Chapter 104

Satiation 100%

The desire to share the yurt with a good friend could not be ignored. So after fetching them, a yellow ball of shiny fur and a blue ball of poofy blue fur scampered around.

Boggo’s eyes were huge. “When did your tent get so big?”

And Ella’s gaze darted around like a bird’s. “May we look around?”

It was Boggo who answered, “Of course! Be my guest.”

“Roam, little friends.”

Boggo wrung his hands as he explored. “I feel like I don’t see you anymore, Thrush.”

“Then come look at me.”

“We don’t spend time together anymore. I miss you.”

There went another barrel of Anti-gravity ale from among the dozens left. It was creamy when it rushed down over fang and tongue. What lingered was close to the aroma of fennel. But all that was enough to leap up to the rafters of the yurt. Boggo, whose waterskin got stuck between two poles, could not wiggle himself free. Lifted free by the nape of his neck, he paddled the air until his little feet were gently set back on the ground.

“I have lots of time, little Boggo. Let’s spend it. In exchange we can make memories. A fair trade.”

“Whew! This place is so big! Not like an aquifer.”

“Nor like a tent.”

Ella’s voice sounded muffled. “There’s nothing in here!”

The drawers rattled in place.

Wood over wood, the music drawer easily slid open. Ella wasn’t within.

“Not yet, but it’s for music…”

And wood over wood, the divided drawer for heat and cold easily slid open. Ella wasn’t within.

“...and comfort and heat and shade…”

At last, wood over wood, the drawer of light easily slid open. Yet Ella wasn’t within!

“...and light.”

Where did the little bestie go? Her yellow scent radiated from the drawers. Upon inspection, after hefting the whole thing up, she couldn’t be found beneath or behind.

Ella’s muffled voice still came from the chest of drawers. “Music?”

Wood over wood, the music drawer easily slid open, and at last, there she was! She didn’t seem to mind being picked up beneath her armpits and set on the ground.

“I must buy sheet music to play some.”

Boggo scampered beneath my legs and sped across the yurt. “How do you like Lurk-murky? Pretty pretty wet.”

“With you and Barnacle-eyes, I like it very much. I will remember here always.”

“It’s so watery! Sheesh, it’s so watery! Do you think-” Boggo’s voice sounded suddenly defeated.

A lump in the gathered cushions bounced. Come to find out, they were quite heavy. Beneath was Boggo. He took a deep breath once the cushion was lifted off of him.

“Ah! Thank you.” He coughed and held his rib. “Too heavy! Comfortable, but feels like a cave in.”

“Do I think what?”

Then Ella sounded like she was struggling. “Hnh! Hnnh!”

Over on the other side of the yurt she was stuck between a pole and the canvas wall. She had to be lifted by the nape and then pulled up and squeezed out.

She smiled shyly. “Thank you, sir Thrush. …Do you think there are any besties here? I feel like they should be everywhere. But what with all the water around here…”

My giant eyes followed Ella as she scampered across the yurt. “Underground you mean?”

Following the slam of a chest lid and the jingle of a chest’s latch, Boggo’s voice came muffled. “Where else?”

The chest began to shake, thenbanging emitted through the wood, then the lid began to rattle.

“Wait a moment, little Boggo. The latch needs to be lifted. There you go.”

Boggo exploded from the chest. He swung over the side and fell to his butt.

He brushed himself off and then looked at me. “So? Are there besties? Do you know? C’mon Thrush, you have to know!”

“I’ll use my nose.”

Ella’s voice was suddenly disembodied and muffled at the same time It moved across the yurt. “What if they’re underwater?”

Wet loose earth suddenly surged in a lump through the flattened grass. The lump of earth, leaving a trail, shot across the ground to the other side of the yurt where it stopped with a bang at the base of a pole. The soil there tasted gritty, like sand, and aromatic like spent tea leaves. But it only took a few pawfuls and mouthfuls until Ella could be exhumed by the nape from her burrow.

“Let’s find out if there are besties here.”

You could be reading stolen content. Head to the original site for the genuine story.

Boggo scrambled over. “Wait! Before you do, let’s barter!”

“Barter. Hmm. What would you like to barter?”

“Or maybe a trade. In exchange for some time with you, we’ll play the game Ella and I have been working on.”

∞

Boggo and Ella had laid out their board game. And being so deep into the long campaign, rough carved figurines had amassed. Dice lay scattered. Boggo and Ella towered over the game pieces and awaited my next course of action.

But with a grumbling belly, things were already decided. “I eat it!”

Boggo picked up the carved game piece of a pie, that was to the imagination a rhubarb pie. And after all the descriptions of baked rhubarb aroma and its flaky crust and its buttery air, it was a question of whether the rising steam was real. Fresh out of the oven? Oh it sounded fresh. Yet Boggo and Ella stared agape at me.

Boggo gulped. “...But this is why you ventured into the Borakus jungle!

Ella pointed at the delicious wooden token. “...To retrieve Ms. Icci Acca’s rhubarb pie!”

That no longer mattered. “Does it taste delicious? How delicious does it taste? Do I roll for that too?”

What the besties then did was panic. They rolled out their rough-bound rule book and scoured the pages. Both balls of fur had to step on the corners of each curl-prone page.

Ella smacked the page like she’d seen a mosquito. “Here it is!”

Boggo fetched a d12. “Roll this.”

The fastest thing to learn in their game was that rolling a 1 was unfortunate.

Ella stifled a laugh and clucked her tongue. “Well Thrush, you have no idea how it tastes.”

“Why not?”

“Because you bit your tongue.” She rolled a d6. “You bit your tongue five times. Never got to taste the pie.”

Boggo rolled a d4. “-and you bit your cheek one time.”

“Now what do I do?”

“That’s for you to decide; continue exploring the jungle, return to the yellow-footed forest and explain yourself to Ms. Icci Acca’s rhubarb pie.”

“And she’s the strawberry wearing the apron, and she has a straw hat on.”

Ella beamed. “The one who sent you on this quest.”

“Then I return to her garden and explain myself.”

The jungle turned out to be just as mysterious delving out of it as it was delving into it. Roll after roll, scenario after scenario, Boggo and Ella helped to move the orange character piece across the board. It was a simple character piece, an orange with piranha teeth.

The biting orange eventually rolled all the way back to the hamlet where Ms. Icci Acca lived. The strawberry’s garden was twice the size of Hawkin’s gardens and her cottage was said to be made of curved sticks and straw.

Ella rolled the chomping orange up to the gate of the garden fence. “It’s locked!”

“Then I eat it!”

With a good shake and a gentle release, the d20 landed on 15.

Boggo took a moment to ponder. “It tastes like wood.”

Ella moved the apron clad strawberry onto the board. “‘What’s all this ruckus’ says Ms Icci Acca.”

Boggo seemed taken back at Ella’s strong tone. “Oh you’re in trouble now Thrush! She’s angry!”

Ella moved the strawberry figurine closer to the smiling orange. “Ms. Icci Acca is so angry, she is just red in the face!”

“I eat her!”

Boggo and Ella conferred in whispers. Their eyes were wide.

Ella wrapped her little hands around the strawberry, as it to protect Ms Icci Acca. “Are you sure?”

“She’s a strawberry, and I’m hungry. I eat her!”

Once again, the d20 went tumbling across the board. It showed a 4.

Boggo gulped and glanced at Ella. “Your first bite misses.”

Ella put the strawberry inside the cottage. “‘Help! Vegetables! Fruits! Help!’ shouts Ms. Icci Acca.”

Wth a surge of excitement, Boggo hurled scatter dice onto the board. Arrows pointed everywhere.

Boggo grabbed a fistful of wooden potatoes. “Are you ready, Thrush?”

Where the arrows pointed, potatoes turned themselves upside down.

“I eat them!”

The leaks looked down at the orange.

“I eat them!”

Peppers glared at the grinning orange.

“I eat them!”

Eggplants swooped in from the shadows.

“I eat them! Now where is that strawberry?”

∞

With all the game pieces carefully put away, beer foamed from one big tankard and two little glasses. Dreambons lay scattered among the cushions. Smoked fish lay in heaps upon the low table. Boggo’s belly was getting rounder and rounder.

He picked up a dreambon. “What a game!”

Ella took half of the dreambon he broke. “We need to put penalties for eating too much. …Stomach ache, poison, dulled senses…”

Boggo moved onto his third dreambon. “Last time I ate too many dreambons, I ended up at sea. Talk about a penalty.”

As Boggo and Ella chatted back and forth, I began to consider my friends deeply.

Yes, whatever the purpose of the yurt, I would mean for it to be shared with friends. It was my house. And a house isn’t too bad of a place for a home. No matter its shape, or whether it floats. Ah, what a feeling, the best feeling I’ve ever experienced. A deep purr rumbled at my core.

The besties conversation had moved to the carved figurines they had both been working hard on.

“You two have carved a tremendous amount.”

Boggo broke a dreambon over his belly. “Lots of fish and whale and monster teeth are easy to carve before they get too dry. These are the last of the wood pieces.”

Ella expertly picked the bones from a slab of smoked fish. “To tell the truth, the crow’s nest is so full we barely have room for ourselves.”

“And Barnacle-eyes has been hiring a lot of goblins. A lot, Thrush! And some of the goblins think our game pieces are rewards to be trickled down. And there’s a lot of taking and stealing among goblins.”

“Why don’t you store your things in one of the chests in my yurt? They’ll be safe and forever yours.”

Boggo drank the juice from an open half of a dreambon and wiped his mouth. “What if we need something?”

“Well I miss you too little bestie. I’ll make time to be available, and I’ll come see you much more often.”

“Can I still summon you?”

“Seeing you will have priority.”

Ella ripped fish skin with her teeth. “And will you stay? Not just for a short visit? Stay for a game or two?”

“For as long as we want.”

The besties were relaxed, full, and happy. Their soothed heart beats were easy to hear. Between themselves, they eagerly agreed to move their game pieces into the chests in my yurt. They began piling everything in.

It was then that I noticed how gentle Ella was with Boggo. She gave him his time. They laughed together, and Boggo returned her gentleness. The pear shaped creatures cared for each other.

My gaze fell, not to the ground, but through all things. And as such an ancient nightream, I decided that I was wrong. For a creature like me, it wasn’t making space for a home that was the best feeling I ever had.

It was the laughing and tumbling besties before me. It was Ella’s care for Boggo; yes, his for hers too…but it was her gentleness that stirred some knowing thing within me.

Boggo, my little blue best friend. I care about you. And knowing that someone cares for you and loves you…

Ah, what was this feeling? There was something about knowing that my best friend was safe and in good hands. There was something about seeing someone I care for be cared for by someone they love. That was it. That was the best feeling I ever had, and I would trade a place to put a home anyday for that. As someone who will outlive you, Boggo, I wish exactly all this for you and for her too.

Without a doubt, our friendship has been the most nourishing thing I’ve ever experienced.