Helga wanted to keep moving, but she tried to be patient. “Don’t worry, Helga,” JanWoo-Corriboo said at last. “I know you want to get there. We’ve got plenty of time. The ‘Mountain That Moves’ doesn’t really go anywhere,” she added with a friendly smile.
As the afternoon was waning, they entered the jagged gorge that JanWoo-Corriboo had pointed out as they left the Bottoms. It was a ghastly place. The barren hills suddenly stopped in a ragged edge, as if torn off by some giant hand. An old, extinct volcano crater yawned open before them. The crater sloped steeply down to unknown depths below. Along one side, where the crater had collapsed in an ancient eruption, the ground was more level. Here and there steam rose from hot springs. The pungent smell of sulphur wafted strongly.
“Welcome to the ‘Mountain That Moves But Stands Still,’” JanWoo-Corriboo announced.
Burwell shuddered. “Where are the Venom Bats?” he said in a quavering voice.
“They come out at dusk,” JanWoo-Corriboo said. “We’ve got some time before that. We’ll want to be in just the right place to see them. Come on. We’ll move down to where the best seats are!”
“Ohhh...Thanks, you’re a real friend,” Burwell sighed.
“You’ll like it, I promise,” JanWoo-Corriboo replied. “You won’t believe how cool it is.”
“My heart is just leaping with excitement!” Burwell observed sourly.
“Well, in any case,” JanWoo-Corriboo said, “we’ve got to get moving. Father will be waiting for me.”
Helga and her friends were thunderstruck. They stared at JanWoo-Corriboo with saucer eyes. “Your father?” they exclaimed together.
“What is your father doing in a place like this?”
“Shhh...” JanWoo-Corriboo scolded playfully. “This is a secret. I’m taking a big risk in even bringing you to the ‘Mountain That Moves But Stands Still’ in the first place. If anyone finds out I meet my father here, I’ll be dead meat.”
“Ohhh...Don’t say ‘dead meat’ around me,” Burwell said. “I keep thinking I hear Venom Bats fluttering around my head already! Yep! Yep! Yep!”
JanWoo-Corriboo related her story. “I was born in the WooPeace,” she began, “my parents were Woonyaks. Mother became committed to the WooPeace. Father never liked the place but did not wish to leave Mother behind. Neither of them wanted me to stay in the WooPeace my entire life. ‘Do you want to stay in the WooPeace when you grow up?’ I remember my mother asking me many times when I was a young beast. The answer I was always supposed to give was, ‘Oh, no, ma’am.’ Mother herself did not know how to leave—or did not want to leave—but she wanted her daughter to have a life in the world above. So, from the time I was a small child, she would take me exploring. She never told the others in the WooPeace what she was doing. It was always just, ‘Oh, we’re just catching salamanders for our dinner,’ and such stuff. But what we were doing was looking for a way out...and we found one.”
“Whew...” Helga whistled. “Do you mean that your parents are still down there?”
“Yes,” JanWoo-Corriboo replied with a tone of sadness in her voice. “I have not seen Mother since I left. It is too dangerous for her to be too obvious about knowing where an exit is. But she brings Father every eight days. I meet him and help him take a bath in the hot mineral springs. He was injured when they fell into the caves. He’s crippled and can’t walk very well. But the hot mineral spring seems to help him. He’s getting better, I think.”
“Doesn’t anyone follow him?” Bwellina asked. “Doesn’t anyone get suspicious?”
“Oh, I imagine some in the WooPeace know. But so long as you aren’t obvious and don’t try to tell others and convince them to go with you, no one will bother you. It’s the fact that most people can’t live knowing they could leave. They’re scared of knowing. Most people won’t even try to follow Mother when she brings Father here, even if they know what she’s doing. Only if the WooZan sees her as a threat to WooPeace would there be trouble. Mother doesn’t want trouble. She’s very discreet.”
Helga’s head was ready to burst. It was absurd. These WooSheep were all stark raving mad! She wanted to scream: “Why don’t you all just...just...well, why don’t you just...Fix it! This is nuts!” Despite Helga’s well-intentioned desire not to be critical, the last three words slipped out.
JanWoo-Corriboo smiled. “Yes, it is nuts, Helga. But I don’t know how to fix it. Do you?”
Helga was silent. She had to admit that she really didn’t know how to fix it. But that didn’t mean there was not a way.
“No,” Helga said quietly, “I don’t know how to fix it. But I think I’ll go nuts if I really have to admit there is no way to change things. So, I’m not admitting that...Not yet at least. I’m a stubborn old Wood Cow in some ways. Mostly I just won’t admit that I’m too stupid to solve a problem until it has completely whipped me. I just heard of this, so I don’t feel whipped yet.”
JanWoo-Corriboo grinned at Helga. “You know,” the young Fox said, “you remind me of me in some ways.”