Now Gollup, having just been frightened by the creature in the water staring back at him (or her), and mustering bravado – since gollups are not timid creatures (of which Gollup was the only one), cautiously leaned forward once again, so as to clean the drinking flask in order to drink the honey tea; carefully examined this creature staring back at her (or him) in the water.

The first thing that Gollup observed was that the creature (which was in the water) was also staring back at him (or her) with the same perplexed expression (although Gollup didn’t know that gollup had a perplexed expression) and reaching out to touch the creature was very surprised to see the creature dissappear in ripples upon Gollup’s well manicured hand entering the brook…

Immediately Gollup felt silly, realizing that this was no creature at all, and her (or his) quiet spot for blueberry jam and oat and barley bread had not at all been disturbed, but instead, was Gollup’s own reflection. Now Gollup had never seen a gollup before, for the aforementioned reasons, and after the ripples settled, decided to take a good look at a gollup.

Now Gollup was very surprised at what Gollup saw, as indeed gollups – not being vain creatures, and never having owned a mirror – discovered that gollups were quite odd looking.

Gollup had big brown eyes that almost filled his entire face, and now gollup was sure that he was a he as gollup also realized that the hair he felt around his mouth could only (and rightly) be associated with a male gollup as all good gollups know (of which Gollup was the only one). He also noticed that his complexion was quite clean and very impressed with himself as gollups should be very clean washing thoroughly and drying, and then of course washing and drying again, just as thoroughly.

Gollup smiled in appreciation of Gollups own complextion to discover that his two rows of teeth, but top and bottom were not so clean. Well Gollup could not stand this and the smile immediately went away as gollups are very hygenic, and this rather disturbed poor Gollup. He couldn’t go into wunderlingshire with dirty teeth as that would just not do! This prompted gollup to examine his visual features much more closely as to what else might need attention, before gathering the proper tools to clean himself, and dry himself, and then wash and dry himself again.

He examined his ears to find that indeed they were clean as Gollup did, as he did every day and every night, use a special cloth designed for cleaning his ears, as they were rather prominent ears (which is why gollups have very long hair, in order to hide their prominent ears). His hair was a bronze color of very fine hair, which fell from under the straw woven hat, and Gollup indeed removed his hat, to examine and be sure that his hair was clean and shiney as it should be, for a gollup with awareness for cleanliness.

Gollup quickly cleaned out the drinking flask (which as we mentioned before was really not much larger than a thimble), and dried it, and then washed and dried it again, returning to the picnic blanket to retrieve another wash cloth and dry cloth, then returning to the brook to be sure that his teeth would be clean also.

Dipping the washing cloth into the brook, gollup waited impatiently for the brook to settle again, as he took some of the warrow root (used by gollups to wash everything) and placed it on the cloth. Once the brook had settled properly quiet for Gollup to see he began to meticuliously clean each tooth one at a time. Now this was a time consuming task as all gollups (of which he was the only one) had two rows of upper teeth and two rows of lower teeth and Gollup was not going to just clean them twice, because of the state they were in, requiring an obvious 5 sets of cleaning per tooth.

When duly satisfied that each tooth was clean, and seeing the white of the teeth under the honey brown glaze which was there before, Gollup sat back, relieved that he was not going into wunderlingshire with anything but the best hygiene. Gollup returned to the picnic blanket and prepared to enjoy his blueberry jam on oat and barley bread, with honey tea.

Gollup took his dagger from his belt and sliced a very thin wafer of oat and barley bread, wrapping up the oat and barley bread after having sliced 5 wafer slices, placing the loaf back into the carrying case, Gollup reached for the blueberry jam. Taking the larger spoon Gollup extracted a healthy dollup of Gollup blueberry jam and dropped it onto the thin wafer of oat and barley bread (which was 1 of the 5 wafers) and took his first bite.

Gollup was stunned! He could taste the jam and it was much sweeter than he had expected and didn’t remember it being this sweet before, not aware that cleaning his teeth had indeed also cleaned his tongue and the roof of his mouth (as gollup was very meticulious having gone over his teeth with 5 sets of cleaning), and was taken back a bit. Yes it is true that Gollups have a sweet tooth, however even this was too sweet for Gollup. So gollup hummed and hawed as to what to do to solve this problem. After all, Gollup was quite hungry now and the extra time it had taken to clean his teeth had taken a little bit of belly growls and turned into constant growling. Gollup also did not fancy eating only oat and barley bread as it was really only used to hold blueberry jam (after all a self respecting Gollup would never eat the blueberry jam without bread because that is just uncivilized in mixed company – although Gollup had not ever been in mixed company preferring solitude).

Finally, with a sigh, Gollup realized that the brook, again, would need to be used, to dilute the blueberry jam and this was disheartening to Gollup as he did love his blueberry jam very very much. With a sigh, Gollup stood up and moved to the brook, bringing the larger of the two small spoons, a wash cloth a drying cloth (with which to wash and dry the spoon with after it was used to empty some of the blueberry jam), and sat at the edge of the brook.

Carefully, so as not to lose any of the blueberries, Gollup extracted as much of the jam from the jar and dropped it into the bank, to the flow downstream so as not to inadvertently return too much sweet back into the jar. Also, having washed out his drinking flask, Gollup carefully scooped up some water and poured it into the jam jar, stirring it properly and tasting it for its sweetness. This carried on for a few more minutes until the blueberry jam had the right sweetness, and just to be safe, Gollup added another bit of water, knowing he would have to scrape the jam from the oat and barley toast, before again adding a healthy dose of the new jam back onto the wafer to eat. Gollups don’t like to waste anything and it was still disheartening to Gollup that he had to throw away some of the jam, not having another empty jam jar with him, and after having already traveled halfway to wunderlingshire (or so Gollup thought, never having been to wunderlingshire before), felt it to far and a waste of a day to return home for another jam jar, as well as Gollup was still very hungry and gollups are very concerned about eating.

After washing and cleaning the spoon, and flask and then washing and cleaning them again, Gollup returned to the picnic blanket to finally eat some oat and barley bread with the now properly diluted blueberry jam, with still sufficient berries. Of course the jam was a little less thick and a little more runny which also caused a bit of a problem for Gollup as it would drip and drop off the wafer bread, causing little spots on the linen blanket.

Gollup was not having a good day and the fun of it all had just become labourious, prompting Gollup to actually consider returning to his hedge and going again tomorrow, except that again, he was almost halfway to the township (or so he thought) and after all, he didn’t know his teeth were dirty and didn’t know that cleaning them would make everything taste so much more sweet.

so Gollup decided to break the wafers and dip them into the jam jar so as not to spill any, however, as this was just not proper, he first looked to the left, and then to the right to be sure that no other creature could witness such an impolite action as dipping bread in a jam jar. After being satisfied, Gollup began to eat and enjoy his oat and barley bread with dipped blueberrie jam, occasionally pulling out actual blueberries, which made Gollup very happy indeed.

Then drinking some watered down honey tea, and washing all of the utensils and cleaning the linen blanket, and then washing the utensils and cleaning the linen blanket again. Then washing his teeth and face in the brook and then washing and drying his teeth and face again, packed everything away properly into his carrying case.

Now all this washing and drying and cleaning and cleaning again, as well as the time to dilute the blueberry jam and the eating and then some more cleaning had taken up the rest of the morning and Gollup was completely unaware of the heat of the day – as Gollups lived under hedges and napped in the middle of the day, avoiding the heat preferring the early mornings and late afternoons.

Stepping out from the shade of the tree’s was surpised at how warm it was even under the shade of the straw woven hat.Bending over, Gollup tested the ground for firmness, and decided that it was dry enough to remove his deep water boots, and then of course, washing and drying the boots and washing and drying his feet (twice), was prepared for the rest of the trek to wunderlingshire township.

Having eaten and being comfortable in his tummy had again renewed his vigor and the bounce had returned to his step as he happily bounced and waddled towards the township to purchase blueberries, making a note that perhaps he would need a way to also see his teeth from now on as well, as this was a very disturbing adventure, for something that was only meant to be a simple snack under a tree by a brook in the shade.