Niko held the rope that had once
secured his cow to the fence. He
moaned in disgust. Where could
that cow have gone? Niko’s family
only had the one cow. They did not
have any pigs, sheep, goats, or chickens.
Just the cow.
After
gathering a few supplies, Niko set out following the cow’s tracks. The trail led up the path of the old
dormant volcano that towered over his village. Why would the cow head up the mountain? As he entered the dense tropical
forest, he became nervous. All of
his life he had heard strange tales of this volcano. Most of his village avoided this path. The jungle seemed to swallow up the
sunlight as he went deeper into the dense undergrowth. Then the trail began a steeper climb.
Niko
struggled to maintain his footing as he continued to climb. All along the way, he fussed at the cow
swearing it had to be half billy goat to climb this trail. Suddenly, the rocks began to slide out
from under him, and he slid into a hollow just to the right of the trail. Once he reached the bottom, he
considered himself fortunate that he had not slid all the way back down to his
village. However, looking up the
sides of the ravine made him reconsider his luck. How would he climb back up to the trail?
For
a long while, Niko struggled in vain to climb the steep sides of the
ravine. Every time he reached even
close to halfway up, he simply slid back down. This was not going to work. Just then, he noticed a palm tree growing close to the side
of the ravine. At the top, it
tilted toward the trail. If he
climbed the tree, maybe he could jump back to the trail. He decided it was worth a try.
Niko
shimmied up the tree like a monkey.
Fortunately, climbing trees was one of Niko’s specialties. When he reached the top, he very carefully
climbed out on the limb hanging closest to the trail hugging it with all of his
limbs. A gentle breeze made the
fronds of the palm tree brush against his face. They tickled like the whiskers of a cat, but Niko tried to
ignore them. The farther out onto
the limb he went, the more it sagged until Niko began to fear it might
break. Deciding to go no further,
Niko slowly rose to his feet and jumped with all of his might toward the
trail. As the limb sprang back
into place, it actually propelled Niko farther than he could have jumped on his
own. He landed with a roll safely
back on the path.
For
a moment Niko sat on the path catching his breath. Then, he very carefully continued up the path making sure to
choose his steps wisely. The path
began to wind up the side of the mountain and with every turn Niko’s heart
pounded a little harder. He didn’t
like winding trails. After a
while, he came around a corner to find himself face to face with a large statue
that had a horrifying mask for a face.
Niko screamed before he could stop himself. On the other side of the path stood a statue exactly like
this one. He must be at the
entrance to old abandoned palace he had heard so much about all of his
life. He tried to forget all the
spooky tales he had heard about this place, but that only made him remember
every single one.
Just
then he heard a noise that made him jump.
Something was just on the other side of the entrance. Niko stood frozen in fear as he tried
to decide what to do. Then he
heard the noise again, and this time it sounded remarkably like a “moo.” Slowly, he walked between the statues
into an open courtyard. There in
the middle of the courtyard was his cow happily chewing the grass that grew
there. Niko was so relieved all he
could was laugh.
“Come
here you crazy cow,” Niko said as he walked over to it.
He
placed the rope he had brought around the cow’s neck and started back for home. The cow followed without a fuss still
chewing his cud.
“That
must be some mighty fine grass to come all the way up here to get it,” Niko
said to the cow as he patted his side.
The
cow looked at him and mooed as if to say, “You better believe it.”
