Chapter 7 - A Decision
 
The next morning, Christofert awoke with the sun.  He was stiff and sore
all over, but after a few moments of stretching and scratching he was able
to walk around.  The first thing that he saw was that the ocean was now
calm, and the sun was shinning brightly.  He was starting to feel hungry
so decided it was time to locate a frog or mouse or something to eat.
 
Barely five steps into his search, he noticed that his paw was white.  He
stopped, stunned.  Then he looked at his other paws and they were all
while.  Then he looked at the fur on his legs and back and saw that is
was a silvery gray color.  He had never heard of a silver ferret.  A few
ferrets had white paws, kind of like mittens, but a gray ferret?  He
stopped to think for a moment, then came to a conclusion.  When he fell
overboard and was thrown around in the sea, his beautiful sable coat must
have been washed away.  He hoped he still had a mask, but would have to
find a mirror to know.  He was a little disappointed, but decided that he
could live as a silver ferret with mittens.  Thinking about the terrible
washing that he had received in the ocean, Christofert swore that he
would never, ever take another bath in his life.  He used to enjoy them,
but the last one was just entirely too much.
 
He resumed his hunt and was quickly able to catch a few crunchy beetles.
His stomach now full and the weariness quickly leaving his body,
Christofert headed off towards the rising sun.  After walking along the
shore for only half a day, he found the wreckage from the Santa Maria and
a large group of men pulling things out of the sea.  The Nina and the
Pinta could be seen anchored off shore.
 
He dug a little cave in the beach sand under a log and settled in to
watch the men.  He was curious what they would do now.  Over the next
couple of days, he learned the plans of the men.  They were going to
return to Spain.  Unfortunately not all of the men could fit onto the
two remaining vessels, so all of them worked together to build a fort
where many of the men would wait for rescue.
 
Christofert partly wanted to return to Spain with Columbus.  He wanted to
tell all of his friends about his adventures and about sailing across the
great ocean to the Indian islands.  He was especially proud of that
mighty jump that he had made between the masts and wanted to tell
everyone.  But he still wanted to see China and India.  He decided to set
out on his own.  Perhaps he could build a raft to get to the large land
that the mermaid had mentioned.  He assumed that it must be China.  For
the mean time though he decided to relax and recuperate for a while on
board one of the ships.  While the fort was being completed, Christofert
traveled back to the Pinta on one of the long boats.  He made himself
comfortable in his old quarters and decided to relax for a couple days
before continuing his travels.
 
(to be continued)
 
            Bryan P. Coffey - Boston, MA
      Weasel Warriors - Albi, Esef, Merri, and Mint
        http://www.gis.net/~bpcoffey/furball.html
[Posted in FML issue 2823]