Land of the Lumpies

In a land far, far away lives a small group of creatures. They spend most of their days gathering pebbles and small twigs to create walking paths across forest creeks or small streams. These small beings stand only about six inches tall. They are pear-shaped with tiny little arms and feet. Their eyes are barely visible, but their mouths are hidden beneath soft fur that covers their whole bodies. Some are red or black; others are yellow or brown. And when they are happy, they jiggle all about. Humans have never seen them. The other animals of the forest have. To them they are known as Lumpies. The deer, squirrels, birds, and other animals often play with them. Their favorite game is Hide and Seek. All the other animals would never think of dining on a Lumpy. If they did try they would be coughing up fur balls for a long time! One crisp autumn day the Lumpies decided to go on a hike and search for other streams in the forest. This adventure proved to be most interesting.

Due to their small stature, it takes a long time for Lumpies to walk several feet. They often must rest. After about thirty minutes of traveling, a few decided to sit on what they thought was a small tree branch. As they sit back to rest, they hear a hissing sound.

“Do you mind!” a voice from the tree branch blurts out.

The Lumpies are startled. It isn’t a tree branch at all. It is a Banana slug basking in the early morning sun. They jump up to take a closer look.

“We are so sorry,” one of the Lumpies replies.

“It’s ok, I just need to find some shade soon,” the slug retorts. “It’s going to take me the rest of the morning to find a suitable place. I need to get out of the sun’s rays.”

“What if we bring the shade to you?” another Lumpy asks. “We can gather twigs and leaves and place them around and on top of you!”

“That’s a great idea! Sure!”

The Lumpies begin to jiggle as they find small twigs and leaves to cover the banana slug. After an hour of gathering and providing shade for their new friend, they say their good-byes and continue along their journey.

The further they travel, the denser the forest becomes with ferns and tall trees. The sun has a hard time peeking through with all the foliage. It is only midday, but it is difficult for the Lumpies to see ten feet in front of them. In the distance they see a small mound and decide to rest there for a while. As they get closer, they see that the mound is very fluffy. And before they can scatter, a fox jumps up! The Lumpies are startled, but so is the fox. Neither has seen the other before. The small little creatures are no match for the fox. They stand frozen as the much larger animal circles about them. His tongue is hanging out, and he is salivating a lot.

“I am not sure what you little things are, but you look mighty tasty,” the fox exclaims.

One brown Lumpy retorts, “Be careful which one of us you choose to eat. The red ones are poisonous, and the yellow ones can make your fur fall out!”

The other Lumpies look at one another with confused looks on their faces. They begin to whisper and wonder if the brown one is telling the truth.

“Well,” the fox perks up, “There is no black animals in the forest I have ever seen or eaten. I guess that leaves just you brown ones for my next meal.”

The brown Lumpy shrugs and says, “I guess you are right.” A moment passes, “That is if you don’t mind all your teeth falling out.”

The fox steps back a few feet, “You are making my decision very difficult! There is no upside to eating any of you.” Perplexed, the fox retreats into the forest and disappears.

The Lumpies are jubilant and begin to jiggle. One of the yellow ones questions whether all that was said is true or not.

“Would the fox really get sick or die if he ate one of us?”

“I don’t think we should wait to find out. Onward on our travels!” the brown one yells out. The rest agree and start down the path.

The midday sun is high in the sky, but the air is cool. Some trees are swaying in the breeze as they welcome the Lumpies to this part of the forest. They have now travelled for at least a few hours and must rest once more. Many of them need some water to renourish themselves. A black one in the group peeks over a small ridge and sees a small meandering stream.

“There is water over there!” the black one exclaims.

All the Lumpies rise from their resting place and begin to trek over the ridge to the stream, jiggling on the way. As they approach the water’s edge, there seems to be several sparkling images across the stream. The sun’s rays are reflecting off these beings as they move behind some bushes. Suddenly, without warning, the images come forward and face the Lumpies on the other side of the stream.

“They look like us,” one red Lumpy whispers.

“Yea, but they are white,” a black one exclaims. “We have never seen this type of Lumpy before! What are they doing in our forest?”

The white creatures begin to jiggle. “We are Lumpies too!” one of them yells out.

“They are us!” one brown Lumpy cries out. “They belong here as much as we do!”

“Let’s build a bridge made of small rocks and twigs across the stream so they can join us,” a yellow one demands.

Without hesitation, the red, black, brown, and yellow Lumpies begin to build the bridge. Even the white Lumpies on the other side are carrying pebbles and sticks to help with the project on their side of the stream. All of them work hard, helping one another.

After a few hours, the bridge is finished and the white Lumpies scamper across to join the others. And as they finally meet there is much hugging, laughter, and, of course, jiggling.

One white Lumpy raises his hands in gratitude and yells out,” This land belongs to all of us! We belong together!”

All the others join in and in unison sing out, “We belong together!”

So, it was. The red, black, yellow, brown, and white Lumpies settled down together in a land they can call home. And they lived happily together ever after.

[with love, to Isabela, Luca, and Luciana]