Battle for the Park by Colin Dann

Author:Colin Dann [Colin Dann]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: RHCP
Published: 1993-01-06T16:00:00+00:00

11

Battles

It was a mournful group of Farthing Wood animals who assembled after Whistler’s distressing news. The heron had not yet recovered from his sad experience and he absented himself from the gathering. The friends stood silently in the Hollow, each lost in his or her own thoughts, as they gazed on their old companion. Adder was the first to speak.

‘How small he looks,’ he murmured, ‘how soft and vulnerable. He never seemed to me like that when he was alive. I wish I had been spared this sight.’ The snake was genuinely aggrieved. Expressions of regret were a rarity from Adder’s lips and they made the scene all the more poignant.

‘If only the humans had removed him instead of me,’ Weasel said. ‘He would have been well out of reach of any troubles.’

‘Toad was never in the running,’ Tawny Owl pointed out. ‘The men were after larger game.’

‘Why don’t they come back?’ Leveret moaned. ‘We need protection.’ He was of the opinion that Toad’s death marked the beginning of a new dangerous period.

‘For the moment they’re more interested in the new reserve,’ said Fox. ‘The Warden has his hands full with two areas to oversee. When he comes to patrol around here again, he’s in for an unwelcome surprise.’

‘He’d better not delay too long,’ Adder hissed, ‘or he’ll be patrolling a place called Brown Rat Park.’

The snake’s sardonic words hung in the air with an awful portent. The animals actually believed that they could lose control of their home Reserve.

‘We must fight and fight,’ Badger urged. ‘Warden or no Warden, White Deer Park must be saved.’

‘How can we do that on our own?’ Leveret demanded. ‘We are so few and some of us, like poor Toad, have nothing to fight with.’

‘We shall concentrate on our own corner, of course,’ Fox told him. ‘Vigilance is essential by night and day. We won’t permit the rats to group again in our own territory. As soon as they approach, we strike. And we keep on striking.’

‘What of the rest of the Reserve? Is it to be sacrificed?’ asked Dash, who, more than any other animal, ranged the entire acreage.

‘There are other fighting animals here besides us,’ Fox replied. ‘They too must battle to preserve what they have. The rats are a menace to each and all. We can’t fight any battles except those for ourselves. We must all stick together in this small corner and defend one another. Until the Warden returns we are on our own.’

The animals were buoyed up by a renewed commitment to each other. They left the Hollow sadly but with determination that no more of their number should suffer Toad’s fate. Vixen was the last to leave. As the others turned their backs and moved slowly away, she tenderly nosed Toad’s body into a clump of fern where he was soon hidden from sight. She scraped some dead leaves around him. ‘Whoever caused you to suffer,’ she murmured, ‘will regret it. You’ll be avenged, I promise.’

Badger headed for the more mature woodland where he had once had his set.

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