Magical politeness

While every creature is seen wearing a concerned face over the fainted Darrell,

except for the lion and tortoise though, the young lady is however hallucinating.

Darrell's soul finds itself standing back in time, and besides a lady. Therein, mysteries played out before Darrell.

Looking back, Darrell remembers that she is yet to cook the yam dinner her grandmother had brought out of the barn.

It became the same time too that she started to hear concerned voices.

Darrell stays within herself, trying to make sense of her surroundings.

Once the clogging of her past faint cleared, Darrell remembered that her last conscious thought had been seeing different kinds of animals speak.

Afraid and intrigued, Darrell squinted her eyes open from under its lashes.

The first scene to greet Darrell is of being held in a warm embrace by a hippopotamus.

A hippopotamus?

Panicked at the imagery, but relaxed in the comfy warmth of the hippo, Darrell overhears the animal's speech.

This time though, Darrell is certain of what her eyes see,

And of the spoken sounds in her ears.

It speaks, Darrell asks herself,

fainting out her shock a second time.

Waking up some moments later, and While everything appears as if nothing is amiss, Darrell knows something has changed.

****

"Hello, little Darrell,

you might want to open your eyes

Your breathing changed

We could tell you are awake."

Said the lion to Darrell.

"How? To have you make a meal of my ribs?

No thank you, Mr lion, I would rather hang here."

Darrell responded in total politeness.

"Ahem, Darrell if this lion had such a wish, it won't be speaking politely.

Now stand up young lady."

Darrell looks the lion over as if to judge its intent.

When she failed to sense I'll intent,

or for the fact that the lion speaks the truth, Darrell stands to her feet, a little wobbly from fainting.

Dusting her skirts off, she looks in the direction of the hippo with a thankful glance.

Bella the hippopotamus smiles broadly back at Darrell.

Darrell smiles back and then says;

"Okay, I'm up."

The tortoise trots out to where Darrell stands.

"I see you too have a word to add hmm"

Darrell tries to laugh out her distress, standing in the circle of domestic and wild animals.

"Scale"

Oh no, you have it wrong Mr, my name is Darrell.

"Scale", repeated the tortoise

Darrell shakes her head in response this time.

The tortoise motions for Darrell to bend to its height.

Scared, and yet trusting Darrell bends in a greeting stance towards the age-wise tortoise.

"You have grown so big, the last time I held you, you were this tiny."

"Do you know me?"

"And your mother too"

"My mother?" Darrell asked

"Who"

"Where"

"When did you last see her?"

"This is a long list of questions, one my aged feet can not carry to answer all at once.

All I can reveal to you now; is that you are a rare supernatural being

You are special, the type we call hybrids,

So don't allow bullies to weigh you down ever again."

Surprised as to how the aged tortoise knows about her past plight, Darrell asks.

"So you know the meaning of my scales?"

"just like I know that your grandma looks for you as we speak."

****

"Okay though, about the scales meaning,

Promise to tell me all about it later?"

"Of course, I would."

"But for now, bye Darrell."

"I guess it is a bye."

"Goodbye Mr tortoise"

"Goodbye jungle."

And all choruses together

"Goodbye scale."

Just as Darrell turns to begin finding her way back out of the woods, she ponders over the events of the past moments. In her conclusion, she says;

"I wonder why they kept referring to my name as scale.

Now, In my excitement, I have forgotten to ask them for help finding my lost way out of these woods."

"The road is this way, keep moving Scale

On your next junction take a right,

that should lead you back to your grandma."

Responded a weasel to Darrell

"Oh, you are here too."

The frightened Darrell responded after recovering from the shock.

She wasn't expecting to meet the weasel.

Recuperated from the moment of shock, Darrell keeps to the route's lane.

Following the weasel's help, Darrell finds herself out of the woods, and face to face with her grandmother

****

"Nana, what on earth are you doing here?"

"You this child, I should be the one shouting down on you,

not the other way around.

Tell me, child, what happened to you in that wood"

"Erm...nothing mama...not a thing happened"

"Are you sure, Darrell?"

"Yep, as sure as Drek can be, mother"

"Now that does sound comforting."

Darrell's granny replied, in awe of Drek

"One day, Drek will make a good husband for you Darrell"

"Yuk, grandmother

Just yuk"

"What? Don't you like him?

"Me?"

"Of course, I like him"

"Phew"

"But as a brother though."

"Well, as you wish,

But then young lady, I still think Drek is a fine young man."

"Mother? Please, just rest your thoughts,

Drek and I are only siblings."

Darrell concludes, while her grandmother has this to add.

"Only as brothers you said, well….you're just young."

They continued on their stroll towards their home.

Passing the coffee shop, with a glance at the right side, Darrell sees her friend Drek, dumping a basket filled with dirt, down into the dirt canister.

"I wonder what Drek has done this time though"

Darrell mutters to herself

"Excuse me, Nana, I have some savings to do"

She excuses herself heading towards Drek, leaving a bewildered grandmother to stare after her retrieving figure

"Aww, young love, grandma concludes."

Remembering her days of youth, she has this to say;

"Ah, Vincent, I wish you were still here my husband,

The child you had brought home from your summer sailing trip,

Has today become a grown woman

I am a proud mother to her, however, she has started asking questions about her birth mother.

I am now afraid my Vincent.

She's been a rewarding smile to my aged womb.

But what happens when she finds her birth mother?"

Asked Darrell's Nana, tears streaming down her eyes, cleaning tears, she turns from looking at Darrell's departing figure, heading back towards her widowed Hut.