oakharbor

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A Daler legend I found when I was feeling homesick:

 Once Upon A Time, five animals were traveling together. They had each decided, on their own, that it was time to leave their old home and find somewhere new to live. They decided to travel together, because it seemed safer, but they each thought of themself as still being on their own, and planned to split up when they were done.

The animals reached a wide river with no bridge and no boats. They walked up and down the river, looking for a good place to cross, but they couldn’t find anything. Everyone was sad, and because they were sad they took to arguing. The chicken announced that she could fly across, and would fly across, even thought the rabbit told her that it was too far. The chicken tried, and the beaver wound up dragging her back to shore, wet and even more unhappy. The beaver knew how to swim, of course, but he feared that the river was too wide and he wouldn’t make it across. Secretly, he was also not sure he wanted to cross without the others, but he did not say that, for fear that they might make fun of him. The raccoon was pushing for the beaver to go across anyway and look around on the far shore in hopes of finding a way across, but the rabbit, ever cautious, was very unhappy with the idea and argued with the raccoon. Other got involved in the argument, until the chicken noticed that the squirrel was gone. The chicken is sure that the squirrel had abandoned them. The squirrel had been carrying all the food and had just hidden it for safety, though no one else knew where it was. The beaver is sure the squirrel just got distracted and was off throwing acorns at someone. The rabbit was afraid the squirrel had been eaten by a fox. Each of them thought that they didn’t really like the squirrel very much, but as soon as she was gone, they each realized that they missed her, and weren’t a real group without her. They all sat down and were sad, until the raccoon noticed something strange on the other side of the river - it was the squirrel! The squirrel came back, jumping between some logs and water plants and other bits of things that the other animals hadn’t noticed. She showed the other animals how to cross the river safely, though it took much to convince the rabbit and the chicken. Each time, the squirrel jumped in front to test what was safe to step on, and the beaver swam next to them, in case anyone fell in.

They all reached the far shore and laid down to rest and be happy. Soon, a pair of hairless standing folk found them. The animals were wary of the tall people, but the humans told them that they had founded a new village nearby, and invited them to join. They said they only had people like themselves in their village, and they weren’t complete. The animals discussed it amongst themselves, and decided that it was time to find a home, together, and joined together as Dalers.