I am only a little Gypsy 1 - Reincarnation, does it exist? - 28. Chapter 28. Our own steep ravine; and sensing cracks.

For quite some time, I just went on sneaking after Misha; although, from now on, I also tried to scrutinize all his movements even more, whilst trying to understand what he was doing and why exactly he did what he was doing. Now and then, Misha suddenly slowed down and seemingly 'sensed' or 'felt around' in front of his feet, just before he reached a treacherously hidden pothole or a nearly invisible crack. After 'scanning' the ground in front of his feet for a second, he just went on and jumped across the hidden obstacle, of course still closely followed by me. In the meantime, I started to think. How in the world could my experienced trapper friend be able to sense those overgrown cracks and hidden potholes in advance, while I could see them only a split second before I followed my trapper guide and jumped across them? Could Misha have 'sensed', or perhaps 'scanned', their earthly energy fields, or perhaps their vortexes, in advance and clearly before he jumped across them? I wanted to learn that too!

Whilst following Misha and jumping across the next hidden crack, I tried to sense any differences in those confusing earth energies and wildly whirling vortexes that I could feel beneath my feet. At first, I couldn't sense any differences at all. But then, I suddenly thought I sensed a faint queasy feeling in my stomach, just before I followed my guide and jumped across the next treacherously hidden crack! Although the sensation was extremely faint and almost non-existent, my built-in 'little trapper boy' in my inside reacted over-enthusiastic, as if he felt truly happy with my newest discovery! Obviously, he knew something important that I still had to discover all by myself, before my 'natural trapper' instincts would be able to use it...

Suddenly, we arrived at the overgrown border of what seemed to be an extremely steep ravine. This time, Misha stopped completely, while he silently beckoned me to approach the ravine and look into it. Cautiously, I left Misha's side, tiptoed towards the ravine, and stared into its bottomless depth. Far beneath my feet, I saw a wildly gurgling water stream full of foaming rapids that meandered along its base and seemingly disappeared into nowhere. Clearly, descending into this extremely dangerous ravine, or ascending from it in case you tumbled into it, would be absolutely impossible without using at least a sturdy rope.

Surprisingly, whilst approaching this dangerously steep ravine, I felt exactly the same queasy sensation in my stomach that I had felt before whilst jumping across hidden cracks or overgrown potholes. Only, this time, the queasy sensation seemed to be even stronger! Could my unconscious fear of falling into this extremely steep ravine cause such a much more noticeable queasiness, or could it be due to some unknown earth energies that I still had to discover but that were making me feel queasy nevertheless? Again, I felt my built-in little trapper friend in my inside, clearly feeling enthusiastic again, as if he knew something important that I still had to discover.

All the time, my experienced trapper friend Misha stayed close to my side, as if he wanted to protect me from stumbling into such an extremely dangerous ravine. Now that I turned around and looked at him, he beckoned me to follow him towards a large oblong boulder. Together, we went to the mossy boulder that was situated near the border of the ravine, where Misha sat down on it and invitingly patted some empty space next to his side.

Feeling cautious and also a little bit afraid, I clambered onto the mossy surface next to my older friend. What would happen to me if I unintentionally slipped, couldn't grab anything sturdy to hold onto it, and tumbled into this dangerous ravine? Involuntarily shivering at the unwelcome thought, I scooted even closer towards Misha and leaned into his side, to feel protected and hopefully also a little bit safer. My older friend seemed to sense my wariness, because he put an arm around my waist and pulled me even closer against his side.

Feeling happy to have such a good friend at my side, I clambered across his knees and settled down in between his legs, as I often did with my Dad or with my Big Friend Michail. This time, Misha folded his arms around my waist and pulled me even closer against his chest. Now feeling even more safe and protected, I looked again into the dangerously steep ravine at my feet, this time really marveling at the splendid sight of the wildly foaming water stream with its rapids. Involuntarily, I heaved a very deep sigh, from feeling overwhelmed by its raw and untamed sheer beauty. Again, I saw that our beautiful Mother Earth, next to sometimes being extremely dangerous, also could be a wonderful and absolutely marvelous place to live on. We only had to be careful not to overstep any of its sometimes unclear or even treacherously hidden boundaries.

For quite some time, Misha and I sat together on our boulder, both of us enjoying the beautiful sight of the wildly foaming water stream below our feet that seemingly disappeared into nowhere. At the same time, I could clearly feel our mutual love radiating between our souls whilst growing stronger and stronger, by leaps and bounds. Now and then, I looked up at my older friend and smiled at him. Every time, Misha looked back and smiled at me, clearly sensing the same blossoming friendship that I could sense, although I was around ten years younger than he was. Inwardly, I hoped that we would stay best friends for the remainder of our lives, although Misha would always be around ten years older than I was.

At last, my special older friend turned towards me and whispered into my ear:

"This beautiful ravine is one of the steepest and therefore also most dangerous ones in our dense forests. Last year, at its farthest end, my friends and I were able to catch the biggest and fattest animals. Shall we therefore start following its border towards its farthest end and then set our new traps around there?"

After nodding in agreement, I first disentangled from Misha's still enveloping arms, and then slowly rose from our oblong mossy bolder and stepped away from our steep ravine's treacherously overgrown border that tried to take away all of my sight. After beckoning me to follow him, Misha started to climb upstream along the ravine, while I first looked at what Misha was doing, and then copied his movements.

Almost immediately, this environment turned out to be much more hostile and also much more dangerous, because its extremely thick vegetation was growing even more abundantly and thereby covering absolutely everything. Many times, we had to round almost invisible bushes full of nasty thorns, and to jump across treacherously hidden cracks that certainly would have broken at least a few bones if I ever stumbled and disappeared into one of them. Fortunately, my experienced trapper guide seemed to have his own very usable 'sixth sense', because he always halted exactly at the border of the next hidden crack or invisible pothole. After carefully feeling or sensing around, he jumped first, so that I could follow his trail and jump across the hidden crack or invisible pothole in exactly the same place.

All the time, I followed Misha as close by as I could, because I wanted to be absolutely sure not to step too far and then tumble into one of those nearly invisible cracks or hidden potholes. Every time before I approached such a crack or pothole, my stomach felt a bit queasy, but I thought it was because, unconsciously, I was still afraid of unexpectedly stumbling into such a dangerous crack or pothole. Therefore, immediately after jumping across them, I looked back and quickly imprinted their surroundings into my excellent memory, because I wanted to be absolutely sure that I could recognize and remember those same cracks and potholes, even whilst returning and therefore approaching them from the other side.

After quite some time of walking along our steep ravine, Misha turned to the right and entered a flat rectangular square without any hidden cracks or nasty potholes or wildly growing vegetation. After crossing the small square without any problems, we started to follow another winding path full of hidden potholes and wobbly boulders that seemingly led us away from our ravine. Because both Misha and I had started to feel thirsty, I felt elated to see a tiny water stream that meandered down from the surrounding mountains and splashed into a crack below! Happily, both Misha and I slumped down and started to drink lots of cool and refreshing water, thereby teasingly splashing some of it at each other.

Feeling satisfied and replenished and also cooled off, we restarted to follow the winding path that surprisingly returned us to our original steep ravine. Clearly, we had only rounded a too wide transverse crack; and thus were now again following our original path along our steep ravine towards its farthest end. Until we arrived at the overgrown border of an extremely wide transverse crack; and I thought we would never be able to cross it without building at least an enormous bridge. However, Mish just turned to the right and started to follow the too wide crack; until, after maybe a hundred steps, he stopped, turned towards me, and silently pointed at a faint animal track that disappeared into some thick shrub.

Immediately understanding what my experienced trapper friend wanted me to do, I nodded, to indicate that I understood. As silently as I could, I took my snare from my neck and sneaked towards the faint track, where I folded my snare into my own special knot whilst attaching it firmly to a sturdy tree branch. Inwardly, I still hoped to be able to catch another fat pig, or perhaps an equally valuable huge animal, in my strong snare with its special knot. After also covering my snare with a bit of forest litter, to make it invisible to any curious animals, I crawled back whilst on my way wiping my own trail, as I always used to do.

In the meantime, Misha had already set his own trap along another faint animal track. Now, he returned to me, looked at my nearly invisible trap, and nodded approvingly. Still without using any words, we just turned around at the same time, to go back in absolute silence, so as not to disturb any wary animals that might hear us from far away and then flee towards the surrounding mountains to escape from our 'threats'. Clearly, my special older friend Misha and I were already reading each other's body language and facial expressions perfectly, and also without using any sneaky tricks! Walking together, we returned to what from now on would be our own 'steep ravine'.

After Misha and I reached our overgrown steep ravine, I started walking in front of my experienced trapper guide, because I was sure I was already remembering the entire way back to our oblong boulder. Enthusiastically, I started to follow our own trail backwards, whilst cleverly avoiding all its nasty thorn bushes and jumping across its overgrown potholes and treacherously hidden cracks. Very much to my delight, my excellent memory was perfectly able to remember all those dangerous obstacles, without ever wavering or slowing down, even whilst going the other way round! Inwardly, I felt truly thankful for having such an amazingly reliable memory.

At reaching our wide crack, I just turned to the left and followed its winding path, while my surprised looking experienced trapper guide followed MY trail, still without saying a word. Feeling almost invincible, I confidently followed the winding path that brought us back to our steep ravine and its rectangular square. For a moment, we stopped at the meandering tiny water stream, to drink some more refreshing water. Then, we just went on following the winding path.

All the time, I was convinced I would be able to remember everything important on my way, even whilst going backwards. Surprisingly, just before we reached the end of the winding path and entered the rectangular square, Misha stepped closer towards me, as if he wanted to be ready to rescue me if necessary... Why was my experienced trapper guide doing this? Didn't he trust my more and more developing real trapper abilities? Well, then I had to prove to him even more that he really could rely on my excellent memory!

Teasingly, I sped up some more, left the winding path, and entered the rectangular flat square. Only, where should I go now? This time, my excellent memory couldn't help me any further, because the totally empty square hadn't provided me with any visual pointers to orientate, so that my brain couldn't remember anymore where I should go from here. For a split second, I thought about asking Misha to take over and guide me towards a point that I could remember. However, now that my memory had turned out to be this reliable, I wanted to convince my experienced trapper friend that he could trust all my other abilities as well! Therefore, I just crossed the rectangular square and walked towards our steep ravine, hoping to recognize its surroundings in time and then remember where the next treacherously hidden crack was.

At exactly that same moment, and without any warning, Misha dived towards me, grabbed my arm, and forcefully pulled me backwards, in his sudden hurry making me stumble and fall down on some rocky boulders! OUCH, that HURT! Angrily, I rubbed my painful bottom and cramping left arm, whilst glaring over my shoulder at my former 'friend'. What the heck was happening to Misha? Why had my former friend, who now turned out to be my eternal foe, grabbed my arm and pulled me backwards this forcefully, without any warning at all?

Feeling severely shocked, I decided to enter Misha's mind and read his thoughts, because this was a real emergency and I had to know the truth. Very much to my surprise, my experienced trapper guide seemed to feel even more shocked than I was! Why was that? Could I have been in unexpected danger? By reading Misha's memories, I found out that my experienced guide had started feeling uneasy from the moment when I left the winding path and sped up some more to prove my steadily growing 'trapper qualities' to him. Clearly, his forecasting feeling had turned out to be right on the dot, because I had nearly stumbled into some treacherously hidden small crack that I hadn't remembered and therefore totally overlooked! Even more surprisingly, Misha was also wondering about the fact that I hadn't SENSED this treacherously hidden crack beforehand...

After a moment of shocked silence, Misha stepped closer, bent over towards me, and then whispered into my ear:

"Why didn't you sense that hidden crack in front of you? You nearly stepped into it and could have drowned in its bottom water!"

Staring up at my pale looking friend, whilst still rubbing my sore bottom and painful arm, I whispered back:

"What do you mean by 'sensing that hidden crack'? Up to now, I didn't even KNOW you could sense hidden cracks or potholes! Could you please teach me how I should do that?"

"WHAT are you saying? You really cannot sense hidden cracks or potholes? All the time since I've followed you, I supposed you had to be a natural real trapper and therefore could already sense those earth energies, because you just jumped across all those hidden cracks and overgrown potholes without showing any hesitation..."

"Well, I did jump across all those hidden cracks and overgrown potholes, but only because my excellent memory remembered them from before, even whilst going the other way round, and therefore I knew already where they should be. Only, what has my excellent memory to do with being a 'natural real trapper'?"

Still looking pale, Misha whispered back:

"Oh my... I am very sorry, because I should have asked you about this beforehand! Just before we left that winding path, I heard a warm and soulful voice in my inside that asked me to stay very close to you because you could be in danger... Among us trappers, every natural Real Trapper is able to feel those earth energies and act upon them; but another natural trapper has to teach them first. Shall I now start teaching you how to sense those invisible cracks and potholes?"

"Yes, please! Could you also start teaching me everything else that you know about all those whirling energies? All the time, I'm sensing many unknown earth and forest energies around me, but I don't know how to use them or how to sort them out..."

"Then, you are already a natural Real Trapper, because you can already feel those whirling energies! You only have to discover your slumbering abilities; just like I had to discover mine, with some help from my Dad and from Michail, before I could use them. By the way, how are your bottom and sore arm? Are they still painful?"

"Nah, most pain is already subsiding, so that I am pretty sure I will survive. Next time, please warn me in advance before stopping me this abruptly! Could we now start my first lesson in using all those whirling earth and forest energies around me?"

Looking much happier, now that I turned out to be both unharmed and not angry at all, Misha whispered into my ear:

"Fortunately, you are a tough little guy instead of a whiner! But, as you are already sensing those earth energies, I can only help you develop your natural trapper abilities some more. Please, stand up slowly, but stay exactly where you are. Now, take a tiny step forward, but stop immediately when I say 'stop'! In the meantime, try to feel any differences in your stomach or in your belly, while you approach this overgrown hidden crack in front of you..."

Feeling elated that Misha wanted to teach me what he knew about those unknown energies that always pulled at my enveloping aura, I rose from the ground, albeit slowly and carefully, so as not to step into any treacherously hidden cracks. Cautiously, I started to take one tiny step, two steps, three steps... Vaguely, I sensed a faint difference in my stomach that gave me a queasy feeling, as if my body suddenly tumbled forward into a bottomless depth. Very much to my surprise, this feeling was exactly the same queasy sensation in my stomach that I had felt before, whilst jumping across other hidden cracks! Trying to walk even more cautiously, I took the next tiny step forward...

At exactly that same moment, Misha stepped towards me, touched my no longer painful arm, and whispered into my ear:

"Stop! Please don't move anymore, but only try to sense any faint earth energies in front of you. What do you feel or sense?"

"My stomach feels a bit queasy, as if my body suddenly tumbles forward... Is this the earth energy that I have to look for?"

"Fortunately, you really are a born Real Trapper, and your natural abilities are already awakening! This is the queasy sensation in our stomachs that always warns us in advance when an invisible crack or hidden pothole shows up in front of us. Could you also try to picture in your mind how deep and how wide this overgrown crack is?"

Feeling surprised by Misha's question, I stretched my enveloping aura out in front of me and tried to picture the still hidden crack in my mind... Very much to my happiness, by using my 'inner eyes', my inside could really 'see' this hidden crack in front of me, although its picture was only vague and almost non-existent. Yet, my inside was sure that this small crack in front of me was around one-and-a-half feet wide and several feet deep!

Now that I could 'see' the crack with my inner eyes, I also found out that I was standing only a few inches away from its overgrown border. One more step forward, and little Crown Prince Harold would have disappeared into it and broken at least a few bones, or he would have drowned in its dirty bottom water. Therefore, my older friend Misha had really saved my life!

Feeling thankful for Misha's much appreciated help and company, I started to think some more. Could my Spirit Friends or my Beloved Ancestors from our Timeless Eternal Realm have had a hand in this, because our Wise Woman once told me they would always be around me and protect me whenever they could and were allowed? Had they asked Misha to step closer to me, to prevent me from falling into this treacherously hidden crack?

Silently, I sent them my humble thanks; and, very much to my happiness, I almost immediately heard the by now well-known warm and soulful voice of my Beloved King of Ancestors Friend in my inside, this time telling me:

"You are very welcome, my upcoming natural Real Trapper friend. Only, please, from now on, try to be more careful and less reckless, although this unexpected experience will also help you develop your inherited Real Trapper abilities even faster than we originally planned. Therefore, just go on with your trapper training, be a lot more careful, and, if ever necessary, we will always be with you and protect you."

Feeling very grateful for having my Beloved King of Ancestors as such a good Friend, next to having such an excellent tutor in Misha, I stepped backwards a few paces. Cautiously, I stepped forward again, taking tiny steps whilst trying to sense those faint earth energies even earlier. Several times in succession, I stepped backwards and forward. Very much to my happiness, each time I took a step, the faint feeling in my stomach became more distinct, while my also developing 'inner eyes' started to see the crack in front of me more and more clearly. For quite some time, I just went on stepping forward and backwards, until I was absolutely sure that I would be able to recognize this same queasy feeling in my stomach always and everywhere.

Immediately after I had reached my goal, my built-in 'little trapper friend' showed up in my inside. Cleverly, he suggested that I should start jumping across the crack, first with open eyes and then with my eyes closed, until I was absolutely sure I could 'see' this hidden crack automatically and absolutely effortlessly! Feeling very happy with his much-appreciated help, I started to do as he suggested, until I could approach the hidden crack from quite some distance with my eyes closed, in the meantime see it clearly with my inner eyes, and then jump across it without ever stumbling or faltering. Feeling satisfied, I smiled broadly at my tutor Misha who had stayed at my side all the time whilst looking at my ministrations with an approving smile on his more and more proud looking face.

Feeling happy with my unexpected progress, I left the crack and immediately trotted towards the next one that I already 'saw' with my inner eyes. Confidently, I jumped across this overgrown crack and just trotted towards the next one that I not only 'saw' with my inner eyes but also recognized from when I followed Misha. Feeling almost invincible, I trotted towards this hidden crack and prepared myself for jumping across it...

Alas! Although I had reached my first goal of recognizing hidden cracks, I still had to learn quite a lot more before I would be able to call myself a 'real natural trapper'! Without any warning, my foot hooked into a small pothole that I had overlooked, probably because I had been too fixed on sensing the next crack... Instinctively, my hands grabbled around for anything to hold onto. Unfortunately, they grabbled exactly into one of the many thorn bushes full of nasty prickles that also were in my way.

OUCH, that hurt terribly! Uttering a growl of pain and frustration, I slumped down on the rocky ground and stared in horror at what had to be at least a zillion nasty thorns that suddenly adorned my painful hand. Why had I again been too reckless, instead of playing it safe always and everywhere? What would my Beloved King of Ancestors Friend think of me now, especially after he had already warned me in advance? Feeling frustrated, I also looked at my experienced trapper friend Misha. What would Misha think of me now? Would he now laugh at me and tell me I was still way too inexperienced to be a Real Trapper?

Of course, Misha had followed me as fast as he could, although he hadn't been able to prevent me from stumbling and grabbing into this thorn bush. With an unhappy face, my experienced trapper guide squatted down next to me. Gently, he took my sore hand and stared at it, obviously feeling frustrated. With a choking voice, he whispered:

"Oh my, what did I do? I am VERY sorry for being this careless and not warning you in time when you stumbled across that pothole. Please, sit still and let me help you get rid of all those nasty thorns. Extracting them might be a bit painful, but try to bear the pain until I am ready; and I am still very, very sorry..."

In the meantime, I had already gritted my teeth and regulated my breath, because this unexpected accident had been my OWN fault and only MY fault, and my experienced trapper friend Misha had nothing to do with it! Therefore, he certainly didn't have to feel guilty about MY stupidity! Looking up at him, I whispered back:

"Misha, my dear friend, you might help me by extracting these thorns, but only if you stop blaming yourself. It has been ME who acted too careless, and therefore these thorns are only teaching me another important lesson of being less arrogant and also being a LOT more careful from now on."

Suddenly smiling again, my older friend whispered into my ear:

"Fortunately, you also are a tough little guy, and I am now even prouder to be your guide, your teacher, and your special friend."

"Thank you; and I am very proud to be your special friend too."

During the next few minutes, Misha expertly removed all those nastily stinging thorns from my hand, one by one. To remove the last broken ones, he even used his front teeth to extract them. Meanwhile, I had already started to look around for the brown 'healing herb' that once helped me defeat a nasty insect stitch. Only, Misha beat me to it. After extracting the last broken thorns from my hand, he rose to his feet and quickly disappeared into another thick bush. Within a few seconds, he reappeared, now carrying a couple of tiny leaves from my brown healing plant. Expertly, he squashed the leaves and rubbed the foul-smelling brownish sap into my still bleeding wounds. For a split second, the brownish sap started to sting, but then the bleeding stopped abruptly and the irritating pain disappeared almost completely!

At seeing my nasty looking wounds heal this quickly, Misha seemed to feel even more relieved, because he happily ruffled my unruly blond hair while he whispered into my ear:

"Our Wise Woman told us about this special healing herb, and my friends and I are using it all the time, whenever one of us gets injured or stung by some nasty insect. Its healing sap numbs the pain almost immediately, it stops the bleeding, it prevents any inflammation, and it also accelerates the natural healing process."

Because both Misha and I were still shivery after going through my stinging adventure, we returned to our small water stream, where we washed our faces and drank even more refreshing mountain water. Feeling replenished, we restarted to follow our steep ravine, although I was now acting quite a lot more careful than I had done ever before! Again, I stepped in front of Misha, while I used my newly found abilities to sense all those treacherously hidden cracks and overgrown potholes in advance, by estimating their width and depth whilst using my already more and more developing 'inner eyes'. Only after my inside was absolutely sure, I went on and jumped across them.

At last, Misha kept some more distance from me, because he saw that he really could trust all my newly acquired 'real trapper' abilities. In no time, we reached our oblong mossy boulder, where we slumped down and again stared into our steep ravine with its meandering and wildly foaming water stream. Again, I nestled in between Misha's safe legs and felt our mutual friendship grow by leaps and bounds, although my experienced trapper teacher and special friend would always be around ten years older than I was. Clearly, our differences in age weren't important enough to make any distinction.

After taking some rest, Misha and I decided to go on, this time walking next to each other. Whilst walking next to Misha, I started to think again. Although I felt thankful for having learnt so many new things in such a relatively short amount of time, I still didn't know anything about those earth vortexes and swirling forest energies that I still sensed around me. Now that my sensitivity was increasing, they were becoming even more disturbing. How would I ever be able to switch them off, or perhaps filter them out, without at the same time losing any other abilities?

Again, I decided to ask Misha about all those different kinds of forest and earth energies, as soon as we joined our other minors and were allowed to talk aloud again. Still thinking and pondering, I recognized our usual surroundings and happily trotted towards our waterfall, again followed by Misha. Together, we arrived at the border of its ravine and descended its easy ridges. A few minors were already playing under its splashing water curtain, and all of them greeted us enthusiastically.

Immediately when Jonno saw us, he came racing up to us while he exclaimed:

"Hi, Mis and Har! I have been swimming as many laps as I could in our still warm mountain lake, and that felt wonderful."

Chuckling at seeing Jonno's brightly sparkling brown eyes and his enthusiastic looking face, Misha responded:

"Good for you! Hopefully, within a few years from now, you will be our famous national Gypsy swimming champion."

"Yes, I would love that very much; because I am now sure that I once was a famous champion during one of my past lives."

Six-year-old Jonno seemed to have found something he was really good at, next to already being an excellent 'mad porcupine'!

Although I felt rather tired from walking through our surrounding woods and dense forests for such a long time, both Misha and I joined our minors under our still relatively warm waterfall, where we waited for all the others to show up and join us. A couple at a time, our other minors showed up from their trips and threw a few caught animals onto the steadily growing pile of still nearly empty string bags.

Immediately after everybody else joined us, we decided in unison to call it a day, left our waterfall ravine, took our nearly empty string bags with only a few edible animals in them, and sauntered home. Of course, as our Chef cookie, I entered our surrounding bushes first, to gather lots of tasty and nicely scenting spicy herbs. In the meantime, our minors had already prepared their own animals to be roasted. Although we didn't have enough meat to fill all our hungry stomachs, we shared what we had, so that everybody got at least some nicely spiced meat to munch on.

Fortunately, a few helpful parents showed up and offered us their own scanty leftovers, so that we didn't have to feel too hungry, being still growing kids and all. That evening, I went to bed feeling still hungry and tired, but also very happy with Misha's still steadily growing special friendship. Fortunately, my injured hand didn't sting anymore, thanks to Misha's helpful teeth and our special healing plant. Happily, I started to dream of being able to find my way always and everywhere, by using my newly acquired natural Real Trapper abilities...

The next morning, I woke up feeling again as stiff as a dead tree. Fortunately, I understood now what could be happening to my body from my last experiences, and therefore I ignored my 'baby stiffness' and just started doing what I normally always did, until I forgot my misery because it had already disappeared. After eating my Mom's scanty and this time not too 'healthy' breakfast, of course spiced by some tasty herbs I had already gathered in advance, I trotted outside and happily joined our already growing group of yawning minors.

This time, I went to my friend Misha and immediately grabbed his hand in advance, before Jonno or any other young kid could claim my special friend as their experienced guide. However, very much to both Misha's and my surprise, Jonno didn't show up at all! Could Jonno be ill? Or, didn't he want to join us anymore into our too 'creepy' forest, and had he decided to stay home in his own caravan? Whatever the reason was, both Misha and I felt secretly happy to get rid of our former 'mad porcupine' this easily.

Immediately after all our minors had paired up, except for a few older Real Trappers who had decided to go all alone, the oldest kids warned us again to enter our woods as silently and noiselessly as we could, and to be very careful not to get lost in our dense forests, because they didn't want to set up a rescue team at the end of the day. After they also told us to have fun, Misha beckoned me to follow him into the surrounding dense undergrowth.

While I followed Misha's easy human trail, he brought us straight to our own 'steep ravine'. Just like we did yesterday, we slumped down on our oblong mossy boulder and stared at the wildly foaming water stream beneath our feet, while I clambered in between Misha's knees and he put his arms around my tiny waist, which felt both safe and wonderful. Again, I could feel our mutual friendship growing by leaps and bounds; until we decided in unison to go on and take a look at our new traps. Happily, I stepped in front of Misha and started to lead our way, by both sensing and remembering all the treacherously hidden cracks, whilst avoiding all those overgrown potholes and nasty thorn bushes that were in our way.

This time, Misha followed me at some more distance, looking truly proud at seeing his extremely fast developing 'natural Real Trapper' pupil getting more and more confident. Very much to our delight, both Misha and I had caught a fat marmot that clearly wasn't hibernating yet around our relatively warm steep ravine. Obviously, my experienced trapper guide had been absolutely right by choosing this dangerous environment to set our new traps! Triumphantly, we brought both marmots home, and shared their tasty meat with a few hungry minors who hadn't caught anything at all.

In the meantime, the already chilly mountain wind was becoming even colder; so that a few experienced trappers were sure that, very soon, another freezing cold winter would show up and prevent us from entering our surrounding woods and dense forests. The next morning, Jonno decided to join us again, although he still refused to follow us into our 'creepy' dense forests ever again.

Well, we would be able to live with that, for as long as Jonno didn't try to steal my experienced trapper guide from me anymore...