Gracie

Her name was Moves with Grace, and although others call her Long Snout with Black Leg, she preferred the former. Her close friends called her Grace when she met with them on random occasions. On non-random occasions, they would still call her Grace. The females would gather in groups when the harvest is plentiful, and babies were on their way.
Grace’s good friend, Long Feet and Smells like Damp Leaves, whose familiars called Longie, bounced into the small clearing that Grace was grazing in. Grace had smelt her minutes before and could hear her trampling through the forest just before that.
The meeting process began. Yes, they were familiars, but they hopped toward each other and sniffed around them in the fashion that was accepted when meeting each other again after a long absence. They checked for males of their kind in the vicinity both for information and to assess the possibility of danger. Grace smelt other females but no males.
‘G’Day.’
‘Well met Grace. I see you are once again with a child. Does your child giver hang around?’
‘He does. He seems to be not like the others. Have you been grazing on the other side of our range?’
‘We have Grace. I have been with many mobs and have seen the two legs in their habitat. They are so cute to watch,’ said Longie who started to eat some grass that was growing in the clearing.
‘Watch out coming through!’ yelled a shorter, stouter, version of Grace and Longie as it hopped through the clearing. The pademelon nearly bowled over both and gave no apology.
‘How bloody rude!’ exclaimed Grace. Longie laughed.
‘They are quite a peculiar bunch. They enjoy their own company where I like your company from time to time,’ said Longie. As she was speaking three other females joined them in a respectful manner, and the meeting procedure took a few minutes to complete.
After some time of comfortable silence, Grace said, ‘I would like to see the two legs in their natural habitat. Is it dangerous?’
Some of the others all agreed whilst it was dangerous and that they had seen many dead from the big noisemakers on the hard dirt that ran through their land.
‘They think we are their Gods don’t you know?’ blurted out Longie. Longie didn’t actually say the word, Gods. Communication is a mixture of body movement, positioning to the attended receiver or receivers, and facial gestures. They all knew what she meant though. There was an inbuilt oneness with this mob and the land upon which they hopped. They held a view that a higher power guided them through their lives and helped them become one.
The statement was nonetheless met with curious looks and subtle movements of tails and whiskers. These movements were symbols of curious skepticism coupled with complete disbelief.
‘I’m not sure about that,’ said the one they called Tails. Grace was certain it was probably because of her unnaturally fluffy tail which looked like a furry flower. ‘What I am sure of is that there is a new two legs in one of the unnatural caves that offer us food. It’s a new bush and it’s delicious,’ continued Tails. The communicated expression of delicious came out slowly and held the group captive while she lingered on the word.
The mob suddenly stiffened and raised themselves on their tails. A male was smelt in the air. The male was circling the group in a non-menacing way, trying to seek approval to join the group. Grace recognised the father of her baby and created a scent that everyone could smell, including the male.
The male appeared. He had darker fur at his breast and stood taller than the females and had a broader chest. He called himself Hops with Pride. Other males called him Hops like Thunder because of his heavy gait when crashing through the bush.
‘Hello Hops,’ communicated Grace. The others continued discussions about the new bush, ‘We should go and investigate.’
‘It will be time for us to move soon.’
‘Let’s go in the dark and see if this is all true,’ said Longie. Hops stood there proud and tall while Grace and the others explained the tale they wanted to investigate.
‘You got me at the delicious new bush,’ he said in a humorous manner. They communicated it was a grand idea and that he should lead the way, trample down the tall bush and check for danger for them.
The sun made its way down through the peaks of mountains that had been left scarred by the two legs but also had forests where they could roam free. They began their journey at nightfall, hopped through the bush suitably trampled by Hops who was upfront most of the time ranging the path.
The habitat appeared tucked away between two mountains. The two legs dug into the tunnels, moving the land on the back of big snakes. They always seemed to be moving the land from one place to another.
They met others on the way and told them of their adventure. Most did not believe them or thought the danger was too high. They met another male that told them he knew of the place where the new bush could be found. He vouched for its different taste and he boasted that he had eaten some weeks before.
No one believed him but he led them to an unnatural two-legs cave. There were many of these mystical bushes on the hard dirt outside the cave, bushes the mob had never seen before.
‘They must think we are Gods,’ Grace said. ‘Normally they put walls around their grasses and bushes, so we don’t eat them. These look like offering for us.’
They stood in the darkness of the bush. Longie said, ‘why don’t you go and try some, Grace?’ They all agreed that Grace should go and try some of this mysterious bush. She tentatively hopped over through the unnatural light cutting through the night from the cave and the caves around it. The two legs weren’t much of a threat unless they were riding their noisy beasts.
The first little nibble proved all the myths to be truthful. Each bite became bigger until half of one bush was gone. Grace looked up and noticed for the first time the mob had moved silently and were now biting on this delicious new bush. The quiet was ruined by the noise of a beast coming up the hard trail the two legs used with their nasty monsters.
‘Time to move,’ said Hops. They all hopped quickly away into their dark home leaving six ravished bushes all nibbled down to the hub.
They watched the beast shine its sun-like eyes onto the plants. A two-legs dismounted the beast and walked, in its naturally bizarre way, over to the remains of the plants.
‘Those bloody wallabies have eaten our parsley again, Leah,’ shouted the strangely angry man.
Parsley thought Grace. The two legs offered us parsley.
And so, the legend of Grace and the Great Parsley Gobbling was created for evermore.