It was the honking that woke Hare up. The loud, annoyed, and annoying honking of the geese in the meadow just outside his tree. Hare made a mug of tea and went outside.
“Good morning,” said Hare to the geese. He was a bit surprised that it took just four geese to make all that racket.
The geese stopped honking at each other and turned toward Hare.
“Oh, hello,” said the biggest goose. “Sorry, we didn’t realize anyone lived here.”
“I realized it,” said one of the others. “You just wouldn’t listen to me, as usual Coriolus.”
“I realized it too, Bruce” said another. “We’re twins,” he explained to Hare. “He’s Bruce and I’m Spruce, and we usually notice the same things at the same time.”
“That’s not quite what I’ve seen you two do,” said the fourth goose. “My name is Lucky, by the way. Lucky Goose. Pleezetameetcha.”
“Likewise, I’m sure,” said Hare. “My name is Hare.”
“Just ‘Hare’?” said Coriolus. “Are you sure? Don’t you have a given name as well? With us, we share ‘Goose’, but my given name is Coriolus, so that in effect…”
“I do,” said Hare, “but around here everybody just knows me as ‘Hare.’”
“But what about when you migrate in the winter and you’re with all the other hares?” asked one of the geese. Hare thought it might have been Spruce.
“Hares don’t migrate,” said Hare. “That’s more of a bird thing.”
“Not birds generally, though,” said Magpie, who had just arrived. “I, for one, don’t migrate.”
“Neither do I,” said Owl. Owl had been flying over and swooped down when she noticed the geese and Hare in the meadow.
“Well we do,” said Lucky. “At least we’re supposed to. I’m not sure we’re going the right way, thanks to Coriolus.”
“It’s not my fault,” said Coriolus. “When you’re flying above a rotating sphere, there’s this effect that can throw you off because of angular momentum…”
“It doesn’t seem to bother any of the other flock leaders,” said Bruce (who might have been Spruce).
“Angular momentum?” said Magpie. “Nonsense; I fly all over the place and nothing throws me off. How about you, Owl?”
“Nope,” said Owl. “Can’t say I’ve ever been thrown off just because I’m flying. Quite the opposite, in fact; when you’re up in the air you can see all the landmarks so you know where you are.”
“Oho!” said Lucky, “maybe that’s it! Do you know the landmarks, Coriolus? The ones you learned in flock leader school?”
“Well…” said Coriolus.
“Hey, hang on,” said Spruce (who might have been Bruce), “Coriolus, you did go to flock leader school, right?”
“Um…” said Coriolus.
“I knew it!” said Lucky. “You didn’t even go to flock leader school! No wonder we’ve been flying to such weird locations. You don’t know the migration landmarks, do you?”
“Er…” said Coriolus.
“So now what are we going to do?” said Bruce (this time it was definitely Bruce). “We’ve been relying on an unlicensed flock leader to take us where we’re supposed to migrate to, and he doesn’t have any idea how to get there.”
“You’re welcome to stay here in the forest,” said Hare. “But please don’t honk so loudly. Or at least not so early in the morning. Some of us might be trying to sleep.”
“Sorry about the noise,” said Coriolus. “These three tend to get a bit overexcited sometimes.” He gave a hard look to Lucky, Bruce, and Spruce.
“You’re blaming us?” honked Lucky, Bruce, and Spruce at the same time.
Hare winced and put his paws over his ears. “Please keep it down!” he said. “It’s still early, you know.”
“What’s all the racket?” asked Fox, who had trotted over because of the noise.
“It’s a long story,” said Hare.
“Hang on,” said Coriolus, “let’s find out more about Hare’s kind offer for us to stay here. Hare, what’s it like here in the winter? Does it snow?”
“Sure it does,” said Hare. “Is that a problem?”
“If you keep it down, there’s room in my barn,” said Owl. “You’d be out of the weather at least.”
“I want to be in the weather, but I want it to be nice weather,” said Lucky.
“Hmmm,” said Fox. “I think I’m starting to understand. You geese are trying to migrate but you ended up here instead, right?”
“Yes,” said Coriolus, “by accident.”
Lucky, Bruce, and Spruce were just about to start honking at Coriolus again when Fox said “if that’s the situation, then I think I have a solution.”
All four geese turned to look at Fox.
“You do?” said Coriolus.
“What is it?” asked Spruce.
“Tell us”, said Lucky.
“It’s simple,” said Fox. “Just follow those guys.” She pointed her tail up into the sky, where a V of geese were flying past.
“Hey!” said Lucky, starting to run. “Guys! Wait for us! Hey!” Lucky flapped into the air and started flying as fast as he could toward the geese, honking as loudly as he could.
Spruce and Bruce looked at each other, then said “thanks Fox, Seeya,” and flew after Lucky.
“What about you, Coriolus?” said Hare.
“I’m a little embarrassed,” said Coriolus. “I was just trying to take care of those three as best I could. We got separated from our flock somehow, and when we ended up as a mere gaggle…”
“Oh never mind,” said Hare. “If you hurry you’ll catch up. Have a nice winter, Coriolus.”
Coriolus took a running leap and flew after the others. He started honking too, and Magpie could see the V of migrating geese slow down so the four could catch up.
Hare rubbed his ears. “Those geese could sure turn up the volume,” he said. “But now I’m up, and since you’re all here, does anybody want some tea and cake?”
Everybody did.
