Michael’s Ark. Alex Nuller

was no response, and Mike climbed up.

      When he finally was on deck, he saw that Moosie had disappeared again.

      “I hurt his feelings!” Mike thought, immediately regretting that he had yelled at his friend.

      However, there was no time for apologies. Walking along the listing deck turned out to be very difficult; you could fall down and go over the side at any time. Grabbing on to the railing, Mike got hold of a mooring line, worked it into a circle and hung it around his neck. Going back with the line looped around his neck was even harder. Fortunately, Camel was standing under the rope ladder, just as before.

      “Well, Dreamer, shall we go back? You’re not too tired?” Mike tried to cheer up his means of transportation.

      “That is of no significance!” Camel dignifiedly observed. “As the great commanders would say, ‘Gaudet patientia duris!’ which in the Latin means ‘Patience rejoices in adversity!’ Let’s be off!”

      They were back on the shore next to Wolf’s hole in twenty minutes.

      Wolf had recovered somewhat; he didn’t howl any more, he just cursed.

      “We’ll get you out now, Wolfie!” Mike cried happily. “We brought a rope.”

      “It’s not a rope, it’s a line!83” Wolf growled.

      It was time to start the rescue operation. Mike tied one end of the line to Camel, and dropped the other carefully into the crevice.

      “Okay, Wolf, wrap the line around you!” Mike cried. “We’ll pull you out now.”

      Wolf tied the line around his waist, and then took it in his teeth.

      “Okay!” Mike called to Camel. “Pull!”

      Camel walked along the shore, moving away from the hole. The line took a strain, but immediately hung up by a rock on the edge of the hole and got stuck. Mike tried to work it loose, but he wasn’t strong enough.

      “Halt!” Mike cried. “This won’t work.”

      Camel took a step back, and Wolf plopped down on the bottom of the hole.

      The friction is preventing any movement,” Camel observed. “We need to somehow enhance the lubricity of the line.”

      “What?” Mike asked. “Just tell me simply, what do we have to do?”

      “We need to place something slippery, right here,” Camel explained, pointing with his hoof at the edge of the hole, as for example a piece of wood soaked in water.”

      “We need to find one.” Mike said.

      “That is a reasonable conclusion, my young friend,” said Camel, “but I advise you to be careful. If you should fall into a hole as well, it would be necessary to extract you both, which would significantly complicate the task.”

      “Don’t worry, I won’t fall in!” Mike said and went off to search along the shore.

      Chapter 10. Buffalo

      Mike walked rather far, but he couldn’t find a suitable piece of wood. He had already decided to turn back, when all at once he saw something like a copse84 in the distance, stretching from far away inland to the shoreline. Mike picked up his pace.

      It took Mike about ten minutes to reach the copse. He heard water flowing behind the trees. Pushing aside the branches, he saw a stream trickling along the stones and flowing into the sea.

      “Fresh water!” Mike thought.

      He worked his way through the bushes, jumped across the stones among the sedge85 and got to the edge of the stream. Mike crouched down and scooped up some water in his hands. The water was very tasty and smelled of fresh grass.

      Mike turned back to find some piece of wood, made a step and…froze in his tracks.

      Some unknown animal with sharp, curved horns stood where Mike was standing a minute before, staring at him with a steady gaze. From a distance, the animal looked like a bull, but his foreparts were covered with thick curly wool, while his hind parts were normal, like a cow.

      “Hello,” Mike said cautiously, not expecting anything good to result from the meeting.

      The animal said nothing, just flicking its tail.

      Mike thought it would be best to run from the beast, but the stream was behind him, and his path to Wolf and Camel was cut off. He had to resort to discussion.

      “I’m Mike,” Mike said, loudly and clearly pronouncing each word, “I’m travelling through here. My friend got in trouble, and I’m trying to help him.”

      It was hard to know whether the animal understood Mike. He stood silently, just flicking his tufted tail.

      Mike carefully moved toward the beast, but the animal dipped his head, pointing his sharp curved horns forward.

      “I…” Mike began, but he didn’t manage to finish.

      “Do you butt heads?” the animal asked unexpectedly.

      “Butt heads?” Mike said, dumbfounded. “I can’t butt heads, I’m not a bull, I’m a boy. My name is Mike.”

      “And I’m a buffalo – a bison,” the animal said, “my name is Bruiser.”

      “It’s a pleasure to meet you,” Mike replied, although so far it hadn’t been much of a pleasure.

      “Butting is a pleasure,” said the buffalo Bruiser, “nothing else matters! I’m looking for somebody that I can butt with. Have you met anybody I can butt with?”