hello

He's a light blue bunny with fluffy white clouds and blue lightning.

In the forgotten corner of a vast woodland, there exists a haven for the small forest folk, from the swooping Sparrow to the gentle Mouse. It is here that Hollyberry's family has lived in the Walnut Den for several generations.

Within this small paradise, he makes his daily rounds for food and takes the time to visit his many friends. He brings Robin colorful string and shiny bits that have been carried on the wind from far distant places. Three eggs will be hatching any day now and the youngsters will need many interesting sights if Robin is to keep them in the nest long enough for their wings to grow. His next visit is to Squirrel, who is forever forgetting where he has stashed his dinner. Hedgehog has a most awful time getting all the bits of leaf and twig out of the complicated pattern of spines along his back.

Out of his many friends, though, Toad is by far his favorite.

He laughs at everything and never lets nature's trials get him down. He's inventive, making a banjo from an acorn, a few cattails and a feather from Sparrow. He also wouldn't hesitate to dare the deepest part of the pond to rescue one of Shrew's head scarves when it is taken up by the wind.

He has many wonderful qualities but he is an absolutely terrible housekeeper. He's always mixing up the herbs for barleycorn soup and his cluster of lily pads is constantly cluttered with junk he finds scattered on the forest floor. Hollyberry's natural tidiness has saved him from being crushed by his own collection many a time.

This happy group would have gone on living their idyllic life for many generations more were it not for...

THE STORM.

The blustery wind roared and whipped the tall grass into a frenzy. The great branches of the oaks moaned and groaned, stretched to their limits but never quite bent to the point of breaking. Even the bravest forest dwellers felt no shame as they cowered in their nests and burrows, for they had never seen nature at her most ferocious.

Hollyberry bolted for the door when the water began to seep beneath his carefully carved front door, sweeping away his furniture and the pretty little decorations he'd gathered over the years. He stood atop the highest hill and watched in dismay as his dear little Den was washed away.

As the winds died down and the sun peeked timidly from behind a dispersing cloud, his friends emerged one by one.

Many of their homes had sustained damage, of course, but none had been lost.

Robin was the first to take wing, flying all the way to Soupy Swamp to enlist the Beaver Brothers. They would construct a new den, one that even Mother Nature would struggle to bring down. She chided her mate into donating a few flashy red feathers, decorations to paint the walls in a gorgeous sunny hue. The youngsters, after all, had certainly benefitted from Hollyberry's kind gifts. All were recently grown and moved into cozy nests of their own.

Squirrel was next, sweeping the flooring flat with his tail. He presented Hollyberry with a shiny bottle cap he'd found during an afternoon of foraging. Its edges were the most glorious shade of blue, a perfect compliment to Hollyberry's pretty eyes.

Hedgehog rolled around beneath the massive spruce trees, collecting more bark shingles than any one burrow could ever hope to use. The extras would be coated with leaves and made into a decorative pattern, a colorful walkway to point to Hollyberry's new front door.

As usual, it was Toad who went above and beyond. He had spent days down in the mud, picking through the wreckage of the old den. Not satisfied to use the typical pond water, he'd traveled three days to reach the clearest stream in the forest. The wooden sign with "Walnut Den" carved into its surface had not only been rescued, it had been fully restored.

Hollyberry looked on his new home, sure his heart would burst with gratitude. He had never seen a sight more beautiful.

A case of true friendship, repaid tenfold.

Story by Pureflower

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