Chapter
Fourteen: Traitors!
“Dear, may we take a break? I fear
Butterlou is getting all worn out.” Juney said to Butterlean.
“Ah, yes. It seems that Lilli is
getting tired of carrying Kumarain, aren’t you, Lilli?” Butterlean inquired of
the girl who was already on the ground panting as hard as anything.
“Yes- whoo- I am ver-very tired, but
I’ll be alright,” she panted.
“Lulu, you tell Carol about the
beavers, please. I need a break.” Lilli said to Lulu when the beavers had gone
to pick berries.
“Alright, I will.” Lulu said
promptly.
Lilli looked down at a pile of
little sticks that she had gathered, then she looked up to see the beavers
coming towards her. Butterlou practically jumped at her with the speed he was
running into her lap. He tackled her and she fell over giggling. “Butterlou!”
she exclaimed.
“What?” Butterlou asked and as she
looked into his face she saw all the berry stains on him.
“Oh, Butterlou,” Lilli said as
Kumarain jumped on her.
“Where are the others?” Juney asked.
Lilli suddenly looked up in alarm.
It had taken them a long while to get
back. But then, here came Butterlean after all the other beavers, and he had no
bucket of berries. Lilli’s suspicions rose.
“Have you seen Carol and Lulu?” she
asked them. All of the beavers shook their heads. Lilli’s heartbeat shot up in
alarm and fear. What would she do without Lilli’s support and Carol’s
leadership? Lilli felt tears rise to her eyes.
“Come on, they will probably catch
up eventually, and at any rate we would never find them in these bushes and
briers and things. Come on, keep moving.” Butterlean said.
“No!” Lilli yelled. “No! We cannot
and will not go without Lulu and Carol! That is final!”
All the beavers looked at her with
surprise. Then Kumarain stepped forward. “Come on, I’ll help you look,” said
the adorable little furry thing. Kumarain took her hand and started walking
into the brush.
“Kumarain! You get back here, young
lady right now!” Lilli could hear Juney’s voice echo behind her.
“Come on,” she broke down. “You
should listen to your mother.” But Kumarian was not listening.
“Come on,” she urged. “We need to
find them! Come with me! There is no time to lose! Run!” Kumarain snatched up Lilli’s
hand and ran for it calling for Lilli and Carol.
“Wait,” Lilli called after Kumarain
who was much speedier than her.
Eventually Lilli caught up with
Kumarain and stopped breathlessly as she stared at Kumarain who was pointing up
a tree and looked close to screaming, but she held her tongue until Lilli saw
what she was pointing at. Up in the tree sat Carol and Lulu staring with a
terrified expression at a panther with wings like a raven. Lilli gasped, but
then she heard a rustling in a bush, and a loud terrific roar echoed through
the woods and with that the panther looked up and ran off.
“Lilli!” Lulu screamed as she jumped
down from the tree. “Lilli!!! It was the beavers!” she sobbed as she threw her
arms around her sister. “I saw Butterlean run off, and that horrific animal
appeared not twenty seconds later! Oh, Lilli! There are true traitors among
us!” but then she noticed Kumarain looking bashfully at the moss on the ground.
“I know. Please, do not blame Mama
and Papa. They mean no harm,” Kumarain tried to make an excuse for the two
beavers that she thought so fondly of.
“Well obviously they did, otherwise
they wouldn’t have tried to get rid of us!” Carol shouted with great anger in
her voice.
“Carol, it is not Kumarain’s fault
that her parents have made a very poor descision. But we cannot head back.
Kumarain, you will have to go back alone and say that we were eaten or
something.” Lilli said as she stroked the head of the little beaver that hid
behind her. Kumarain came out of her hiding spot in which she took refuge.
“No! Flat out, no! I want to come
too!” she said. All three girls shook their heads, but Kumarain insisted.
“Pl-e-e-e-se!!! I want to come! I’ve
gotta come!” she pried her way into the circle of girls. Lilli could not help
it.
“Alright, you can come!”
“Lilli!” Carol and Lulu said in
unison.
“Just let her! I’ll take care of
her, really!”
“No,” Lulu said. “Besides, we don’t
want her to get hurt.”
Lilli admitted secretly to herself
that she could not argue with that.
“C’mon, it’ll be fine! I promise!” Lilli said as she brought Kumarain close to
her and looked at Carol.
“Fine,” Carol said. “She can come,
but you gotta keep her safe, Lilli.”
Kumarain grasped Lilli’s hand
happily and looked into her eyes. Lilli couldn’t help but smile. The little
beaver was so cute, that even Lulu couldn’t resist cracking her toothy grin.
“Come on, we need to get away from your parents.” Lilli glanced towards the
place where the other beavers were.
Carol shuddered in almost disbelief
when she thought of the way the grown-up beavers had tried to kill them. “I
can’t believe this, how could they betray us? We did nothing to them!”
The other girls (including Kumarain)
shrugged in a little hint of exasperation.
“I just wanna go home!!!!” Lilli
half shouted.
“Shhh!!!!” Lulu hissed. “They’ll
hear you!”
Chapter
Fifteen: The Great Argument
“Alright, do we have any supplies
left?” Carol asked, feeling her stomach start to ache from hunger.
“Um, let’s see. Okay, I still have
some biscuits, dried meat, dried fruit, and also my cask of water is still
mostly full. Wait, a minute,” Lulu said as she felt her backpack. “Two things,
first of all, I was certain my water cask was almost empty, and secondly, my
pack is extremely light.”
“You’ll be just fine, but keep
walking towards the light,” they heard a voice from behind them say.
Lilli shuddered and shrunk a little
behind her sister. “Oh, come on, Lil. What are you shrinking from?”
Lilli looked at her indignantly.
“Well, other than the fact that our backpacks are mysteriously misbehaving, we
are hearing random voices, and our supposed friends betrayed us, I suppose I
really don’t have a reason, right,
Carol?”
Both Lulu and Carol looked at Lilli
with shocked expressions. “Well,” Carol lashed out. “I must say, I am supremely
surprised and disgusted by you, Lilli! I mean, honestly! Why are you so
sarcastic?!”
“Yeah, Lilli! Why don’t you grow
up?” Lulu chimed in.
“Oh yeah, Lulu! Well guess what, oh
twin of mine, you who are afraid of the dark, you can’t judge me, because you
are my twin, and the way you’re acting makes me wonder, why don’t you grow up?” Lilli shouted.
All the while Kumarain had watched
with wide eyes, and no one noticed her crying very softly. Then suddenly she
gathered up her courage and yelled a very loud “Hey, you mature people! Would
you listen to me?!”
All the human girls stood stock
still in absolute wonder at this little beaver who had as much pluck as to yell
for people to listen so her, when they were all very angry.
“Alright, now you all listen to me!
Can’t you see, you are being divided? Malo’s hand is in this, I can feel it!
Just calm down, it will be okay. Listen to me,” she said sternly as Carol
turned her head away, but turned back sharply when Kumarain said that last
part. “Look, do you realize that you three are fighting over literally nothing?
Come on, we are better than that! We’re a team! Together Everyone Accomplishes More! Okay?”
The three stared blankly at her, and
half admired her for the little speech. “I agree, come on! Team-team-uh, oh, I know,
team Sheep! In honor of the Lamb!” Lilli said, and that was how Team Sheep came
to be.
