Livia, Kaden, and the Buffalo

Maybe it started with the trip to Yellowstone. Maybe it started with a story about a lost buffalo calf. Maybe it started two hundred years ago when the great buffalo herds roamed the plains. For Livia and Kaden it started sometime after their Yellowstone vacation when they were driving (being driven. They are only about two years old after all) along a flat portion of highway between their parents houses. Kaden’s dad and Livia’s mom are brother and sister and they found that if they were going about the same place that Livia and Kaden both seemed to get along better if they could entertain each other.

“I don’t know what it is,” said mom, “but it seems like they just seem to communicate.”

“Kdn,” said Livia. “I don’t know what the big deal is,” she thought, “It’s nice to have someone who can understand me. The big folks just can’t seem to hear right.”

“Taak”, replied Kaden, “I couldn’t agree more,” he thought, “They want us to talk but when we say something, they can’t understand.”

“Look over there,” thought Livia as she pointed to the side of the car. “Bufflo” she said. “That big rock looks just like a buffalo,” she thought.

“No,” answered mom, “that’s not a buffalo. It’s just a big rock.”

Livia rolled her eyes and looked over at Kaden. “It does look like a buffalo,” he thought with a sad smile. “Although dad read me a book that said they are really bison, not buffalo.”

“Rock” he said. “I wonder how that big rock ended up in the middle of that field?” he thought.

Kaden’s mom spent the rest of the ride working on teaching him to say “Buff-a-lo”. Kaden was very patient with her. He enjoyed working on something over and over (and over and over and over) again until he got it right. He was still having a little trouble getting mom to understand his words.

“Vcblry,” he said, just as clear as could be. “It seems everyone has a somewhat limited vocabulary,” he thought, “They just seem to say the same words over and over.”

“More”, replied Livia. “I couldn’t agree with you more,” she thought, “My mom seems to have this thing about some book with breakfast food. I’m sure it can’t have more than 50 words repeated over and over.”

“No.” exclaimed Kaden, “I know that book. I’m not sure I’d like that color eggs.”

As they pulled into the driveway and got out of the car, Livia’s mom called out to Kaden’s dad, “You should have heard them. They were talking about rocks and buffalo all the way home. They are both getting really good with words.”

“Yeah,” grumbled Kaden’s dad, “but they don’t look like they are ready for a nap yet. I wouldn’t mind a snooze.” He had been up too late. Parents get a little cranky when they stay up too late. He made up for it though by swinging Kaden all around and up and down getting to the door. Kaden had a great time riding on his shoulders like the king of the world.

“Why don’t we let them play in the back yard while we all go in and rest,” said Kaden’s mom, who was a little tired herself, expecting a brother or sister for Kaden in just a few months. So before you knew it, Livia and Kaden were in the back yard, with the swing set, the slide, and especially the grape vine.

The grapevine was always a magical place for any of the children who frequented the back yard and Livia and Kaden were no exception. They hadn’t taken more than one or two grapes each when a giggle from the other side told them that Jake and Julie were there for a visit.

“Elves there!” said Livia with more excitement than surprise. “We could have a really cool adventure with them,” she thought as she looked at Kaden. “Do you think we could get permission to go to the other side of the vine with them?”

“Mom?” wondered Kaden out loud. “I think we should ask but who can tell with moms,” he thought, “They don’t always act rationally.” With that the two jumped up and ran over to the house, up the steps, into the kitchen and tugged at Livia’s mom.

“Play, Jake and Julie?” asked Livia with a pleading look to her eyes that can really only be achieved by a serious girl of about the age of two.

Her mother looked down at her with a likewise serious look, “Hmmm.” She hmmed and looked over at Kaden’s mom resting on the sofa. “None of the kids ever has any trouble when they play with Jake and Julie, but they’ve never brought them to the house or anything. I’m sure if it’s clear they can’t cross any roads they won’t have any problems.”

“Sounds fine to me,” said Kaden’s mom, “as long as it’s OK with you and they can’t get into any trouble.”

Livia’s mom knelt down and looked her straight in the eye. “You can go play as long as you don’t cross any roads…none at all.” Livia smiled and kissed her cheek and gave a great big hug. With that the two ran back out of the kitchen, down the stairs, across the yard and to the grapevine.

“No roads,” said Kaden as they reached for the small hand just poking through the thick leaves of the grapevine. “You know how parents are,” he thought, “their rules don’t have to make sense. Sometimes I wonder if they just make them up as they go along.”

Jake and Julie looked at each other with a small nod, “We understand the ‘no crossing any roads’ rule. We’ll make sure that’s not a problem, but come on, we need your help.” With that the four of them ran along a trail leading through woods that couldn’t be seen from the back yard, which might seem odd to big folk but didn’t seem to bother Kaden or Livia in the slightest.

They ran for what seemed like an awfully long time, but who can get tired running with elves (try it sometime…you’ll see). Finally they came to the edge of the woods where they could look out over what looked like endless plains of rippling grass. Not far away stood a giant rock, that looked just like the one they saw earlier; the one that looked like a buffalo.

When they reached it, Livia and Kaden touched it in something like awe. “Bfloo?” asked Kaden out loud. “This really does look like a big bull buffalo lying in the grass,” he thought, “but how did it get here and why is it a rock?” He looked at Jake and Julie with questioning eyes and was a little surprised to see a tear on Julie’s cheek.

She nodded her head sadly. “You’re right,” she said, “It was a buffalo, but somehow it turned into a rock…it seems like they’re all turning to rocks. We need to stop it or there could be none left. I don’t want to see the grasslands without buffalo.”
Livia was looking down at the grass behind the ‘rock’. “Cluu” she said as she crawled around it. “We need to find some clues about why this is happening,” she thought, “There has to be a reason.”

Jake looked around at the grass, “Bogworts are always the reason for bad things, when you get right down to it,” he answered. “Maybe they dug up the buffalo’s favorite raspberry patch.” He had a slightly wistful look in his eyes. Elves are very fond of raspberries and have a difficult time imagining anyone who doesn’t consider them their favorite food.

Kaden caught Livia’s eye, “bery” he said as he shook his head. “Buffalo eat grass, not berries,” he thought. “We need to figure out what’s wrong with the grass.” He got down on his hands and knees to get a bit closer to the ground. This was way easier than it would have been for a big person. A big, clumsy adult might have missed a rusty glimpse that Livia saw from just a few inches away. Crushed under the rock was an old piece of wire.

“Wre”, said Kaden, “Looks like standard barbed wire. 14 gauge with a left hand twist I’d guess,” he thought. “I saw some like it at Grandpa’s place. They use it to keep the cows and horses in the field.”

Livia looked around the grassland, “Around a field with cows and horses is one thing,” she thought, “what’s barbed wire doing in a place like this?” And then she and Kaden looked at each other. “Bogworts” they both said out loud. This was a problem that Jake and Julie could help with, but Livia and Kaden would need to help too.

Kaden pointed to the wire and looked questioningly at Julie. “I see,” said Julie, “The buffalo don’t like the wire and they get so sad they turn to stone.”
“Well,” said Jake, “We just need to figure out a way to keep the buffalo happy so they don’t turn to stone.”

“Back,” said Livia. “It isn’t enough to keep them from turning to stone. We need to get them to turn back to buffalo again,” she thought.

“Bogworts…Mgnet,” said Kaden. “My mom read me a book about magnets, and Dad brought home one from work,” he thought, “We just need to find some magnets. The Bogworts could do the rest.”

“Hmmm,” hummed Julie, “I know where there’s a big chunk of magnetic metal over in the hills.”

“Bogworts…Gold,” said Livia. “I think I have a plan,” she thought. And it was a really good one.

A quick trip to the hills and the elves, and Livia and Kaden, were ready. The plan was clever, well thought out, and yes, maybe a little bit dangerous. The great thing was that you could always count on Bogworts to be both greedy and stupid. The best plans took advantage of both.

Soon Livia and Kaden were skipping through the Bogwort village as bold as could be, and they were playing catch with big chunks of Gold!! The Bogworts couldn’t believe their eyes. This was like taking candy from a baby…OK, maybe like taking gold from a pair of small children, but close enough. What they didn’t notice was that while they had their eyes firmly fixed on Livia and Kaden, Jake and Julie were running around behind them, slipping a chunk of magnetic rock into each back pocket.

When Livia and Kaden reached the edge of the Bogwort village the Bogworts broke out of their “holy cow, it’s gold and little kids” trance and took off running after the two small ones in question. Kaden and Livia were both much quicker than the Bogworts gave them credit for. If the Bogworts happened to ask their parents how fast they could run when they really wanted to, they would have known. As it was, Kaden and Livia got to the edge of the open plains just ahead of the Bogworts. It was a good thing Jake and Julie had gotten there first and were ready with stage two of the plan.

A giant sling shot was sitting by the edge of the grass, pulled back and ready. A short rope tied to a stake, kept it that way. As Livia and Kaden got there they dumped their “gold” into the pocket of the sling shot and Jake cut the rope.
The Bogworts watched in horror as golden nuggets flew out over the grassland as far as the eye could see. The greedy Bogworts forgot all about the children and ran out into the open plains in every direction. As they ran all over, bent down looking for gold nuggets, the magnets Jake and Julie had slipped into their back pocket attracted all the wire and metal trash that the Bogworts had thrown out there for years.

As the elves and children headed back to the grapevine Jake gave Kaden a low five and knuckles. “The fool’s gold worked great,” Jake said with a big grin. “The magnets will have all the grass cleaned up in no time,” added Julie. Kaden and Livia just smiled.

They got back to the grapevine before the big folk even woke up from their naps.
The next day Livia and Kaden were taking a short break at a rest area by a big park next to open grass that stretched out as far as their eyes could see. The big folk were getting things ready for a picnic while the other kids just ran and played, glad to be away from the cars for a bit. Livia and Kaden seemed to just be finding bits of trash and wire out in the grass and were making it a game to bring it to the trash cans.

The picnic was fun and then it was time to drive home. As they passed where they had seen the big rock the day before, Kaden said, “Bfloo”.

“No,” said his Dad, “Remember, that was a big rock.” And he looked. “Huh,” he said, where’d that big rock go? Isn’t this where it was?”

“Buffalo”, said Kaden with much better pronunciation.

© Roy E. Moxley 2011, all rights reserved