Ru: I know you are afraid little man and that is okay… it is natural to be afraid.

Tal: Exactly mate, your Daddies get scared too you know, its nothing to be ashamed of.

Ru: We do, Lorrin, especially when it comes to you. It’s like having our heart outside of our body-

Tal: *Interrupting* Don’t say it like that! Not after what he …

Ru: I meant…because…he makes us…

Tal: I know what you meant, but how his he supposed to understand that?!

Ru: What I mean little man, is that when the other children disappeared, we were terrified. We thought the Wilds had taken you too. I have never been so afraid.

Tal: and that feeling is like what you are feeling now, isn’t it? You are scared. That’s why you wont tell us, isn’t it?

Ru: We were kids too you know, we grew up here… just like you we heard the calls, we had the dreams…the jungle would speak to us too. It showed us things that we didn’t want to talk about.

Tal: yeah- and we felt so much better when we told our parents…we even helped them and the vanguard fight back by sharing with them.

Ru: The more we know the better protected we are. You and Noy and Rashmi are the only ones who came back…whatever you can tell us can help us find the others. You just have to be brave.

Tal: Did we ever tell you the story of the Kerrett?

Lorrin: Mhhmm.

Tal: Do you like that one?

Lorrin: Mhmm.

Ru: That’s one of my favourites too. Do you remember what is special about the Kerrett?

Lorrin: It’s… on the flag….  

Ru: It is, you’re right. It is the flag of Kur, but do you know why it is so special that we put it on the flag?

Lorrin: Because its fierce… and we are fierce.

Tal: Yup. But the Kerrett wasn’t always fierce, was it?

Lorrin: No. It was cute and fluffy.

*Ru & Tal chuckle*

Tal: It’s still cute and fluffy. But ever since it found its teeth, the jungle learned to fear it. 

Ru: Would you like to hear the story of how the Kerrett found its teeth?

Lorrin: Yes please, Daddy.

Tal: Will you promise to be fierce if we tell the story?

Lorrin: I will try.

Tal: Okay then mate.

Ru: Shall I tell it?

Tal: Just don’t do the silly voices.

Ru: He loves the silly voices!

Lorrin: Don’t do the silly voices Daddy…they are silly.

Ru: What!?...Fine I’ll just tell it the boring old-fashioned way.

Once upon a time, before the wilds were wild and before the great abandonment. In the jungles of the gap there lived a very special creature. It’s fur was soft and fuzzy and its movements were small and dainty. All the creatures of the jungle would laugh at her tail, which was as vibrant and colourful as the Passionbell but as fragile as the flower too. Some of the animals liked to chase her, many animals liked to eat her and, because of this she learned to run away. No matter where she ran to, the creatures which made their home there would, chase her, attack her and try to eat her. She was lucky that her beautiful and vibrant tail looked like the Passionbell, because the jungle was filled with them. So, if she could find where they grew, she could bury her head, stick up her bum and hide, camouflaged from the scary beasties and birds. One day, after the creatures of the jungle had chased her away again, and she lay still, her bum in the air and her head underground; a magnificent and majestic Phillander floated onto her tail. The Philander thought that her tail was a beautiful flower and tried hard to get at the sweet nectar. The animal, swished its tail to keep it away and tried to bury even deeper into the earth, but the plucky little philander, with its delicate wings and tiny body, kept trying to land. Eventually it got too much for the soft fuzzy creature and she began to run again. She ran and she ran, sniffing with her sensitive snout and pounding the earth with her six furry pads, looking for a new home or a new place to hide. The Phillander was amazed by this, he had never seen a creature flee from him before and he kept in pursuit, following the beautiful passionbell tail as it fled through the jungle. 
 
 Every time the creature stopped and hid, the Phillander would find her again. This went on for many days until finally the creature was exhausted and close to death. She turned to the Phillander and said [Funny squeaky voice] ‘Please, you mighty creature. Be merciful and make it quick. Perhaps I will find a home in the next life and perhaps there is more space for me to flee there. The Phillander found this very curious and-

Lorrin: Don’t do the voices!

Ru: Okay…Okay!
 
 The Phillander found this very curious and asked the creature: ‘What is your name?’ The creature had never been asked this before and did not know how to respond. ‘I don’t know. What do you call me?’ she asked. The Phillander found this even more curious. ‘Strange’ she said, ‘I call you strange’. The furry soft creature continued to cower before the tiny delicate insect floating and flapping above her nose and responded. ‘Then I am strange, please don’t make me suffer. Kill me quick.’ The Phillander was quite baffled by all of this and landed gently on the nose of the creature, at the end of her long snout.  ‘Strange and Cowardly…underserving of a name’ the Philander said, beginning to lose all patience with the creature. ‘I have been given many such names as these from all the creatures in the jungle. It is hard to keep track.’ Responded the soft fluffy creature, still cowering, still quaking before the Phillander. ‘I was once a creature of the earth, who crawled on my belly, a creature despised by all creation. Now I am a creature of the air, transformed and lauded as amongst the most beautiful and wise. Do you know how I did this?’ The fragile winged insect asked the trembling beast. ‘No’. said the shaking animal. ‘First, I refused the names given to me by other creatures, then I took the wings of other beasts, little by little whilst they slept their slumberous sleep. Finally, I sewed these pieces into the beautiful patterns you can see and took a name of my own. I took to the sky on the wings and the name that I took. I became the envy of all in my domain. Bu vine Sinsaalis Ithe Saalis.’ Spoke the Phillander. ‘What do you lack that keeps you lowly, other than a name?’ asked the majestic bug. ‘The other creatures gnash with their teeth and slash with the claws, they spit with their venom and roar like mighty beasts. I lack all of this and more’. Responded the pathetic ball of fur. ‘I have only my sensitive nose and my delicate tail. I am chased from every place and I am prey to all.’ She finished.

The Phillander tutted. ‘All of these you can take. Piece by piece, little by little, Bu Vine Sinsaalis Ithe Saalis. ‘Take until you are whole. When you are whole, take your name. When you are whole and named, remember me and remember my lessons. Feed not on my kind.’ Spoke the Phillander. ‘But how? But how?’ Opined the creature ‘Tell me how!’. The Philander laughed at this, as though it were obvious. ‘Your tail of course, it fooled even me and I am wise beyond the hunters of the jungle. Lay in wait, be ready to strike, take your teeth, take your claws, take your venom and your growl. But do not for get me: the Philander who taught you to transform.’
 
The creature listened to the wise words of the philander bug and spent the rest of her days, lying in wait, ready to take from the predators and hunters of the jungle. It took her whole life but eventually she had succeeded. She had defanged the Arangitch, she had declawed the Thya, stolen the voice of the Panther and the venom of a thousand spiders. She made sure to take not just enough for her, but for all of her children and her children’s children. She taught them the lessons of the Philander, so that they would not forget. The beast was not forgiving of the creatures of the jungle, she terrorised and slew them wherever she found them, until all of creation feared her. All except the Philander. The creature kept her promise to the majestic bug and in honour of his teachings, the soft and fluffy beast, with its fangs and its claws and it venom and its roar, allowed him to name her. Do you know what he called the fluffy beast?

Lorrin: The Kerret! 

Ru: That’s right. And that is why the only creature in the jungle which the Kerret will not kill or will not eat is the Phillander bug. It is even said that the Phillander still holds the power to frighten the Kerret with the power of it’s name. But so long as the Kerret remembers the teachings and honours the Phillander- he will never use his power.

Tal: And what do we learn from this story Lorrin?

Lorrin: That we must not be prey. That we must not run and hide. The wilds will come to fear us when we take from him, his strength and use it against him. Daddy…

Ru & Tal: Yes.

Lorrin: When can I take my name?

Ru: I don’t…

Tal: We can talk about it, once you tell us what happened…

Ru: Can you be strong for us…? How did the jungle take the other children? Whose heart did you have in your hands, when we found you?