“Sharbenau the Squirrel” by Miriam Pia
Part 1
Sharbenau realized at some point that she was not like the other squirrels in some ways. In most respects, it was a normal squirrel. He grew at the same rate, he liked almost all the same foods, his tail was fluffy like everyone else. His temperament wasn’t all that different from many of the others from his tribe either.
Sharbenau lived in a large squirrel colony. They had 3 tribes, 2 of these had 15 families and the other tribe had 9 families. The elders taught the young how to live and do well in the forest in which they lived. Like it or not, it became clear that some of the older squirrels seemed to “do better” than others.
Do you feel strange?
There were moments that made Sharbenau very sad. When he was young, this happened more when he saw another get injured or sick. He hated to witness his suffering, but he didn’t want to get away from them; he knew that would make him seem cold when he wasn’t. Well, that problem got a lot of attention from Sharbenau for quite some time.
Once, when another squirrel was injured, he tried to help her. In part, he just comforted the other animal and somehow, he wasn’t even sure how; he tried to change things. Sharbenau wasn’t sure it would help, but then his grandmother mentioned it to her once. She congratulated him. She told him, “Little boy, that was very creative and quite kind. This is a very rare thing, but it’s something you should feel good about, rather than bad.”
Sharbenau thought her grandmother meant well, but she was a bit strange. The thing is that she had been nice to him when she was feeling a little sad or lonely or something, she remembered the incident herself. The squirrel children found that they often had plenty of time to play and have fun, as well as time to learn to care for themselves and others. Most of the time, they were told to stay home when it was dark. The real reason for this was to protect them from danger. There were other animals. The way they saw things made it difficult for squirrels to identify danger during dark weather. It made it easier for the young people to stay close during these times. Sharbenau felt this made sense and he didn’t fight. He was actually a very well behaved childish squirrel. Most were, but some of them seemed different. For what seemed like a long time, he noted what happened to different individuals depending on what they did. There seemed to be 2 main effects among the more adventurous squirrels. Some met sad fates: they were often injured and many died young in tragedies.
Others had happy fates. It seemed that they were wounded with great energy and talent and were experts at surviving. So Sharbenau developed a new understanding of that type of squirrel. Even so, he didn’t stray far from the older ones than him. He didn’t seem to be in his nature to disobey or go against good advice.
Sharbenau and a raven
One day, when Sharbenau was climbing a tree in an area where he was allowed, he had a very unusual experience. A large raven, at least twice his size, got close enough to him: they locked eyes with him. The bird lowered its head and moved it slowly towards the squirrel.
Sharbenau saw that this large, sharp and dangerous beak was coming towards him, but for some reason he did not feel the usual fear and did not move away. Suddenly, he extended one of his front legs and struck the bird on the beak.
Well, after that happened, they both panicked. The squirrel withdrew its hand from her very suddenly. The bird jerked its head back; This has never happened before! The bird cawed. The squirrel was terrified by the giant dangerous open mouth and horrible sound. Sharbenau started screaming and running around some branches and fled to safety. There he gasped, calmed down, resumed his daily life. The experience stayed with him. Because he remembered it so well, he felt that it might have a deep meaning.
After his experience with the raven, Sharbenau tried to help others when one was hurt or injured. He didn’t do this every time no matter who he was, but he tried. Over time, the others began to talk to each other about it. They were beginning to think that he might have some kind of power to help them. They wondered if it would work if they tried the same things, if it would work in the same way that the older ones of him could show them how to find food and what to eat. They also wondered if maybe it was Sharbenau.
One day Sharbenau went on a hike. He felt more mature and quite proud that he was alone again. In truth, he hadn’t gone far from home. He found a berry bush. He was happy because he found his own food without help for the first time in a long time. On this special occasion, Sharbenau brought a small quantity of the branch with him. Some time after that: seemed like a long time, but it may have been two weeks, Sharbenau was with a squirrel that wasn’t feeling well. Spontaneously, Sharbenau hit the other squirrel with the berry branch, screamed 3 times and danced for half a minute. Then suddenly he just stopped. He suddenly felt embarrassed. He looked at the other squirrel and found that the other one was smiling at him. Sharbenau felt the fur on his tail rise. He tucked his tail in and around. Then quickly Sharbenau found a way to leave.
Later, just 2 days later, there was a new sight. Sharbenau was at the nearest stream to get water. She saw the squirrel she had danced with and touched the branch. The other’s health seemed much better. Sharbenau the squirrel just watched quietly from the shadow. He was beginning to wonder if he had some kind of power after all, and he wasn’t just imagining it.
Part 2
Actually, the other squirrels in the tribe really noticed it. It seemed to everyone that Sharbenau had helped cure the other squirrel. They all started looking at Sharbenau some more, to see if something more ‘amazing’ or ‘amazing’ could happen or not. At first this made Sharbenau very uncomfortable. Later, he realized that he could use it as encouragement to try things sometimes. So after that, he was more likely to follow through on his ideas about healing or resolving things. Now it seemed that if he did something peculiar, the other squirrels would also say, “Well, that’s Sharbenau. That’s why.”
another miracle
One day Sharbenau was out; again, he was a bit apart from the rest of his group. He hadn’t really left the group, or anything like that.
I was on the side of a tree one day, head down into a large oak tree, when another one of these ‘strange occurrences’ took place. Sharbenau sensed the presence of another life form. It was a large, very large creature. The smell was perceptible but not unpleasant. He didn’t know what kind of creature it was from the smell. There was a sound of movement, but the entity moved slowly. Sharbenau decided to stay put. He looked down. He looked at her front paws and felt the strong grip he had on the thick oak bark. This was a very stable situation from what he could tell. Once more the great creature moved.
This time Sharbenau was able to look up and see a part of him on the ground. It was unlike anything he had seen before. He wagged his tail from side to side. He sniffed the light breeze. There was more movement. Sharbenau knew he was risking quite a lot by not running. He had a curious feeling both in his body and in his mind. This time, another large part of the creature appeared. It turned out that it really was gigantic compared to a squirrel, but Sharbenau still thought it was much smaller than the tree it was on. Still, though her tail trembled slightly, Sharbenau didn’t chuckle and she didn’t run.
What happened was that the creature began to make noises; when Sharbenau was still not running, there was a small miracle when the creature touched him without causing him any harm. Sharbenau wasn’t sure how to react. He was quite pleased, but he wasn’t sure why, probably simply because this type of event had never happened before and may never happen again.
The whole experience lasted just a few minutes. Then the large creature made a different set of sounds and began to move rapidly. The squirrel felt a new kind of pressure on its back, and then suddenly it scrambled forward, down, and then around and away from the strange creature. He climbed much higher and farther. In fact, Sharbenau never looked back.
He told the other squirrels in his tribe. Well, there was so much talk about it that the old people found out about it. Finally, Grandma Squirrel told the 2 of them that she thought the creature she had seen and touched might have been a human.
Sharbenau’s new life
From that moment on, no one treated Sharbenau as before. It was strange because the change was somewhat subtle but in other ways obvious. Sharbenau wasn’t exactly sure what he was. Neither did the others, but it was something and they all knew it. After a long time, the squirrels developed a word for it and began to call Sharbenau shaman. Slowly, they tried to share this information with the other tribes.
Sharbenau himself felt a bit peculiar. After all, he was just trying to be himself, he was just this squirrel. He loved his family, he liked his life very much and he enjoyed the tribal way of life. For some reason, he was a bit different from the others. He was even worried if he would ever heal someone with the berry stick again, after he had run it once.
The most surprising thing was double. First, when Sharbenau returned to the tree where she had met the giant creature one day, he would sometimes find offerings. The other amazing fact is that for the first time in history, a human being realized, but he didn’t understand why he came up with this idea, that animals could have their own healers.
