Itti Bitty Adventures

By R.B. Jones

Itti bitties enjoy a quiet life in the forest, where blueberries grow wild and cool breezes tickle your face, and the dreaded nettlepickies haven’t found them yet. But when the forest is devoured by builders with bulldozers, the rainbow-colored, furry itti bitties take flight to places unknown.
Itti bitties go wherever the wind blows, and Noah, Ethan, Andrew and Gabby land on the busy corner of Dover and Lexington in the city—a sticky, lively place crawling with ants where danger is lurking just beneath the surface. Pinkie, Thomas, and Geoffrey float into Cajun country where Bubba the alligator and a crawfish named Henry take them on a cruise through the swamp, dodging snakes, Cajuns and those awful nettlepickies that are always on their heels.
Join the itti bitties as they navigate rivers and clouds on their quest to find each other and a new home—if they can all survive the journey.

• Language: English
• Publisher: R.B. Jones
• Release date: Nov 18, 2013
• ISBN: 9781311047090

R.B. Jones

A New Orleans native, R.B. Jones grew up just outside The Big Easy spending days hiking, horseback riding and exploring nature. Jones’s appreciation for epic journeys in classic fantasy literature and inspiration drawn from her outdoor adventures as a child inspired her first novel Itti Bitty Adventures. Imaginative and engaging, Itti Bitty Adventures encourages readers young and old to find a little magic in everyday life.

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Itti Bitty Adventures

R. B. Jones

Published by zimplexio LLC at Smashwords

Copyright 2013 by R.B. Jones

For Claudia, who inspired me to love literature, for Geoffrey, the kindest editor I’ve ever had, and for Spencer, the inspiration for Thomas and my favorite itti bitty.

Chapter 1. Crash Landing

The forest only looks empty. It’s really teeming with unseen things–almost invisible things that are chirping, humming, and bustling about. If you’re walking down a path and it feels like someone’s watching you and scurrying out of your way, you’re probably right. Itti bitties are like that.

Itti bitties look like soft furry balls the size of a pencil eraser. They’re covered in fur with all white tummies and mostly white faces, but the rest of their bodies are any color of the rainbow. Each one looks like they are wearing a different colored tight coat and hat all the time. They have short arms and legs and small, rounded ears like a mouse that poke up from their large, oval heads. Usually, they skitter across the ground like mice on two short legs tipped with tiny feet. And if they’re in a hurry, they tuck in their arms and legs, put their chins low on their chests, and roll like tiny bowling balls.

After the sun goes down, some sleepy itti bitties tumble into flowers that bloom during the day and close at night. Others climb into plants that have cupped or curved leaves that they can swing on like a hammock.

One particular summer morning, the itti bitties woke up to rumbling tummies. They climbed out of their favorite flower and slid down the soft spikes of monkey grass searching for some breakfast. The dew on the grass had only just dried. Birds were chirping and hopping from limb to limb on the pine trees that were shaking themselves awake for the day.

The smell of freshly picked berries mixed with budding roses was drifting from the center of the camp. The itti bitties who were on cooking duty had laid out a fine breakfast of wild nuts, mulberries, and rhubarb stems (but not the leaves, because the leaves are quite poisonous) under the tallest rose bush. By now, itti bitty tummies were seriously grumbling, and they all scooped up nuts and berries by the handful. Itti bitties will eat nearly anything, using their tiny hands that look a lot like yours.

But there was a curious uneasiness in the air, though nothing seemed out of place.

As usual, people were clearing more of the forest near the itti bitty camp to make room for yet another square box. People lived in square boxes. On the right, there were miles of trees and wild shrubs, and the acorns were so thick you couldn’t see the ground. But if you looked to your left, there were paved streets and neat rows of these boxes, with small grass lawns in front, and not a single tree for as long as the itti bitties could see.

People had a box for everything, with a hundred different names–like their toaster sized black boxes that talked to them (those were called radios) and tiny hand-size boxes that people would actually talked to, called cell phones. The itti bitties always heard the people asking each other can I borrow your phone?

After breakfast, Pinkie, a pink itti bitty who is known for always seeing the brighter side of things, climbed into a green pickup truck through an open window. She saw a small boy sitting in the back seat watching yet another box—a television with a flat silver screen—that was stuck to the truck’s ceiling. He hardly blinked the whole time that a fat purple dinosaur was dancing and singing on the tiny screen. Pinkie, however, quickly grew tired of it – the activity outside the window was a lot more exciting to watch.

Near the line of trees that was still standing, a man wearing a baseball cap and blue overalls was perched inside the cab of a gigantic yellow bulldozer with an iron arm. There was a scoop with square shaped teeth on the end of that arm, and the teeth dug under the trees and clipped them down like you cut paper with scissors. More workers with axes and chainsaws would cut the trees into short logs and carry them to the chipper, which is a boxy yellow machine with a wide mouth that chews logs up and spits them out as curly wood shavings.

The chipper gave off a fine mist of sawdust that smelled utterly delicious, but certainly didn’t taste as good as it smelled. Thomas, an orange itti bitty who seemed to have a knack for getting into trouble, tasted it once. He spent the whole afternoon wiping his gritty tongue. And the sawdust made some itti bitties sneeze all the time, although you could barely hear them over the grinding clamor of the machines.

Bulldozers and chippers weren’t just noisy; they kicked up lots of dust. When that dust mixed with the breeze, it formed small dust tornadoes, which were perfect for teaching younger itti bitties how to fly. The dust clouds never reached the tree tops where the wind was blowing so hard that flyers could easily find themselves blowing all the way to a different state. It would only float itti bitties five feet high before gently lowering them to the ground. That way, they wouldn’t drift too far from camp while learning to fly.

If you squint your eyes on a sunny, windy day, you just might see these colorful furry balls twirling in the wind. Itti bitties can float for hundreds of miles on just one gust of wind, so they’re everywhere.

Like all the dusty Saturdays before, twelve young itti bitties lined up for flying class taught by a gruff itti bitty named Geoffrey. You could tell by the commanding way Geoffrey spoke that he was one of those no nonsense types that was altogether too serious and probably even worked on vacation. But he was a seasoned flier and bright cobalt blue, which made him the perfect flying instructor: he was easy to see. Young itti bitties would stop their twittering and pay strict attention the minute he rolled to the front of the class.

Geoffrey did a quick sky check and decided it was perfect flying weather: a clear blue sky, two puffy white cotton-ball clouds, and the golden sun shining thick slivers of light between the branches of the tall pine trees all around them. When you feel the wind on your toes, bend your knees and jump forward so it will lift you, Geoffrey shouted over the noise. And when you’re airborne, spread out your arms and cup your hands just a little to control the wind.

The wind is coming, the wind is coming! cried a tiny itti bitty, his voice mixed with fear and excitement.

Follow me, Geoffrey yelled back.

A puff of brown dust swirled toward them, and Geoffrey leapt into the air. The young itti bitties all followed with mixed results. Flying the wind takes skill, and hands and feet act like the paddles on a rowboat. If you spread your arms, cup your hands, and bring your knees up to your chin, you slow down and might even fly backwards. But if you put your hands together above your head, lean into the wind, and point your toes, you’ll fly faster than an arrow.

One itti bitty cupped his hands too much and flew backwards. Two others jumped at the wrong time and found themselves sitting on the ground coughing and spitting in a thick brown fog. The rest were in the air, but were flipping upside down, zig sagging in each other’s flight paths, and blowing willy nilly up and down, over and over, wherever the wind wanted to take them.

Everyone on the ground watched from underneath bushes, because willy nilly flying could make an itti bitty upchuck faster than being seasick. Older itti bitties were snickering while the next class of itti bitties cheered them on, but their shouts and laughter faded away when Geoffrey saw something glittering in the bright sun. And it gave him chills on that blue and gold day.

Nettlepickies were edging toward the camp in one long jagged line, rolling slowly to blend in with the pine cones lying on the ground all around them. Nettlepickies are twice the size of itti bitties. Their round bodies are covered in sharp needles like a porcupine, and you might think that they don’t have heads until you look toward the middle and see their beady yellow eyes glaring at you from under their sticky eyebrows.

Itti bitties had good reason to fear nettlepickies. Not too long ago, those sneaky pine cone looking monsters crept into the itti bitty camp late at night, and Geoffrey woke up just in time to see them snatch up some sleeping itti bitties with their stubby arms, throw them in a glass jar, and rolled them away, never to be seen or heard from again. Why? Nobody knows, but after that, itti bitties were always afraid the nettlepickies who might come back any time and snatch more of them.

Geoffrey raised his left arm and pointed down, the signal for all the flyers to land, then stretched out his arms to fly like an arrow–well, as much of an arrow as a round itti bitty can be–and flew toward the ground. He rolled over to a grass-green itti bitty carrying leftover berries from breakfast to the storage hut.

Nettlepickies approaching from the north! shouted Geoffrey. The green itti bitty dropped his basket, and furiously rolled toward camp. He was in such a hurry that he smashed into Abigail, a chatty itti bitty who spent more than ten minutes a day brushing her lovely purple fur, so she was quite angry to be knocked to the grass by such a rude roller.

Andrew, slow down! she scolded.

I’m sorry, Gabby, he panted. Nettlepickies are coming. Ring the bell and pack up. We’re moving TODAY!

Andrew rolled under his favorite holly bush and pulled out his flying harness. A harness isn’t necessary for flying, and some itti bitties preferred flying without one. But most itti bitties have a basic harness just so they can carry munchies to eat during flight. A basic harness has three straps connected to a seat with a small back: Two straps attached to the seat back go over the shoulders, and one strap attached to the middle of the seat comes up in front. The metal tabs at the end of each strap all snap into a round buckle in front like a seatbelt. On top of that round buckle is a small pocket.

But Andrew was a transporter, so instead of his harness being open on the sides, it had large pockets on both sides and a huge pouch attached to the front buckle. That way, he could carry up to three young itti bitties. Andrew’s harness also had a removable backpack on the back of the seat, so he could carry more supplies. Over time, Andrew had amassed everything a traveling itti bitty needs: a first aid kit, windsock, assorted dried berries, candles, matches, a flashlight, and yards and yards of unwaxed dental floss. He stuffed the food in the pockets and everything else in the backpack.

The moving bell was ringing now, and that was the code for all itti bitties to leave camp at once and fly to the next place the wind takes them.

Everyone lined up at the edge of camp farthest away from the approaching