Chief Mankani shares plans with Mirawami in Bentari:[1]

Seeing random, distant cumulous clouds in the eastern sky, he remembered that the rainy season was nearing and he said with a confident smile, “We will be like the crocodiles who swim upstream before the floodtides, Daughter.”

She understood his meaning and replied, “Yes, I see, Father. You know, it will be difficult to keep Bentari from playing such a game.”

Later, Mirawami tests her son:[2]

“Do you remember what wise crocodiles do when they sense the river rising?” she asked with a teasing challenge as she served him up his bowl of stew.

“Of course, Mother,” he answered right away. “They swim upstream to find a pool beneath a waterfall.”

“And what do they do there, my clever lad?”

“They lie in wait for the fish that the floods will bring.”

“And who from nearby shores may watch this flood fed feast with never a worry despite so many hungry giants thereabout?”

The dainty, shrill peeping from Bentari’s smiling face assured her. “Poo-weet, poo-weet,” he chirped, perfectly imitating the tiny water fowl as he sipped his mother’s stew.

Little Bentari, acting as the “plover” spy, nears the Valley of Shadows:[3]

Wulumbo Falls lies near the northern end of the valley, and this was the wellspring of the Kwa River. The headwaters formed where the drainage funneled down through lava cliffs and spilled forth between two jutting peaks that stood like parapets atop the wall of rock. Now the falls were diminished by the season’s long drought. The water spilled lazily down in a straight, slow shower. The banks of the thirsty basin were now dried cakes of hard mud that bordered a tiny pond like a nearly empty birdbath. Here and there, shallow dens housed unmoving crocodiles. Plovers nested near the water’s edge. The hippos had all abandoned the dried up water hole and headed into the forest seeking shade.

Disclosure: Though dating back to the Greek historian Herodotus (c. 484-425BC), stories of plover and crocodile symbiosis have never been confirmed photographically.

Please don’t tell that to Bentari!

[1] Buy Bentari on Amazon at: http://www.amazon.com/dp/0615347584/?tag=mh0b-20&hvadid=3488143437&ref=pd_sl_dotyt19vk_e

[2] See “Vegan fortune cookies and how to love the world” posted 9/24/2011 at: http://www.bentari.com/Blog/Entry.aspx?pid=276&bid=51&beid=880

[3] See “Ebb and Flow” posted 9/19/2010 at: http://www.bentari.com/Blog/Entry.aspx?pid=276&bid=51&beid=773