It was a bright, glorious, sunny spring morning in the Amaranth Grove. “Ouch!” Something hard hit me on my head. I winced as I opened my eyes to find Jinx, my pet squirrel staring at me. I sat up while rubbing my aching forehead and found a shriveled up walnut lying on my bed. Jinx must have thrown it at me while I was sleeping. “Jinx! That’s no way to wake someone up!” I growled as I climbed out of bed. Jinx ignored me and was busy jumping up and down while chattering away in “squirrelish” (My own term for squirrel language). “Whoa, lil’ fellow. I don’t speak squirrel so slow down.” Jinx scrambled out of my room and quickly return with my cloak. “My cloak?” I asked as I wondered what my cloak has to do with Jinx’s peculiar behavior. I turned to face the calendar and realized that today is my turn to make rounds to check on the animals and plants in the grove. I quickly wash up and back my necessities for my trip to the grove.

As I locked my cottage door, I was greeted by Erasmus, my druid companion and friend. “Good morning, Nessa! You’re late!” “Sorry to keep you waiting, Erasmus. I’m ready now, so come on let’s go.” Erasmus walked up next to me as we headed towards the grove while Jinx hopped off a tree branch and land on Erasmus’s back for a free ride. Jinx had been looking forward to visit his creatures friends in the grove as he had been cooped up in my cottage all winter, playing tricks on everyone including Twilight and Alastair, my magical pet creatures adopted from the Enchanter's festival.

As we approached the grove, there were a lot of animals gathered at the grove’s entrance. “What’s going on?” asked Erasmus who walked up to the group of animals gathered at the entrance. “It’s horrible!” cried a little blue bird and all the animals started talking at once. In this commotion, all I was able to catch were a bunch of animals sounds, “chirp chirp, bark bark, hiss hiss”. “Hold it right there, everyone! I only have one pair of ears so can you all please speak one at a time.” And once again all the animals started talking at the same time. “This is hopeless!” I thought to myself. I pulled out a whistle from my pocket and blew hard on it. At the sound of the alarming whistle, all the animals stopped their chattering at once. “Listen, everyone. I can’t help you guys if I don’t know what is going on. Can someone please tell me what’s going on and..HOLD IT! Just one person…Sorry I mean animals.” I tried to keep the crowd in control, it’s hard enough controlling a bunch of people and what’s more if your audience are animals. “I just need one of you to tell me what’s going on…er…How about you, badger?” I tried to find an animal who could give me a comprehensive view of the problem. Who am I kidding? “I just woke up from my winter hibernation…and…” “Aww...gramps! Cut the story short and just tell her what’s wrong!” cried an annoyed young red fox. “Grr…If you know so much, why don’t you tell it to her yourself!” the old badger growled at the fox. “Grr…Fine! I’ll tell her!” the young red fox growled back and the two begun to argue amongst themselves. Erasmus and I both sighed, this is going to be a long day…

When things has settled down, the young red fox spoke up again. “All of us have just return to the groove after our long winter hibernation and migration. To our horror, our spring homes have been destroyed. Some kids from the village must have sneaked into the grove and vandalized our homes while we were away during the winter.” “That’s terrible…” both Erasmus and I were saddened by what happened to the grove. “Yes, indeed. Now what do we do?” asked the young red fox. All the animals became restless and the grove was noisy once again. “Oh, Nessa. We need to help them.” Erasmus pleaded. “Yes, but how can I help? I don’t know where to start.” “Oh, I know! We can invite them to our cottage. You love animals, don’t you, Nessa? That’s why you took in Jinx, Twilight and Alastair when they were homeless.” Jinx was nodding in agreement as he jumped up and down on Erasmus’s back. “I would love to but our cottage can’t fit everyone. I’m still working on some repairs and the living room is still under construction.” “But…but you’re the Guardian and Preserver of the Reservoir of Secrets! One of the guardians of this grove. You must be able to do something about this…” pleaded Erasmus. “I…I…” I stammered as I struggle to think of an idea. With the druids’ annual spring festival approaching, I barely have time to prepare for…Wait a second! I have an idea! “Hey, everyone! I’ve got an idea. Would you please listen to me?” I shouted out the other animals that were busy going at each other. “You do? I…I’m sorry pressuring you…I felt sorry for all of them and…” Erasmus said guilty. “It’s ok, Erasmus. Hey everyone, listen up! I’ve got an idea. I’m going to ask the help of the Amaranthians to help you all with rebuilding your spring homes. We, the druids of Amaranthia will host a contest to have the Amaranthians to help design your homes and then we’ll rebuild your homes. With more man power and…” Erasmus gave me a nudge. “oh yes…and animal power, we would be able to rebuild your homes in no time. So what do you all say?” “Sounds good.” the young red fox and the badger seemed to agree on something. “Yeah, if it was left to us, we’ll never finish in time.” squeaked March Hare Junior, Mrs. Hare’s youngest kid rabbit. “Yes, I understand. I’ll go report this to the Archdruidess, Elinirewiel and the other druidesses and druid then we’ll get back to you all real soon.” “Come on, Erasmus, Jinx! We’ve got work to do.”

With that we’ve found a solution to our crisis. I hope all of you who read about this will come join us in helping the animals rebuild their spring homes. Watch out for the event entitled, “Animal Spring Home design contest”. For more details, please keep an eye for the upcoming Druid’s 2009 Annual Song of Trees and Spring Festival that will be held on 24 to 31 May 2009.