CHAPTER 22
All of the ‘old hands’ (and ‘old paws’) were glad to see Yookie again, and he them. Due to how it turned out, Drako deflected questions about what joke it was that she had pulled on Yookie, and changed the subject by introducing the Koala Bear to the newcomers, Rinky and Terri.
“I grew up with Duck-billed Platypi,” Yookie said, “But I’ve never seen anything like this big red Bird before. What are you exactly?”
“I, sir, am not the simple ‘big red Bird’ you imagine me to be, but instead a ginormous auburn flying Lizard,” Terri replied (0n disembarking from the Zephyr, Terri had insisted on being immediately decompressed back to her normal size. She hated to be viewed as a ‘shrimp’).
“I’m a Pterodactyl, the Queen of the Skies!” she added, clicking her feet together and giving her pinions a shake.
“A flying Lizard! Will wonders never cease?”
“You may be interested to know that I have it on good authority that they won’t,” said Stripes.
“I mean . . .” continued Yookie, “Say Drako, old buddy old pal, why can’t you fly? You’re a lizard. You’re a bit limited, being flightless, aren’t you?”
The tables had turned, as they say, and it was now Yookie’s turn to tease his friend a little.
“I could if I wanted to,” Drako replied, huffily. “I just don’t want to, right now. Flying is overrated, anyway. Besides, flying is for the Birds.”
This fib and egotistical opinion of Drako’s led to a temporary coolness between Drako and her ‘idol,’ Terri, who retorted, “Flying is also for some Fish, Squirrels, Foxes and, as you should already know, the better class of Lizards.”
A little dejected and demoralized, Drako saw she was outnumbered and decided to remain silent for a while.
I told Yookie about the plans we had set in place to circumvent mayhem from occurring in Germany. But he had never heard of Germany. We had been near it when we were in Switzerland together, but Yookie hadn’t paid much attention to the area, as it had no Gum trees and therefore was not of much interest to him.
Albert then told Yookie about what we had done in Australia, starting 738 years ago. Yookie said he already knew all about that. In fact, he was part of the group that made sure the loggers didn’t chop down all of the trees in the forest. They were allowed to take some, from a particular area, but only if they planted at least one tree for each one they felled.
If Yookie ever needed help, he would call in a subgroup of his fellow Eco Defenders who (rather haughtily, he thought) referred to themselves as “Charismatic Megafauna.” These were the Kangaroos, Dingoes, Earthworms (after all, they measure up to nine feet in length) and, last but certainly not least, the Amethystine Python, which can grow to a length of more than 25 feet; these Pythons are not venomous, but they don’t need to be: the sight of them alone causes most loggers to remember that they have a previous engagement elsewhere—especially when they come face to face with one while strapping in at the top of a tree.
So Yookie was doing good work here—not merely feeding his face and sleeping all day; he was also defending his habitat against intruders who might otherwise despoil it.
Still, although Yookie was needed here, Albert felt obliged to tell the Koala Bear that Australia was not the only place in the world with Gum trees; in fact, even in California, where we lived, there were some not far south of us. He invited Yookie to come along with us (“We have an empty seat in the Zephyr, and one of them’s got your name on it”), but Yookie declined, saying he was attached to Stringybark Manor (the name he had given his favorite Gum tree). He did add, though, that he might visit us one day, if we promised to take him to the Gum trees in our area so that he could survive during his stay without having to resort to Eucalyptus lozenges as a fallback measure.
We assured Yookie that if he came to visit us, we would do whatever was necessary to make his stay with us a pleasant one, and that he could come any time he wanted, and stay as long as he wanted to, too.
At that, hugs and pawshakes were exchanged, and we lifted off again, now bound for India, to visit Mullah Gitani and—the main reason, from my perspective—to see Rovette again. I was hoping that she hadn’t ‘taken up’ with some local dog there; I was anxious to get back to Darjeeling to find out where I stood with her, one way or the other.
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