Journey Beyond the Burrow by Rina Heisel

Author:Rina Heisel
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: HarperCollins
Published: 2021-04-28T00:00:00+00:00

Fourteen

TOBIN BRUSHED THE DIRT off his head and swiped the dust from his whiskers. Climbing beneath a tunnel excavation project was dirty business, and he wanted to make a good impression. “What should we say?”

Wiley shrugged. “Let’s just tell him to back up a minute, because we have a snake coming through.”

Talia flattened an ear. “That’s not very nice.”

“So?” said Wiley. “What if we ask nice and he says no?”

“Hang on,” Tobin said. Splashes of dirt pitched into the corridor from around the bend. The woodchuck was getting close with its next load of debris. “I have an idea, just let me talk.”

“Fine,” Talia and Wiley answered together.

“And Hess, you stay low.” Clearing his throat, Tobin took another step, deeper into the tunnel. “Hello?”

The digging claws stopped scraping. Loud sniffing sounds echoed down the passage. Tobin took a deep breath. “Sorry to bother you, we just have a quick question.”

A snort. Paw stomps.

Wiley stepped back. “It’s gonna trample us.”

Tobin shook his head and called out tried again. “We don’t mean any harm.”

Tobin never thought a creature with that much bulk could move so fast. The woodchuck darted around the bend, stopping just a frog’s-leap in front of them.

Talia sprang back, grasping a dangling root outside the entrance.

“Wait, wait,” Tobin yelled. He held out his paw to the woodchuck.

The woodchuck narrowed its eyes and lowered its head. Tobin caught its scent; definitely a boar, and the broadest-shouldered woodchuck he’d ever seen.

“Sorry to bother you.” Tobin tried speaking slow and steady, but his thrumming heart made it difficult. “I was just hoping my friends and I could use your tunnels to climb out of this gorge.”

The woodchuck’s nose twitched as he sniffed them suspiciously. “What ya say?”

Feeling a little more confident they wouldn’t be trampled, Tobin asked again. “My name’s Tobin. We’d just like to climb topside, with your permission.”

“Huh.” The woodchuck shifted his weight, eyeing him suspiciously. “Tobin, eh? What are ya, lazy? Yer a mouse. Climb the wall outside. And yer friends, too. Yer all climbers, right?”

“Mostly,” Tobin said. “Except one of our friends is having a little trouble.”

The woodchuck squinted, looking at Wiley, then to the still-dangling Talia. “Rah! You look spry enough to me.”

“Well,” said Tobin, “our friend is still down there. He can climb up to your den, but not much farther.”

“Is he hurt?”

“No,” said Tobin, “he’s a snake.”

The woodchuck’s jaw dropped. He stammered, “Are—Are you diseased? Got some parasite living in yer brain? Disturb my work for nonsense—”

Tobin shook his head. “Please! I promise, um . . . What’s your name?”

The woodchuck settled back on his haunches. “Hubbart.”

“Hubbart.” Tobin spoke quickly. “Just let us through, and the snake will do you a huge favor.”

“You,” Hubbart huffed, “are crazier than a two-beaked blackbird.”

Wiley snorted, seeming amused with the whole situation.

“Just hear me out,” Tobin said. “If you let us pass, our snake friend—a large snake—can mark his scent over your tunnel entrances. It’s powerful stuff, enough to deter more than a few predators.”

Hubbart rested his head on his paw.

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