The sun was blazing in the sky when the little squirrel awoke. The skin of the Black Dragon was burning hot and Chakik scrambled off it’s back as fast as he could. His head hurt and he felt a little dizzy. He tripped over some tall grass as he leapt from the Black Dragon’s back and tumbled tail over whiskers into a rock, landing with a thump. His head spun even more, from the rock or the heat Chakik did not know. As quickly as he could manage he scrambled further from the edge of the Black Dragon, ducking behind the nearest tree.
The little squirrel’s head felt heavy as he put the tree between himself and the Black Dragon. Standing wobbly on his hind legs, he pressed his fore paws to his cheeks. They felt normal but the heavy feeling in his head would not subside. The memory of his request to the Black Dragon screamed at him from the back of his mind. Paws pressed to cheeks again. This time he put a paw into his mouth and pushed against his left cheek. It stretched out, but did not push back. Before he realized it, most of his arm was inside his mouth. Withdrawing his paw quickly, Chakik looked around to see if he was still alone. He was. A thought came to him. A quick sniff to the tree tops gave him the direction he was looking for: Acorns!
He scampered off until he reached the base of a great tree. The little squirrel sat still for a moment, smiling broadly as he surveyed the scene. An almost untouched oak tree stood before him, reaching up to the bright blue sky with its strong branches bristling with delicious acorns!
Chakik ran up the trunk of the tree as fast as he could. His claws digging into the bark as he climbed higher and higher. Selecting a branch full of bright green leaves and literally sagging from the weight of it’s acorns, he flew to its end. Carefully and precisely he began biting the nuts from the branches. Five acorns, breaking his own record, he shifted them to one side. He gnashed his teeth together to check on capacity; it was like the nuts weren’t there at all.
Picking up his pace now, he gathered acorns faster and faster. 10, 20, then 30. He lost count.
His cheeks bulged with the volume in his mouth but they never got full.
Continuing down the tree he all but cleaned it out of it’s acorns. Standing at the base of the tree, he felt his cheeks again, they were huge! But not nearly as large as they should be. He had lost count at 30 times 30 acorns, as he stripped the tree. Chakik had no idea how many that was, but knew it could feed his entire family for many, many months.
Smiling at his great fortune, he leaned against the trunk of the tree and wrapped his long tail around his head. The little squirrel closed his eyes and let out a scream for joy. The Black Dragon has granted his wish! He ran his tongue over the bounty in his cheeks. Piles and piles of acorns were safely tucked away in them.
The sun shone warmly down on the little squirrel as he lay at the base of the tree, tail still wrapped around his head, when he heard footsteps approaching. A lot of footsteps.