George the Woolly Caterpillar's Arc

Chapter 3 of 3

The shelf was full. Rain had passed, and the valley steamed. George crawled to the ridge and looked down at green he had never touched. The grasshopper’s help had filled his old list, but it also showed a gap. He had tasted what he knew. He had not tasted what he could not reach. He set a new goal. Find the hidden plants in high, tight places. He tried first by himself. He climbed a bramble wall, inch by inch, and found only thorns and air. A gust swung the cane and flung him onto soft moss. He tried a hollow log next, squeezing between laced roots. He reached a pocket of light and saw small round leaves he had never seen. A spider web blocked the way. He backed out. The valley had more doors than legs. A finch dropped to a reed near him and pecked the stem. Its head tilted. George lifted a cut reed tube he had dragged from the creek edge. He shoved it forward like a banner. “I need rides,” he said. “And I need this to taste nettle without stings.” The bird hopped closer, eyes bright. It tested the tube with its beak. Then it crouched. George climbed onto warm feathers and hugged the reed. The finch leapt. Wind pressed him flat. They skimmed over the folds of green. From above, he spotted tucked leaves in forked branches, shade plants under thorn roofs, and a square of dark needles that looked mean even from the air. They worked a circuit. The finch landed by a brushy ledge. George chewed a new leaf and marked its smell and bite. They rose again. At the nettles, the finch hovered close. George slid the tube over one tender point. He bit through the hollow, safe from hairs, and tasted clean bitter fire. He laughed into the wind. By dusk, his bark mind had new entries: one from the ledge, one from the fork, one from the nettles. The attempt had worked, but it changed his route. Hidden plants now lived on cliffs and in clouds of sting. He would need the finch, the tube, and a plan for weather. The valley had grown larger in a single day, and so had his list’s hunger.