A dog and a monkey were walking down the path looking for the town of Eb where they would find food and shelter in this unfamiliar place. There had been high winds for the eleven days of this strange journey. Their hopes waned as person after person told them they had yet to find the correct road. "Straighten up,” said one person “and you will find Eb.” “Dress better to find the way," said another. Oc, the dog, and Chuen, the monkey, were sore and discouraged. “Eb, the Way can not be found,” said another.
Oc and Chuen came to cross roads..
"Which way, which way?" Chuen wailed.
Oc stood still and silent, big teardrops flowing down their old faithful face.
"I don't know which way to go." Chuen was stuck in fear, exhausted from lack of refuge. They saw a small moving hump in the road with a squawking bird sitting atop coming slowly towards them from the direction they came straight ahead. It was a turtle with a brown thrush squawking on its back. Oc looked at them inquiringly..
"Why are you so angry, Thrush?" Chuen asked.
"The turtle is making me angry. He carries his home on his back and not interested in taking me back to my Eb home."
"You know where Eb is?" asked Chuen excitedly.
"Yes," Said the turtle. "Eb is right here, where-ever we are. Eb is my home, the path I travel. This is why I carry my home on my back because I am at home everywhere I go. There is no place that is not home to me."
"It is down the road," the Thrush insisted and laughed her beautiful laugh. "Eb is where-ever you go, just as turtle says. But my Eb is down the road where my nest and young are, and I must go back and care for them for this is my way."
"If everywhere is Eb," said Chuen, "than I am already here and yet there is no respite from Ik, the mighty wind."
"You must find your own way," said the enigmatic Thrush. "Take care which way you go. You have reminded me I can fly home on the mighty wings of Ik." She flew off. Turtle continued marching down the path they had just walked.
After they had gone a ways Bobcat startled them by jumping from a tree. "I heard you two were looking for Eb."
"Yes," they nodded. "Do you know the way?"
Bobcat laughed with a trill which ended with a purr. "Eb is here, just as Thrush told you. And you are in exactly in the right place to get respite from the wind. Come into my home for a fine meal and take shelter from Ik. Tomorrow the great council of Ben shall begin convening and you are in good time attend. You can tell in this great council how the road has been hard. Together we will put our heads together and find a way to get through such rough weather."
"Thank you very much," Chuen said with great gratitude.
"Thank you very much," said Oc with humbleness.
Bobcat led them to his den, a great comfortable cavern nestled in the trunk of a gigantic water oak. Oc and Chuen began to feel better as they relaxed for the first time in this strange place. For eleven days now they had been on this road whose name they only now learned was Eb. Eb took you where ever your feet led you and finally their path took them somewhere comfortable, out of the howling wind.
Ms Bobcat served Chuen some cabbage and Oc enjoyed lizard stew. After Chuen finished their meal, they could wait no longer to ask Bobcat and Ms Bobcat what this council of Ben was about.
Chuen stared at her. They had no idea why they were here. Until recently they had been a young girl living in the United States of America. Inexplicably they were now inside a tree talking to two bobcats.
Later when all were in bed, Bobcat looked at his mate. "I do not believe they know anything that is happening. They are ignorant of much, they kept asking everyone to take them to Eb while their feet walked Eb and always have. We are all put upon by the nastiness of this wind. I can't say that I blame them for wanting shelter. These solar flares are wreaking havoc with Meso-Earth. The winds are driven by all the magnetic change. I bet these two came from above. That hasn't happened in many batuuns, now has it?
“No it has not.” His wife looked alarmed. “Do not fret, dear. This is now and the future has yet to become. We can only do now what we can do and make the road to where we want to be.”
“All is not good in the upper world,” his wife cried, and is leaking down from the upper Realm into our house. What are we to do?”
“You must stay calm, Ms Bobcat,” her mate exclaimed to her. He looked deep into her troubled eyes. “Do not dwell on these things. You are warm and dry with plenty of food in your stomach. This panic and worry is a disease they have in the upper Realm. If we let it afflict us here, we will not survive the coming changes. You must banish your worry. You must stay in the here and now. Stay on the path we create daily. This worry-thought-poison is seeping into the air and the waters and even the living dirt. Now it has you all jittery. These are two souls lost from their own dimension. We must treat them kindly and find them help at the Great Council of Ben. By Caban and the Solstice we will have set the path before the great passage commences. But now we must get some sleep. Pay attention to your dreams tonight. They are important if we are to know how to address the rapid changes of reality happening here and in the upper realm.
Ms Bobcat never took her eyes off Bobcat. She drank the wisdom in his words as if they were living water from sacred springs. “You are right, my love,” she whispered quietly. I must go and finish my day-keeping activities so I may retire into the dreams of this night.
Chuen and Oc listened closely as they lay snuggled with each other in a small round room whose floor was as soft and supportive as the fine bed, Chuen's mom and dad had at home. Their dad worked at a mattress store and their parents had the best mattress ever. Yet this mossy enclosure was better than the best mattress they had ever lain on. Chuen could not stay awake any longer, once Ms Bobcat quit talking and went to finish up her day-keeping activities.
Oc, however, did not go to sleep. They turned over and over in their mind this strange place. Just eleven days ago, they’d been at home by the creek with their two people. They were with Chuen, who had been known as Willow and she was his person’s great granddaughter in the "upper realm" - as Bobcat had called where they once had been.
They had been playing by the creek. Oc explored a delicious scent under a large root by the creek and Willow followed her. They lost their balance as the ground seemed to swell under them and a crack opened. Willow picked up Oc and was clutching her as they both fell down this crack opening in small steep creek bank . They rolled down into the crack for what seemed forever.
When they landed, Willow looked different. They had short broken hair all over them and a tail. They were a monkey, Oc was quite sure of it. Oc seemed to be about the same, still only about six pounds with long black and white silky hair.
Before the Crack there had not been words in Oc’s mind.. They’d known things alright, but now there were words. They were able to communicate with others, including Chuen, which was now Willow’s name. Oc did not know how they knew this. They were no longer Scout, the small dog. They were Oc in Meso-Earth. A terrible wind had buffeted them ever since they rolled to a stop, somewhere entirely different. Sleepiness overwhelmed Oc. This comfort exceeded their comfy existence at home. Everything smelled so wholesome, even though it was also strange and unsettling.
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