Wedge Pond

"Hi Fantasy.  How are you today?" I'm in the forest again.  It's raining, but that's ok.  I'm dressed for it, and I need to give Fantasy a story.  She is bigger now, almost full size.  Clearly, there was a lot of meat in the last story.

"Not bad." She replied.  "I'm not one for the rain because it keeps me from flying well, but we need the rain.  Got a story for me?"

"You betcha." I smiled.  She sits on a stump in front of me and I read.

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 Wedge Pond

    "Where do you want to go today?" I asked the others.
    "I dunno." The shrug rippled around the room; everybody felt like relaxing just where they were.  I sighed, "Ok.  Just let me know when and if you want to go on a hike."
    An hour later, we were headed out to hike.  I wasn't a good hiker, but I had been put in charge of four teenagers who had special needs on a trip into the mountains.  We decided to picnic it, and found a good site near a pond.
    Each teenager had a special gift; most had one, but the odd one had two.  Greg could see auras, but I could sense there was another one budding and it had to deal with his electronic ability.  He was relaxing, taking in the feeling of the surroundings through his senses; he was curious about everything.  He looked tense.  I prayed everything was going all right at home.
    An hour later, we had lunch, and people seemed to be starting to relax.  Ariel was the eldest of the teens; she wouldn't be coming with us next year, so she was the most ambitious.  She put down her hotdog and glanced at each of us in turn.
    "Hey, do you guys want to just sit on your duff all day and do nothin'?  It's a beautiful day out there!" She said, "I want to get out there and hike, or do somethin'!  Maybe you're gonna be able to come here next year, but I'm not!"
    "We know Ariel." Mark speared another weener and put it on his bun, "You've told us about a zillion times."
    "So?' She asked, "What do you guys want to do?"
    "Why don't we dig out the maps after lunch and decide then?" I opened another bag of chips and poured it into a bowl.  "We can start out with whatever type of walk you like."
    "Yeah!" Ariel grinned and started wolfing down her food.
    "Ariel, slow down.  I don't want to have to treat you for choking." I chided gently.
    "Yeah, the rest of us want to enjoy our lunch, not get sick on it." Greg said.  Greg had always been a slow eater, but that was ok.  We all had our ways of doing things, and that was his way.  The others either grunted or nodded in agreement and lunch proceeded without event.
    Later, I brought out the maps, and there in the midst of birds, and nature, we debated on the place we could go.  We had decided that the trail that we were close to, Wedge Pond, would be the best  Then we could go on to a trail created by Alister Kaden - The Ankle Lake Trail.  Most people could walk it; only two couldn't because they were wheelchair bound.  They didn't mind though.  They told me that they could take a spin around the parking lot and then take pictures of the view.  I told them to keep in touch every once in a while; they all had smartphones, and an app called HeyTell, a walkie-talkie like app.
    The rest of us began the 1.5 kilometer loop, many of us with cameras in hand.  Even Greg had his own version, his digital recorder.  He wanted to record the sounds on the trail, if there were any.  We were in our element, enjoying the sights and sounds of the Rocky Mountains.