Elanora and the Salt Marsh Mystery

Genre
Award Type
Book cover depicting Elanoa and  Beathas for Elanora and the Salt Marsh Mystery
A young chipmunk is transported to a salt marsh and begins her new life among a hostile muskrat colony. She soon discovers that the water is disappearing and must race against time to convince those who despise her to embark on a dangerous journey to a new home or perish!

Chapter 1: Elanora the Questioner

Dangers lurk both high and low,

Marauders, curs, moggies too.

When darkness comes, we must not go

And wait for light’s renew!

Elanora’s mother uttered the verse daily, just as her mother’s mother had told it to her, so who was Elanora to question it? It gave her shivers when she heard the serious way her mother told it, as if every menacing creature mentioned in the verse were waiting just outside their burrow, ready to pounce on them for daring to leave the safety of their home. The first time her mother recited it, Elanora was busy studying the stripes on the back of her sister Vala. All of them had these same stripes, even her mother, but Elanora thought them quite unnecessary. “One…two…three…” she counted, poking hard at each line, until her sister screamed for her to stop. Elanora was quietly scolded, as it was normally a time for rest. She promised herself to ask her mother about the stripes at feasting time, for she had an almost vital need to know things.

“Please tell me now—why do we have these silly stripes on our backs?” Elanora asked her mother this question after they arrived at the edge of a clearing where the cobbings grew on the popple trees. She pulled a piece of cobbing from the tree and shoved it in her mouth. Her sisters and brothers foraged around her, and she had never heard them complain about the ugly and slimy things. But Elanora thought they tasted like dirt, and their shape reminded her of the lily pads she had seen in the pond that was not far from their home. Elanora accepted the tops, but she had long ago rejected the stems for she thought they made her tummy hurt. At least that is what she told to all who would listen.

Her mother smiled at Elanora’s question. “Hava has used her wisdom once again with the creation of our stripes. You noticed they are different colors, yes?”

Elanora nodded.

“That is so we are one with everything else she has created.”

“But—”

“Look at your brother there,” she directed, pointing to Calum. “You must use your eyes skillfully to see him among the leaves and the twigs and the ground.”

Elanora tried to observe the scene in an open-minded way and decided that her mother was right: when Calum was still he seemed to disappear.

Elanora nodded. “I agree, Mother. But if Hava has done this good thing, why did she also create the defyers—those awful creatures who watch for us and take us away with their sharp claws?”

Her mother stopped eating and frowned at Elanora. “You are asking too many questions! We will leave that for another outing!”

She had been told such things before, like when she would ask why the water fell from the sky or why the brightness left and the darkness arrived at the same time. She knew her queries annoyed her family, but she could not help herself. That was why she loved to talk to Damhan. He answered her questions thoughtfully and always welcomed more.

That eventide, Elanora asked if she might explore the nearby pond the next brightness, and her mother agreed. Just as the light pushed through the tops of the trees, Elanora’s mother received a report of a cur wandering near the rock wall. After securing a promise from her daughter that she would not be away long, Sorcha gave Elanora permission to leave the nest.

She peeked from the opening of their burrow. Elanora loved the cozy home she shared with her family, and her mother once told them that she had lived in the same burrow when she was a youngster. The tiny entrance was at the bottom of a tall honey tree, and once inside, Elanora had to turn to the right, climb up two steps, and turn left. A feathered creature had bored a hole through the bark at this point, and Elanora loved to watch the brightness of the moon push through the opening and into their burrow, and it was the last thing she saw before falling asleep. The other part of the burrow, one that Elanora did not like, was under the ground. Its entrance was just beyond the steps, and the tunnel that led downward was narrow. They sometimes slept in a nest in one of the larger pockets, usually after hearing the cries of a moggie.

Dangers lurk both high and low,

Marauders, curs, moggies too.

When darkness comes, we must not go,

And wait for light’s renew!

Chapter 2: Jae’s Puzzling Advice

As she made her way to the pond, she thought about the awful creatures in the verse—the marauder only seemed to live in the trees at darkness, and its hoo-hoo-hoo sounds always made her jump. The moggie sometimes wailed at this time also, and its piercing cries were equally terrifying. The cur, the strange creature with the panting wet tongue, long ears and oafish walk, always seemed to wander with no purpose. But the defyer—the creature she feared the most—made little sound, and it sometimes floated above as if its wings were broken.

When she arrived, Elanora decided to explore along the shore of the pond, and one small area allowed her to walk to the water’s edge. Lily pads grew here, and she liked to watch the blue dashers hurry back and forth from one end of the pond to the other. She smiled at their enormous eyes, and many times she wondered what it would be like to fly about with four wings.

Elanora remembered her promise, and she soon left for home. The source of the brightness was not quite overhead, and the glimmers of light that wove through the treetops mesmerized her. As the honey tree came into view, something caught her eye. Just beyond the burrow, Elanora saw a youngster nibbling on a buckweed stem. She had never seen such a creature before and thought it might be friendly as its long ears and twitching nose made her laugh inside. Nevertheless, she approached the creature cautiously, and after introductions, Elanora learned she was speaking to a quidge named Carena. The quidge told her about a place with an abundance of trefoil and cautioned that one must leave the security of the trees overhead to reach it. Elanora loved the trefoil, and she thought the three leaves and white flowers were especially tasty, so she was very glad for this information. Carena had been nervous about being so far from home, so they agreed to meet again the next light and travel together to the trefoil. Just as Elanora was about to return to her burrow, and almost in the time it took her to blink her eyes, Carena was gone.

Elanora had ducked under an alder bush when the sound came—like a whoosh!—and a moment later what she saw above frightened her. The poor quidge was now secure in the claws of the marauder! She watched as the beast carried Carena past the tree with the pointed leaves and around the tall cottonwood, and she gazed in that direction long after the marauder disappeared from sight. Elanora decided to keep the incident to herself, but that eventide she slept poorly. The next light, in between sobs, she told her mother about Carena. Because the quidges lived under the ground near an old cottonwood tree that was far from Elanora’s burrow, her mother asked Xara, a kindly feathered creature, to tell Carena’s family what happened the light before, and she promptly did so.

Fearful for her children, Elanora’s mother insisted they stay close to their burrow for the next several lights, and their boundary was as far as the tips of the branches of the honey tree. There was little to do, and Elanora spent much of her time on the largest branch nibbling oaknuts. Her mother had long ago gathered a large pile of the green fruit with bumpy tops, and they were stored in one of the pockets along the tunnel. When Elanora asked this light why the oaknuts remained underground, her mother placed two in front of her and encouraged her to take a bite of each. Elanora did so, and to her dismay the first one tasted extremely bitter, and she was told that it had been found on the ground near the opening of their burrow. But she savored the second one, and even though she did not understand why there would be such a difference in taste, her mother’s reasoning made Elanora relieved that some traditions were useful.

Elanora retrieved another oaknut from the tunnel and returned to the large branch.

“Kee-eeeee-arrr! Arrrk! Arrrk!”

She dropped the oaknut and turned to flee, for she had heard that call before. Elanora skidded to a stop as a blue-feathered creature perched directly in front of her. He tilted his tufted head, and in his mouth was the oaknut. He offered it to the youngster, and she carefully took it from his sharp beak.

“So sorry about that, missy!” the blue creature said. “My goal was not to frighten you!”

Elanora smiled. “I know, Jae. I should be able to tell the difference between your call and the one made by the defyers.”

“Aye, that you should,” Jae agreed. “For my purpose is to remind you they are sly creatures and may show themselves in the time it takes for the oaknut to reach the ground.”

“Have you seen the defyer this light?” Elanora asked, afraid of the answer.

“Not here,” Jae said. “But two of them are searching for a meal well beyond the clearing.”

Elanora nodded. “My worriment has perhaps darkened any good sense I once had. You know of the quidge?”

“Aye, young one,” Jae replied. “Xara told me this light. The marauder is perhaps even more clever than the defyer, and you now know it can sometimes hunt for its meal in the light. You must be aware of everything around you the moment you leave your home!”

Elanora smiled. “We have been offered that same lesson by our mother.”

“Then heed her well,” Jae said. “I have lost many kin to these beasts, and their cunning knows no end.”

Elanora frowned. “Oh Jae! These warnings only serve to dampen my spirit.”

Jae gazed at Elanora. “No, child,” he said. “This way of thinking will only motivate the defyers and marauders.” He moved closer and narrowed his eyes. “Your judgment must be sound and your mind quick to survive this neighborhood, for your skills will be needed elsewhere.”

“Are you far-sighted, Jae?”

“Some say my mother was prophetic, and some say I follow the same course. I consider myself a keeper of sorts.”

Jae suddenly jumped, landing in the opposite direction. “Keep within your boundaries this light, Elanora, and for the next two times of brightness.” Jae flapped his wings. “I must take leave now and find my own oaknuts! Take care, young one!”

She watched the blue-feathered creature fly deeper into the neighborhood and heard his familiar “Ack! Ack!”

Elanora nibbled on the oaknut again and thought about Jae’s prediction.

I will be needed elsewhere? Bah! No one has ever uttered such a statement. Would my mother not know of this if true?

When her gaze rested on the buckweed, she wondered why a gentle creature like the young quidge should meet such a terrible fate. After all, she had been standing next to Carena, and the marauder could have easily taken her instead. Elanora’s mother had reasoned that the quidge was larger and therefore easier to grasp, but that offered little comfort. Xara had told her mother that the quidge’s family had been quite saddened by the news, and Elanora wondered if her own family would be unhappy if she met the same fate.

Xara had been searching for food when Elanora first spied her several lights ago, and she marveled at the feathered creature’s ability to quickly turn over leaves and twigs with her beak and lay open a vast amount of food.

“Yes, using my beak to forage is natural and quite expected,” Xara had told her. “But let me show you the proper method for finding the best kind of food!”

And with that, Xara jumped five times, and leaves and twigs scattered. “Now normally, one might scrape the leaves using one foot at a time. In fact, I know many who find their food this way. But my mother taught me to use both feet at once!”

Xara then jumped several more times, and Elanora found it hard not to giggle. Once the feathered creature was still, they both examined the ground to find an assortment of crawling spinners, laggers and some strange-looking green seeds. Xara quickly gobbled them all up and smiled at Elanora.

“Take heed little one—my lesson is done! This is by far the best way to find an enjoyable meal!” And with that she had taken flight, and the color of her feathers allowed Xara to disappear as she flew through the treetops.

Chapter 3: Nara

After two more times of brightness, her mother gave Elanora and her brothers and sisters permission to roam farther into their neighborhood. The others refused to act on this allowance, but Elanora scampered from the burrow soon after light.

Dangers lurk both high and low,

Marauders, curs, moggies too.

When darkness comes, we must not go,

And wait for light’s renew!

Her first stop was the tree that was no more. During the last eventide, the wind had howled and groaned, and they heard an especially loud sound that made Elanora burrow deeper into the leaves of their nest. Just before light, Yaden, an old addrog, had told her mother that the large buttonwood tree that stood next to theirs—the tree that she and her brothers and sisters had played in the brightness before—was no longer tall and straight in the ground.

“It is well that with my sticky toes I am able to make my way steadily along our tree, dear Sorcha,” he had told her mother. “For just a bit of time before, I was cheerfully feasting on a colony of happers. You know how much I love those tiny black creatures who just seem to love walking in a straight line. It makes it so much easier for me to have my supper! Well, you know how the long branches of both trees cross each other? Just as I jumped and landed on one of our branches, I turned to a terrifying sight! The tree, the very one that I had just left behind, had fallen dead to the ground! It is no more!”

“We are glad for your safety,” Sorcha had told the addrog.

“Yes!” Yaden replied. “The protector regards me as it does the pancers with the large horns and fancy white tails! It is an honor that even I am regarded by Hava!”

“Of course you are.” And her mother had smiled warmly at the creature with the long sticky tongue who could not seem to stop hopping.

Because the fallen tree was close by, Elanora arrived in no time. She inspected its many branches in search of food, but other than the busy happers she found nothing. She abandoned the tree and hurried to the open field nearby, stopping at the narrow trail that led to the bush with the sweet red berries. The sky was clear, so she carefully made her way along the path, stopping from time to time to sniff the air. The ground soon became soft and wet, so she hopped onto the rocks and sticks to keep her feet dry. Upon her arrival, she observed Nara plucking enormous red berries from the prickly stems.

“Ho! Elanora!” Nara greeted her friend merrily. “There are many more berries on this splendid bush! And they taste as good as ever!”

“Greetings!” Elanora replied and eagerly shoved a berry in her mouth. Its sweet taste made her smile, and she decided that nothing could taste as good. Elanora grabbed several more and pushed each one into her mouth.

Nara suddenly snorted. Then she began to giggle. And then she lost control and burst into laughter so loud she covered her mouth and retreated under a thorny branch. Elanora followed, unhappy with her friend’s recklessness.

“Wha ah whoo luffing ah?” Elanora asked her.

Nara’s confusion at her friend’s gibberish gave way to understanding, and she smiled widely.

“You!” her friend replied, pointing at Elanora’s cheeks.

“Your face is lumpy!”

Elanora chewed the berries and swallowed.

“I have never tasted anything so wonderful!” she declared, smiling.

They stepped out into the openness. Elanora studied the trees above her and both she and Nara inhaled deeply. Satisfied they were safe, Elanora searched for and found the branches that held the most berries. Nara followed, and they were soon feasting again.

“Nara,” Elanora began. “How many brothers and sisters do you have?”

Nara stopped eating. “Just two. Catriona and Tavia.”

“Do they look like you?”

“Of course.”

Elanora had to force herself to eat one berry at a time, and they ate together in silence for a moment.

“How many brothers and sisters do you have?” Nara asked.

Elanora looked thoughtful. “Seven,” she finally answered. “The others keep close to home, but I find it tiresome! Mother tells me I am the only one who is just like her when she was my age.”

Nara frowned. “How so?”

“Well, I am not sure, but she usually tells me that when I arrive home after exploring.”

“Then she must repeat those words quite often!” Nara laughed.

Elanora laughed with her and then frowned.

Comments

JerryFurnell Tue, 14/09/2021 - 07:56

This has a lovely Wind in the Willows feel. I'm sure children will love it. Well done becoming a finalist.