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"Now before we carry on with the story I would like to dedicate it especially to Ayliya Byrne, my beautiful Great Niece who lives in Kent. I know she loves animals and I'm sure she will love Sandy/Gus and Carrie-anne as well as Marius and Rascal and all the strange animals and  friends they meet on their  journey around the country-side."

The Tales of Sandy Bramblefield      

debt consolidation

 Tale One – Saving the Village

 
         Boulder after boulder continued to cascade down the steep mountain side, already Bramble Cottage and River-side Croft lay waste under the rubble that was quickly filling the pass between the Bryn and the Berain. The small road into and out of the tiny hamlet of  Bramble-way, was impassable, and what was even worse  was the way the falling rocks were now  beginning to find there way into the raging river.
“I tell you Doris, if these rocks keep falling all night we shall wake up drowned in the morning.” Sandy said shaking his head from side to side as he looked at the water level rising on his legs.
“If we drowned and wake up in the morning that will be a miracle in itself.” Doris said without looking up from her task in hand, "and if you used you hands more to build this dam, hopefully we will not drown at all, Sandy Bramblefield. Now get your great paws down here and help me with this dam, Jeremy said he wants it at least ten foot high.”

“Oh look Doris! I think that’s your kitchen table over there.” Sandy said a broad smile on his hairy face, “It only has two legs left, poor thing.
“Sandy” Doris yelled at the top of her voice, which was instantly drowned out by the noise from the river. “It is our job to try to stop the water getting into the hamlet from this left bank, now will you move them boulders over here now please?”
Sandy muttered something under his breath, before walking over to the nearest boulder and picking it up as if it were a feather he threw it over to were Doris was standing, who only just managed to get out of the way before it landed with a heavy splash on the edge of the river bank.
“For goodness sake Sandy what are you trying to do now? That almost landed on top of me. Sometimes I wonder if you were born with any brains at all.”
“I didn’t mean for it to land so close Doris, honest I didn’t, I was trying to get it so you wouldn’t have to lift it yourself, it is very heavy. I really am very sorry Doris.”
“I should blooming well hope so you great oaf Sandy Bramblefield” Doris said as she picked herself up and dusted some of the mud off her coat.  With that she turned on her heels and started to walk away from the apologetic bear.
“Where are you going Doris?” Sandy shouted as she walked away, I didn’t mean it honestly I didn’t. I just got carried away. I'm sorry!
“I’m off to find Jeremy he will have to find someone else to help you finish building it, I really don’t want to end up squashed.” Doris shouted back as she carried on walking up the path.

         Sandy stood there, he felt really awful, ok, so he was a bit clumsy, you might even say he was heavy handed, but he was all heart. The fact that his brain and his heart walked two separate paths just made it a little harder to co- ordinate his good will and his daftness. 

He shrugged his shoulders and carried on working on his own. Within no time at all, the dam was almost finished only a couple more large rocks and it would be watertight. The small cottages that lay all along the bottom of the mountainside were safe.  The group of bears on the opposite bank had worked furiously to keep up with Sandy, now they moved back away from the dam as Sandy moved himself into place, carrying with him a rock, so big  that very few bears could have moved together let alone on their own.  He dropped it into the hole and immediately the water in the river turned away from the village and raged down towards the weir which was a few miles further down the Ellewy.

  A huge cheer went up from the rest of the villagers, there were quite a few there who remembered the last time the mountains descended into the small pass;  

 The Bryn side of the mountain had always been a bit temperamental. Sandy’s own father had been killed in the land slide of forty seven, but since then there had never been such terrible storms, and without doubt they had had lots more rain and strong winds than ever before, this time another avalanche further up the stream had raised the level of the water and as the current increased, so the base of the Bryn collapsed and now there was a full scale rescue going on to save Brambleway.

Sandy stood up admiring his work and he bowed low to the bears who were applauding him, a huge smile upon his big, brown hairy face. When the applause turned to screams, Sandy didn’t notice, and the next minute the sound of the falling boulders made him look up. He didn’t have time to move out of the way and the last the villagers saw of him was his huge head fall forward, as a massive boulder landed on top of his shoulders. Sandy was already unconscious when he was sucked under the waves that carried his body down stream towards the weir and certain death.

         Doris screamed, she was trying to keep her eyes on Sandy’s body from the river bank. Jeremy and the others ran down towards the weir but it was useless, parts of the bank had been washed away and they had no way of getting past without climbing up the side of the Berain. It seemed Sandy was going to be the first casualty of the storm. The bears made their way back to Brambleway with the rest of the villagers. There was lots of work still to do to save their cottages and farm buildings and although everyone was crying inside, there was no time to mourn for poor Sandy.

There was work to be done, and so the work on the dam resumed.

Tale Two – Carried Away

When he next woke up the birds were singing in the trees and there was a very watery sun shining in the sky, but at least the rain has ceased. The log had moved and Sandy was now in a sort of crevice under the overhang of the bank. Slowly he tried to get his thoughts together, yet he didn't really remember anything. He didn't recognise any of the terrain and every time he tried to move the pain stopped him, yet he knew he must get up from the waters edge for the river might still be rising.

Trying hard to roll over and gritting his teeth against the pain he eventually made it onto all fours, he scrambled up and out of the riverbank into a field, then very slowly he pulled himself onto his hind legs. The pain was incredible and he felt faint, he quickly sagged back down onto the green grass. He was covered in an assortment of things all embedded in his long fur;

There were twigs, small pebbles, grit, even bits of paper here and there, pieces of plastic from old shopping carriers, usually thrown away by the humans. He began the audious task of cleaning his fur. What a mess, under his left armpit he found a small pair of sunglasses, sunglasses how on earth did they get there he wondered. He laughed but quickly stopped it hurt too much. He glanced around wondering where on earth he could be. He recognized nothing, just strange fields and fences,  then it suddenly dawned on him. He didn't recognise anywhere because he didn't know where anywhere was.
He frowned, gosh he wished the pain would go, he could feel that all right, and he knew he had to find someone to help him.
The fur across the back of his neck was  matted and sticky, he could smell the blood. He vaguely remembered someone shouting his name, and a rock coming straight towards him from above. But that was it, everything else was a blank.
Very slowly he stood up again and moved along staying  close to the side of the hedge. He could be anywhere and there was no point in making any ones aquaintance until he was sure the area was friendly to animals, especially bears.

After walking the length of two fields he reached a gate that led out onto the open road.  He passed through it, making sure to close it behind him and stepped onto a small lane with grass growing down the middle of it, obviously it wasn’t used that often. He stopped for a moment to regain his breath, his head was hurting and there was fresh blood  on his neck. He rested a few minuits, then feeling a little stronger he strained his senses to try and decide which was the best way to go. He could hear music and possibly smell bacon cooking, the smell he was sure was coming from some were down the lane. The sun in the sky told him it must be about nine o'clock, so it could have been someone cooking breakfast. He walked carefully towards the sound, then as he rounded the bend, there sat in a lay-by was a brightly coloured caravan. He felt a slight butterfly in his tummy as he walked to the bottom of the steps and shouted.
"Hello, is anyone at home?” The caravan door was open and Sandy could hear the singing coming from the back of the van. It was a womans voice and she was singing a really pretty song, something about a woman and a wheelbarrow.
"Hello there!" Sandy shouted again, this time knocking on the door as he did so.
The  singing stopped, a swift few running steps and a young woman of about  twenty five stood in the doorway. She had long brown hair that reached down to her waist, brown eyes that shone like amber, the smile never left her face as she gazed down into Sandy's upturned face.
"Well this is a surprise, it's not often I have a big brown bear knocking at my front door. Will ye be wanting to come in." She frowned, "you're not looking to well?" She reached forward and pulled a handful of bracken out of Sandy's fur. "Come on up, I think you need a nice cup of tea."
Sandy climbed up the four little steps and  turning on his side made it easily through the caravan door. Then as he took a step forward he suddenly felt very giddy. He felt himself falling to the floor and then everywhere went black, poor Sandy he was on the floor again.

Carrie-anne, without panicing went to the kitchen  and soaked a cloth with cold water. She knelt down besides Sandy and placed it on his forehead, then she placed some smelling salts under his nose and within seconds Sandy was beginning to come round.
"Gosh, I am so sorry Miss, I think I just might be a bit hungry and the smell of that bacon frying was more than I could take." He added with a laugh.

Carrie-anne smiled at Sandy. "Right," she said, "Let's first tell each other who we are." She held out her hand. "My name is Carrie-anne, this is "Rascal", she pointed to a big black cat with purple whiskers who was drinking milk from a blue bowl, then she walked over to a small corner of the caravan and came back carrying a baby, "and this here is Marius. He is my son and he's 2 years old." She stroked the little boy under the chin. "Marius this is... " she held out her hand.
The big bear smiled a huge smile which showed all his teeth, this would usually have frightened an adult but Marius just sat and looked at him a smile still on his face. "Well Carrie-anne, it is really nice to meet yourself, young Marius and Rascal" he paused and thought for a moment, "but I can honestly tell you that I haven't got the slightest idea who I am."  
He sat on the floor a puzzled look on his face, then he looked up into Carrie-anne's face. "I'm so sorry but..." he stopped talking as he felt a huge lump in his throat. Was he going to cry, he could never remember crying before, but then again how could he know... he had lost his memory.
"Never mind, come on jump up, but slowly now, we don't want you passing out again. Let's get some breakfast inside you then we can try and work something out or you."
Carrie-anne popped Marius in his playpen and wrapping her arm around Sandy, she helped him up.  They sat down at the table to eat bacon butties followed by toast and jam without saying a word. Only when Carrie-anne placed a nice big mug of steaming tea in front of him did Sandy speak again.
"Well you had better start off by telling me everything that you do remember," she said quietly for wee Marius had nodded off in the playpen. 

"I'm afraid that won't take long. I vaguely remember waking up under a big log in a river somewhere. It was still dark, then I must have fallen asleep again for the next time I woke up it was daylight, the log had gone or maybe I had moved again, I really can't remember." He took a huge drink of his tea before continuing. "I crawled up the bank and made my way along the side of two fields."
"Which way did you come here, up the lane or down the lane? Carrie asked.
"Down, I heard the sound of your singing, smelt the bacon and decided this is where I should be," he smiled.
"And you can't remember any more than that, not even your name? The big bear shook his head from side to side. "Nope, not a thing."
"Well we can't be friends if I have to shout "hey you" all the time, so I guess we will have to come up with a name of some sort." she stroked her chin and poured out another cup of tea from a big pot. What do you think , can't say I've given a name to many bears before but if I had, have done, I think it would be Gus."
"Then that's it, Gus it shall be." Sandy said not realising at that moment that he was going to change his name in this story and continue as Gus, instead of Sandy, till like, forever maybe! 

So with a smile reaching from ear to ear, Gus bowed in front of Carrie-anne, "I am at your service Carrie-anne, when would you like me to start?"
The both picked up their cups and together said a loud "Cheers to Carrie-anne and Gus! Let the adventure begin."  and sitting together at Carrie-anne's little table they drank tea and laughed till their tummy's ached.