Wednesday, March 30, 2005

Chapter 5

Wemael was fascinated with Fribble. She couldn’t get over how much he reminded her of those little frogs back home. Sometimes he would walk, well more precisely, waddle next to Delmarf. It was comical to see. Walking agreed with him about as much as boating did with Delmarf. When he couldn’t stand waddling anymore, he would leap off the ground to the nearest tree, bouncing back and forth between the trees just above their heads, and then he would drop back onto the ground. She noticed that his feet and hands were webbed with one long toe or finger extending beyond the webbing. He had some kind of pads on the bottoms of his toes and fingers, which made sticking to tree trunks or branches simple. She wanted to reach out and touch his skin; it looked rough, like a cat’s tongue. His sash didn’t have an emblem on it as she thought when she first saw him. What she had seen was a brooch, dark green with the letters, R R engraved in gold. The wrap he wore was made from lily pads woven in an intricate pattern. At one point, Fribble had gone on ahead some distance; she took this opportunity to ask Delmarf what kind of creature he was.

“He’s called a Muckraker, an animal-kin related to tree frogs. Isn’t he fun to be around?”

She had to admit that he was. She could tell that he and Delmarf were great friends, like her own father and Tomar had been. This thought suddenly darkened her mood. She hadn’t thought about the horrid events of the recent past since leaving the river. Tears threatened to begin flowing; when she noticed that, almost as if to match her foul mood, the island had become quite dark. The sun had been shining brightly when they left the river, but now she could only catch brief glimpses of sunshine. She realized that the trees had become steadily denser with denser foliage. There was a clear path that they were using and the sun occasionally burst through the trees giving patches of light to the path, but without these brief bright spots, they would have had to use a torch or lamp to follow even this path. She edged closer to Delmarf. Fribble was nowhere to be seen, but Delmarf seemed unbothered by either Fribble’s absence or the dim surroundings. They continued on for a while like this, Wemael’s mood growing progressively sadder, until, as if in a bid to lighten Wemael’s burden, the sun reappeared in all his brilliance. The cause for this revisiting of the sun was that they had entered a large clearing. Joining them in as they entered the clearing was Fribble.

“brrraup, The tads are coming back from playing, brrraup, and wife Riup is preparing for your visit. brrraup. Come, friends, my home is your home. brrraup”

He seemed so eager to please them that Wemael forgot her dark mood and began looking around the clearing. Directly in front of them, on the far side of the clearing, was a small hovel made of dirt and leaves built at the base of a very big cypress. Hanging from some of the branches on the left side of the tree was a familiar sight to Wemael, fishing nets. Apparently, Fribble was a fisher. She could hear someone jabbering excitedly, but could not see them. As they moved closer, the words became a bit clearer.

“brreep, oh, friend Delmarf has come, brreep, and he has a friend, breep, where is that daisy bread, breep, oh so much excitement, brreep, oh but dark times, brreep, that is what husband Fribble said, brreep, I don’t like dark times, brreep, friend Delmarf will want daisy bread, brreep, what will our new friend want, brreep, the tads should be back by now, brreep, fish stew for serving, brreep, what kind of dark times, brreep, draw the water, brreep…”

“brrraup, wife Riup is excited to see friend Delmarf and friend Wemael, brrraup.” Fribble laughed out loud.

As if she heard Fribble, out from behind the hovel bounded his mate. She took no note of the guests though, as they were still a short distance away. She busied herself with preparing a place to eat and with concerns of dark times and with displeasure at the tads not being present. In spite of the confusion of her thoughts, her actions were ordered and effective, by the time Fribble hopped in front of her to draw her attention to Delmarf, the meal was ready to eat.

“brrraup, Mother, friend Delmarf is here, brrraup.”

“Greetings, friend Riup,” Delmarf said with flair and a bow.

“brreep, you are such a funner, friend Delmarf, brreep. I am not friend Lady Oogi, brreep,” gushed Riup, clearly pleased with the honor.

“Ah, friend Riup, no, you are fairer than our friend Lady Oogi, and no one makes daisy bread as well, as the lady of this island.”

“brreep, stop friend Delmarf, brreep, you embarrass me, breep.”

Wemael had chosen to stay a step or two behind Delmarf. She was enjoying the exchange, and was admiring her hostess. Riup was a few inches shorter than Fribble, or at least she thought she was. It was so hard to tell, with the way they both squatted. Wemael thought Riup was pretty. Her skin was a softer shade of green than Fribble, but with no spots. Her mouth was ringed in a plum color that extended in a stripe down her neck, finding its way under her arms. Her eyelids were this same plum color. The hint of yellow on her throat quickly blended back into the green of her chest. Wemael was especially taken with Riup’s dress. Wemael had never own anything frilly or pretty, her clothes were all practical and drab. An explosion of color wrapped Riup. The bodice of her dress, which hung off one shoulder, was flaming scarlet water lily and bright white iris petals, attached to a skirt made of lily pads woven with deep purple water lily petals. Like her husband, Riup had a brooch, the only difference being her letters were F R.

“brreep, is this your friend, friend Delmarf, brreep?’ Riup’s voice so close startled Wemael.

“brreep, so many colors brreep, all the colors, brreep, look at the colors, brreep.”

The intensity of Riup’s words more than the words themselves registered with Wemael, frightening her a little. She stepped further away, as Riup seemed unaware of anything other than what she was so interested in.

“brreep, she has all the colors, brreep. She has it, brreep.”

“brrraup, Mother, you are frightening friend Wemael, brrraup. Mother, brrraup, do you hear me? brrraup.”

Wemael cold not move back anymore, she had backed into a tree. Riup was so close that Wemael could smell the daisy on her breath, but it was if Riup was not really looking at her.

“brreep, friend Wemael, forgive friend Riup, brreep.” Riup pleaded as she hopped back a short space. “brreep, I get lost in the colors and forget my manners, brreep.’

Springing quickly away from Wemael, Riup called out, “brreep, Come on, friends, brreep. Our meal is ready, brreep.”

Still shaking, Wemael was trying to make sense of what Riup had said, “Colors? What was she talking about?” Wemael pondered, hugging herself tightly. Wemael knew the only color she displayed was brown, in its many shades, from her tan skin and dark brown hair to the dirty brown smock she was wearing.

“brrraup, Come, friend Wemael, join us for some sweet daisy bread and fish. brrraup. Forgive, friend Riup, brrraup. She gets very excited and sometimes forgets that new friends should be greeted with less talk and more food, brrraup.” Fribble tried to encourage her.

Delmarf put his arm around her shoulder and whispered in her ear, “Its ok, Wemael. I’m here and everything’s going to be alright. Besides, they have spider stew.” He finished with a wink.

That did it. She started to laugh a little and headed over to the meal Riup had prepared, not sure of everything, but comfortable. It was at that precise moment that the tads appeared.

To say that the tads sounded excited is akin to calling a hurricane a summer shower. Their laughter and garbled words could be heard far before the tads burst through the tree line on the right side of the clearing. Wemael could only make out one word, as it was repeated throughout all the noise, “Delmarf.”

With a smile that seemed to engulf his entire face, Fribble said, “brrraup, It’s always the same, friend Wemael, brrraup, when friend Delmarf visits, brrraup. The tads forget everything else, brrraup, and rush to friend Delmarf, eager to hear his exciting adventures, brrraup. Friend Delmarf’s stories are very good and even I enjoy them, brrraup.”

Wemael watched as the three young Muckrakers rushed to see Delmarf, wondering if she too would get to her one of his great stories. She noticed that the smallest of the three looked like a tiny copy of Fribble, his skin coloring was identical. One of the others had the same coloring as Riup, a mini-Riup. The other one’s coloring was unique, to Wemael, it was beautiful. This one had the same light green skin as Riup, and had spots like Fribble, but they weren’t simple black spots as his were, but were ringed in plum instead, and the line extending from her cheek, down her neck was gray and plum with a few black spots. She figured that the youngest was a boy since he was dressed the same as Fribble and the other two with their pretty dresses were girls. It didn’t take them long to cross the clearing, and just as Wemael wondered what kind of greeting Delmarf would receive from these three extremely excited children, two of them noticed her and changed directions, heading toward her instead. The boy reached her first.

“brrap, Who are you? brrap, What are you? brrap, Who are you? brrap. What are you? brrap.” He rattled on furiously. “brrap, Who are you? brrap. What are you? brrap. Who are you? brrap. What are…

Thwack.

The other one had arrived, the brightly colored one, and with speed almost too fast for Wemael see, she had smacked her brother’s face with her tongue.

“brree, Friend, please forgive. brree My brother can be such a horsefly! brree” she said with typical sibling disgust. “brree, My name is Lily. brree. My pouting brother is Digger, brree , and my sister over there with friend Delmarf is Rain. brree.”

Wemael looked over at Digger before she answered and almost started laughing. Digger was indeed pouting and to see that face on a creature that looked so like a frog was hilarious, but she held her laughter in and responded, “I’m Wemael.”

Before Lily could say anything else, Riup told everyone it was time to eat and they all move to the food.

While Lily sliced the daisy bread, and Rain filled everyone’s bowl with stew, Digger slid over to Wemael. He pulled something from his pocket and plopped it on her lap, announcing with much pride, “brrap, I have a big worm! brrap”

Sure enough, squirming frantically in Wemael’s lap was a two inch long, fat earth worm. Most eight year old girls would have screamed and jumped up and acted the fool, but Wemael calmly picked it up, smiled at Digger and said, “That is a very nice worm, Digger. You should be able to catch a great big fish with this worm.”

Grabbing the worm from Wemael in disgust, he shook his head and said, “brrap, give my worm to a fish? brrap Why would I give it to a fish? brrap. I found it, so I get to eat it, brrap” He lifted the worm to over his head intending to slurp it down, when it disappeared from his hand. Ready to jump on Wemael for taking his treat, he received another smack on the cheek with a tongue, this one coming from his mother.

“brreep, what have I told you, young man, brreep, about eating treats before supper? brreep Now, I will have to give this juicy worm to Wemael since you were teasing her with it. brreep”

Digger looked devastated and watched his mother hand the sweet worm to Wemael, “brreep, Here, dear, I am sorry he was teasing you. brreep.”

“That’s ok, ma’am. I think Digger should have it. He did find it and I think he was just showing me his nice treat. He wasn’t teasing me.”

Riup smiled, “brreep, You’re a sweet girl. brreep Digger, you may have your worm after you eat your dinner.” With that she went back to her seat and they began to eat their meal. Wemael breathed a sigh of relief at not having to eat a worm.

No one talked while they ate, but silence wasn’t present at this table. Wemael couldn’t believe how loud these folks were when they ate. Smacking their lips, slurping the stew, everything that she had been taught not to do seemed to be standard eating procedure at a Muckraker’s table. She even stopped eating for a minute to stifle a giggle at the terrible table manners. One thing she did appreciate though was the meal. She was skeptical, at first, about the kind of dish a frog-looking creature would prepare, but those thoughts went away the second she took a bite of daisy bread. It was sweet and light, quite delicious and the perfect thing to eat with a spicy fish stew.

After the meal was finished and the place cleared, Delmarf settled against the big cypress tree and pulled out a long, thin pipe and placed it in his mouth. He did not put any tobacco in it, just kind of chewed on the end and stared off into the clearing. The tads quickly settled at his feet and Wemael joined them. Rain was the first to break the post-dinner silence,

“brree, Will you tell us a story now, friend Delmarf? bree”

“In a minute, friend Rain. I wonder if you three would take Wemael and see that Arto is alright. You know how he gets when he thinks we are ignoring him.”

“brree Yes, we almost forgot, friend Arto, brree” Lily replied as she jumped to her feet, grabbing Wemael’s hand. “brree Come, friend Wemael. brree Let’s go take care of Arto. brree”

Wemael quickly found her feet and rushed along with Lily and the others, excited by being with other children and glad to see Arto again.

As the children left, Fribble settled down near Delmarf, bringing his grasshopper tea with him, “brrraup, Mother, will you join us. brrraup I believe that friend Delmarf has a story he need to tell us, brrraup one the children need not hear.. brrraup”

Riup joined them.

“brrraup, friend Delmarf, I enjoy your stories, brrraup but I fear this will one I won’t ask to hear again. brrraup”
With that Delmarf related to them all that had happened over the last three days