“all wooded with Okes, Pines, Sassafras, Iuniper, Birch, Holly, Vines, some ash, walnut”
Once upon a time there was a bat named Chocuna. Chocuna was a small bat. In fact, he was really small. He had very little fur and was very energetic.
The Goldwing colony was an extremely large colony and of course being in an extremely large colony when you are small, you are in for trouble. He was extremely funny, it seemed like he was excited about everything, and, unfortunately, he was sometimes clumsy. He lived with his mother, and had two friends. One was blind, and the other was wise. His mother that he lived with was really nice, but if Chocuna were spotted outside of home he would face the consequences because he was “too small”. But his mother tried to sneak him out of the house every once and a while for fresh air, and in that time his mother made sure nobody saw him.
One night it was the day of the year of the flying competition, and everybody entered in it, even though they all knew that Matuda (the really high favorite) was going to win. And even if Choucuna’s mother let him out he would get caught.
That night it was very dark and you couldn’t tell Matuda from Chocuna, so you can guess that everybody couldn’t see anything.
After his mother left, he quietly snuck out and stayed in the back of the race so nobody could see him and when he was sure everyone was moving he started flying.
The pack was extremely large. Chocuna could see easily 92 bats in front of him, and there was some he couldn’t see. He was really far back, but he got closer to the front. He was in 100th place, 99th, 98th, 97th, 96th, 95th 94th, 93 rd, 92nd, 91st place, all the way down to 90th place. He flew ahead as fast as he could to 69th. He saw the blind bat on the left of him, and he quietly went over to the right and pushed ahead to 67th place.
All of a sudden Chocuna got looked at with the bat’s blind eyes as if he could see him. Chocuna made as little noise as possible and the blind bat looked away. Chocuna started breathing again, all of a sudden he heard his mother’s voice,
“OK, I’m going home, and you kids should go home too.”
“OK.”
“OK.”
They left but Chocuna realized the farther he went, the farther he was away from home and less likely that he will beat his mother home. So he had to end in 38th place. He flew home knowing a shortcut so that he wouldn’t get caught. When he got home, his home was very quiet and…his mother was there.
Chocuna could feel his heart beating fast as his mother started speaking,
“Why were you out of the house?”
“Umm…I was just taking a stroll, while everybody was at the race.”
“What place are you in Chocuna?”
“38th.”
“That is dangerous! You will never do that again, OK?”
“OK.”
Unfortunately that day Matuda won the first round of the racing.
The next day, Chocuna’s mother left and Chocuna waited while the blind bat guarded the door, Chocuna was smart enough to know that the blind bat could hear everything that he was doing.
Suddenly, an idea struck Chocuna,
“Hey look! My mom is in second!”
The blind bat looked at the race as if he could see it.
“No, she’s not.”
But when that happened, Chocuna was out the door to the race.
When Chocuna was at the race everybody was racing. Chocuna was late, so he had to start in 51st place.
Because all of the bats that he was near couldn’t fly very fast he went ahead faster than you can say uncle Earl, I broke my wing.
He was in 20th place.
Chocuna saw the wise bat just ahead of him in 19th place. He made his voice sound very deep so that he wouldn’t sound like himself.
When he was passing the wise bat, the wise bat noticed him. Lucky for Chocuna it was dark out.
But the wise bat started to speak to Chocuna.
“Oh, Herald, is that you?”
Chocuna thought about saying no, but then how he said no the wise bat would know it was him, so he was forced to say:
“Yes.”
“Where did you come from Harold?”
Chocuna paused.
“Harold?”
This was Chocuna’s time to escape.
He decided to zoom ahead. Unfortunately, he saw his mother up ahead and… she looked at him. Luckily for Chocuna there was a bat ahead of him that he decided to duck behind. Chocuna went as low as he could to the ground so nobody could see him.
He was getting tired with 20 minutes left in the race and he…wait a second! Chocuna looked up, and he saw Matuda behind him, which could only mean one thing, he was in first!
When Chocuna was done partying he realized he was in second now just behind Matuda with…2 minutes to go and Chocuna was forced to go up to the regular level so he could tell how far behind he was, he was behind by 1 bat length and with one minute to go.
He zoomed and was ahead away from the lead, when he realized… it wasn’t Matuda in first it was young Monusha and he was fast! 10 seconds to go and they were tied; 9 seconds, 8, 7, 6, 5, 4, 3, 2, 1, and Chocuna took the lead! 0, Chocuna won!
Matuda was still struggling to get in the top five and finished in sixth.
Now everybody knew that Chocuna got out of the house.
Now for Chocuna everything was hopeless. There was only one thing to do, scream and run around in circles, and Chocuna did the only thing to do. Of course he wanted to brag to everybody, but he decided to go home. There was no point in rushing home because his mother already knew he raced, so he flew slowly home.
When he was flying home he realized that even if he didn’t race the next day it was possible for him to win!
When Chocuna got home he was surprised to find his mother clapping for him and not being very angry, but that wore off.
“Good job, but I’m putting extra security so it is impossible for you to go out tomorrow,” his mother said.
“Fine, be that way.”
As you can imagine Chocuna found a way to break through the extra security and got lucky that it was right away or he would be in trouble and would have no chance at first. He got out of the house fast enough to start the race in a good 3rd spot. He raced as hard as he could and his mother was in first, wait a second, his mother was in first? Yes, indeed, his mother was in first and Matuda was in second.
It stayed like this for basically the whole race.
Later Chocuna zoomed ahead as fast as he could and he was in second and now in first but he stumbled before the finish line but got up for second and in the whole event he was in…second.
Even though Chocuna didn’t get first everybody respected him from that day on.
And he lived happily ever after.
The End