him sitting on the lid.

The Bees swarmed him, chasing his hand slapping silhouette through the tree rows until he fell to the ground bristling with hundreds of stingers on his exposed neck and face and hands. Shock soon overtook him. In awhile the Bees no longer saw him as a threat and they went back to the business of pollinating the Orange blossoms. Miguel, the keeper of the orchards, lay unmoving in the middle of the orchard.

The empty sound of the orchard returned.

A day passed. Miguel still lay unconscious in the opening between the trees. The venom from the stingers dispersed into his skin. Two days passed. He was alive and mumbled at times but he could not get to his feet. By then the swirl overhead of the Turkey Vulture Cuella attracted other animals towards him.

They saw her float in the sky without a single flap of her wings. The soft upward breath of carbon dioxide from the skin of millions of green tree leaves created a magic carpet upon which she floated.

Miguel' presence disturbed the balance. The emissions from his ravaged skin, fetid and acrid, had risen into the air currents over the orchard. Cuella the Vulture tasted it as much as she felt the subtle difference in the air. Swinging in a lazy circle she came back around to drift above him. By the second pass overhead she knew he was still alive. She went on her way, marking the spot in her memory, meaning to check on the man after several more sunrises.

Chapter 28: Mariposa to the Rescue

Cuella's passing above did not go unnoticed.

Mariposa and Whendy had already grown accustomed to the orchard's pastoral environment. The flash of the Vulture's shadow alerted them to be still. So they hunkered down among the weeds beneath the trees and saw her shadow pass over them a second time. Mariposa and Whendy looked at each other, knowing if there was no third pass of the shadow something ahead of them was still alive.

They waited for almost an hour among the debris of the weeds before moving forward to satisfy their curiosity.

Down the orderly paths made by the irrigation furrows of last summer, Mariposa and Whendy took their time. The silence in the orchards was different than in the backyards they were accustomed to investigating. The cadence of life in the orchards was a steady pattern uninterrupted by human sounds. The atmosphere among the trees was stale like a held breath when compared to the Hagador Canyon where Mariposa had come from as a young Lizard.

"What's she found?" Mariposa said.

"I don't know. It's not far though. I saw where she dipped her head." Whendy had been quick to isolate the Vulture's focus of attention.

"Want to check it out?" Mariposa was always curious. She knew Whendy was getting restless. She saw how Whendy's sides were swelling. Mariposa wanted to do something to take her mind off of her discomfort.

"Yeh, why not," Whendy said, "you lead the way this time."

Mariposa the traveler began to explore further along the path ahead of them. It did not take long to get to the clearing where the man laid. He was sprawled half underneath the shade of a large Orange tree, one arm draped over his eyes. The back of his hand was exposed, showing at least one hundred Bee stingers stuck in him in a pin cushion fashion. The sun had already crossed over the middle of the sky, so for the rest of the day the shadows would only grow longer over the man's inert body.

"Will you look at that?" Whendy said.

Something stirred in Mariposa. Perhaps it was the deep seated memory of an old man in a chair in a warm yard. He had been kind. She paused before she spoke.

"We should help."

Whendy laughed in astonishment. "What! Are you crazy? He'll kill us."

"We should help," Mariposa said again. "I'm not sure how. But we can."

She recalled the horror of the Bee attack she had witnessed in the green yard last summer. And besides, the human reminded her of the old man she and Hailey had watched for hours as he slept in the chair beneath the patio. The old man had helped Hailey and her family so many times.

Whendy looked like she had a bad taste in her mouth. Mariposa knew Whendy would not leave because it would bother Whendy when her little friend was less afraid. The injured man did not move. After waiting awhile the two Lizards crept close enough to feel him breath. His chest rose and fell very lightly.

"Do what I do," Mariposa said after she had climbed onto the top of his arm to where his exposed skin was riveted with the stingers. Mariposa demonstrated by grasping a stinger root with her mouth and pulling backwards. The barb held briefly, then unhooked leaving a small hole the size of a needle prick.

"Why?" Whendy always wanted to know why. It was exasperating.

"There is poison on the stinger. Don't touch it, but get the stingers out of him."

There was no room for Whendy on the same arm so she climbed under the arm to be next to his face.

"What a mess."

Mariposa knew Whendy meant it as much about the condition of the human as the situation she was letting herself get into with Mariposa. As dusk deepened Mariposa extracted the last stinger from the human's right ear lobe. The darkness had come with such rapidness it surprised them. They had been very focused on their task.

"Let's stay here," Mariposa said.

"Why, we need cover. And I'm hungry."

Mariposa saw Whendy was pretty tired, even if Whendy would not admit it. They had spit out so many stingers had the man sat up a tracing on the ground of his head and shoulders would show.

"His body will keep us warm," Mariposa said. "He's not going anywhere. We can squeeze beneath his shirt." Mariposa was serious about using him as protection against the dangers of the night. "Nothing will bother us if we stay with him."

Whendy did not argue with the logic. Both Lizards crawled together for comfort, snuggling tight against the man's growling belly. The starless night settled upon the three of them. The warmth of his body and the rhythm of his heartbeat lulled the Lizards asleep before the moon rose.

Chapter 29: Friends in Need

The day began with a pleasant surprise for Noah.

Bugs, he thought. Lots of bugs and they're everywhere. There is plenty of food. And there are Hummingbirds everywhere too. They always warn me when larger birds are coming.

One dark thought clouded through his mind.

I miss Hailey. I came here to get away from that, Noah reminded himself as he struggled to bolster his mood. He shook his muscular shoulders and decided to enjoy the warmth of the soil, rolling over and back onto his feet beneath the mid-morning sun.

Dew sparkled on the grass stalks, as reflective as glass diamonds. The perfumed air from millions of Orange blossoms softened the erratic flight of the busy white-orange winged Butterfly delivering pollen from tree to tree. After it flitted through the orchard and out of sight Noah became intrigued with the abundance of Leaf Hoppers.

He knew dozing in the sun was dangerous. Never completely asleep, Noah kept his ears open for a change in the whir sound of the Hummingbird wings.

"Asleep in the sun, can't do much better than that."

Noah jumped to his left, ready for action. The tickle on his snout scared him silly. Daniel stood laughing where Noah had been resting. Noah realized Daniel had tickled him with one of his long whiskers.

"Idiot!" was all Noah could think to say.

"Two of us," said Daniel.

Noah knew he'd made a serious mistake letting his guard down and that was a bad thing to happen to small animals.

"Why'd you do that?" Noah feigned indignation.

"Why'd you fall asleep in the open?"

"How'd you get here?" Noah decided to change the subject.

"Just like you, I crossed the road. Sure don't want to go back after all that, you know." Daniel's response was the Mouse evasiveness which Noah had come to expect in the time of their friendship. "You?"

"I had to get out, to see something new," Noah said.

Noah did not mention how Mariposa and he'd had an argument. One thing led to another and before long he'd run so far away it was easier to keep going than turn around. "I may not go back either."

The two friends looked at each other understanding without speaking how movement numbs the pain of hurt emotions.

"Hey, I saw your friend the other day." Daniel's comment broke the silence.

"Who?" Noah knew only a few other animals in common with Daniel.

"The girl Lizards you killed the hairy Spider with," Daniel said.

Noah's little heart jumped. "Really? Where'd you see them? How did they get here? Which way did they go?"

Daniel laughed again. "Hold on, we can find them. They were heading to the top of the orchard, they said. They're a day or two ahead of us."

Noah laughed at himself. He felt clumsy, having exposed his feelings to his Mouse friend. "Okay, maybe you and I can work our way up there and surprise them. That'd be fun, wouldn't it?"

"You're not so sly, Noah. Yeh, we can go together. I need a friend to watch my back too."

Noah liked how Daniel was so much more confident then he had been several months ago. The two friends foraged through the orchard for the next two days. One time they hid deep in a pile of tumbleweeds as a screaming small man ran through the orchard. They saw Bees swirling around him in a buzzing cloud with the air dark with the insects drafting behind. Noah knew the Bees would continue as long as they felt threatened.

They watched as the man fought to keep the Bees off of his exposed neck and face below his straw hat, barely keeping them out of his mouth. The arms flailed in useless circles over his head until the man ran from their view.

Noah and Daniel waited for several hours to be sure it was safe to move once again. By then it was too late to travel any further because daylight faded. The air cooled and with the sky dimmed Noah became too cold to travel.

"I'm going to check ahead," Daniel said. He did not need to stop when the air cooled. The night was his natural time of day to be active. His eyes worked well in the darkness as he only needed the reflection from the moon. Daniel's cute round ears rotated toward sounds, even before he realized he'd heard them.

"Good," Noah said. That will save me the trip in the morning." He was tired in every muscle of his body.

And then Noah was asleep, his heart slowing as the temperature dropped, his mind closed down with a vision of Mariposa's smiling face to comfort him.

Daniel traveled better alone. There was nobody to depend upon. All of his senses were strong enough to ensure he stayed safe against his natural enemies. When he found the place they were looking for, Daniel waited outside the danger zone around of the man lying in the small clearing. The layer of dew upon the man's face glistened as the last of the moonlight angled over the tops of the trees.

Daniel smelled his Lizard friends. Their odor was mixed with the sleeping man scent. He could not make sense of why they were together.

Daniel dozed in his hiding spot. He had climbed several feet up a dying Orange tree and braced his back against the trunk where the branches formed a platform. He peered around the corner of the makeshift nest often to be sure the man was still lying on the ground. In his hiding spot his body slowly cooled and he started to shiver to re-warm his muscles. His beady eyes glistened and his sensitive whiskers twitched until the shivering stopped and he fell asleep again.

Daniel heard the man awake with a sudden gasp and he looked in time to see the man sit upright. He watched as the man grabbed in side his loose shirt and held two Lizards in front of his face. He saw how Mariposa and Whendy did not resist as he threw them into his upturned hat. The man stood with a hacked laugh, then turned in a circle studying the silhouette of Bee stingers which were strewn in an outline of his head and shoulders. The sun lit the horizon behind him but had not yet begun to warm the orchard.

Daniel heard the man shake the straw hat and Mariposa and Whendy rattled against its sides. And from his safe place behind the tree trunk he heard the man's stomach growl the hungry sound so he knew his friends were in serious trouble.

Chapter 30: Captured

At first she was too sleepy to fight. When she fully awakened she bit the man's palm but could not puncture his calloused skin. Whendy managed to wrap her long tail around his wrist and Mariposa saw his pulse increase as Whendy bit through his calloused thumb. Her bite made the man notice. He used his other hand to pinch the bottom hinges of her mouth until her jaws propped open. The man laughed quietly as he dropped Whendy back into the hat with Mariposa. Only then did Mariposa smell the man sweat on the soiled straw walls of the hat.

Mariposa had the opportunity to jump from the hat then, but she chose not to leave her friend to die at the hands of the man she'd insisted they help. Mariposa stayed to fight even though she knew it was hopeless. The overwhelming odor of the human sweat filled her mind.

Stumbling often the man peered at them through his fingers spread across the upside-down straw hat. Mariposa saw how he admired them as if they were his prize catch. She wanted to shout out that they had saved him, that there was no need to treat them like this. She saw him look around, and she guessed he was listening for the sound of other Lizards. But the orchard was as silent as the deepest tunnel under the ground in which she had ever been. She felt Whendy wince as the man prodded her again in when his stomach growled.

The man's feet pushed through the top of the irrigation furrows as he crossed the orchard, raising miniature dirt clouds Mariposa smelled. She heard his stomach again and looking at Whendy, she knew the man must eat soon. Finally the man sat down. The darkness deepened in the hat when he set it on the ground and replaced his hand with a piece of old lumber. There was no escape.

Mariposa stared back at Whendy, as the large Lizard glowered at her. She was unsure what to expect from her very hungry friend, confined in the tight space the way they were.

Chapter 31: Hailey's Family

Hailey's family was overjoyed when they realized they'd been let out of the small cage. They scattered among the rubble of the deteriorating house foundation built a century before at the mouth of the Hagador Canyon. They hid until well after the old man from the yard and his daughter's had left the orchard.

Hailey checked on each of her children to be sure none were injured. Afterwards she spent time rehearsing with the young Lizards about how to stay hidden as their best means of protection from the dangers of their new home. She warned them there were different threats which even she did not know about, demonstrating how the sky was wider because there were no fences or houses to restrain the horizons.

Hailey knew without the fences her children would wander. Too soon some would not come back from their exploring, victims of predators. Others would enjoy being in this simple spot so much they would never leave, basking in the warmth which reflected from the old concrete pad of the fallen house.

Finally Hailey accepted she had done as much as she could to train her children and she let them go about their play.

During the mid-morning of the second day Hailey was surprised by the swift approach of a Hawk. He was just a juvenile, racing in and out of the orchard rows down the hill, his feathers whispering as they rubbed when his wings adjusted and he banked around the ends of the tree rows. She saw the Hawk was so fast he reappeared in no time from the next row end, and the next, until he was gone beyond the hill. Every morning afterward Hailey heard as he blasted his way through the orchards making so much noise there was no surprise where he was going.

Hailey became accustomed to their new home in a short time. She saw animals she'd never seen before. There were Rattlesnakes, a Turkey Vulture, many giant Ground Squirrels, and long-legged wild Dogs.

With the Turkey Vulture there was always silence. It floated so high it was as hard to see as it was for Hailey to imagine with her eyes open. At other times the Vulture appeared suddenly above the orchard, so close Hailey could see the blue sky between the finger feathers of her cape-sized wings. To her it was magic how the Bird drifted without sound or movement and in her wake Hailey noticed there was nothing left to tell of her inquisitive presence.

One time Hailey made eye contact and she felt hypnotized within the Vulture's pebble-sized eyes, mere buttons against the red-skinned featherless head; only severing the connection when the bird's shadow passed over Hailey.

Hailey thought the bird could fall straight out of the sky because she did not seem to move at the highest point of her circling in the sky. But the Vulture never did. I wonder, thought Hailey, if it can see me from that high when I bask on the rocks.

Hailey was fascinated by both of the birds. She had no idea they shared a common ancestors in the Dinosaur epochs. Nor could she care. Hailey did understand both of the birds were very dangerous to her family.

One warm morning Hailey saw the Hawk fly from the orchard. His flight took him above her but he didn't see her because he looked back from where he'd come. Hailey followed the Hawk's eyes back to the orchard. Emerging from the orchard was stumbling man who held his hat upside down. One hand held the hat from the bottom and the other covered the opening at the top. Obviously he did not want to lose what he held inside.

As he came closer he moved slower than when he'd left the orchard. When he did sit on the old house foundation, unaware of Hailey, he took a small piece of lumber and covered the upturned hat he'd placed next to him. She saw him sprawl on his back, suck the juice from an Orange, and slip the rind into the hat, barely lifting the board.

He shivered in the warmth of the sun. Hailey saw him grab his stomach because of a bowel spasm and he dashed from the house pad to under the wide-branched California Oak tree. He returned to his hat, dragging his feet all the way through the debris of accumulated oak leaves. With a heavy sigh he lay back and cuddled his shoulders in his arms, and rolled onto his left side. Moments later he slept. She smelled the sweat droplets arise on his face as the sun advanced.
Chapter 32: The Ground Squirrels

He whistled when he spoke, his breath coming in wheezing gasps from his thick chest through his two yellow teeth. Thadeus was old. Maybe it was why he loved to tell the stories to scare the young squirrels sitting in a circle around him.

Even on the hottest days they gathered among the Orange trees which shaded the sides of the clearing at the middle of the orchard. The juvenile Squirrels wrestled while others counted flies passing through the shafting sunlight of the sparser branches. It was a safe zone known as Thadeus's school.

His wide hairless rump backed against the exposed roots of the old Orange tree. The seated position allowed him to simply roll and drop into the escape opening of his burrow if danger came. At times Thadeus fell asleep as he spoke, his tone winding down slower and lower until finally a young Squirrel noticed the silence. Then, upon a dare, one of the juvenile pups snuck behind Thadeus, and poked his backside and just like old men do, Thadeus jumped awake with surprised eyed readiness before falling into his escape hole. Afterwards he called it a well executed dive, which led the young Squirrels to score the dive's quality out loud.

To the adolescent Squirrels the old Squirrel's stories seemed outlandish. Yet Thadeus persisted in telling them the same stories over and over until one of older juveniles grew bold enough to challenge him.

"That doesn't make sense." Jude was big for his age and somewhat overweight.

"What doesn't?" Thadeus recognized the voice as it came from the group which often caused disruptions as he told stories.

"Eating old Snake skins? That won't keep them away." Jude was being difficult, his juvenile voice cracking as he spoke.

"Sure they will. You can just roll around on the skin. That will do almost as good." Thadeus had not heard Jude speak for a few days and he knew Jude was often running with a small gang of Squirrels which violated the safety rules by playing outside the orchard on the bare hillside below the pond.

"My dad says your nuts." His rudeness did not go unnoticed.

"How old is your dad?" Thadeus always asked the question. It was meant to get them to see him as the elder of all the Squirrels. He didn't realize it only worked on those young Squirrels whose parents had already taught them respect for their elders.

"What does that matter?" Jude did not give up.

Thadeus thought maybe the young Squirrel would listen to reason.

"I'm six winters old," said Thadeus, "it's how we measure our history."

"Well, you smell like it!"

Jude's words struck Thadeus off guard and the hurt showed on his round old face. Another juvenile Squirrel saw a chance to get in on the fun of insulting the old storyteller.

"Yeh and you look like an old rug too!"

In the shadows, a middle aged female Squirrel overheard the comments and did not like how the play had turned so cruel towards Thadeus.

"You kids need to go home," Sylvia said.

Silence fell across the grassy opening as the little spotted heads popped up to listen. None of them moved.

"Now!" Sylvia was furious when nobody had moved and she was going to be sure they listened to her. They scattered like seeds in a wind storm.

Sylvia knew Thadeus was a little touched and how sometimes what he said seemed unbelievable, but his lesson about the Snake skins was true. The knowledge had come down from previous generations which had survived the battles in the orchards and the burrows. They had learned about the scent of Snakes, of how to cure the skins for their own protection, of how to fight the Snakes by super heating their bodies and thrashing their tails so the Squirrels seemed too big for the Snakes to attack, of how to scruff dirt at the Snakes to create a diversion for escape. They knew Snakes did not see like they did and they passed the knowledge on from generation to generation to those which would listen.

Thadeus smiled weakly at Sylvia after the young Squirrels had scattered. She wondered, as he turned away, if he did have any extra Rattlesnake skins stored in his nest. Sylvia wanted to refresh the protective smell on her young pups which were still too young to even leave her nest underground. They had never seen the light of day. It is the time of year, she reasoned, when the Rattlesnakes are brazen about coming into the burrows to gulp the young as they sleep blind and helpless.

"Thadeus?" She got his attention. "Can you spare any Rattlesnake skin? I want to freshen up my nest, with my pups being so helpless."

It took Thadeus a puzzled moment to focus. Then he understood.

"Let me think." He paused and studied the ground.

Sylvia understood how he needed to reaffirm his importance with the dramatic pause. She did not mind so she waited.

"Yes, I think I do. I'll bring some tomorrow."

Sylvia was concerned, because she did want to use the Rattlesnake skin as soon as possible, to roll her pups in it for protection. It was just a feeling, a sense that time was of the essence before something sinister would happen. She thought Thadeus is so old he could die in the night, so she persisted.

"Why don't I come with you to get some?" she said.

Thadeus seemed pleased by here persistence even if it meant he had to go all the way back into his tunnels and then come wheezing all the way back out if he wanted to be in the sun again that day. So Sylvia followed him through the interconnected burrow systems for their colony which traced like a city of streets beneath the roots of the many Orange trees.

Sylvia was amazed at the range of the tunnels they went through, many of which had not been used in so long the bedraggled feelers of tree roots sprouted downward into the darkness, brushing her snout as she followed the wheezing Thadeus. Sylvia thought, as she followed Thadeus's hairless rump through the tunnels, he must have story for each one of these tunnels. She knew from her own early days of listening to him even she had not heard as many stories as there were tunnels.

Finally they arrived, Thadeus out of breath, at the little den where he stored the Rattlesnake skins. The odor was thick from the decaying oils of the skin. Sylvia sensed many of the skins had lain there for years. She also could tell there was more than just skin in the storage. She could smell the decayed flesh of an entire rattlesnake and she nearly gagged. There had been stories about how Thadeus once tracked down and killed a huge Rattlesnake after it had wiped out his family. They had only been rumors. Sylvia recalled the story and thought about how the legends can carry the truth.

"Thadeus, what are you going to do with all of these skins?"

He paused as he considered. "Well, some winters ago I still had family. I was going to give them away as spring warming presents."

He stopped and she knew she would have to pry the story out of him. She considered if she really wanted to do that. At last she asked.

"Why didn't you. That would have been a great gift?" she said.

"Simon made fun of it." Thadeus paused again as he reflected about his oldest son who had had a smart mouth just like the young juvenile today.

"Well, he should have taken some himself, shouldn't he," Sylvia said before she thought. Then she recalled Simon had been killed three years before along with the rest of Thadeus family. Sylvia had not intended to hurt Thadeus by making so rash a reference to his family. But Thadeus had become matter of fact about their loss and the pain had long since been replaced by his passion for continuous gathering of the Rattlesnake skins.

"Yes, but that is done. Maybe you can convince more of the others to take some. Here, take some extra and spread it throughout the tunnels. It will really help protect some of those that don't believe, even if they don't know."

Thadeus gave Sylvia enough of the Rattlesnake skins she was tripping over them as she retraced her path out of Thadeus's tunnel. The tunnels were easy to follow for a Ground Squirrel, even in the absolute blackness of that world. Sylvia remembered every root which tapped her nose, every odd twist of the path under her feet, every variance in the earthy smell which rose as her claws stirred old dirt on her path to her own burrow.

Without needing to go to the surface Sylvia found her way through the tunnels to her own burrow beneath the tangled spread of the aged Orange tree roots. She piled the Rattlesnake skins for the night in the opening to the pups nest, checked on them to be sure they were not hungry, and then went to the surface to spend the rest of the day gathering food and enjoying the warmth of the sun.

The following morning Thadeus was back in place, counting the young Squirrels as their parents pushed them out of their holes in the ground. Old habits die hard, Sylvia thought as she watched Thadeus nip their heads to tabulate how many Squirrels to keep track of throughout the day. Sylvia noticed Jude had not returned.

Sylvia's children were too young to leave the nest so she'd come to the surface alone to feed herself and to groom while sitting in the clearing warmed by the sun. She had already applied the Rattlesnake skin oils to her pups, so they were safe from detection should any Snakes get into the burrows.

The days of being a warrior Squirrel were done for Thadeus. Sylvia knew he was of limited value in a fight, but he still had a purpose which helped the colony. He was a storyteller, surviving by teaching the careful approach to life the pups needed to learn. She saw how he moved as little as possible while on the ground above the burrows.

She noted Thadeus didn't need to wander too far since there was a great abundance of grasses in the wet furrows between the long rows of the orchard trees. Later this season, probably his last she thought, after the grasses have dried there will be fruit from the branches and scattered seeds to keep him well fed.

Chapter 33: Fate

As usual, early in the morning of his sixth summer Thadeus backed his widening rear end into a seated position among the splayed roots of the Orange tree above his burrow's main entrance. Even as inactive as he was Thadeus still ate like there was no tomorrow. And like every other day he climbed into his chair before the young Squirrels arrived to avoid embarrassment. He braced his forearms on top of the roots forming the wings of his chair. By squirming to fit into the seat a few more hairs wore off of his backside. The exposed roots had been comfortably smoothed by his rump.

Lodged in the throne he told his stories, while the pups brought him fresh grasses or fruits or acorns in order to keep him talking while they played. The parents saw no harm in the practice because it gave them the freedom to wander further out among the Orange trees to graze and gossip.

When the last weak rain of the spring season had fallen over the orchards of Corona it was as if the ground beneath the trees knew what to do. Prior to the end of the rains the underground earth remained soft as it soaked up every drop of water. Within days of the last rain the edges of the burrow entrance holes hardened like clay brick. Beneath the ground the tunnels remained cool but not damp as they had been during the rains. There was no longer any danger of the walls caving in when fresh tunnels were being dug.

The late spring was the season of birth. And the season of death for those Squirrels that had not taken the precautions. The local Rattlesnakes untangled from their clustered nodes of winter sleep among the rocks and their winter holes. Until they had their first meal they would be ravenous to the point of having no regard for their own safety. Such was the day which changed the lives of the Squirrels in Thadeus's colony.

The first one dropped, hitting the floor of the tunnel with a thunk, sending rippled vibrations into the earth of the orchard. The first Snake was followed by a second Snake and then a third. It was not that Rattlesnakes hunt in groups; they don't. Besides their obsessive clinging to each other throughout the winter sleepover they have no recognition of one another, save mating, throughout the rest of the year. It was mere coincidence due to the Squirrels' colony proximity to the Snakes' winter nest.

Their arrival sent panic throughout the Squirrel colony.

Thadeus sat wedged into his Orange tree root chair at the entrance of his burrow twenty yards away. He felt the Snakes arrive as the vibration signal sent through the roots of the aged tree stopped him in mid-sentence. His reaction was immediately sensed by the youngsters. In the next instant their mothers stood up from their foraging. Frozen in position, their round faces locked eyes on their pups in the clearing beyond the tree.

The fear spread throughout the colony within seconds of the three Rattlesnakes blundering into the burrow. The Snakes did not recognized each other, so with no regard for each other's intent they split off into separate tunnels as they sought the source of the edible smells floating upward to their raised heads and flickering tongues. It had been several generations since the last Snake intrusion into the burrow.

That morning Sylvia had licked her mewing pups over and over with a mouthful of desiccated Rattlesnake skin before going to the surface. After she left them she gagged up more saliva scented with the oil of Snake at the entrance to her nest. All the way out of the tunnel, passing other family dens, Sylvia vomited at each doorway unless the unbelieving, the non-believers she called them, yelled for her to stop, to get the disgusting smell away. During her travel along the main colony tunnel to the surface four doorways were marked and three were not. Once Sylvia was outside she felt satisfied with what she had accomplished, knowing there was nothing more she could do to help her friends.

As fate slithered into the tunnels, Sylvia's pups were in the least danger. But Sylvia fretted with worry every minute of every waking hour. It was the curse of motherhood. She was the first parent to feel the presence of the danger and the first to reach the burrow opening into which the Rattlesnakes had dropped. She jumped in the hole without hesitation, outpacing even the father of the rude Jude as they sprinted towards the Snakes in the dark passages.

Once down in the cool darkness Sylvia determined two of the Snakes had wandered in the direction of the adult warrior male Squirrels. They can handle their own, she thought; they are old enough to be immune to the venom of the Snake strikes. They will be fearless in overcoming the Rattlesnake attack.

Her heart pounding, Sylvia turned in the direction of her burrow as the slithering reptile passed the two entrances she had marked with gagged saliva earlier in the morning. She knew the next two entrances were not anointed because the parents had yelled at her to go away. The first was the home of Jude, who had slept late, as he was doing more often these days.

The Snake turned into that entrance unaware Sylvia was gaining. Jude had awakened and cowered against the interior wall. Sylvia sprinted so fast she barely touched the ground, gaining upon the Rattlesnake with each bound. Close behind her came Jude's father yelling out for Jude to run.

Sylvia cut the corner into Jude's den and veered to the right in order to circle around the coiling Snake, while Jude's father ran straight into the den in order to overtake the Snake from behind. Sylvia yanked Jude by the scruff of his neck and pushed him towards the escape doorway. She saw Jude's father run over the top of the Snake, flattening its head back to the ground as it rose up to strike at Jude.

Thick dust floated in the air of the dark burrow so the Snake's senses became confused. Jude's father super heated his blood by hyper-ventilating so his body temperature overwhelmed the infrared senses of the Rattlesnake. At the same time he flashed his bushy tail back and forth so fast it was a blur, convincing the young Rattlesnake the grown Squirrel was too big to attack. The Snake hesitated for a moment, then lowered its cold-blooded head to the loose dirt floor and returned to the central tunnel to continue searching for its first meal of the season.

Sylvia knew she had been present for something few of the others in her colony would ever experience. Jude's father was obviously a member of the surviving class of Squirrel warriors who protected the colony with their secret art of diversion.

Thadeus remained above ground, commanding the young Squirrels to not do what would have come naturally to them, which was to run into their burrows beneath the ground. He knew different dangers called for appropriate action. The young Squirrels clung to the base of the Orange tree around Thadeus. His ancient face took on the air of command, replacing the round simpleton look he had acquired over the last two summers.

Thadeus sat at a high alert as he instructed the young Squirrels to back into the base of the tree. He instructed half of them to watch the sky for danger and the rest to watch the shadows across the clearing. Thadeus kept an eye on the burrow entrance to ensure no surprises came from below. He heard the noise from below in time to clear young Squirrels out of the way.

After yelling at his dad in the den, Jude had dashed out the escape tunnel. He'd laughed back at his father, making fun of how he had fanned his tail in the face of the Snake. Jude's father tried to explain why he had done the dance but Jude wouldn't listen. As soon as the Snake slithered away he ran through the many tunnels yelling for his friends.

Beneath the ground his path crossed in front of the Rattlesnake still seeking a meal with ravenous intent within the haphazard crossroads of the tunnels. Once the Snake caught the scent of Jude and the warmth of Jude's hot blood flooded the senses of its pitted face, the Rattlesnake began to chase him through darkness of the tunnels. Jude did not know nor care about what danger he'd left behind. The Rattlesnake had little chance of catching up with him at the speed he was moving. He followed Jude as he headed for Thadeus's burrow opening.

The Snake came onward, drawn by the odor of young warm-blooded fear being sucked down into the tunnels by the natural down-drafting of the air. Thadeus prepared himself, feeling the nearing slither through the roots of the old Orange tree.

Thadeus was no longer quick enough to fight such a healthy Rattlesnake. The hair on his rear was gone and he'd sat upon his tail for so long it was an unsavory mess which would have no affect if flashed for distraction. His yellow curved teeth overlapped too much for him to even grasp a Snake's neck. The one maneuver he could still do placed him in immediate danger of death, but there was no other choice.

Thadeus timed the fall to the arrival of the Rattlesnake, as it raised its head to peer from the hole. He rolled his girth from his sitting spot and dropped squarely on top of the Rattlesnake. His hairless rump pressed its neck to the ground so the triangular head with its flickering tongue remained exposed. Thadeus gripped at the floor with his untrimmed toe nails, trying to pull his weight heavier onto the struggling reptile to keep it from twisting enough to strike at him. He felt helpless, his weight slowly shifting off the writhing reptile. He yelled for the young Squirrels to climb into the tree above as he lost the battle of leverage with the Rattlesnake.

In tandem Sylvia and Jude's dad burst into the tunnel, catching up with the Snake. They found Thadeus bearing down with his weight on the thrashing Rattlesnake, its head exposed on one side of Thadeus haunches while the rattles shook out from beneath the other side of Thadeus rump. Jude's dad bit behind the Rattlesnake's head so hard he severed the neck, immediately killing it. Sylvia bit off the rattles at the same time with her sharp incisors, cutting through the muscle and tailbone.

Thadeus felt his heart flutter wildly in his chest as he lay on top of the writhing body of the dead serpent.

Jude ran clear of the burrows, inconsolable with anger at everything, his pride wounded because he thought his father had spoken down to him, again. Jude slowed as he crossed the central clearing where the sun shone and further into the shadowed rows of Orange trees, calling out for his gang which hid from the danger he ignored. He paused at the edge of the forbidden field which led up to the pond. Then he walked into the field and up the bare hillside below the pond to be alone.

Jude's father tracked him to the edge of the trees, but did not endanger himself by leaving the cover of the orchard. From the protection of the trees he saw Jude exposed to the open sky as he dug for plant bulbs on the dangerous hillside. There was no burrow for him to duck into if a predator came.

The Hawk screamed a long terror inducing war cry, freezing Jude in the open beneath the empty blue sky. Jude lifted his head at the last second so the Hawk's talons missed his neck but raked across his round face. Jude was bowled over and over and over across the hard ground. There was no loose dirt to grip, no opportunity to rise to his feet. Jude was in a game he could not win.

Jude's father watched from the orchard shadow as Glider the Hawk's wings beat his struggling son's face. He saw Jude blinking, blinded by the blood from his own torn skin and he cringed as the bird of prey squeezed into his son's neck, piercing his spinal cord with its unbelievably strong talons. He heard the high-pitched balloon shriek escape his son's lungs and he knew then the mercy of death came to his son. There was nothing left to do but return home.

Afterwards, the Hawk, too inexperienced in killing, was also unwieldy in the takeoff because of the weight of Jude's body. He barely cleared the rim of the earthen dam and the low flight traced Jude's tail across the pond surface as he struggled for altitude. Glider the Hawk never saw the sleeping man lying next to a hat beneath the pre-noon sun.

Chapter 34: The Escape

"Well, I'm an Alligator Lizard, that's what we do." Whendy's voice deepened with emotion.

"You're a Lizard. I'm a Lizard." Mariposa backed into the prow of the upturned hat. To her Whendy looked huge as she stood upright on her hind legs.

"I'm hungry. I'm about to have babies. And I need to eat. I can forget we're friends." Whendy's saliva dripped onto Mariposa's head, making her blink. Understanding Whendy really intended to eat her was a shock.

"What about our friend, Hailey? We're all friends. Lizards. Girls. Doesn't that mean anything?" Mariposa tried to reason with her.

"I'll eat her too!" Whendy shouted. Her pregnant sides blocked any chance Mariposa had to get around her. She was out of control with hunger.

Mariposa saw Whendy had gone primitive in order to survive. The man lay asleep on his side facing away from the straw hat or he might have been help for her. Mariposa knew she was trapped. She pushed deeper into the point of the upside-down hat. Whendy snapped at Mariposa twice, but she managed to duck below Whendy's jaws.

Mariposa tried to think smaller, be smaller. Then she felt her rear ankles grabbed from behind and she knew it was the end for her. She screamed and tried to jump at Whendy. She was frantic, gasping in horror, screaming for help from the nightmare. She thrashed her head back and forth, squeezing her eyes shut. She felt herself being dragged backwards. Instinctively she reached out to her friend Whendy, who snapped again, insane with hunger. Whendy's flashing teeth closed upon air as Mariposa disappeared backward through the wall of the hat.

"Run, run. Save yourself!"

Mariposa recognized Noah's voice as she spun around to see Daniel the Mouse let go of her ankles. Noah's mouth formed more words Mariposa could not understand in her excitement. Daniel was gone half-way to the edge of the old house foundation before Noah bumped Mariposa into action. They turned together and ran from the roar of Whendy, who tore at the small escape hole from inside the straw hat.

Looking back over her shoulder Mariposa saw Whendy's large-boned head push through the straw wall of the hat. Obviously Whendy was way out of control. With muscular abandon Whendy jumped from the hat, landing upright on her rear feet while her front claws pawed at the air for balance. Mariposa saw Whendy was what her friend Daniel had always feared, a full sixteen inches of hunting Dinosaur. They were no longer her friends, only meals.

In the leaves beneath the Oak trees at the other edge of the house foundation Mariposa saw a movement. Without hesitation Whendy bounded that direction running upright off the house foundation into the leaves, raising dust as she went. Mariposa saw her new prey was a healthy juvenile Rattlesnake. Before it knew any better Whendy seized it behind the head, biting deeper while bracing her tail and rear feet in a three point stance to resist its helpless struggle. When the battle was done Whendy consumed its head first, gulping in pleasure each time she loosened her jaws to swallow more. Mariposa knew her friend concentrated on the meal with vague concern about what she had done to her.

During the sweeping arc of her patient flight below the tops of the orchard trees Cuella didn't see the Lizard's escape from the hat behind the motionless man. The swale of the terrain downhill created an updraft the Vulture often used to slip-stream silent up to and over the pond. Because of the timing of her circuitous route below the horizon she didn't see the inept young Hawk as he took off from his kill of the Squirrel. Glider was equally oblivious, flying head bent down, as he struggled for altitude while admiring the kill swinging from his talons. Above where the man slept he glanced off her under side.

Glider dropped the Squirrel. The dead Squirrel's tail whipped the man's face and its body bounced once and settled on the concrete in front of his open mouth. The scared birds fled in opposite directions, leaving a mix of feathers to drift to the ground.

The man sat up after a delayed reaction and reached behind his back to grab the board covering his hat, which he used to whack the dead Squirrel. The wood on concrete contact resonated like a baseball bat, echoing across the pond, silencing the activity in the orchard below. By the time he'd started a fire to cook the Squirrel the orchard animals had forgotten about the noise.

Chapter 35: Daniel's Tale

Daniel became comfortable living in the mouth of Hagador Canyon after the adventure of saving Mariposa. His friends had also settled into their lives between the wings of the ridges protecting the plateau beneath the canyon. The constant odor of the Sage and Bay Brush and the shade of the Oak Trees pleasantly defined their new homes. In the wild place Noah and Mariposa reconciled their differences and began their own family. Whendy live-birthed her children, as some Alligator Lizards do. She also found others of her species to mix with in the rugged creek land.

But Daniel was not so lucky. And then...it wasn't too hard. Not in retrospect.

Daniel skirted the shoreline of the rancid pond as he followed the natural trail created by the evaporation of pond water. Half way around the shrinking reservoir he turned up the hill, and as had become his routine, he ran the last twenty yards to the rim of the dam's embankment. Once he'd crossed over the top of the hill he saw beyond the tree tops of the orchard below. The fresh breeze which was blocked below by the embankment ruffled the fur up his back as he settled beneath the Pear Blossom Cactus. Daniel was careful to stay under the cover of the few prickly plants which did flower that time of year.

The dam's texture was a mixture of dried clay and stone aggregate pinched into form a century before by the original orchard owner's effort as a way to retain the seasonal rains. Over the years the dry air and the blasting sun further hardened the embankment, baking the clay earth to a temper in which the Ground Squirrels would not dig their burrows. Only the hardiest of plants grew upon the rim where Daniel sat. They survived the inland valley summers by deep rooting and hardly went thirsty because of the misting night clouds reaching over the coastal mountains.

Hidden beneath the plant Daniel looked over his domain, taking it in with an intelligence seldom found in Mice. Daniel had become philosophical from his experiences. The lonely Mouse was aging and he realized he missed not having any prospects for a mate.

Far above, beyond where his Mouse's eye could see, Cuella the Vulture drifted in monotonous circles, a speck in the thin blue forever. She had seen Daniel run up the embankment and knew which plant he hid beneath. He had done a good job of hiding so the only clue of his presence was how the single Cactus arm he leaned against did not vibrate the way the other arms on the same plant did in the afternoon breeze.

In the background of his mind Daniel heard whispering. The whispers became louder and he realized the sounds were not his own thoughts but were angry Mice voices attempting to talk over each other. They remained low enough they could not be heard by larger animals.

Daniel's ears turned like fuzzy gun turrets locating the source. To other small animals the sound of their voices could have been mistaken as insects wrestling among the dead reeds at the pond's shore below. But the pitch was right for Daniel. He recognized the sound of two female California Mice arguing about which direction to go.

Daniel was elated. He checked in all directions, including the sky, before he dared look directly at the female Mice. His day-time activity had taught him to check twice and with the second visual sweep of his surroundings he saw two Snakes closing upon the Mice.

The two squabbling Mice continued to slog through the mud at the water's edge. Daniel found himself almost choosing the old way of survival, which was to run away. Next he almost yelled out a warning. He stopped himself when he realized the sound might scare the Mice into the path of either Snake coming from opposite sides. He decided the only solution to saving them was to wait to alert them at the last moment and direct them to run uphill to him.

As he held his breath and watched Daniel saw the Snakes were each different types of Snakes. The first Snake was a colorful banded white-brown-red-brown-white pattern. The other Snake was a muted dusty color with scales of diamond patterns. Both Snakes were about the same length. The banded Snake was lean and flowed forward in a sinuous swift glide which was elegant to see. The diamond scaled Snake was thicker, more muscular and it moved by forward jerking thrusts of its thick jaw head.

When the time was right Daniel gave a mew through his throat any Mouse would recognize. Immediately the two Mice at the water's edge stopped arguing.

"What was that?"

"You heard it too?"

They looked around, becoming aware of their predicament. At their backs was the water. To their sides were the brittle reeds which had walled them to the shore. The danger of the hillside above them was evident because there was less cover the higher it went until at the top there were only a few plants silhouetted against the sky. Since they were no longer arguing they heard the slither of the smooth scaled bellies coming at them through the reeds.

"Run now! Uphill!" Daniel broke the silence with his high squeak.

He jumped high into the air taking the chance of exposing himself to danger from above. His form flashed against the blue sky behind him. He guessed that to the Mice below he looked like a crazy Mouse. But to their backs was the water. To each of their sides were the Snakes, closing in, flicking their tongues, anticipating, close enough that their eager Snake smiles were visible.

"Get into the water!" Coqueta the small twin yelled in a panic. She spun in a half circle trying to get her feet underneath her so she could jump into the pond. As she pushed off she felt the snap of teeth through the skin on her left haunch. She screamed.

"No! No! Not me! Take her! Let me go!" she yelled as she closed her eyes.

Daniel heard was surprised by the words of her scream.

The larger twin Stela reacted to the warning from Daniel as if she knew what he knew. If attacked at the water's edge attackers would be good swimmers and want them to jump into the water. The path ahead and behind was blocked by an approaching Snake. Even under the open sky their best escape route was up the hill.

Stela bit into her sister's loose-skinned haunch as Coqueta leapt towards the water. Coqueta's momentum spun both of them around so they faced uphill. Stela saw the Diamondback's fanged rearing mouth as she heard Daniel yell again for them to run uphill. She saw the surprise in the Diamondback's head movement as it tried to turn away, too late, from the spearing movement of the beautifully fast Mountain King Snake pass above her. The King Snake bit into the neck of the Rattlesnake overextended in its eagerness to strike the Mice. The coiled Snakes came together like magnetic springs as they grappled and entwined and forgot about the Mice.

With Coqueta hanging from her mouth, Stela jumped clear of the battle of the predators. Daniel watched in amazement. With unrelenting speed and strength Stela bound uphill towards him while she still held the other Mouse in her mouth. Beyond them he could see the battle continue among the reeds in the water. He saw the splashes in the water as the King Snake gained control, unaffected by the fang strikes of the Rattlesnake.

Stela came to a stop, panting as she stood next to Daniel.

"Hello," Coqueta said.

Her voice was as sweet as honey. Daniel grasped immediately that even hanging from Stela's mouth, her eyes just then opening with demur blinks, Coqueta sought to best her sister for a male Mouse. Stela spit Coqueta onto the ground and growled.

Where Coqueta's face was elfin, Stela's was broader at the chin and forehead. Where Coqueta's hips were thin, Stela's were slightly rounded. They were twins but there were physical differences. And Daniel had already noticed there were some mental differences as well. Daniel looked at Coqueta and saw in his mind's eye his brother's mate which had caused him to leave the nest. That was not pleasing. His eyes met Coqueta's and she had to know at once she was dismissed.

Daniel looked at Stela, still panting from the effort of carrying her sister at a full run up the hill. Daniel felt the smolder arise in his eyes and knew by the way she looked back at him Stela felt the same heat rising. His heart had never fluttered before like butterfly wings. He was not bothered much when she answered his grin.

"Don't think its going to be that easy, Mr. Mouse. You have some explaining to do."

Still far above, but sifted lower and visible out of interest in Daniel's activity, the Vulture continued her drifting circles. She had seen it all going on below; the hunts and the hiding and the struggles. She was pleased by the outcome of the Snake battle that day. She wondered what would occur tomorrow as she saw the three Mice head towards Daniel's den. The den only he and she knew about.

And Cuella the Vulture shifted over to the air currents which took her further away from the mouth of Hagador's Canyon, floating beyond Santiago Peak, where gliding adrift in widening circles on the fresh winds brought by the blue Pacific she was soon gone from Daniel's view.

###

113 of 113
