Keokee stopped wrestling the little bear cubs and rolled away from them, sitting up to listen. The bear cubs were completely forgotten now, and he didn’t notice they had scampered away, bawling and crying. He turned his head this way and that, trying to identify this new sound he was hearing. It was a grunting roar, a mad and determined sound, and as it got closer, Keokee heard the sound of a large body moving heavily and quickly through the forest, knocking brush and small trees out of the way as it came closer and closer. It was coming straight at him.
As Keokee leaped to his feet, his little heart nearly stopped beating as he saw a full grown mother bear enter the other end of the forest glen, running as fast as she could run, tearing up saplings and knocking rocks and logs everywhere, roaring in rage at whatever was threatening her babies. She saw Keokee immediately and identified him as the threat to her little ones, and Keokee knew she came to kill. Forgotten were the bow and arrow Keokee had nocked. Keokee knew his only hope was to run, and he ran like never before. Keokee was running for dear life, and it seemed to him that he was running in slow motion, like in a dream. He didn’t know where he was running to, and he didn’t care; his only thought was to get away.
This wasn’t the kind of adventure Keokee wanted!
As Keokee ducked, dodged, and ran between rocks, tree trunks, and dead falls, the roars and grunts of the angry mother bear got louder and louder. The ground seemed to tremble with every leap of her huge body, and Keokee could hear the incredible power of her body as it crashed over and through small trees and brush as if it wasn’t there. Keokee was screaming and crying to him, trying to run faster and faster, but the mother bear seemed to be gaining with leaps and bounds. It seemed that she was only a few feet behind him, and he imagined that he could feel her hot breath on his neck, when Keokee broke into an opening in the forest.
As Keokee broke into the clearing, two things happened. The first was that he found himself on a cliff about twenty feet above a river. The second was that the mother bear had just gotten close enough to take a big swipe with her claws at Keokee’s back. Keokee saw the river as his salvation, and with an extra burst of energy, he launched himself off the cliff, into the air, and just at that moment, he felt the mother bear’s claws just brush his back—she was that close.
Keokee fell and fell, seemingly almost forever before he hit the water, striking it with a great splash, and he kept his eyes squeezed shut as he sank deep into the river. When he finally opened them, he was upside down, and so deep in the water that all he saw was blue water and bubbles. He was turned so topsy-turvy that when he looked up where the surface of the water was supposed to be, all he saw was blue water, but as the current of the river spun him round and round, he saw a bright glow and clawed his way toward it. As he swam upward, the glow got bluer and brighter, and right before he thought his lungs would burst, all of a sudden, his head broke the surface of the water.
The current of the river was very swift, and it carried Keokee for a very long way before he could swim and claw his way through the water to the bank. Keokee crawled up on the muddy bank of the river, exhausted, cold, and very frightened. All in all, he was a very scared little Cherokee boy.
All of a sudden, Keokee remembered the angry mother bear, and he looked wildly about, fearful that she was still chasing him. He didn’t know if bears could swim, but maybe they could, and he watched the river for several minutes, half-expecting to see her huge brown body swimming through the water toward him. But after a few moments, he realized that he was probably safe for the time being, he finally calmed down, and he began to take stock of his situation.
Keokee suddenly realized that he was hopelessly and completely lost. In his mad dash through the forest, and his floundering in the river, he had lost his water gourd, his food, and his bow. All he had left was an empty deerskin quiver hanging by a loop around his shoulder, and his clothing was cold and wet. He had gotten completely turned around in his mad run from the bear, and he had absolutely no idea in what direction the village lay. What was worse, his adventure was a secret; he hadn’t told his mother and father where he was going because he knew they would have forbidden him setting out on his own. He had absolutely no idea where his village was, and as the full impact of his situation hit home, his fears returned, and with them despair. What have I gotten myself into now? Keokee thought desperately.
Keokee began to cry.
Keokee cried and cried. He thought how stupid he was to have set off, all alone into a strange land without telling anyone where he was going. Now he realized just why his father had warned him, many times, not to do exactly what he had just done. He had no way to get home, and no food. Soon the sun would set, and darkness would close around him, and then Keokee would be at the mercy of all the monsters and wild creatures of the night. Then he wouldn’t stand a chance.
Thinking of his father, Keokee remembered times when he and his father had taken walks in the woods, and Keokee’s father had taught him that a Cherokee’s teachers were the creatures of the air, water, and ground. His father had told him, over and over, that all of God’s creatures could communicate and had ways of their own, and that a Cherokee could learn many things just by watching and listening to the birds and animals. Keokee remembered his father telling him how many birds changed their songs when danger approached, and how the ground creatures sought shelter early in the day when a bad storm was coming. Keokee’s father once told him that a person could get himself out of any bad situation if he paid close attention to the ways of the wild creatures.
Keokee looked around at his surroundings. He was sitting on the banks of a large, swift running river, which was bordered by cattail and river cane. When Keokee saw the cattail, he grew a bit relieved, for he knew that the tubers of the cattail were edible, like potatoes. Well, at least I won’t starve, Keokee thought, and I have a whole river full of water, so I won’t get thirsty either. And I can make a blowgun and darts to hunt with from the river cane. Keokee suddenly remembered that in the river, he would find fish, crawdads, and freshwater mussels to eat, and he decided right then that he would stay close to the river, for it was a constant source of food and water. At least he wouldn’t starve to death or die of thirst. Just knowing this made Keokee feel a little better about things.
But he was still lost.
Keokee then saw something brown and furry swimming through the water near the bank where he was standing. It was a large brown furry creature, which swam effortlessly through the water, sometimes gliding on its back, then twisting to dive underwater and reappearing again. It was a river otter, like the many which played in the river near Keokee’s village. Keokee often sat and watched the otters play for hours; all they did was play with each other and eat. Keokee often thought it would be great fun to be a river otter.
This otter played and played, swimming, diving, and rolling about in the water. It would roll around on its back, swimming downstream with the current, but then it would come back near to the bank right where Keokee was standing and look straight into his eyes, unafraid. Then the otter would dive down and back up, turning over and over in the water, till finally it would roll onto its back again and drift down the river. It did this over and over, drifting down the river, then swimming back to Keokee, and looking him in the eyes. something about the otter seemed familiar to Keokee, but he couldn’t pin it down. But the more he watched, the more it seemed to Keokee that the otter was trying to tell him something.
Keokee remember his father’s advice: listen, watch, and learn from the creatures of the forest.
As he watched the otter swim away down the river and come back, over and over, Keokee thought, Why, That’s the very same otter I’ve watched playing in the river near our village! That’s what he’s trying to tell me! He’s trying to tell me how to get back home!
And so he was. With Keokee following along happily, the river otter swam straight down the