Chapter 4 - One Household
Our friends have been learning that they are unified. Even though Builders and Adventurers like Mr. Mole and Barty Badger don't like each other, they help each other because they all live in Old Raven's Forest… which is a great idea... until it's dinner time in the Loghouse. Keeping that Unity is going to take some work.
One day, as the legend goes, young Patty Porcupine was off on an adventure! She was gathering rare and delicious herbs and spices for the Loghouse, the huge shelter for all the animals of the forest. That big storm was coming, a Winter TornadaCaneIzzard, and they would need those herbs and spices for the animals who are safe inside but still need to eat.. After all, Patty thought, we’re going to need some Adventure Dinners! Adventure dinners were one of Patty’s favorite things: loads of colorful food, lots of different flavors, and you never knew what you’re going to get from one bite to the next.
But there was a problem. The builders only like to eat one color at a time. They wanted all red food, or all purple food, or all brown food. It didn’t matter what the food was or what it tasted like, as long as it was all the same color. That sounded soooooo boring to Patty, and she was in charge of dinner! How is she going to get the builders to like Adventure Dinners? Surely if they just tried it, all the builders would see how great Adventure Dinners are.
She gathered up her herbs and spices and headed back to the Loghouse to start preparing. There was a line of hungry builders waiting for food and she got right to work. First, she made up some corn pancakes with dandelion syrup, dusted with cinnamon and topped with cranberries. Patty thought it looked delicious! The Builder, a beaver, took the plate and looked confused. He sat down and started to pick each individual cranberry off the pancakes.
Next in line was a chipmunk who rubbed his belly in excitement. Patty handed him a mushroom and raspberry pizza, sprinkled with wild garlic and scattered with violets. All the smells mixed together so well and Patty took a big sniff as she handed it over. The chipmunk held his nose as he walked over to a table.
Finally, Patty whipped up a blueberry and earthworm pudding, stirred with wild mint and crowned with chanterelle mushrooms. “It’s a work of art,” Patty thought proudly. The famished muskrat took the bowl, groaned loudly, and immediately dumped it out on the table to separate the blueberries from the earthworms.
No one was eating her food! They were hungry and Adventure Dinners were the best! Weren’t they supposed to be unified, Patty thought, be all together? She stomped her foot and was about to start yelling when she saw Barty Badger and Mr. Mole sitting calmly next to each other. They didn’t like each other one bit, Patty thought. Barty had an Adventure Dinner (he put one of each dinner on his plate), and Mr. Mole had the same food but separated by color - blues and greens and oranges. They seemed… peaceful, as they ate together.
“Maybe we don’t all need to like the same things,” Patty said. She knelt down next to the muskrat who was sifting worms from his pudding and offered to help. The two worked in silence until the plate held neat piles of blueberries, worms, pudding, and mushrooms. The muskrat smiled at Patty, picked up a spoon and dug in. He seemed peaceful. Patty got to work separating out the food so that animals could do Adventure Dinners the way each one of them wanted to.
Well, that’s what the legend says, but I know one thing is true: Truly being together takes work.
