Tiks and his star.

Told by Tiko, the blind beggar.

'Tiks gets around a lot, you know. He leaves me at night, and comes back in the mornings, full of news about the forest, about who has been sneaking out late at night, and what the rats have to say about things. One day, however, he didn't come back. I waited all day to feel him run up my sleeve and whisper things in my ear, but he didn't come. The next day he didn't show up either, and I was worried about him. The third day, I was about ready to get a search party together, when I heard him scamper across the square, and felt him climb up my sleeve, as he usually does. He sat on my shoulder for a long while, and then he told me a fantastic tale about what he had seen.

He had started the first evening by going to see the rats that live under your house, Kienda. He stuck his head into their hole and asked if he could come in.

"Well." They said. "If your big head fits in, we don't see why the rest of you shouldn't follow."

Tiks thanked them for their hospitality and entered. The rats were about to set out to collect scraps, and had all their bags empty for the evening's work. Their hole, I'm told is about as big as a large mellon. It has a column in the middle made out of a stick of firewood to hold the ceiling up, and around the edges there are piles of things the rats have picked up and sorted. The rats are very meticulous about their sorting. They have a pile of shiny things, and a pile of dull things, and piles of things with different colors, and piles of food. Tiks had brought them a gift, as he usually does, a shiny new copper that was left in my cup. The rats took it and set it on the pile of orange things, then they took it an put it on the pile of shiny things, then they called out for grandpa rat, who is almost as blind as I am to come out and make a decision. Grandpa rat took the copper and bit it, and decided it wasn't food, he squinted at it for a while, then shook it next to his ear.

"I think it's green." He said, and went and sat down in a corner.

That settled it and the rats put it on the pile of green things.'

'That's silly,' interupted one of the children, 'copper is shiny and orange, not green.'

'Yes, but Tiks tells me that there was a rainstorm shortly afterwards, and the hole got water in it, and when the water was finally cleared away, the copper was neither shiny nor orange, but definitely green. That goes to show you how clever the grandfather rat is.'

'Anyway, while they were deciding what to do with the copper, Tiks looked at the other piles, and saw on the top of the pile of blue things small stone, as big as an acorn, and shaped like a teardrop. When the rats had decided to place the copper on the green pile, Tiks asked them about it.

"We don't know what it is," the rats said. "It is definitely like a piece of glass, but grandfather says it tastes too much like the tops of tall trees and of raindrops for that."

"May I take it?" asked Tiks. "It intrigues me."

The rats considered for a while among themselves. Most of them wanted to give it to Tiks, but they didn't often part with something they had collected and sorted. Eventually they asked the grandfather what to do with it. Grandfather scratched his ear, and stared at a spot on the wall, then he said he didn't know why not.

After that, the rats talked to Tiks for some time, until he had heard all that they had learned the last day several times, then thanked them again and left. He took the small blue stone in his mouth and ran into the forest. He went quite a distance in before he found any little people. They saw him and greeted him, because they knew he had stories about our village, the same as you listen to stories about them. Tiks stopped and dropped the stone into his paw. The little people leaned forward to look at it, and Tiks asked them if they knew what it was. One of them took it and held it in both hands. He looked at it for a while, then passed it on. He didn't know what it was. The next little person took the stone, looked at it for some time, then passed it along. So it went around the whole circle, and nobody knew what it was.

"You might ask the turtle by the river, he is old and wise. He will probably know."

They then asked Tiks for a story about the village, and Tiks told about the a grumpy old nobleman who came through and about what a hoe does, then he thanked them and went to see the turtle.

The turtle lives in the end of a old log which is quite overgrown with ferns and moss. The turtle has built a floor of pebbles by carrying them one by one in his mouth and he sleeps almost all day, but comes out at night to watch the stars. For you and to Tiks, the stars seem still, but the turtle is such a slow creature, that they seem to dance above all night. Tiks found him on the riverbank looking to the sky and murmuring things to himself.

"What's wrong, father?"

Ret called the turtle "father" because the turtle was so very old.

"The necklace was broken two nights ago, oh broken, broken, and the beads of the necklace were scattered across the sky."

"Which necklace, father."

"The necklace that belongs to Mejah, the wife of the guardian, was broken, and a bead was lost."

Tiks knew about Mejah's necklace, a line of stars that curved across the sky in the summer. He did not know, however that it could be broken.

"Can the beads be picked up, father?"

"They have been, they picked them up, but they have lost one. They can't find it."

"Is this it, father?"

The turtle turned more quickly than Tiks thought possible.

"Is what it?"

"This stone the rats found in the village."

The turtle peered for ever such a long time at the stone Tiks held in front of him.

"It would seem so, but I have never seen a star so close. You must return it, Tiks."

"How will I do that, father?"

"Do you know of the mountain Madar, far to the west?"

"No, father, I don't"

"When Gita and Ret swing over the mountain Madar, a tall bear can reach out and touch them. The dancers in the sky dance past the mountain and a rabbit with good ears can hear them singing. You must go there. Hurry. Mejah will pass the mountain tomorrow night. She will not come so close again in a year."

Tiks ran off to the east. Before he was very far, the birds began to sing morning songs, and Tiks thought of me, but he had to return the star. He climbed a tree and jumped from branch to branch, limb to limb, then tree to tree. He jumped far and fast, like only a squirrel knows how, and before mid afternoon, he could see the great mountain Madar rising from the horizon. He reached its base by dusk, and he continued to run. He soon found himself climbing more than running, and he was exausted. He could see the dancers in the sky above, wearing the clouds as clothing and the stars as jewellry, and he could see Gita and Ret smile as they watched. He came to a place with no more trees, only snow and rock. Still he climbed higher and higher, he could see the top of the mountain above him, he was almost there. He could hear the dancers talk together. One dancer struck his foot on the mountain and it shook. Stones fell from the summit, and Tiks held himself close to the rock. Loose boulders crashed into the stone on either side of him and shattered as they fell into the valley. The boulders stopped falling, and Tiks began to climb. Before he got four steps higher, he felt the rock he was on shift. Tiks began to run furiously upwards, but the boulder toppled backwards. Tiks jumped at the mountain, but his jump was not enough. He curled himself up and prepared to hit the ground and die. Before he did, he felt a warmth come under him and stop him. It lifted him up, higher and higher. He looked around. A lady, taller than any tree he had ever seen, taller than even the mountain he had climbed held him in her right hand.

Tiks tells me she was a sight to see, even though I am not much for seeing. She wore a pale grey dress with diamonds holding up great sashes of gausey cloud. He skin was pale white, and her eyes were black. She stepped and spun deftly among other giants like her, each dressed in grey and silver. The dancers talked softly among each other with words Tiks couldn't understand. Two great queens sat in shining thrones at the end of the ball room and smiled as the dancers danced. The woman held in one hand eight great jewels and a fine chain that had been broken but was mended.

Tiks realized that this must be the great lady Mejah herself and he dropped the jewel in her hand. When he did so, the woman smiled broadly and placed Tiks on her shoulder. She strung the last bead, which had grown somehow since Tiks had held it in his mouth so that it was much bigger than himself when Mejah hung the necklace around her neck. All night she danced with Tiks on her shoulder. Tiks watched the world go past beneath the slippers of the dancers. As the sun was beginning to rise, Tiks fell asleep.

When he awoke, he found himself at the base of the mountain Madar. The great dancers had left the sky and set him down in a hollow in one of the trees. Tiks began to run home, but he was hungry, so he stopped to eat some berries and nuts he found. Then he ran. He ran all day and all night, and came back to me as I was wondering about him.

The rats were annoyed at him when they learned that the stone was a star. Not every rat has the opportunity to have a star in its collection, but I gave Tiks a piece of colored glass he said was pretty, and he gave it to them. So they were happy. So was the turtle, the sky was the same again as it had always been, and nothing could make the turtle happier. The happiest of all, however, was myself. Tiks was back, and with what a story.'