It was late afternoon when Benji began to stir.
He tried raising his head. “Ow.”
“Ow?” Chantel said from the other side of the shelter. “Is that how you wake up now?”
“It is today,” he groaned. “I have a headache like you wouldn’t believe.”
“Well, I imagine you would,” she replied, “after trying to stop a mountain of rocks with that big noggin of yours.”
“At least I can tell I’m not dreaming anymore,” he said. “You were nice to me in my dream.”
“Since it seems you’re going to live,” Chantel said, trying to look stern, “it’s up to me to show you the error of your ways for getting hurt.”
“Before you start picking on me again, could you answer me this?” he asked, trying to raise his head again. “Is this the first time I’ve been awake? I thought I was before, but wasn’t sure if it was a dream or not.”
“You woke up once about 8 hours ago,” she replied. “You seemed to be awake, but you did say something that still has me wondering. Do you remember what you said?”
“I think I said that I’d found the History Tree.”
“That’s right, and then you didn’t want me to tell anyone. What was that all about?”
“Now I remember… I was dreaming about finding the History Tree, and you were there too, and then I was here, and you were talking to me, and it seemed real. Then I remembered from the dream that I had found the tree, so I told you. But then I thought, no, that had been part of the dream. By then I was so confused I just wanted to go back to sleep and sort things out later. The last thing I remember is trying to tell you not to say anything because I didn’t know if it was real or not.”
“Well, that explains it,” she said. “But I have to ask, did you find the History Tree or not?”
“That’s the thing,” Benji said, decidedly unhappy. “I don’t know.”
“I mean, I’m pretty sure I did, but you know, what with all those rocks banging me in the head, I’m not completely sure.”
“But,” he said with a glimmer of a smile, “I do have a picture in my mind of what I think I saw.”
“Well, that’s something,” Chantel assured him. “If you can describe it, I can draw it.”
“I think we’d better do that now, in case it starts to fade,” he said, trying to lever himself up.
“Easy there, big boy,” Chantel said, easing him back down with a hand on his chest. “You just relax while I go get something to draw with.”
Chantel returned with her box of colored drawing sticks and a sketch pad. She sat and tried to draw what Benji was describing.
“Now you have to understand,” he was saying, “that this is all from my point of view up on the side of the mountain.”
“I was looking off to my left at quite an angle. I notice an unusually bright green area just where the foothills ended and the heavier growth of trees began. Everything is pretty much the same all along the upper reaches of the valley, except for that green area.”
“I started bringing my gaze back in, looking for details, when something caught my eye about a third of the way back into the foothills.”
“At first I couldn’t make out what I was looking at. Finally, I sat back, closed my eyes, and relaxed for a minute, then I tried again. I held my hands shielding both sides of my vision to narrow my view, and that’s when it just jumped out at me… a circular depression with vertical stones inside marking its perimeter. And yes, I could make out what must be a gigantic tree in the center of the depression.”
“I stood up and moved to the side, trying to get a better view, which was ridiculous at that distance, and that’s when all hell broke loose.”
Chantel tried to draw what Benji had described. She showed him the drawing, and he explained how it differed from what he had seen. She made another drawing with the corrections, and then a third and a fourth.
Finally, Benji was satisfied. “That’s it, that’s what I saw. You’re really good at this,” he said excitedly, then, holding his head, he settled back with a groan. “Damn, my head hurts.”
“You did good, Hon,” she said, leaning down, giving him a peck on the cheek. “I’ll go see if Cassy has something for your headache.”
She hurried out and was soon back with Cassy and Jax.
“Jax, help Benji sit up so he can drink this,” Cassy said, mixing a powder in a mug of water.
“Here you go,” she said, holding the mug so he could drink, “it should help with the pain. Give it a few minutes to kick in. It might make you sleepy, but just go with it, you need to rest.”
Benji drank the potion and had Jax let him back down. Cassy took the mug and left.
“So, Chantel says you’ve been drawing pictures,” Jax kidded him. “Do you really think you saw something?”
“I’m pretty sure, but you know, when you take a shot to the head, things can get a little confused.”
“That’s why I wanted Chantel to make a drawing,” he said. “That’s what I think I saw.”
“If you go back up on the mountain at the same time of day that I was there, the drawing should help you find the green area, and that should help you find the circle… if it’s there.”
“Oh, and don’t go back to where I was standing; that’s not safe,” he added. “You should see pretty much the same picture from that clear area.”
“And, and, that’s all I’ve got…” he said, his eyelids drooping as he drifted off to sleep.
“That is one mighty fine cat there,” Jax said, looking down at his friend with affection.
“Come on, let’s let him sleep,” Chantel said, ushering Jax out of the shelter.
“One more thing, Chantel,” Jax said when they were standing outside. “Could you make a copy of your drawing and keep the original safe? It might be important.”
“Of course,” she said. “I’ll make a copy for the cat who goes up on the mountain and another for whoever is searching down on the ground.”
“So how are you doing?” Jax asked her. “You’ve been through quite a bit yourself.”
“I’m doing pretty well now,” she said. “I’m not used to how well you all take care of each other.”
“We know we can always count on each other,” he replied. “Our bond as a tribe, family, or whatever, is growing stronger all the time.”
“It’s very interesting,” Chantel said, “I’ve never heard of anything quite like it. I’m just glad to be here.”
“Probably a little more excitement than back at the Village of the Teachers,” Jax joked.
“You haven’t seen the heated debates they hold every Friday afternoon. Talk about excitement,” Chantel laughed.