After a while of flying over the river, Tia decided to walk for a while and landed. She didn’t think that it would be that much further to the edge of the woods now. While walking along the riverbank, Tia heard something in the trees about a hundred feet away from her. It sounded big and it had a deep sounding grunt. When Tia stopped and looked in that direction, she noticed it was getting closer. What is that, she thought.
Just then, she saw it push past a boysenberry bush. It was a rather large black bear making its way to the river. Tia stood still as the bear scampered over to the water and started to drink. Oh good, it’s not after me, Tia thought. So, she continued on her way but glanced back several times to make sure that the bear wasn’t going to run after her.
“Even though it’s pretty out here, it sure can be dangerous,” Tia said.
As Tia got closer to what she knew as the edge of the woods, she started to smell a hint of smoke in the air. Why do I smell smoke, she thought. Tia flew up and continued to follow the river until she actually saw some smoke. Not a lot but enough to make her wonder. She also noticed that some of the trees were cut down and lying on the ground.
“What is going on?” Tia flew a little further.
Tia finally saw the cause of the smoke. It was a small cabin with a chimney that was built a ways away from the river bank. But why would they need to cut down so many trees, she thought.
As Tia flew around the bend, she saw more trees lying down on the ground. And this time she also saw the machinery that her cousin Bo told her about. When she saw a few humans walk into sight is when she flew down behind a boysenberry bush. She watched as the humans used a hand held machine to cut up the smaller trees. And then she saw a larger machine drive over, pick up the big trees, and move them onto a big long machine.
“The humans are cutting down so many trees. I have to see what else they are doing,” Tia looked to see which way she could go.
Tia flew up and around the bush. She flew across the river to the other side and hoped that she was small enough to not be noticed by the humans. As she flew a little further down the river, Tia noticed all the trees were gone. She saw the hard black rivers that they drive on, and more humans where pounding and putting together new buildings. Tia even saw the humans building something that went all the way across the river.
“The humans are expanding their city,” Tia said as she fluttered high and watched them.
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