O’Strengthy growled as he felt something under his nose. “Ah…Apchoo!!!… Apchee!!!… APCHOO!!!!!!!!!!” He blinked his eyes open and was dumbfounded to discover Boss flying back at a speed of…O’Strengthy guessed it was no less than 30 miles per hour. All the beavers, who were already wide awake, heard a loud thunk as Boss collided with a thick pine. They rushed towards him, but he raised a paw and they halted. He motioned as if to tell them, Help me up already! As soon as he was standing, he huffed at them. Beavers huffed by making a ffff sound through their teeth. They huffed to express emotions, but it was almost a secret code, because only other beavers could comprehend was the ‘huffer’ was trying to express.
Boss was trying to tell the beavers to be quiet. “OK boys, I’d like to say a few words. I know that you guys have become accustomed to sleeping outdoors on the ground and would like to continue that practice-” here the beavers all frowned and thumped their tails smack on the ground to show their annoyance at this joke, “-but we really should start making a dam. The first stage is making lists that will help us. So after we take a little ‘nature walk’ to get accustomed to this place, I want each one of you to jot down a list of five things or steps related to our work here. Let me show you mine.”
As the other beavers sat down and got comfortable, Boss went over to a tall holly he was sleeping under, retrieved a scrap of bark he had written on, and jogged back to his pals. The list looked something like this:

Top Five Things to Avoid:
1. Humans
2. Human Contraptions
3. Deer and other Large, Four-
Legged Animals
4. Squirrels and other Smaller Animals
5. Cars

He, like the rest of his friends, had a good knowledge of the human language and how to speak, read, and write it. Of course, their reading ability was about that of a first grader, but they were proud to have a basic knowledge of Humanspeak, as they called it. He read it out loud and mentioned, “I put cars separately from human contraptions because they are extremely dangerous. So if you don’t want to be killed as fast as a butterfly can blink (which was one of his favorite expressions), then stay off the roads until absolutely necessary. Alright, create a new spot in y’brains, call it ‘Boss’s List’, save it, grab a brekkist, and then pick up y’bums and let’s go walkin’!” He abruptly turned and marched away, while the beavers looked at each other and shrugged. They chose a tree, sliced off a petite piece of bark, and chewed on it.
“Alrighty boys, follow me! An’ keep yer eyes out fer a good place ter build a dam.” All of them jogged after Boss. They strolled down a human pathway and kept swiveling their heads from left to right in search of a depression in the land. All they saw were lush meadows and thick woods. The also saw a bunch of buildings all close together. O’Wisey stated in a matter-of-fact tone that the house were ‘log cabins’ and the group was called a ‘village’. However, Boss was rather skeptical, but the rest gazed at the tall structures with awe and admiration. When they noticed a rather large area of large trees, Boss exclaimed, “Whoopee! That, boys, is exactly wot we’re going ter build our dam out of!” The rest of the beavers ignored him.
Suddenly a squirrel looked down at them and shouted, “Ho, ho, ho! Well, bless mae darned soul; y’all look jest laik a flock of owls. Why aren’t y’owls hootin’ away laik it’s the end of the world?” He then succumbed to extreme laughter until he fell out of his tree. When he saw their ignorance of his joke, he cruelly shouted, “Well, ye’ve made yer first enemy here. Stay offa ma turf and don’ even let a glimmer of a thought about cuttin’ down my trees go to yer thick heads!” The beavers strolled on until they chanced upon a colossal arch twenty beaver-lengths ahead of them. There was nothing that beavers, as a species, admired more than arches, bridges, and similar human structures. As for this arch, O’Wisey stated that it would take at least 100 beavers standing on top of each other to equal the height of the arch.
Following O’Smiley, who was going crazy over seeing his first arch, the beavers scurried towards the arch. It didn’t take them long to reach it but when they did, they were awestruck. “Wow, it’s beautiful,” whispered O’Smiley. O’Lazy was testing it because he wasn’t sure whether it was white food or white rock. He opened his maw and prepared to take a bite, but quick as a beaver could blink, O’Strengthy grabbed O’Lazy’s jaws and shoved them shut. O’Lazy could understand, from O’Strengthy’s action, that the arch was made of solid rock. His face was on fire as the others huffed in extreme amusement. The beavers then decided, by an unanimous vote, to take a quick break in the field near the arch.
Boss made sure that their break was quick. As they scurried through the arch, they saw a broad expanse of fields. Boss turned his view to the right a little bit and suddenly he shouted, “Hallelujah!!!!!!!!!!!!!! That’s it, me boys, we’ve found it! The perfect place to build a dam! An’ over there is a gorgeous creek!” O’Wisey understood exactly what Boss was thinking: to construct a tributary of that creek and have it flow to the place where their dam would stand. That would be the perfect pond.
O’Lazy trailed along after the others because he was, as usual, bored. When he reached the dam, he saw that everyone was busy jumping around, making a lot of noise and in general, a total calamity. “Seriously! Why don’t ya’ll stop clowning around and act like normal beavers for a while!” However, no one heeded him and suddenly Boss sat down in frustration. Everyone else did. Baffled, O’Lazy asked, “Well, what’s the problem, likkle kids? Lost yer energy? Oh… I get it! Y’all don’t know how to get the stream to flow into this land so we kin actually have a pond. Lemme give you my advice: give it up for today, go and rendezvous at the camp site, write our lists as Boss told us to. Maybe while we’re busy writing, a tiny spark of creativity-” here he stopped to glare at them, for creativity was exactly what most of them rarely had sparks of, “- will hit us and we’ll have the perfect idea of how to build the dam. Anyone wanna argue?” No one dared argue. When O’Lazy actually was this serious, getting in his way was extremely dangerous, like dealing with a mother fox protecting her pups.
The beavers then split up and headed into the woods to discover anything that would be of use to them for building the dam or for connecting the stream to the dam site. O’Worky’s search was the most successful, due to the fact that he met some friendly deer. He chanced upon them when he walked into a cool, shady field. At first, he did not notice them in the tall, dry grasses. However, he soon noticed some spots. He slowly walked out and said, “I am friend. Come in peace. Speak Beaver?”
He was astonished to see a mother deer lift her head from where she was munching on the grasses and said in a very strong German accent, “Vell, vee speak Beaver. Vee are very pleased to meet you!” Suddenly, she was cut off by a screech. “Hhh! Falcons! I must flee from here!” She snatched up one of the babies and O’Worky dragged the second one into the dark, thick bushes on the rim of the meadow. However, it was too late for him to escape, so he defiantly glared up at the peregrines circling at him.
The falcon hissed, “You are new beavers. You dare intrude on our land. Now you shall pay for crossing onto our land! Now you shall pay for crossing onto it!" He let out a kawk and instantly, three...no, four other falcons swooped onto the scene. At an undetermined sign, they dove towards the beaver. As O'Worky ran, his head was instructing him to either HIDE or FIGHT. Confused, he kept scrambling through the dense thicket shrubs until he heard a boom in his head saying to FIGHT FOR YOUR LIFE!!!!!!!!!! He let out a shout for help and tensed his body for a confrontation.
He jumped up into the air, did a back flip, and landed on something soft. He peeled open his eyes, which had been shut from panic, and saw he had landed on a falcon's back. With a fearsome cackle, he belted a kick to the back of the bird's skull, and then proceeded to clobber it mercilessly. However, his courage ended when the bird unexpectedly dropped like a brick to the ground and he rolled into a patch of thick brambles. He suddenly felt a new feeling: fear. He was trapped with adult falcons streaming at him at the pace of half a butterfly eye blink. He felt an immense pain in his head. The last thing he remembered before he drifted into darkness was a very familiar war cry, "Hayee! Gimme liberty or gimme death!" and harsh kawks of distress from the falcons.
* * *
Meanwhile O'Strengthy was charging at the falcons at the speed of light. On his journey, he had met a badger, who had shown him a good place to search for berries. After bidding farewell to the badger, he spent a good time collecting berries and stuffing his already full belly. However, he had been dozing off when he heard a cry for help coming from the west. He jumped up and galloped away as fast as his thick, sturdy legs would take him.
O'Strengthy cautiously approached and watched, shocked, as his good friend O'Worky hurtled across the field, followed by five huge falcons. He tensed himself to help his friend if needed. As he watched in horror, O'Worky crashed to the ground off of the back of a falcon. Before thinking, he prepared himself to go to the aid of his injured comrade. He gave a thunderous war cry that sounded more like a roar than a shout and leaped out into the clearing.
O'Strengthy was fortunate enough to be able to use the element of surprise. He hit one of the birds hard smack on the head and it collapsed in pain. Since O’Worky defeated one and I got rid of this one, this means…two down, three to go, he quickly calculated in his mind. He whished around and landed a blow on another's back with his thick tail. Two left! O'Strengthy watched as the remaining falcons streamed at him, side by side. In glee, he jumped up and landed on their backs, one of his hind feet on each of the backs. Then he jumped up and down. His weight alone brought them crashing to the ground. He clumsily landed, happy to have saved his comrade. Speaking of which... Where was O’Worky? Then he remembered the crash the beaver had taken from the bird’s back and the crack he had heard before he had attacked, which he guessed was one of the birds colliding with O’Worky’s skull.
* * *
Meanwhile, a badger named Arcticus was scurrying through the fields following a scent he only knew from a previous encounter. Arcticus was a partially albino badger a few seasons past his prime. He still had a long time to live, so he was ready to fight. He also wanted to fight the falcons because they had killed one of his daughters when she had been only a baby. Earlier that day, he had been outside, chewing on berries to take back to his clan (family) to use as medicines, when he had chanced upon a beaver named O’Strengthy. The two had chatted until the beaver had left after hearing a beaver call for help. After he had left, Arcticus had been torn by indecision. He wanted to feed his family, but the wind was pointing him towards the path the beaver. He had dropped the thick stalks and ran off after the fresh scent. He knew better than to ignore the wind, which seemed to mysteriously guide all badgers at times like this.
* * *
When Arcticus arrived at the clearing, the resounding stillness told him he was too late to fight. Instead, he looked around until he saw movement. He ran up and he saw the beaver he had met earlier looking in horror at another, who had broken his skull. The beaver was weeping. At the sound of Arcticus approaching, O’Worky turned and sobbed, “You’re the badger I met earlier! Can you please help me? I don’t know what to do? Will O’Worky die? I don’t want him to die! Waaaah!”
Arcticus was never one for emotions. “Shut up. Let me see…Fracture in the skull there, nose injured, bleeding from the fracture…” His mind was churning with different berries. As a badger, he was very familiar with all the herbs growing in the park and how to use them. Then something in his mind went click and he knew how to help the beaver. He shouted, “Go get holly berries and leaves, AMAP (As Much As Possible) ASAP. Then, look for the big, soft leaves growing near the ark. Get me those too, AMAP ASAP. GO!” As O’Strengthy left, Arcticus grabbed a leaf and ran to a hidden stream nearby. Filling the leaf to the brim with cool water, he ran back and poured it slowly down O’Worky’s (or at least that was what O’Strengthy said his name was) throat, after a few repetitions of this, he placed the leaf near O’Worky’s head as a bandage to try to slow the bleeding. Arcticus, however, knew that without the big, soft leaves O’Strengthy was looking for, there was no way to completely stop the blood flow. Therefore, he sat down, shut his eyes, and drifted to sleep while waiting for O’Strengthy’s return.
* * *
O’Strengthy’s worry was slowly ebbing away as he leapt through the fields in huge strides. He knew that getting to the campsite wouldn’t take long, so he could quickly get holly berries and leaves from the trees. In addition, as far as he remembered, his morning stroll to the ark hadn’t taken very long, either. Therefore, he was more confident as he reached the camp. Secretly happy none of the other beavers had returned yet, he snatched as many berries and leaves as he could carry, shoved them into his miniature rucksack, and set off quickly on the path he knew led to the ark.
As he approached the ark, he headed for a grove of trees were he had rested earlier in that day. At the roots, he uselessly searched for the leaves as Arcticus had described them, but then he noticed that some plants were hidden beneath the weeds at the surface. He ripped through the knots of weeds until he found a few of the leaves. Jumping in glee, he ripped some off, stuffed them into his knapsack, and set off to where Arcticus awaited him.
* * *
O’Worky slowly opened his eyes. Immediately, he felt pain on the left side of his had. He had a sudden shock when he noticed that a badger was standing above him. He looked around wildly, but the badger said, “Don’t be afraid, my boy, I won’t harm you. On the contrary, I’m here to help. No- don’t get up. You need rest. Lie down.” Obediently, O’Worky laid his head down, thinking, who is this? His fear disappeared as he remembered the legends his mother had once told him. His mother had told him that badgers were the healers of the forest. Comforted by that thought, he almost closed his eyes when he heard stomping of feet and a familiar voice shouting in greeting. O’Strengthy! Then he remembered the war cry he had heard before blacking out. He made the connection: O’Strengthy had rescued him from the falcons!
He watched as his friend handed the badger an assortment of berries and leaves. The badger grabbed the berries, ripped of a piece from the big leaves, ground and mixed it all. Then O’Worky opened his mouth, as commanded, and had to chew the vile mixture. Suddenly he realized what he had eaten and screamed, “Those will make me sick! Why did I have to eat them?”
The badger snorted, “That’s why I mixed them with the leaves, silly. That’ll help stop any infections. And if you throw up,” here he gestured with a broad sweep pf his hand, “that means that the berries caused you to throw up the bad stuff you had in you. Now, I’ve got to moisten these leaves to stop the infection. I know these will work or my name isn’t Arcticus.” Dumbfounded, O’Worky just stared as the badger went to the stream and brought back dripping leaves. As he felt the cool, soft surface against his head, the pain lessened. Soon, the bleeding stopped, as predicted.
After the two of them thanked the wise badger, O’Strengthy helped O’Worky get up and led him onto the human path. O’Worky said, “Thanks for helping me. I think that I would have had more than a head crack if you hadn’t arrived.” His companion nodded in acceptance. Just as the sun began to set, they arrived, where everyone else was waiting for them. O’Worky was relieved to see the rest of his friends alive and well.
The first thing that happened was Boss said, “Glad to see both of ya men in one piece each. Now, would someone like to tell us a story of why he has a bad bruise on his head?” and pointed at O’Worky. However, Boss snapped, “That, my friends, was a rhetorical question. If ye haven’t heard about those, those are the types of questions you don’t answer. Anyway…a little birdy flew to me and told me. Literally. So, let’s keep to our schedule and write our lists, wot do y’ say, maties?” After a unanimous decision agreed with Boss, the beavers each chose a tree to sit under and began working. O’Worky looked up to the setting sun for inspiration. He was fascinated to see the sky in shades of pink, red, and orange. He inhaled and started scribbling. Within half an hour, everyone was ready to share. O’Strengthy was nominated to go first. He stood up and recited,
Top Tools to Build the Dam:
1. Our Paws
2. Human Machines (ex. Chainsaws)
3. Human Tools (ex. Shovels)
4. Squirrels and Other Rodents
5. Badgers
After a brief round of applause, O’Worky stood up and shared his.
Top Helpers:
1. Ourselves
2. Rodents
3. Badgers
4. Birds
5. Humans
Boss stood up and exploded, “That woz a spark of inspiration! I heard it! The badgers! They might be able to assist us on our mission! You’re a genius, O’Worky!” Everyone else huffed in agreement. Next to go was O’Smiley, whose list caused slapping of tails in amusement.
Top Foods:
1. Wood
2. Leaves
3. Berries
4. Nuts (I guess…)
5. Badger Berries
O’Worky and O’Lazy, in turn, politely refused to share theirs. Bored, Boss told a legend on badgers. Then he said, “Oh, yah, I’ll tell y’all a secret. I have a cardinal friend who’s named Cardy. He was keepin’ an eye out for you guys when we were exploring. That’s how I knew that O’Worky was attacked, etc. etc. etc. But I’d like to congratulate everyone on surviving their first day here. Now, go to bed, likkle kids.”
“’Night, Boss!” “See ya in the Morning!” “Good night!” “Later, Boss!” “Bye!” Each of the beavers individually said goodbye to Boss, settled under the tree of their choice, and peacefully drifted to sleep under the full moon and a whispering breeze.