Patric the Pony and the Golden Salamander

AuthorHouse

Chapter One

Everyone said as soon as they saw her, "Oh, what a beautiful pony." Deedee loved to stand in the shallow water at the edge of the pond. There, she could see her reflection and admire herself. "How beautiful I am," she said.

Most of the time, Patric ignored her. Deedee never went on any adventures with him and his friends, Harry the rabbit and Froggy.

"Adventures with a frog and a rabbit?" she said, turning up her delicate nose and showing her teeth. "I might get my tail dirty."

Patric thought she was a very, very silly pony.

One Sunday morning, just as the sun was rising, Patric discovered that the gate to the meadow was unlatched. He pushed and pushed and pushed on it, and after a while, it swung open. Usually, Patric invited Froggy and Harry the rabbit to go on adventures with him, but he knew that Froggy was on the other side of the pond visiting relatives and Harry was raising a brood of baby bunnies. So he walked through the gate alone, and when Deedee saw him outside the gate eating the fresh, green grass, she followed him. The two ponies trotted up the lane that led to the big road, grabbing mouthfuls of grass and feeling very clever.

They came to a big field with a sign that said "SOLD" and "James and James Contractors, Lots for Sale." The gate was open, half-lying on its side, and they heard the sound of water running nearby, as if there were a stream. The sun was hot, and they were thirsty, so they trotted into the field. They found the stream and followed it, but instead of a pond all they found was mud. Mud was everywhere, as far as they could see. Close by was a big machine. It was a tractor. Patric had seen the tractor before, going down the road, making a lot of noise.

Deedee was afraid of the tractor and she walked around it, snorting. Suddenly, there was the sound of the tinkling of small bells, and a voice came out of the mud, saying, "Help, help, please help!"

Deedee was so startled she ran away. She smelled the oil from the tractor and heard the sound of bells and voices coming from the mud. She was so afraid that she ran all the way around the edge of the field twice with her tail held over her back.

Patric kept very still and listened and looked. His head was close to the ground.

"Here, here," said the voice. On an island of grass in the middle of the largest puddle of mud, standing on a broken twig was a small golden salamander. It was crying, and when it cried it made a sound like the tinkling of tiny bells.

"Please take us with you. We have nowhere to go," said the voice. "We're afraid of the tractor and the noise. It tore up the pond and made all this mud, and we can't find our brother."

"Who are you?" asked Patric.

"We're the Sallymanders. I'm Sally. That's Mandy," said the voice. "We're sisters. It is our brother, Der, who is lost."

Patric looked at Deedee. "We must help them, we must," he said. "But how?"

"Well," said Deedee, "I'll try," and she dipped one foot very carefully into the mud. Her foot went in, and then her leg went in. It went down and down and down until she almost overbalanced onto her nose. "Aaaaaagh," she cried, and she leaped back. "I can't go in there," she said. "I can't. I can't. I tried, but I can't. My foot is dirty, my leg is dirty, my tail is dirty, and it smells and ... I'm scared," and she shuddered all over. "Ughgh!"

Patric thought she was a very silly pony. He took a deep breath and stepped out into the mud. It sucked at his feet. It sucked at his legs. It got deeper and deeper until it reached over the top of his knees, but he kept on walking toward the salamanders. Then it was up to his belly, and then his shoulders.

"I can't get any closer to you," he called out to Sally and Mandy. Then he had an idea. "You must jump, jump!" and with an effort he turned and spread out his tail on the top of the mud. "Can you reach my tail?" he said. "If you can take hold of my tail, you can climb onto my back."

Sally and Mandy jumped as far as they could. They reached Patric's tail and pulled themselves along it until they reached his back. "Hold on tight to my mane," said Patric, and he leaped and plunged until he could climb out of the mud, onto the grass. He longed to shake himself all over. He longed to roll, but he must not. The salamanders might fall.

"Great view from up here," said Mandy. "Thanks, Patric." Sally was afraid and said nothing. She clung to his mane and shook.

"You must come home with us," said Patric. "Deedee and I live in a beautiful meadow with a pond and a stream. I know you will be very happy there."

Mandy was so excited thinking about the meadow and the pond that she ran up and down his back and onto his head and down his mane and along his back, and it tickled and tickled. Patric's back twitched, and then he shivered. The mud had been very cold.

"Hold on tight to my mane," he said to Mandy and Sally.

"Patric, you look so funny covered in all that mud," said Deedee, and she snickered all the way down her long nose. "You smell awful, too."

Patric ignored her. He did not think it was anything to laugh about, and he walked as quickly as he could out of the field and down the lane. "I'm going home," he said.

Deedee kept on laughing as she trotted ahead of Patric. "I'm going to the pond," she said. "See you soon, Sallymanders."

When Patric and the salamanders reached the meadow, they first saw Deedee. She had washed her tail and was carefully drying it beside the pond. Then the Sallymanders saw the pond, and they shrieked with joy. All Patric heard was the sound of their bells.

Patric walked into the pond. The water grew deeper and deeper. The salamanders jumped off his back and swam away. Soon, Patric too began to swim, and he swam until his brown coat was clean of the mud. Then he climbed out of the pond and rolled and rolled from side to side in the green grass until his back stopped tickling. Then he shook himself over and over again. Water droplets flew everywhere. He felt tired, and he was thinking how pleasant it would be to lie down under the big oak tree and doze in the warm sunshine until Olivia and Jacob brought the hay for dinner.

Suddenly, Sally and Mandy swam up to the water's edge. "Thank you, Patric. Thank you. Thank you. This is a beautiful pond," they said. "But what about Der? Can you find him? Please, Patric, please, you must find Der."

Patric looked around for Deedee, but she was nowhere to be seen. He sighed and set off all by himself along the lane. He wished that he had Froggy and Harry the rabbit with him. It would have been fun to have Froggy and Harry for company. This time, it seemed to take such a long time before he reached the field with the sign on it that said, "SOLD" and "James and James, Contractors." Somehow, it was further than he remembered. He walked all around the field, looking into mud puddles, looking under trees, looking under bushes, but nowhere...