The Dreaded Cliff Read online

  THE DREADED CLIFF

  ISBN: 9781951122126 (paperback)/9781951122171 (ebook)

  LCCN: 2020939370

  Copyright © 2020 by Terry Nichols

  Cover illustration © 2020 by Odessa Sawyer

  Cover design: Geoff Habiger

  Interior illustrations © 2020 by Odessa Sawyer

  Printed in the United States of America.

  Names, characters, and incidents depicted in this book are products of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously. Any resemblance to actual events, locales, organizations, or persons, living or dead, is entirely coincidental and beyond the intent of the author or the publisher.

  All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying, recording or by any information storage or retrieval system without written permission of the publisher, except for the inclusion of brief quotations in a review.

  Kinkajou Press

  9 Mockingbird Hill Rd

  Tijeras, New Mexico 87059

  [email protected]

  www.kinkajoupress.com

  By

  Terry Nichols

  Illustrated by

  Odessa Sawyer

  Kinkajou Press

  For Cyrus and Dylan

  Table of Contents

  Chapter One—Remember the Cliff

  Chapter Two—Packrat Etiquette

  Chapter Three—Bigger Than Life

  Chapter Four—Sparkly Treasure

  Chapter Five—Taken Away

  Chapter Six—New Territory

  Chapter Seven—Accidental Guest

  Chapter Eight—Escaping Death

  Chapter Nine—Handsome King

  Chapter Ten—Witness to Death

  Chapter Eleven—False Starts

  Chapter Twelve—Clueless

  Chapter Thirteen—Odd Things

  Chapter Fourteen—Magic

  Chapter Fifteen—Mission Report

  Chapter Sixteen—Collision

  Chapter Seventeen—Owls Can't Talk

  Chapter Eighteen—Strength of Gratitude

  Chapter Nineteen—It is Time

  Chapter Twenty—A Fuzzy Plan

  Chapter Twenty-One—A Splendid Plan

  Chapter Twenty-Two—Something Important

  Chapter Twenty-Three—Elegant Treasure

  Chapter Twenty-Four—Ready for the World

  Chapter Twenty-Five—Helpless

  Chapter Twenty-Six—Destiny

  Chapter Twenty-Seven—Clues

  Chapter Twenty-Eight—Bubba

  Chapter Twenty-Nine—Heavy Worries

  Chapter Thirty—A Few Holes

  Chapter Thirty-One—Omen

  Chapter Thirty-Two—Remembering Who I Am

  Chapter Thirty-Three—Setting the Trap

  Chapter Thirty-Four—Bewitching Power

  Chapter Thirty-Five—Facing Death

  Chapter Thirty-Six—Gone

  Chapter Thirty-Seven—Mirror Image

  Animals in The Dreaded Cliff

  Acknowledgements

  Author's Note

  About the Author

  CHAPTER ONE

  REMEMBER THE CLIFF

  “I’m a goddess.” Flora loved saying those words. Even when no one was around. When she was happy and well-fed the words just flowed, and they pleased her. It felt much better than saying, “I’m a chunky packrat.”

  She was a goddess, for sure. A packrat goddess.

  As packrats go, Flora was rather chunky, even juicy—like the prickly pear cactus pads she adored eating. But she hardly ever thought about her chunkiness.

  Mostly she thought about food: hunting it, sniffing it, chomping it. Especially prickly pear cactus pads. She bit them and squished, spurting glorious slime from her mouth. That’s when life was perfect for Flora.

  But perfect never lasts. Even for a packrat goddess.

  #

  “Oh, I can’t wait, I can’t wait!” The scent made her toes and teeth itch for a munch. “But wait…” Flora glanced skyward. Was she safe? For now. Probably.

  Her goddess folds jiggled as she scooted from the juniper tree to her favorite food.

  Chomp, slobber-slobber. She gnawed around the clusters of spines, slurping the gooey juices. “Oh yum, oh yum.”

  Then in mid-munch Flora froze and sniffed the air. A shadow lurked behind a crooked chain of cactus pads. The breeze shifted, and Flora let out a sigh of relief when she smelled her cousin.

  “Gertrude!” Flora twirled her whiskers.

  “Flora! You gave me a fright!” Gertrude toddled from her hiding place. “What are you doing out this late? It’s nearly dawn.”

  “I want to snibble a snack before heading home.”

  “Huh? What are you talking about?” Gertrude puckered her nose. “You’re always saying crazy words that don’t make sense.”

  “Wait, maybe that’s not right…” Flora’s mouth oozed cactus snot, which helped her sort through the clutter of words in her head. “Hmm, snibble—snubble—snobble—nobble—nibble. Oh, I meant nibble. But I like ‘snibble’ better. I want to snibble a snack before—”

  “Hraaaaahh!” Gertrude bellowed a yawn, plugging Flora’s spout of words and catching her attention. Something seemed wrong with Gertrude. She looked worn-out and plump-less. Her shiny fur had dulled, and her eyes were sunken and crinkly around the edges.

  “Gertrude, are you alright? Is it your babies?”

  She nodded. “My pups are sooo hungry. They clamp on and suckle nonstop. I have to drag them around with me. Excpt for tonight when they all fell asleep and lost their grip and I could get away.” Her voice turned to a whisper. “They’re adorable, Flora, but I’m afraid I can’t do this much longer.”

  “Eat a healthy cactus pad so you can stay strong.” Flora tightened her mouth. Her best friend might not survive the food demands of her babies. Flora hadn't yet raised pups of her own, but knew that motherhood for a packrat was a busy time. And dangerous for her health.

  “Thanks, but I need to get back. I’m sure they’re hungry again. They shouldn’t leave the safety of the nest to look for me.”

  Gertrude twitched her nose; Flora's stomach tightened. Before Gertrude scuttled off to the woodpile, Flora expected the warning from Gertrude. THE WARNING. The strange, bothersome warning. It always tied her gut in knots. That dreadful warning would soon hit her ears. She wished she didn’t have to hear it.

  “Remember the cliff, Flora. Beware of the dreaded cliff.”

  Gertrude’s deadly serious voice shook a little from her fear of the cliff. Every packrat knew there was something awful about that place. But Flora didn’t want to think about it.

  Forgetting the cactus spines she had clipped earlier and headed for her nest in the jangly-crate—a big metal box that seemed to float in the air on round black legs.

  Beyond the jangly-crate past the cottonwood trees loomed a rising sandstone wall. Boulders on the ground guarded a crack slashing the face of the wall. A thorny tangle of sticks crammed that dark opening, telling all to stay away.

  The dreaded cliff. Ever since Flora was a wee hairless pup, her mother had cautioned her with the same words used by Gertrude: Remember. Beware.

  By the time she was under the jangly-crate, her insides were all twisted. She needed comfort, relief. Flora hopped onto the metal attached to the underside of the jangly-crate where she had stashed her nest.

  A blanket of treasures, glued together with her urine, wrapped around her. Bark shreds, cactus spines, crusty animal droppings, piñon pine cones, flattened bits of metal with rippled edges, twirly metal spikes, curls of twisted metal, and smooth glassy balls were all there, just as she liked. Snuggling deeper, she closed her eyes.

  Her knotted stomach took a long time to loosen and let go of Gertrude’s warning. But like a sticky black shadow, her mother’s words stayed, gripping every crinkle of her body.

  Remember. Beware.

  CHAPTER TWO

  PACKRAT ETIQUETTE

  The next night as stars speckled the inky sky, Flora pranced and snuffled along sandy paths, hoping to discover a delicacy to thrill her picky taste buds.

  She sniffed at the munch mound where she and Gertrude had spent many happy hours looking for tasty scraps. “The smell of that warty rind is gruesome. But this crispy glob is tempting my tongue.” A food critic of sorts, Flora could not resist commenting.

  On this particular night, however, Flora felt pulled from the munch mound to the other side of the bloated burrow—a huge chamber of sharp corners and towering sides, the home of the giant two-legged rodents. “Strange creatures.” Flora crept along the stiff wall muttering. “The big rodents must be sizzly-hot, so they can heat their gigantic burrow in cold times.”

  Her legs shook a little. “Oh my, the dreaded cliff, behind those trees. I won’t look.” The place was creepy. She didn’t look, but she could feel that rock face. Immense. Reaching through the trees, pushing on her. Why was she even there? She wasn’t sure. An invisible lasso had captured Flora’s senses and tugged her along.

  Above, a wooden surface jutted out from the bloated burrow. No place for a packrat. But her nose itched, especially when she saw the steps.
She felt a mighty urge to scamper away, but Flora climbed, peered around, and climbed again.

  At the top her nose didn’t just itch, it throbbed and her stomach roared. Fat rounded vegetables glistened on plants growing in a box packed with dirt. The promise of a taste delight pulled her like a warm juicy animal lures a hungry mosquito. She sniffed a purple blob and nibbled.

  No words, no words—at first there were no words to describe the flavor. Until she chewed and swished her tongue around the mouthful several times. Her special word moment had arrived. That word was only for food way better than delicious, far beyond yummy, the tastiest of tasty. Top gourmet. Only when she entered food heaven did she use her special word.

  Quickly she murmured it, so she wouldn’t interrupt her eating.

  “Sublime.”

  Her eyes grew dreamy as she whittled the blob to its stem.

  With her belly puffed and happy, Flora nipped some leaves, stuffed them in her mouth, and scampered down the steps—hardly noticing the dreaded cliff.

  “Such a heavenly food. Pure sublimation.” The first taste lingered on her tongue. “Wait, that’s not right. I meant to say, ‘pure subliming.’ Or maybe I should have said, ‘sublime.’”

  Sometimes she got mixed-up when she used words, mostly the special words. No matter. She yippee-hopped as she turned the corner of the bloated burrow, crashing into Gertrude, cactus spines cramming her mouth. She was also dragging her three squirmy pups, latched to her nipples like hairy monster leeches, suckling away.

  “It was super amazing, Gertrude—I found food heaven. You must taste it.”

  “On the flat place high on the bloated burrow? In full view of the…dreaded cliff? Oh, no, never…it’s much too dangerous.”

  Flora ignored Gertrude’s caution. After all, one trip to food heaven was never enough. The next night she climbed the steps again. The bigness of the dreaded cliff pressed the air on her back, but she tried to ignore it.

  When she reached the top, she sensed danger—the kind that makes a packrat heart beat double-time.

  Another packrat—jumbo-size, a hefty boy requiring great caution. Perched on the box, his paws hugged a gleaming vegetable. Over the box edge spilled his hairy tail.

  Flora drooled, shifted, and watched him eat the feast—her feast, her ticket to food heaven. Her heart pounded and voices argued in her head.

  Scram Flora.

  No, wait. He should go.

  Fight maybe.

  What? Fraidy-Flora never fights—especially a jumbo-size packrat!

  But...but…food heaven…

  Arguing with herself in her head was nothing new. Especially when she was hungry or nervous. She was both at the moment.

  After a packrat eternity, Flora’s empty stomach screamed.

  Gathering her wits, she found the right word: clever. She needed to be clever. And sometimes being clever meant acting in a way totally opposite to what she first felt like doing. In this case clever meant using manners. Good manners. Her mother called it “packrat etiquette.”

  “Hello there,” she squeaked in a shaky voice. “I’m hungry.” But the packrat kept eating. Maybe she wasn’t using the etiquette right.

  Flora moved closer to the box. The jumbo-size packrat was scraping the last bits of a shiny blob, now chewed to a nubbin. Flakes of purple skin littered the area.

  “I said hello,” Flora shouted. Surely that was better etiquette.

  The packrat stopped eating, twisted his head, and eyeballed Flora. He shuffled off the box and landed, thudding like a gob of hairy mashed potatoes.

  Flora sat glued to the flat surface below her. Her thin ribs tightened. The etiquette, she scolded herself, the etiquette wasn’t right.

  Grunting with each step, he creaked to within whiskers of Flora and sniffy-sniff-sniffed. His frightful bulk, no doubt huge from a regular diet of purple blobs, towered over the trembling Flora.

  CHAPTER THREE

  BIGGER THAN LIFE

  “Oh, hello dearie, I didn’t see you there. My eyes aren’t what they used to be.” The grandmotherly voice washed Flora in relief.

  Such an enormous packrat. Was that a double chin? Fat rolls circling her tail? And so old. Like bald-spots-tattered-ears-snaggletooth old. She lugged along on stiff legs, puffing and pausing with every move.

  “Excuse me, but I am so very hungry, and these blobs are so very subliminal…I mean sublime. May I eat some?”

  “Help yourself. I shouldn’t eat these eggplants anyway. Gives me gas.”

  Flora wasted no time gorging on an eggplant-blob. She snipped purple blossoms for decorating her nest, stuffed them in her mouth, and hopped from the box.

  “Thank you for sharing. I feel sublimated.” Bits of delicate petals flew from her mouth. The “sublimated” word didn’t sound right, but the packrat etiquette felt perfect. “I must be going now.”

  “Hold on there, dearie. What’s your hurry? Stay and chat with me.” Her bulging eyes, clouded with age, smiled at Flora.

  Wait, wait. Flora never chitchatted with a stranger. No telling what the stranger might say, or do, or want. Even if the stranger only wanted to chat about the breeze or the moon or other small things, still Flora would have to think of something to say and try to sound clever. And try not to offend her. It was much safer to keep to herself, hunt for food with Gertrude sometimes, and snuggle in her perfect cozy nest.

  But something was calming about the old packrat’s voice and crinkled eyes. Despite her fears, Flora settled next to the old one.

  A glowing ball of moon softened the night, touching mounds of sagebrush and brushing sandstone boulders. Cottonwood trees cast deep shadows. Threads of light traveled through the leafy branches and played with chirping crickets and creatures scuttling through dried leaves.

  For a moment Flora’s eyes fell on the jagged crack in the dreaded cliff. She looked away.

  “What’s the trouble, dearie? Isn’t this a beautiful night? It’s bright enough for discovering all kinds of things, things you’ve never imagined.”

  “It is bright out.” Flora felt bold with the kindly stranger. “But the dreaded cliff—it frightens me.” Even though she tried not to look, her eyes seemed captured like a bug in a spider’s web.

  “The cliff? Why, that holds our special place, dearie.” The old packrat paused. “What is your name?” She turned toward Flora, straining to hear.

  “My name is Flora.”

  The scraggly grey whiskers twitched. “Hmm, Flora.” Eyes half-closed, she cocked her head. Her wrinkly face brightened. “Oh yes, Flora. I’m Grandma Mimi, your mother’s great-grandmother. You’re the one who amazed your mother when you talked long before your brother and sister.” The old packrat chuckled.

  Warmth flooded Flora's body. Warmth and memory. Her mother had spoken many times of this very grandmother, always with great respect.

  “Oh my, Grandma Mimi. My mother said you raised litter after litter of pups for as long as she could remember. I thought you were gone.”

  All packrats knew about the old one. Not only had she lived a long time, but she was also wise and knew the best answers to many questions. Even questions a packrat would never think to ask. At least that’s what Flora had heard from her mother. Grandma Mimi was an empress, a hero, a packrat idol so to speak. Now here she was sitting next to Flora, bigger than life.

  CHAPTER FOUR

  SPARKLY TREASURE

  They had never before met. But as they shared that night, bellies tight with eggplant and starry air brushing their fur, the two packrats talked as long-lost family they were.

  Flora prattled nonstop, starting with her munch mound searches with Gertrude. “Sometimes the tidbits are super delicious. Mostly it’s a mash-mish, a stew of gustatory delight.”

  “Uh-huh, mash-mish.” Grandma Mimi nodded.

  “The word ‘gustatory’ is all about the taste of food, Grandma Mimi.”

  “Hmm, gustatory.” The corners of Grandma Mimi's mouth rose.