Adventures on the Other Trail

By Mr Rick

Have you ever wondered what would happen if you were to go a different way than you usually do? Does your adventurous side ever come out to play? Where would you go if you decided to try someplace new? Mr. Rick has found a place where dragons, spouting fire and smoke, are flying overhead. Where little people, only twelve inches tall, live in a little village all their own. Where a very unusual man has invented a new color. Where there are sheep that are only knee-high or even green or orange. Have you ever seen purple frogs? Have you ever had a dragon make a campfire for you, or have you ever ridden on one, up in the clouds? Mr. Rick has found a place where these things happen all the time, and they were just outside his back door. He stepped outside and entered a world that no one has ever seen before. Bring your children along and join him in his wild experiences in Adventures on the Other Trail.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Fulton Books, Inc.
• Release date: Mar 14, 2022
• ISBN: 9781638606215

Book preview

The Other Trail

The forest was cool and well shaded by the leaves in the treetop canopy. The path was easy to follow. It must have been traveled often. Here and there, a vine made its way down from a tree and was hanging over the trail. Not a nuisance but something I had to watch for. Fortunately, there were very few spiderwebs over the trail. This also told me the trail was used a lot.

After hiking for a couple of hours, I became aware of another trail that ran alongside this one and was only a few steps away. It looked a little less used, and since I kind of like the path less traveled, I crossed the few steps, went through some bushes, and started walking on this other trail.

It was a little harder to follow, but it was still a good path. In a very few minutes, I realized I could no longer see the first trail I had traveled. Well, I was hiking just to be hiking, so it really didn’t matter where the trail took me. It was, however, starting to get dark. I didn’t realize how long I had been walking. I did not bring my tent with me because I hadn’t planned to be out that long. So I needed to find some shelter. I realized this might be difficult out here in the woods. Twenty minutes later, darkness was really closing in on me. Then much to my relief, I saw a large fallen tree that was near the trail. Maybe the branches, now close to the ground, would protect me a little.

I wiggled into the branches and was trying to hollow out a place to lie down when I heard a rustling noise above me. At first, I thought it was the wind in the tree branches. Wait a minute. It was not windy, not even a little bit. Must be something else. But what? Then I heard it again, but it wasn’t really a rustle. It was more of a whoosh, and it was happening again and again. And it was louder and closer. Whoosh, whoosh, whoosh.

Now my brain was going a mile a minute. (You know how that is, right? So many thoughts in your head, and none of them making any sense.) Anyway, that was what was going on in my brain.

I thought of a bird, but it would have to have been a really big bird to make a whoosh that big. I thought of another tree falling, but the whoosh was not followed by the crash of a tree hitting the ground. I thought of fire. Fire sometimes makes a whoosh, but the forest was not lit up like it would have been if there were a fire.

Then it stopped. No sound at all. Really quiet. I mean, really quiet. This no noise was making me more nervous than the whooshes did.

The next noise I heard was something like Ahem. (You know, when someone is trying to get your attention, and they say Ahem really loud.) But this ahem was really different. It sounded like it was coming through a mouthful of gravel.

I carefully peeked out of my shelter and saw the biggest bird I had ever seen. It was as big as a horse with wings that stretched out as far as the bird was long. It had just settled onto the forest floor, and the leaves that had gotten stirred up by the ginormous wings were just starting to settle to the ground.

This great big bird was looking right at me with great, big, glowing, green eyes. Wait, what? Was that even possible? Glowing green eyes? How could that be? I never heard of any kind of bird with glowing green eyes, never mind a bird as big as a horse.

I scrambled farther back into my tree shelter, but I couldn’t get into it far enough to suit me. I don’t mind telling you that I was more than just a little scared.

What if this giamonstrous bird was hungry? What if I was just what it liked to eat for its nighttime snack? It was big enough to take me back to its nest if it wanted to. What was I going to do? I was as far into my shelter as I could get without starting to go out the other side. I was trapped!

Then that giant bird said, You are going to get scratched all over you while you are trying to hide in that tree!

Better to get scratched up a little than to—wait, what? Did you just say something?

Yes, I did, it replied. Come on out of there.

Not on your life, you giant bird! I don’t want to get eaten by you or carried off to your nest! No, thank you!

Well, you are really mixed up! First of all, I’m not a bird. Second, I’m not going to eat you, and third, I don’t even have a nest. Nests are such messy things, and they sometimes fall apart or, at the least, fall to the ground! Nope, no nests for me. I’ll take a nice, solid, snug cave any day. Come on out so I can see you and you can see me.

Wait, what? Not a bird? And no nest? Then what exactly was this giant creature? And how could it be talking to me? This was so confusing.

Okay, first things first. (I have always believed that it was best to start with the first thing and go on from there.) So do I trust that it was not going to eat me? Answer: yes. I didn’t think it was going to eat me. I don’t know why I felt this way. I just did. Also, I didn’t think it was going to carry me off either. (Although it certainly could have if it wanted to.)

So I slowly and carefully (and ready to dash back if necessary) crawled out of my shelter.

Wow! Now I could really see what it looked like.

It still looked like a bird but with no feathers. Like I said before, it had bright, glowing green eyes, which were looking me over while I was looking it over. It had nostrils with something drifting around them. Wait, what? (I know I keep saying that, but this was something I had never seen before.) That was smoke just hovering around its nose. You know, this looked like a—dare I say it? Yep, I dare. It was a dragon! A real live dragon with smoke coming out of its nose! Yikes!

Now, the next thing: Was it really talking, or was that just my imagination? Only one way to find out.

Uh, hello, I said. Can you really talk?

Well, it replied. I open my mouth, and words come out, so yes, I guess I can really talk. Does that bother you?

Yes, I guess it does. I have never heard a dragon talk. What am I saying? I’ve never even seen a dragon before. In fact, I didn’t even know dragons existed! You are, in fact, really a dragon, right?

Yes, I am, in fact, really a dragon.

You will have to give me a minute to let all this soak into my head! I said.

I’ll even give you two or three minutes. Take your time. I’m not going anywhere, the dragon replied. "So go ahead. Think about this. I’ll just wait right here while I’m not eating you!"

Okay, I did leave the regular path in the woods. That could account for something. And I did walk a long way on the other path. I guess I could have traveled far enough to get to a land with dragons in it.

Made up your mind about me yet? it asked.

Yeah, I said. I’ve decided your voice is not just in my head and that you are real.

Well, the dragon replied. "That is a relief. I would hate to find out, after all these years, that I am not real."

So do you have a name, or do I just call you Dragon?

Yes, I have a name, but it is pretty hard to say in your language. You can just call me Beemblebug, he said.

Let me take a little break from my talk with Beemblebug to tell you a little more about what he looked like. As I said before, he was about the size of an average horse. He had a long face that was quite broad. Let’s see, I have already told you about his glowing eyes, haven’t I? In addition to being green, they were very large. I mentioned his nostrils. Oh, his nostrils were opened wide and had a little smoke coming out. Not very much, you understand, and I suspect if he wanted to, Beemblebug could have really blown out a lot of smoke from that giant nose. His nostrils were that big.

(All the time I was eyeing him, he was eyeing me, and I don’t mind telling you, it was making me more than just a little nervous!)

Anyway, where was I? Oh yeah, describing Beemblebug. His back had something like ridges (maybe more like fins?) all the way down to the tip of his tail, which extended a good six feet.

His front legs were very short compared to his strong back legs, and his feet had what looked like claws more than they did toes.

All of him was a beautiful shade of deep purple, from his tiny horns on his head, along his shiny scales, and all the way to the tip of his tail.

It was, by now, getting pretty dark, and I remarked as how it was getting hard to see and that it would soon be very cold too.

Beemblebug said, with a chuckle, I can take care of both of those little problems.

After he said that, he took a deep breath, and (will wonders never end?) fire came roaring out of his mouth, and a tidy little campfire started burning in the hole where the roots of my fallen tree shelter had been.

So we sat by the fire and talked until it was rather late. I learned about his family and where he lived (it really was in a cave).

I told him about me and my family and where I lived. We became great friends. When my eyelids were getting rather heavy and I was getting really sleepy, I bid him Goodnight, curled up by the fire, and went to sleep.

Sometimes after an exciting adventure like that, I would have a hard time getting to sleep. But that night, I slept very well and woke up the next morning feeling very well rested.

Beemblebug was gone, and I still wasn’t really sure he was real. In fact, I rather thought I had dreamed the whole thing. Then I saw the blackened remains of the small campfire, and I realized Beemblebug was indeed real.

My walk in the woods had turned into a great adventure. Someday, I hope I get to visit with my friend Beemblebug again.

Back on the Other Trail

It had been several weeks since I met Beemblebug, and I really wanted to see him again. So I went hiking. I started out on my very familiar trail, but I was looking for the other trail, the one where I met Beemblebug. After only a short time on the familiar trail, I found the other trail again. It was much the same as I had remembered it—slightly overgrown with some spiderwebs hanging across it. Good thing I had remembered to bring my hiking stick with me to clear my path of webs. I felt kind of sorry for the spiders that made the webs, but I know they can make new ones pretty quickly and easily.

So there I was, hiking on the other trail, looking for Beemblebug, and listening for the whoosh of giant dragon wings. I don’t know if I told you about the whooshes that dragon wings make, but they are really loud. Sort of like Whoosh, whoosh, whoosh!

So I didn’t have to listen carefully. I knew I would hear them okay when they happened.

It was a nice day for hiking. There was a gentle breeze making its way through the woods because the woods were not really packed tightly with trees. This was a good thing because dragons need