Hoppy
looked around sadly for she had made some special friends and she had
grown to love the watering hole so much, she really didn't want to leave.
But the time had come.
So... she bit her lip, straightened her ears and held her tail high and when her pouch was packed, she set off with her family once again before the tears could fall.
Hoppy
and her family eventually bounded into a beautiful place full of choice
gum tips just like Kirsten Koala had said. The creatures of the bush welcomed
the family with open paws.
Donny Dingo and Wally Wombat told stories of their own wanderings and searching for they too had been affected by the drought. They were happy to share their new home.
But
Hoppy could not believe how much she missed the coastal scrub and the
watering hole or her friends.
She tried not to think about how sad or lonely she was, but no matter how hard she tried, the tears kept trickling down her face. Still she unpacked her pouch and tried to learn the ways of living among the gum trees. It was strange, oh so strange. The sounds were different, the roots and tips tasted different, the other joeys played different games, and Eddy Echidna looked so strange.
She
wondered if perhaps leaving home had even been a mistake.
She wondered if perhaps they could go back to the coast.
She felt sad and lonely and strange and new. She didn't know the way to live among the gums.
It hurt so much especially at night that she counted the stars, teased Eddy Echidna, chased Emmy Emu or ate eucalyptus tips until she was almost sick. She did anything to keep herself busy and to avoid admitting how she was feeling.
Each
day at sunrise and sunset, she listened to the strange calls of the parakeets
and the galahs, and slowly, so slowly she learnt their language.
One day she heard a great hubbub amongst the galahs. They were excitedly telling of a bush fire coming that way, whipped up by the desert wind. Hoppy listened. She knew almost instinctively that this would mean her home would be destroyed and she and her family could not waste any time for even as they chattered the smell of burning leaves reached her nostrils.
This
time she packed her pouch very quickly. She had no time for farewells
or even to notice how she felt. She hardly had time to straighten her
ears or lift her tail high, for she remembered the stories the old kangaroos
had told of the speed and fury of the bushfire.
The Kangaroo family bounded away their strong hind legs taking them safely away from the danger.
Tired and hungry from the long trek, Hoppy sat by a river to sip its cool water and nibble the juicy grasses along its bank. She looked around.
Where were her friends? Where was her familiar water hole? Where were the galahs and emus and echidnas? What was that weird screech? Why did the strange creature run from her? Where could she safely rest?
So many questions flooded her mind. Once again everything was new. She knew she would have to learn the special skills of the river plain, so she set about in a determined way.
She tried pretending to herself she was not sad. And sometimes that worked. Actually, she was glad her friends could not see the sadness in her eyes or notice how her ears drooped. She began to settle into her new surroundings and actually enjoyed meeting Polly Platypus and Bluey Bluetongue, and tried not to think too much about her lost friends because it hurt too much.