The Farthing Wood Collection 1 Read Free

all.’
    ‘Isn’t it slow, its legs hardly move,’ commented a third.
    ‘Small wonder it can’t catch anything,’ Smooth Otter laughed. ‘It’d take all night to cross a field!’
    Lean Vixen was seething. While she had no pretensions to being a skilful swimmer she prided herself, like all foxes, on being speedy overland.
    ‘You – you smarmy, conceited pu–pup–puppies!’ she roared, kicking out furiously for the bank. She wanted to tear into them, bite them, snap at them, anything to vent her anger.
    ‘Let’s teach her to swim,’ suggested Sleek Otter who had left her holt again to join in the fun. Her cubs dived and splashed around the vixen, spraying her with water and goading her all the more. The other otters hustled into the stream and Lean Vixen was surrounded by bobbing, dipping bodies that seemed to appear and disappear again in a bewildering variety of places. They jostled and pushed her away from the bank. Then they grasped her legs with their horribly sharp teeth and pulled her underwater, only releasing her when her lungs seemed about to burst.
    ‘Get … away,’ Lean Vixen gasped helplessly. ‘Leave … me alone. Cowards, all … of you. Can’t fight … fairly!’ She battled to the bank but, just as she thought she was free, they surrounded her again and, shrieking with delight, butted her over on to her back. Lean Vixen was almost too tired to resist. With asupreme effort she righted herself, scrabbled for a foothold on the bank and heaved herself clear. There was nothing to do now but run for it. Yet running was out of the question. She was exhausted, freezing cold and humiliated. Her legs smarted painfully where the otters’ teeth had bitten. Blood flowed from the wounds. She drew several shuddering breaths whilst her tormentors leapt around her like demons.
    ‘We don’t like snoopers,’ Sleek Otter shrilled. ‘Tell that to the other foxes, in case they have any bright ideas.’
    ‘Wasn’t worth it, was it?’ chanted another. ‘You do look a mess!’
    ‘You can’t put one over on an otter!’ cried Smooth Otter. ‘We’re supreme. Haven’t I said so before? Now you’ve only made yourself look silly.’
    ‘Run on home and dry off, I should,’ Sleek Otter taunted.
    ‘Dry off, dry off and clear off,’ one of the cubs cried and shrieked with laughter at the cleverness of his joke.
    Lean Vixen slunk homewards, her pride and self-esteem battered. She avoided any of the other foxes and crept into her earth. Luckily Lean Fox was absent. For a long time she shivered miserably.
    Gradually anger rekindled in her heart. Certainly the otters had bested her this time. She realized she had made an error of judgement. They were clever animals all right and she knew she should have used a more subtle approach.
    ‘Conceited, vain buffoons,’ she growled. ‘I’m not finished yet. They won’t be jeering next time. A bit of old-fashioned fox cunning is what’s needed: thebadger was right. There’s more than one smart animal in Farthing Wood.’

During the following days Lean Vixen racked her brains for a means of retaliation. She didn’t mention her humbling experience with the otters to the other foxes. She hoped that none of the animals in Farthing Wood would learn how she had suffered, passing off her injuries as bramble scratches. And now the otters showed another side of their nature.
    Snow had been falling intermittently for a day or two. The ground was covered throughout the Wood to a depth of a couple of centimetres. It was an open invitation to the otters’ playfulness. They made slides on the stream’s banks and, one after another, the cubs tobogganed down them in the greatest glee, then returned for another go. Their mother didn’t hesitate to join in. Up and down the length of the stream the otter community was playing, from the youngest to the oldest. They loved the snow and couldn’t understand why the other Farthing Wood inhabitants appeared to be ignoring its