Soul Food Cafe - Travels With A Donkey

Winged shoes racing through the air to White Owl, where I had been before,
I got there quick, but no time for sight seeing. Had to find my donkey.
There was a donkey for me as the kind Muse of the Donkeys, who goes by
the name of Fran among others, assured me. A donkey with long furry ears
and a dreamy kind of nature, that read books and wore glasses,
indicated it wanted to come along for an adventure.
"Call me Belenus" it said, "Like the Sun God".
I laughed a bit.
"I hope you don't mind me wearing glasses",
said the newly christened "Belenus".
"Of course not," I said, "we will
be wanting to see things differently, - be wise eyed in fact. I have
glasses too in my bag of tricks."
Belenus looked satisfied, and put down the
Classics he had been reading. There was a stack of them
leaned against an old oak.
"Leaving my books for a Grand Tour," he said, "a grand adventure.
And this is right, you see. It's how it's meant to be.
And I hope you don't mind if we fly
at times, me being a plodder and all."
"Only too pleased you want to fly too," I said.
"I have always wanted to fly, closer to the sun, the reason for my name,"
he said, "but not too close, mind, as I have just read about that poor
fellow, whatsisname?"
I smiled because I remembered reading about the mythical figure, Icarus,
flying too close to the sun. This fact was pleasing, as I knew my donkey
had uncommon sense already. Just what I needed. Perfect.
"So you wish to fly," I said, "above your daily cares, but not too
high? That suits me. We are off to find a treasure, and
be buccaneers. We have to find the dead man's chest.
Come on, we don't have lots of time to spare."
Belenus and I had to fly, so we waved farewell to the
Muse of the Donkeys with her good wishes, and flew over land and
dale, looking for the shore of a mysterious lake where the
treasure was likely to be found. But I had to do some thinking along
the way, - this was not an easy task. Enchanteur always made things
sound easy at first, and then they always got tricky. But this was
her way, and it only made us more intrigued, liking a good mystery and
all, as both of us equally did. Belenus loved flying, and loved seeing
the sun at closer range. "Not too close," he said, and I agreed.
"We might see the sunlight glinting on the lake," he
said, looking down with his glasses on the end of his nose.
And sure enough, through a break in the trees we would
see the lake, and other things besides%u2026
copyright Imogen Crest 2006.