Deefa

     Deefa sat up and licked Tyler’s hand, Tyler stroked his head and as he pulled his hand away to pick the kettle up, he saw a ladybird crawling on his fingers.
     “Oh dad look, this must have been on his head.”
     They both looked at Deefa, crawling all over his nose were ladybirds, Deefa shook his head and sneezed. The ladybirds flew off him onto Tyler's hand, he giggled and tried to shake them off, Deefa excitedly jumped around Tyler, the ladybirds flew off his hand and back onto Deefa, he shook his body again from the tip of his nose to the end of his tail, Tyler nearly fell off his chair laughing, the ladybirds stayed on Deefa's head, except for one, it flew back onto Tyler's hand, he let it crawl over his palm and fingers, he looked at its bright red wing case and counted its spots.
     “It’s a seven spotted ladybird” he told his father “Ladybird, Ladybird fly away home. Your house is on fire, your children are gone…….er.....what’s the rest of it dad?”
     “All except one and that’s little Ann, for she crept under the frying pan” his father replied.

Tyler repeated the rhyme again and the ladybird flew off, he looked at Deefa and saw all the ladybirds flying away.

“They are the nice bugs aren’t they dad?”

“Yeah, you should never kill a ladybird, they are great for the garden and eat all the greenflies…Are you going to pass me the kettle now?” His father said lighting the camp stove.
     Tyler picked up the kettle and sat by his father, Deefa began to nose and paw the pans at the side of the tent.

“Deefa pack it in, Tyler see what’s Deefa is up to, I don’t want him messing up the cooking things.”
     Tyler picked the pans up, there were three different sizes, with matching lids and had been stacked inside each other, the lids doubled as frying pans and also stacked together. Tyler straightened them up, but as he picked up the last lid, Deefas nose shot under it and he tried to bite something in the grass. Tyler pushed Deefa's head away and saw a large bright red shiny stone.
     “Dad, just look at this, you won’t believe what Deefa has found” he picked the stone up and showed it to his father.
     “Crikey!!…. It’s a ladybird…let me have a better look.”
     Tyler handed it to his father and he held it up to the sunlight …. It was a large red gem stone brooch, in the shape of a  ladybird, the clasp, head, legs and spots were made of gold, but the wing case was a beautiful ruby.
     “There is definitely something odd going on here” said his father.
     Tyler grinned as he took the brooch off his father and looked at it closely.
     “It’s great, it’s like a treasure hunt.”
     “Oh, I know you love finding money, but this is a bit much. Tyler that looks like a real ruby….Strange things are happening here.”