The backup of
water from a beaver dam had created a wide pond in front of her.
As Si'Wren watched, a huge dragonfly, easily as large as both of her
outstretched hands together, flitted fast and low over the glassy
surface of the water. Out in the middle of the tranquil water was a
beaver almost as large as herself, which could be glimpsed moving
smoothly across the surface and leaving a thin wake of vee lines from
the tip of it's button nose.
She sat down on the grass, legs curled beneath her skirts, and stared
unseeingly down at the surface of the pond where scooter bugs jinked
across the placid water by rowing with their two long oars of legs.
Green plant scum floated in the nearby bulrushes, where pussy willows,
cattails, saw grass, and tall hollow reeds could be seen swaying as
they rustled gently in the wind.
What she thought to have been a submerged rock came to life suddenly,
startling her as a giant catfish half the size of the beaver moved
sluggishly to deeper water in a swirl of disturbed sediment.
She did not realize at first that she had visitors. Not, that is, until
a long double line of armed men became progressively visible as their
leader emerged from a far clump of trees and led them on a forced march
that took them steadily and silently through the field beyond the far
banks.
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