Pudding Detective - Chapter 6

Imagine how shocked you'd be if your brother or sister offered to do all your chores in the house for a whole year...Or if it didn't rain in England during the whole summer...Or...or...if you nearly ran over a talking deer. 

That was what Mr and Mrs Pumphry were feeling at that very moment. Pudding, on the other hand, was feeling nothing of the sort. Instead, she thought it would be a good time to start making a lot of noise and kerfuffle, you know, just to nudge them out of it all, because for her the subject of a talking red deer was not on her radar.

Thankfully, after five minutes of being shushed at and told off, Mr Pumphry, still stressed and starey eyed, realised he was in no fit state to drive anywhere until he'd had a good calming walk - and neither was Mrs Pumphry for that matter. So, it wasn't long before Pudding was yanking them back in the direction of the Great Pond - her tail doing wide circles and her widening nostrils locked on to the whereabouts of the swallows and the large expanse of water further on down the path. 

Behind her, with his arm extended fully and slightly tripping over his own feet, Mr Pumphry could be heard talking to his wife about what had just happened. Pudding could hear her repeatedly ask what he had heard from the deer and whether he was sure. "Maybe it was a bark and not words at all," she heard Mrs Pumphrey question. "They do it when there's an alarm call of some sort because I read it not long ago." She added.

Suddenly, Mr Pumphry dove forward, as Pudding's willingness to get to the water was absolutely fever pitch. And it wasn't one of those little trips that looks mildly embarrassing, but more like he was practising for an Olympic high dive competition, his head and shoulders catapulting ahead and his spindly legs soon following. Also, because he was holding hands with Mrs Pumphry, she dove forward too and did the very same acrobatic lunge.

The swallows, the swallows...thought Pudding...Indeed they were there just ahead!

Pudding caught sight of the migratory birds looking very restless around the corner. She realised she had just got there in time before their flight south. Autumn was now upon them and they desperately needed to find new food in Africa by crossing the Sahara desert and then onto the great plains of the Serengeti. They couldn't delay their departure any longer, therefore they were obviously very relieved to see a panting black Labrador finally appear some one hundred yards below them.

"She's there!" Amari exclaimed, eventually settling next to Odion on the wire."You were right. Getting Stan to help us out was the perfect plan."

And in an instant, they were down by the water where Pudding had just been let off for a cool down and now was making her way to the other side of the pond, her unblinking eyes fixed on the two birds perched on a log as if her life depended on it. She'd made it. But she knew she didn't have long.

"Pudding, what an earth happened for you are so late? We have noticed that the southerly winds have changed a little to the east and we're not sure if our flight away from here will be a success.

"How did you know I was coming?" panted Pudding, her mind still full of the anxiety of the morning so far..

"Word gets around...Sprinter sent his messengers to the kites, who passed it on to the badgers, then the badgers passed it on to us. Everybody so wants to help. Glad we could do our bit before we go. But you did cut it a bit fine."

"I'm really sorry. It's not easy getting your owners to do what you want - especially on a Sunday! Anyway, please tell me what you saw?" asked Pudding, eager to finally put an end to the wait.

They both opened one wing in unison and beckoned Pudding to come closer. And with a very drippy nose and long tongue almost hanging to the ground, they began to divulge to her everything they knew about Monty.

Amari began first.

"He'd been so kind to us from the moment we arrived here last year in April, Pudding. We'd had a tough journey across the English channel that year when the storms came and we arrived here in such a state - hungry, exhausted and in need of shelter. Before that the storms were wild in northern France and we even had to cling to the side of a building out of the wind for some days without any food, and when we finally got to England we'd searched and searched and searched for our usual nesting areas but we were just too late and they had already been taken by younger swallows, and at that point we were just feeling hopeless - the rain still falling hard even here, with absolutely no insects to be found whatsoever...Then..." Amari paused to swallow hard. "He arrived."

"Monty?"

"Yes," Odion continued. "While we were huddling underneath a hawthorn tree, shivering. At first we were scared, a little wary. But we needn't have been, for he was so gentle and caring. He told us to hop onto his back and he'd help, provide some food for us and knew where there was an empty barn nearby where we could nest, at least until we felt stronger. He was true to every word he spoke, Pudding. Some days after we had departed from the barn, we eventually found our old familiar farm. Monty even sought us out there in order to check on our welfare. He had really gone out of his way, for we had travelled some distance."

"He did all that for you?" Pudding whispered, her head bending to the side in amazement.

"Yes. This year when we arrived, we returned the thanks and searched him out first. Our journey had been much more successful and we just wanted to repay our gratitude to him for saving us the year before. So we flew straight to him and caught sight of him in Hay Valley drinking from a water trough. The moon kept disappearing behind clouds and there was a mist in the air. It was difficult to see clearly. When we eventually got to the ground, we saw him lying there."

Odion paused and nodded to Amari who then finished his train of thought. "We saw his neck, all...all...bloody. Then we almost immediately saw Scamper and we shared with one another what we'd witnessed."

"Did you hear or see anything else?" she asked, now sounding more impatient, as Mr and Mrs Pumphry were now using binoculas to locate her on the far bank.

"Sort of," Amari said, glancing at Odion for reassurance. Odion immediately nodded back. "Well...erm..." She cleared her throat before eventually adding, "I don't know how to say this and I apologise if I cause you undue stress, Pudding, however, I'm convinced...we're convinced...that we saw a big dog, a long-haired dog, a dog with lots of teeth and a thin tail. It darted so quickly; it was hard to tell and was all shadowy. Odion said he heard screams, but I didn't."

Pudding shook her head increduously. One of my own kind? A dog? Really? she thought, her head dropping and now resting on the log where the swallows sat, the energy suddenly draining from her body, the whites of her eyes clearly present as she looked up at them.

"We can't be sure though, Pudding. We just can't be sure."

By this stage, Mr Pumphrey was rolling up his trousers in preparation for wading into the water after her. He wouldn't normally be so impatient, but the early wake up and then Stan the talking deer had really frayed his nerves and he was definitely ready to get back home, have a cuppa and his favourite chocolate digestive biscuit.

"PUDDING! PUD. Will you come here NOW!" 

Pudding had heard that tone of voice before - yes, just after she had eaten the Christmas pudding which had given her her name. That was some time ago, but she had never forgotten it.

So she quickly thanked the birds and wished them well on their long journey. She told them how much gratitude she had for them waiting there so long for her arrival, for asking the brave red deer to stop the car when he did and she hoped they would have a successful journey.

As she entered the water once more to return back to the other side, the swallows had already taken off, for they had felt the air swirling around them and begin to alter its course once again giving them the small window of opportunity to get going once and for all. 

They banked and swooped down over her head and together said:

"It's the size of your heart that matters the most, Pudding. We simply wouldn't be here without Monty. Good luck to you! We know you can bring peace back to this land and we hope to see you next spring."

And before Pudding had a chance to reply, they were above the woodland, their long tails forking tightly, and quickly on their way south to Africa.