CHAPTER ONE: HEADING TO THE RIVER

Long, long ago back when animals could talk, trees could walk and Clyde's critters roamed freely, Grandfather Sun began stretching out his finger tips sending slivers of sunlight through the branches of the Oak, Beech, Birch and Pine trees. Guinness, the dog, setting out on his morning walk, darted quickly down the Haw River trail, well ahead of his friends Logan, Tobi and Sheba.

Guinness was a medium sized white hunting dog with big brown spots. He had quite a few battle scars on his body from where he worked hard to protect himself from other critters in his neighborhood. Sheba was a long haired white dog who looked like a princess. She was the newest member of the neighborhood and quite beautiful. Everyone knew this to be true because she told all the other critters this on a daily basis.

Logan was a giant golden dog with a really long tail and even longer legs. He had a gentle nature and loved to swim, swim, swim. Tobi was a smaller black dog with black spots on her tongue. She had a big furry black tail that she used to wrap around her nose in the winter time to keep herself extra warm.

Tobi and Logan were racing to the river when Tobi stopped in midair and began barking loudly, landing on top of Logan and sending both of them rolling down the river bank. As they untangled themselves, Tobi quickly headed back up the hill, to show Logan what she had discovered....an oblong yellowish-brown rock with darker brown dots on top. It had a soft grayish thing that poked out one end and looked up in the air! The rock also had two tiny things on each side with points that looked like critter teeth poking out of each of them. Not only that, but it had the weirdest tail Tobi had ever seen, just a mere bit of a thing.

"Silly pup!" Logan said, "That's a box turtle. They love to play down here by the water, just like us. Come on, it looks like it might rain today and you know what happens around here if that happens. We gotta swim and go rock climbing while we can."

Sheba. as usual, had stopped to talk to Sister Snake. She told Sister Snake she bid her no harm and asked that Sister Snake, in turn, give safe passage to all four dogs as they ran along the river bank sniffing the trails of Mother Doe and her twin fawns. Sheba thought "Oh, if only one day we could be lucky enough to play with the fawns instead of merely visiting where they had played, slept, and drunk earlier."

CHAPTER TWO: SPLISH SPLASH IN THE HAW

Elishai, the Crystal Faery, was watching all four dogs with great delight. As Mother Nature's helper, it gave her great joy to begin each morning watching the pups romp along the river bank. Each morning was a different adventure for the dogs, as they always lived in the moment.

On this particular morning, one minute would find the dogs splashing bubbles in the air with their front paws and trying to catch them in their mouths. The next minute would find them trying to fly like Brother Heron as they dove off the river bank, landing head first in the water and coming up splittering and spluttering.