Since adding Sunny the sheep to their ‘pack’ things had taken on a much more hectic pace. FastPile, as always, seemed unchanged by external things, the turtle did what he did, and that was all. Somehow it was always enough though. This impressed Chakik to no end. For Chakik, Sunny was a test of endurance and patience. She was too young to know much, so the squirrel was given the task of showing her. He now spent, what seemed like all his free time, gathering extra food for Sunny, or telling Sunny about people, or showing Sunny what not to do, or trying to tell Sunny what to do.
Crossing the road with the young Sheep had been an ordeal. Chakik was still amazed that the three of them had all made it successfully across. His time with the turtle had exposed him to the perils of the human roads for animals, especially it seemed squirrels. All too often they came across the flat remains of squirrels when they crossed roads, and every time, to his horror, the turtle insisted they cross near the body. FastPile would always say something about “karma of the road” and “bad things had already passed”, but Chakik always felt sadness and uneasy when they would cross near a fallen friend. He would look up to the sky and say a little prayer he had made up for just these times. “May your spirit rest with the clouds.” Chakik imagined that on beautiful, clear blue days, the clouds must be resting somewhere even more beautiful and thought it would be a nice place to spend time. It was here that he sent the energies of the dead squirrels and other animals they saw.
Some crossings were much worse than others.
While Chakik’s first real introduction to “the Black Dragon”, now simply named “roads” had been an adventure in itself, the third crossing with FastPile would forever remain etched into his squirrel brain. Squirrel’s don’t give a lot of thought to what is inside of them, unless you are talking about nuts. As a species of animal they are not all that introspective, very few squirrels would be considered Great Thinkers among the animal community at large, fewer still give thought to what is physically inside of them. Squirrels just are, as far as they are concerned, and there is no need to delve deeper into what makes them up, either mentally or physically. On this unforgettable crossing day, Chakik saw first hand what squirrels were made of.
The “karma crossing” point that FastPile had identified was near a freshly killed squirrel. It was a cloudy, overcast, and generally gray day already, the sun had been hiding somewhere beyond their vision since they had woken up. The morning had an unusual chill to it, and Chakik noticed that everything smelled more of itself than normal, as if things had decided to make themselves more of themselves during the night. They had a planned crossing ahead that was routine to the squirrel by now, a simple two lane road, calling the Black Dragon a road still seemed odd, but the turtle would have it no other way.
Approaching the edge, the now familiar smell of death greeted the duo. The morning crispness amplified this scent as it had the other, more pleasant, smells that day. Cautiously the turtle and the squirrel crawled out onto the road, Chakik being very alert, and looking both up and down the road as FastPile had taught him. As they crossed, the source of the smell became all too apparent. Right in the center of the road, trapped between both sides, was the destroyed body of a squirrel. Unlike any they had crossed near before, this one had not flattened, but seemed to have burst and spread strangely shaped swirls and curving, overlapping tubes over the black surface. The totally alien nature of these things, which clearly originated from inside the body of the dead squirrel, stunned Chakik. He stopped. In the middle of the road. Something he had not done since the first time he had tried to cross one alone.
The parts spiraled and cascaded over themselves, shining with a bizarre color that Chakik had never seen before. It felt as if they were trying to tell him something important in their shapes, but his ears could not hear their voices and his eyes did not understand. He reached a paw down to his belly, touching it at the same spot the twisted and grotesque shapes emerged from the body that lay on the road. Crossing near bodies of fallen animals always saddened Chakik, but this time was different. It felt deeper. He could feel things inside himself, bits and pieces, that had previously just been of him, now they took on a life of their own. His breath seemed to slow as he felt the air crossing from his mouth to his insides. Thumpa-thumpa-thumpa. His heart beat inside his chest. Both breath and heart beat he was familiar with, but this, now, felt entirely different.
A sharp pain and yank to his tail completed his journey across the road, FastPile dragging him quickly out of harms way. The turtle said nothing as the squirrel quickly regained his composure and scampered into the grass at the road’s edge. There they stayed, motionless, only breathing, for what seemed like ages. The turtle understood what the squirrel did not yet, and waited for Chakik to make the next move.
“Is..is that what’s inside me?” the silence finally broken weakly by the squirrel.
“We are all made of the same things.” replied the turtle in his usual unanswering fashion. There was a pause, as they looked at each other silently.
“Similar things are inside of you, yes. They keep you alive.” sensing the squirrel’s uneasiness the wise turtle continued, “they are not what you are. They are just parts.”
“If we put them back in would it…”
“NO. That squirrel is gone. He was what you saw, but he was also more.” the turtle tried to explain. “Inside me, I look the same as you, like the squirrel on the road.” Chakik winced at the thought of such strange curved things inside of him. “They are WHAT you are,” continued FastPile, “but not WHO you are.”
Chakik gave him a puzzled look as they continued through the low grass, seeking out a trail to help their journey along.
“I don’t understand” said the squirrel.
“When you need to you will.” was the turtles cryptic reply, and they continued on in silence.