The Farthing Wood Collection 1 Read Free Page B

Vixen grumbled to Lean Fox as they stood together on the threshold of their new den. ‘Running and sliding about like that, don’t they ever grow up? They have no dignity.’
    ‘I’m more concerned about the way they draw humans into our home,’ Lean Fox answered. ‘They’re always bragging about the fascination they hold for humankind. And look, there are two of them now on the other side of the stream.’
    Lean Vixen instinctively dropped to her belly. ‘I never feel safe when they’re about,’ she murmured, half to herself. ‘They can never be trusted. Come inside the den; let’s get out of sight.’
    Lean Fox followed her through the entrance to the dark interior.
    ‘We ought to protest,’ Lean Vixen complained to her mate. ‘We don’t want human intruders around when our cubs are born.’
    ‘That’s a long way off,’ Lean Fox answered. ‘But I agree. Otters are a constant nuisance these days. I’m concerned about the problem of food when we’re bringing up our litter. We shall have to come to a sort of agreement with them before then.’
    ‘Don’t kid yourself,’ Lean Vixen said sarcastically. ‘The only kind of agreement they’d want is one on their own terms.’
    The competition for prey heightened after some heavier snowfalls. Food became particularly difficult to find for every creature. There were thick layers of snow throughout the Wood. When prey did occasionally surface, there were tussles, not only between fox and otter, but fox and stoat, stoat and weasel. Every hunting animal was ravenous and they scuffled continuously. The foxes sometimes caught a rabbit unawares. Otters never attempted to hunt rabbits and so, except for the stoats, the foxes had a clear field. But rabbits were always quick to recognize danger and it was generally only old or sick ones that the foxes could reach.
    As tension between the different groups reached its height, the otters stopped visiting the woodland. The foxes were first to notice.
    ‘They’ve seen sense,’ Stout Fox remarked, recalling his warning.
    Lean Fox wasn’t convinced. ‘No,’ he replied cautiously. ‘It’s not as simple as that. There’s another explanation.’
    It was Kindly Badger who provided it. He was digging holes in the snow nearby to get at acorns and roots. The foxes stopped to pass the news.
    ‘Oh, hadn’t you heard?’ was the badger’s reaction. ‘The otters have fallen sick – at least, many of them have. Voles, mice – wrong diet, you see. Doesn’t suit them. They should have kept to what they like – fish.’
    ‘There you are,’ Lean Fox said to his larger friend, ‘it’s not as simple as you thought.’
    Stout Fox was irritated. ‘Does it matter? As long as they leave the Wood alone …’
    Kindly Badger looked from one to the other. ‘It’ll be of benefit to all of us, won’t it? I mean, if they revert tofishing. Yet there was some question of a dearth of fish, so it’s anyone’s guess what the otters will try next.’
    Quick Weasel was about to cross their path, but she saw the bigger animals in time and altered her route. ‘She’s a cunning one, isn’t she, your mate?’ she cried to Lean Fox from a safe distance.
    He was puzzled. ‘What do you mean?’
    ‘She planned this. With the sly stoat. The otters are sick because the voles are sick. The vixen and stoat knew of a vole colony where most of the adults were ailing – some sort of infection, I believe – perhaps from a parasite. So they rounded up as many as they could and left them in the path of the otters, where they come from the stream.’
    Stout Fox was impressed. ‘Well, there’s cunning for you,’ he remarked. ‘To think that she planned all that without your knowledge,’ he added with a glance at Lean Fox.
    Lean Fox looked uncomfortable. He had nothing to say. But Kindly Badger had.
    ‘Cunning, maybe, but rash,’ he commented. ‘We can’t afford any danger to the otter population. We depend on their