Baartock led the way back toward the dry stream bed. He wasn't sure what he would be able to show. All the noise this human, Mr. Fennis, was making was scaring everything away. Even the squirrels and mice were all hiding. He pointed through the trees at a head-knocking bird.
"It's a red-headed woodpecker," said Mr. Fennis, when he finally saw it.
Then Baartock got an idea. He knew just what to show. He started up the hill along the stream bed.
"We shouldn't go too far. We have to be able to hear when they call."
"Can hear. Not far," said Baartock as he kept scrambling up the hill. This was something that no amount of noise could scare away.
"Please slow down," asked Mr. Fennis after a few minutes. He wasn't used to racing up hills, and he was getting hot.
"Not far," repeated Baartock, but he did slow down to let Mr. Fennis catch up.
At one time there must have been a lot of water coming down from a spring, because the stream bed was wide in some places and deep in others as it cut a path down the hill. But now it was dry most of the time, except when it rained, when the water would come churning down the hill, bubbling past the rocks and washing the leaves down hill. Then after the rain ended, it would stop flowing, just leaving pools to dry up in the sunlight.
Mr. Fennis caught up with Baartock at a bend in the stream bed, just where it went around a clump of trees. Baartock just pointed up the hill.
"Mine," he said.