Escape from Baxters' Barn by Bond Rebecca

Author:Bond, Rebecca [Bond, Rebecca]
Language: eng
Format: azw3
Publisher: Houghton Mifflin Harcourt
Published: 2015-07-06T16:00:00+00:00

15

To the Rescue

But before the owl could begin, she started to tremble. It was barely perceptible at first under all those feathers.

She stopped talking and seemed to disappear into herself, and the animals wondered if she intended to hold off on her story. But no, something again was wrong. Her feathers started to quiver and her beak clacked, but no words came out. Was she shivering?

What was happening? Was the whole barn shaking? But no, it was just the owl.

“What’s wrong with her, Mama?” asked Tick in a low voice.

“I don’t know,” whispered Nanny, and then a shade louder, “Noctua, dear, can you tell me what’s wrong?”

“I feel—I don’t feel—” The owl stopped.

“I think she’s in shock,” said Figgy. “She needs to get warm. She’s cold.” Figgy looked around for something to warm the owl.

The other animals looked around too. There was hay and rope. There were buckets for water. But there wasn’t anything to wrap an owl in.

“Mama,” said Tick, “What about Fluff?”

“What about Fluff?” Nanny asked.

“What if we warmed the owl with—Fluff?”

Nanny looked at Tick. It really was a good idea.

The problem was Fluff had been frightened by the owl and remained as far away from the bird as she could possibly be.

“Fluff,” said Nanny, leaning over to speak privately to the sheep. “The owl needs your help.”

“My help?” asked Fluff.

“She is in shock,” said Nanny gently. “At least we think she is. We think that is why she is shivering. She needs to warm up. Fluff, she needs you to warm her up.”

The sheep looked skeptically at Nanny.

“Fluff,” said Nanny, “if I believed in fate, I would say Noctua was absolutely meant to land in your pen. Look at your warm, woolly coat. You are undoubtedly the best one for this job.”

Fluff considered this. The thought that she could be the best one for anything was astounding and she liked how it made her feel. Important. She wasn’t used to being recognized for anything particularly positive.

“So what would I have to do?” she asked hesitantly.

Nanny was pleased. “Just go over to her, slowly so as not to alarm her, and lie down right next to her, I think maybe behind her would be best and, well, try to get right up close so your wool is like her blanket.”

Fluff followed the directions perfectly, doing just as Nanny had suggested. Gently she lowered herself down behind the owl and rolled onto her side. Then she scooched up so that the warmest part of her, her woolly stomach, was against Noctua’s back, and her legs were on either side of the owl.

When the sheep’s touch reached Noctua, at first the owl stiffened. She rotated her head around and fixed the sheep with her piercing black eyes. Fluff gasped and very nearly fainted. But she stayed put and the owl didn’t move away.

Maybe it was clear to Noctua that she needed help and that Fluff the sheep was it.

It’s hard to say exactly what happened, but the owl appeared to collapse into the sheep, allowing her feathers to melt back into the thick, cozy warmth.

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