The rest of the forest was quiet. Not even the wind had the nerve to rustle the leaves. The ever-present bumble and buzz of the insects was just a dull, hardly perceptible, drone. For once it seemed, nature was conspiring with her, thought Lorelai as she slowly inched her way up from Rose, her snoozing calf.
The mother moose had been progressively shifting her body weight away over the course of the last half hour in preparation for this moment. One hairs-breadth at a time she had eventually created enough space that she could rise without notice. The ground was covered in a thick layer of lichen - to the point where it was questionable that there was hard-packed ground under there at all. Regardless it made for an excellent bed and served equally well for a get away.
As she arrived at her full height, she allowed herself a quiet breath - mostly because she had been holding it for so long she felt she might pass out if she didn't. Lorelai silently raised high one leg and then another, using the soft ground to her advantage. When she had finally moved all four legs a full step towards her evening snack patch, she looked back to see Rose, head fully raised, staring at her expectantly.
"What are you doing?" asked the calf suspiciously.
"Grown up stuff." An answer she realized was worthy of the suspicion with which she was being met.
"Can I come?"
"No."
"Why?"
"Because you need to be here for the sandman so that you can get some sleep."
"What's the sandman going to do?"
"Make you sleep I assume."
"How?"
"He throws sand in your eyes."
Horrified, her calf answered, "That doesn't seem ok - I thought I wasn't supposed to talk to strangers and now you're telling me to let some weirdo assault me with tiny rocks?"
Lorelai sighed a deep sigh. The kind of sigh that only a parent who knows they are beyond the point of no return on a no-win line of questioning can sigh.
"He's not assaulting you. He just puts the sand there so you can fall asleep and have sweet dreams," she reassured.
But Rose could not be reassured.
"Why would he do that?"
"To help you have a good night's rest so you can wake up refreshed in the morning."
"How would making my eyes all itchy with sand make me sleep better?"
Defeated, Lorelai glanced back at the plot of vegetation she had been looking forward to browsing. Maybe tomorrow night, she thought as resignedly moved back towards her calf and lay down.