Pixies

Pixies

Chapter One
Forests are wonderful, exciting places
There are always plenty of trees of course - and trees are great for
climbing and jumping out of. And swinging.
It's always fun looking for the best branches that lie on the forest
floor that the trees have discarded like broken fingernails. Some
branches are good for acting as good old, walking sticks, some are best
for playing 'fetch' with over-excitable puppies. And some are just good
for thwacking your annoying sister or brother on the back of the legs
just because you feel like it.
Forests and woods are always well camouflaged. Paths are well hidden by
damp and well-trodden leaves and spikey branches await to surprise us
as we sprint around corners, brushing them aside with a sweep of the
arm as we jump to one side to avoid moss covered tree trunks. It is
great fun, chasing down paths when we are not sure where they are
leading, sometimes coming across dead-ends of thick bushes where we are
forced to back-track, then we are off down another path, in a different
direction, jumping over strange holes in the ground, holes that are too
big to be created by a rabbit but also just too small for a mole. And
for a moment we think, well, who did that?
But then we are off again, back into our game of chase, ducking under a
wet branch of Fern as we shout for our parents, spotting a waving hand
and we make our way back to what we know and rejoin the real world.
Make-believe can wait for another day. And perhaps as we stumble away
from the bracken and tall grey and purple trunks of the swaying trees,
our eyes will fall upon a discarded comic. Or a reasonably new empty
crisp packet that has a strange shape cut from it. Or a tissue that
looks like it is tied to a branch of a tree, wisping and willowing in
the wind. And your imagination reminds you that it could even pass for
a flag. Maybe one for the blackbirds. Just so they know which way is
home. And then your name is called and you think back to what you are
having for tea that afternoon or what is on television and will we have
time to do our homework and have time to watch television. And your
voices become a distant chatter as balls, boots and sticks are packed
away into the boot of the car, then doors are slammed and the engine
revs slightly as the car pauses at the end of the woodland path before
turning left and disappearing into the distance.
Allowing silence to descend on the forest as the late afternoon light
begins to wane. The fading glow of the sunlight hanging low in the
forest air. Pausing as if waiting, making sure that no one is around
before then allowing the evening to proceed. And in a funny way the
forest was waiting. Making sure that it was all-clear. Safe to come
out.

Just around this time, every day, school was just about
finishing.
Within the top of the Great Oak the afternoons lesson was coming to an
end.
Nose, a grandly dressed and elderly pixie, was striding from one end of
the great hall to the other, each .
As he spoke he emphasised every important word with a swing of his
large silver stick.
"..It is one of the written laws of survival. Never, never, never walk
outside of a shadow. You must also be very, very quiet."
And thus it was so within Pixie law that it was very important to stay
out of sight. And the other 256 pixie laws sort of worked around the
same idea - that is, to keep out of sight.
Which is why most, if not all pixies are very jumpy. They learn the
laws from a very young age and realise that everybody's survival
depends on their adherence to silence. Unless they want to talk that
is.

Nose tapped the board with his chalk stick.
"Apart from talking - which you must do very quietly, there must be
Absolute Silence.'Law number 5'" - Nose said.
'What's number 4 again?'
George giggled and received a nudge from Hank.
'Hank and George, Oak tree twelve at ten this evening - where you
will learn the value of holding your silence.'
'But Nose, all the taxi-birds go home at nine' George protested.
'Then you may use the pull-mobile, there will be two of you after all
and the exercise will do you good.'
Nose tapped the blackboard.
'Law number 7'.
George slipped a chunk of chocolate from under his cap and pretending
to cough, slipped it into his mouth.
The thought of the pull-mobile had suddenly made him very hungry.
Surely it was time for dinner?
He stared out of the window and followed the taxi-birds as they floated
to the ground, carrying pairs of pixies whispering directions in their
ears.
George realised that he probably didn't have enough nuts or berries to
pay for his taxi home. He'd have to share one with Hank. He pushed a
slither of chocolate towards Hank, nudged him and winked.
Snatching it up quickly, before Nose spotted him, Hank stuffed it into
his mouth.
"And don't forget," Nose shouted, as the robin chirped noisily
announcing the end of the days lesson, "do your homework."
As the robin fluttered away, having received a nod of acknowledgement
from Nose, the single window filled with a flock of squawking
blackbirds and Nose, having arranged everyone into an orderly queue,
boarded the first bird and with a fluster of wings, whisked away into
the night.
Excited murmurs arose from amongst the student pixies. They were happy
that the day's lessons were over and were looking forward to the night
ahead.
"....canoeing in the stream.."
"....abseiling in bush 4..."
"....food discovery in the magic bins..."
"Detention in tree 12," muttered Hank.
"Well as we're both going to tree 12," reasoned George, "we might as
well share a taxi."
"You mean," replied Hank, "you've eaten your weekly supply of nuts and
berries and you want me to pay."
"Hurry up!" squawked the blackbird, "Places to go, places to go!"
"Yeah, yeah" sighed Hank, "we're in no hurry."
"Watch the tail feathers buddy," shouted the bird.
"Sorry, " said George as he clambered onto the left wing.
"Who's payin', who's payin'?"
"Guess that's me again," muttered Hank, " - here, there's two extra
nuts in it for you if you take the long way around." Hank pressed the
payment into the blackbirds white pouch and nervously clambered onto
the left wing.
"Erm, nice and slow please," pleaded Hank, "and George, please let go
of my hair."
Then suddenly they were airborne and the wind was screaming through
their hair. George gripped onto his cap with one hand and was in danger
of removing a handful of feathers with the other.
Hank, although initially nervous, loved flying. He just didn't like
take-offs and landings.
Once in the air though, his eyes were as wide open as George's were
gripped shut.
Shifting his body up to the edge of the wing he peered at the
night-time below them.
He could just make out the silhouettes of the other pixies who had
landed minutes earlier, scurrying off into the undergrowth, never
staying out in the open for too long.
It was getting late now and the other blackbirds were making their
final journeys for the night. Dropping the pixies by the long grass
they swept off at right and left angles in front of George and Hank's
flight path,
"Seeeee youuuuuuu!"
"Byeeeee."
Then they were gone and all that Hank could hear was rushing air and
the scraping and rustling of passing branches. He poked George.
"Look at that!"
A squirrel jumped ahead of them, from the large branch of one tree to
another.
The moon shone from behind the flying figure and Hank stared in
wonderment at the squirrels bravery, starting to clap, before
remembering he how high up he was and his hands returned to the
blackbird's wing.
"Coming up, tree number 12. Coming up, I said..." then they were
there.
Both wings turned up slightly and the wind caught them just right
bringing the taxi and his passengers to an abrupt halt before lurching
with a slight bump onto solid ground.
"I think I've left my stomach up there," said George pointing to
nowhere in particular.
"You can open your eyes now George but, hang on, hey, blackbird!"
But he was gone, leaving behind a faint echo of farewell.
"Seeeeeeee yoooou!"
Hank was puzzled.
"I did say tree 12 didn't I?"
Hank stared at the stump.
George was feeling in his pockets for more chocolate.
"Erm George," said Hank slowly, "I think someone has stolen tree
12."
"Right." replied George but it came out as
"Grieght."
A cross between 'right' and 'great' gelled together with a lump of
chocolate.
Hank put his hand above the stump and waved it where the tree should
have been.
"It could be magic."
He rubbed his chin.
Suddenly George let out a shout.
"Aaaaaargh!"
A figure appeared from the undergrowth and was making its way towards
them.
"Remember, 'quiet, quiet and quiet' George." said Nose and he brushed
away some grass that had matted itself into his straggly white
hair.
"It is clear to me that tree number 12 has indeed been stolen."
George had just about recovered from his little fright.
"Does this mean detention is cancelled?" he asked.
Nose put his arms around both Pixies shoulders and started to lead them
back into the undergrowth.
"I think we can use this hour to better use if we pit our wits and try
to solve the disappearing tree mystery don't you?"
"Pit our wits?" said George.
"Think together," answered Hank.
"Right!" said Nose, "and let's do just that."

Chapter Two

Midnight descended around the forest and far, far away an owl
'terwit-terwooed'.
If you listened carefully and held your breath, you could hear branches
snapping and the odd rustle of leaves as the animals of the forest
awoke and began their search for food.
George shivered and thought about dinnertime.
It was his way of practising maths while on the move.
So if we had breakfast at four and a snack at eight then dinner should
be at midnight not two o'clock. It made sense.
"Why..." George was cut off before he started.
"SShhhhh!" hissed Nose, "look over there...I think we have found
it."
"Found what?" asked George.
"The culprit." said Nose.
All three pixies crept slowly from behind the Rhododendron bush,
turning around slowly, checking for any nighttime predators who might
be lying in wait. They had after all, strayed way beyond the boundaries
of the village, a practice that was frowned upon by the elder pixies
mainly due to the fact that it was so dangerous. Nighttime is when most
forest-dwelling animals search for food. Pixies, Hank imagined as he
scanned a suspicious looking shadow, would go down very well as a
starter, or something to plunge into a cheese dip after the main course
perhaps.
Shivering more from fear than the cold, all three approached the
mechanical digger.
"What is it?" asked Hank.
"It's yellow," said George.
"And we have our thief," said Nose "look, it's covered in little twigs
and leaves from our tree."
"It is so yellow," repeated George.
And he was right, it was. And it was big, especially if you were a
pixie. In fact it was so big that it was too big to make out what it
was. Just that it was yellow and that it had killed the tree as the
evidence left around the digger showed. Although in reality this could
have been any tree not just tree 12, but pixies didn't think too much
about anything outside of where they lived and what they knew. Which
was why when they found the digger, well, this had to be the one,
didn't it?
And it was.
"What is it Nose?" repeated Hank, "And please don't say it's
yellow."
George looked like he was about to say something but decided against
it.
"Well it's obvious. It's a tree eater," said Nose with all the
authority he could muster.
"A tree eater?" repeated Hank.
"Yes," said Nose, "a yellow tree eater. I've read about them in books
that were found in the magic bins."
George and Hank looked at each other. Nose was their teacher after all,
so what he said tended to be true. Hank shrugged and patted George on
the back.
"Well Nose, I think we should get back to the village and call a
meeting."
"Yes, a meeting," repeated George, "we could have the meeting after
dinner."
Nose smiled, enjoying the fact that this really was quite a serious
matter and that he was right at the centre of it all.
"Good idea George, the sooner the better, after dinner is a fine idea.
And I think we should invite some extra guests."
Nose was jogging now, eager to get back to the village.
"Extra guests?" wheezed George, trying to keep up, but also checking
any strange shadows that they were approaching. All this meant he was
constantly stopping and starting, then becoming nervous in case he was
getting left behind.
"Yes, we must invite everyone and every thing. The taxi-birds, the
robins, the rabbits, the foxes..."
"What about the squirrels?" interrupted Hank.
"Even the squirrels, if our village is under threat this affects
everyone. We must ask for all the help we can."
The moon was shining the whitest white and cast its beams across the
forest floor as all three pixies arrived within the boundaries of Peetu
Village. If you looked very carefully, and you knew where to look, a
slight trickle of smoke could be seen escaping from a small
window-shaped hole in tree six. And if you looked very closely at the
foot of tree six, every now and then a small figure could be seen
scampering from the shadows, arriving at the tree and disappearing into
a small gap that opened briefly when the door was tapped four
times.
If you had the time and the patience, and waited long enough, you would
see one hundred and forty four pixies enter through this wooden
entrance.
And that was exactly how many dinners had been cooked that night, one
hundred and forty four, if you didn't include the chef - who always
said he didn't have time to eat.
One hundred and forty four is a lot of pixies to feed on a day-to-day
basis and Boldimass the chef always made good use of his skills,
flipping through the large recipe book and choosing from one of the
exotic forest dishes.
"What," said Cricket, "is 'Stuffed twigs with Dandelion and Nettle
sauce'?"
"Exactly what is says." said Lemsip, "it's the same as yesterday but
switched around a bit."
"Yesterday we had, let me think, Nettle pie with boiled twigs." said
Cricket.
"And tomorrow will probably be Nettle soup" added Lemsip.
Bang, bang bang.
Nose was walloping the head table with a large hammer shaped
stone.
"Settle down please pixies, and eat as quickly as possible, we have
important business to discuss."
"Like why Boldimass only uses nettles in his cooking" whispered
Cricket.
Lemsip nudged Cricket,
"Look there's George."
George sauntered over to where the two pixies were seated. As he passed
the other tables, pixies hunched together and started to whisper. Word
about the evening's events had obviously spread.
Hank followed behind George. He was, Cricket noticed, walking with a
swagger, like an important pixie or like one of those big non-pixies
that he had read about in the shiny papers they had found in the magic
bin.
Of course Hank was dressed the same as all the other pixies, in dull
brown and green, which made his show of importance all the
sillier.
"Has Hank got a limp?" asked Cricket.
"Perhaps he hurt his leg running from the yellow tree thing." Lemsip
suggested.
George arrived at their table.
"The 'yellow tree thing' you mention is in fact a 'yellow tree-eater'."
George informed them.
"And it's very, very big," added Hank, dragging two stools up to the
table and planting them opposite Lemsip and Cricket.
"And yellow," said George.
"So why has a big meeting been called," said Lemsip, "and what can we
do about it?"
"'It'!?" George was on his feet now, "You mean, what can we do about
the destruction of our homes? This is very important, Nose
said.."
"Thank you George," interrupted Hank, "But it's not just us who will be
effected - there are others who live here too."
"Here we go," said Lemsip, "I bet he mentions the squirrels."
Hank sighed, "we need the help of the squirrels - no matter what you
think of them Lemsip - the taxi-birds, the robins too - and the owls
have said they'll help if they can stay awake."
"Stay awake?" said Lemsip.
"If it's during the day they are usually asleep but they have said that
one days missed sleep shouldn't matter."
"Very considerate, "said Cricket sarcastically.
"They are big birds though," George added, "and they can frighten
anything when they fly towards you screeching. Hank, don't you remember
that time you and I were walking home when one of them swept in and
carried you away by your hair. Didn't he mistake you for a rat?"
"Yes, thank you George," said Hank, smoothing down his hair.
"He was very apologetic though and....."
"Thank you George - I think we should move on now," interjected
Hank.
"Whenever I see a squirrel" said Lemsip, " I think of a rat with a
furry tail."
"What have you got against squirrels?" said George.
"Well for starters they are selfish," said Lemsip.
"Selfish?" said George.
"They don't share their nuts," muttered Lemsip.
"Pardon."
"I said, they don't share their nuts," repeated Lemsip.
"The reason they don't share their nuts," said Hank, "is because they
store them for winter. If they don't hoard them, they will starve when
it is too cold to go outside for food."
"They could still offer them around occasionally, and I've seen them
chuck nuts down at pixies from the tops of the trees. They always hang
around in pairs and....."
"I think it may be worth pointing out here," said Hank, "that unless we
all stick together and try to stop the yellow tree-eater, nobody will
be throwing anything from the tops of trees as the trees won't be
there."
Lemsip stared open-mouthed at Hank, then at George and finally at
Cricket.
"I think the food is being served," offered George excitedly and he
rushed over to the far end of the hall where the queue was just
starting to get busy.
Hank and Cricket followed after him with Lemsip tagging along behind.,
muttering to himself about squirrels with catapults.

"Thank you.....I said thank you! Settle down please!"
Bang bang bang.
Nose crashed his hammer onto the table.
Silence slowly descended upon the hall, apart from the odd murmer. And
the odd scratching sound, followed by a nut rolling across the floor.
Then there was the squawking coming from the taxi-birds, as one of them
dived for the nut only to be beaten to it by a nimble squirrel, who
finally scurried back to where his brothers and sisters were sitting -
by the great Fern plant.
Lemsip tutted and whispered something in Hank's ear.
Hank replied by placing his finger to his lips and pointing towards
Nose.
"It is interesting," Nose began, "that even though we share this
wonderful forest with each other, our homes, it's food - we even
breathe the same air - that when we are all placed under the same roof
we decide to sit only with those who we feel are the same."
George started to fidget so Hank thumped him.
"In the corner, by the great Fern, we have our good friends the
squirrels."
The taxi-birds flapped their wings in appreciation while the pixies
quietly clapped.
"And under the window we have the taxi-birds who have very kindly
offered their services for free tonight."
More applause - even from a reluctant Lemsip.
Tap-tap-tap.
Felix, the door Pixie, checked the special crack in the door that
allowed him to see who was knocking - then he gave a special signal to
Nose by waving his hat in the air.
"Ahah!" said Nose, "the rabbits have arrived."
Forty five rabbits of various colours and sizes tumbled through the
narrow entrance. Scarpering to the middle of the floor they formed a
large fluffy lump under the long table and quietly shivered.
"Fear not young ground-thumpers," said Nose,"I have promised your
leader Marcus that no harm will come to you. The foxes have sworn an
agreement that cannot be broken. They have been warned that we have
contacts with the hounds of Prescott Farm who are planning a hunt next
month. You are safe with us today."
The largest rabbit emerged from under the table and motioned for the
others to follow him, then twitching his nose for a moment as if
deciding which words he should choose he shouted, in a voice that was
barely audible -
"So where are the foxes Nose?"
All the other rabbits formed a big semi-circle beside and around Marcus
and nodded and twiched in agreement,
"Where, where, where..." they all whispered.
Nose raised his hands in a calming motion,
"It's OK. They will meet us by the old Oak at midnight. We must all
trust each other tonight and please, all agree to work together."
A low whispering filled the hall followed by a sharp bang-banging from
Nose's hammer.
"And now, if you please, I will tell you about the plan."
As Nose climbed up onto the large stone table, a hush once more settled
around eveyone - apart from the odd scratching noise and the rustle of
paper - and all eyes faced up to where he stood.
"The yellow tree-eater is an obvious threat to this village and
something must be done to stop it."
A few pixies started to clap, then stopped when they realised noone
else was joining in.
"Now it has been pointed out that we are all a lot smaller then the
tree-eater, so the idea is to make us all seem alot larger than we
really are."
A few murmered approvingly.
"There are stories about far off great deep mud-filled lands that I
have read about in the shiny papers. Strange plants are grown here and
in order to scare off anyone who may want to take the plants, a large
wooden being sits and keeps watch. He does not move but he has eyes
everywhere so no one dares to walk across this land or even fly down
and collect the seeds that gather within where the plants lay."
As Nose paused for breath one of the larger taxi-birds swept up into
the air and with a fluster of feathers landed beside him, almost
knocking him over the edge and into a sea of pixies and rabbits.
"What Nose says is true," he squawked, allowing Nose to grab hold of
his wing to steady himself, "I have seen it with my own eyes. Long,
brown and green filled lands full of lovely seeds and lush flowers and
then sitting in the middle was the great wooden monster who sang and
made other strange noises when I flew in to land. I was very
afraid."
Nose leaned over the taxi-bird and found his name tag.
"Thank you Barney, you can return to the others while I explain the
details of how we shall build our wooden scaring monster. It is going
to be a long night. Quiet everyone, settle down and I'll begin."

Chapter Three

Bob Hewitt worked for the local council. He had done so for over thirty
years and he liked his job. Really liked it. He liked the fact he
worked mostly on his own. In large areas without people. Amongst
forests with trees so tall that when you peered upwards, into their
branches, you felt dizzy. He liked the large open fields painted yellow
with reep seed or deep green with the lushness of thick grass, the only
evidence they held of Bob having passed through being the chequered
tyre tracks left by his bright yellow tractor. He liked the fact that
all he left behind him were these two straight lines and if he happened
to return a few weeks later, the tyre marks would be gone. Nature
having covered his tracks. It was like someone had been holding an
eraser, waiting for him to go, then quickly rubbing away, mending any
damage he may have caused. It made Bob feel he was a part of nature. In
fact if he had it his way he would live in the forest, or in a small
caravan at the edge of a field and he would spend his evenings watching
the animals and birds, admiring the sunsets and munching on home-made
cheese and salad cream sandwiches.
Today the sun was shining and the sky was a cobalt blue with just a
hint of cloud smudged into the distance. It was a perfect day and Bob
whistled to himself as he jumped from the number 29 bus, shouted a
brisk 'G'day' to the driver and trudged across the road to the sign
that stated,
'Public Footpath' with an arrow that pointed to where the entrance to
the forest lay.
A small sty stood underneath the sign which Bob hopped over and he
landed with a healthy thud on the otherside. Tapping the shoulder bag
that knocked against his side as he walked, Bob checked his sandwiches
were still sandwiches and that his banana was still the shape of a
banana, and he carried on, whistling to noone in particular. All
thoughts now were on his day ahead. As he walked along, moving deeper
and deeper into the woods, Bob started to calculate how long the whole
job was going to take him. If he worked extra hard today, and the
weather stayed as nice as it was, he figured the whole area could be
cleared of trees within two days. Another job efficiently executed, Bob
said to himself and he dug deep into the pocket of his trousers and
jangled the keys to the tractor.

Rolls of paper upon which intricate scribbles had been drawn lay
discarded under the long table in the middle of the room. Nose had
turned the large wall, opposite the door, into a blackboard. White
blocks of worn chalk lay discarded around the floor and scrawled upon
the wall was a drawing of a tall robot-like figure with numbers written
against its arms and legs and arrows pointing at its feet with a small
picture of a rabbit. A similar arrow could be see pointing to the head,
this time a little picture of a pixie looked as if it had something to
do with this particular feature. It looked very confusing.
But to everyone in the room the diagram made perfect sense although it
had to be said that not everyone was happy.
"I just don't like heights that's all" said George.
"And I don't really like balancing on the head of a ten foot wooden
scare monster really," said Hank, "but if it will save our village then
I will."
The rabbits twitched in agreement.
"It's alright for you," said George, "you are acting as the
feet."
Nose intervened, "the rabbits are not as agile as us pixies which is
why we must be in control of the head. We can climb up there in the
first place."
George started to mumble under his breath.
"And," Nose continued, "the taxi-birds will be on hand to catch anyone
who falls."
"Well that makes me feel a lot better," said George, but he didn't say
it loud enough for anyone else to hear.
"Now, everyone knows what they should be doing. We shall all meet up
here in one hour. We have to meet the foxes and the moles by the Oak
tree at six. The sun should just be showing her face by then which will
give us time to get into position for when the Yellow Monster wakes up.
Come on everybody, jump to it."
Nose underlined his final words with a clap, clap, clap of the hands
which had the due effect of waking a few of the younger rabbits up. The
room filled with noise and motion with rabbits scurrying for the door
and the taxi-birds flapping towards the window. The pixies stood around
and mostly scratched their heads.
"So do we use the stairs to get to ground level?" asked Lemsip.
His question was answered by an overhead voice.
"Tooooo much tooooo doooooo, byeeeeee!"
And the birds were gone.
Lemsip joined the long single queue leading to the small door and out
onto the stair way. All in all it was a long ten minutes before every
pixie was back on the ground, mostly moaning about the 45 steps they
had just encountered. Then once out in open they were gone, in the
blink of an eye. "Things to do, things to do," one of the pixies could
be heard mimicking

The old oak tree was the oldest and tallest thing in the world.
Well it was as far as Nose was concerned and as an elder within the
pixie community, what he said generally went unquestioned.
And it was true.
The old oak tree was the tallest thing that Nose had ever seen. It was
also the tallest thing that his father had seen. And his grandfather.
And so it had been accepted throughout the years. And it made a good
meeting place. All the animals knew where it was (and how tall it was)
and quite a few animals liked to live around this grand tree, like the
squirrels and the moles and the odd woodpecker.
And so it was that at 5:30 a.m. the rabbits, the pixies, the squirrels
and the taxi-birds all sat around the base of the oak tree, deep
amongst its shadows, waiting for four events. The appearances of the
foxes, the moles, the sun and the yellow tree eater.
George yawned. Which made Lemsip yawn. And Hank would have yawned if he
hadn't been sound asleep. For Cricket though, sleep was the last thing
on his mind and he had managed to persuade a few of the squirrels to
join in a game of hide the nut somewhere on Hank - who was actually
very ticklish, which made the game even more exciting as the squirrels
knew they had to keep their tails well away from Hank's face.
"Aaaaatchoo!" said Hank and he woke with a start.
The three squirrels bounded away, the first twittering in delight, the
nut gripped tightly in his hand. Hank rubbed his eyes and started to
mutter about a strange dream he had been having when suddenly Nose,
held up both his hands and let out a low "SSSsssshhhh!"
No one moved.

They could all hear something. The question was what? And from
where?
Lemsip had the answer, and he knew this as the ground started to give
way beneath his feet. Cricket, who was standing next to Lemsip, was
busy scanning the bushes around them - looking out for the foxes or
perhaps a perpetrator searching for an early breakfast - suddenly
Lemsip shrunk by 10 inches. Then another. Until only his head was
poking above the ground.
"Heeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeelp!" he just had time to shout, before his
voice became kind of muffled and then sort of echoey. Then his voice
was replaced by another voice who also echoed, as if they were all in a
cave, or a tunnel.
A pointed face appeared next to Cricket's.
"Greetings," said Blimp the mole, "sorry about that."
And with a brisk shove of his right paw, Lemsip was back above land,
still looking a bit shocked, brushing the dirt from his trousers. He
took three large strides back from the edge of the hole, testing the
ground with each step, expecting the ground to give way at any
moment.
"Hello Blimp," said Nose, "thank you for coming, how many are with
you?"
Blimp scrambled around a little and pulled himself above ground.
"Just me. We thought it would be better if there were less of us. In
case you need to use our tunnels."
"I'm scared of the dark and enclosed spaces," said George.
"There's no way you will get me anywhere near one of those tunnels
nevermind down one," agreed Cricket.
One of the rabbits shuffled up behind Lemsip and peered cautiously down
the dark tunnel that led away from the hole created by Cricket and the
mole.
"Too dark, many foxes, too scared," the rabbit whispered before
rejoining his friends under the bush.
Nose appealed for calm.

"Please, please, listen carefully. The moles have kindly offered us the
use of their tunnels in case of an emergency. They are only to be used
if we are in extreme danger."
"I'll take the danger," said Cricket to George.
"Me too," George agreed.
"Yeah right," said Hank.
And he turned to find himself facing Fever the fox.
"Aaaaaaaaaarh! Where did you come from?" he shouted.
Fever's voice was kind of whiney and he sounded like he had a
cold.
"Helllooooooo, they call me Fever," he said, peering over the group of
pixies to where the rabbits were huddled.
Nose pushed his way to the front.
"Well, they call me Nose and I'm in charge, how many are there are you
and by the way, where did you come from?" Nose added.
"Hmmmmmm," the fox hummed, still staring at the rabbits, "we followed
the smell. Of the rabbits."
Hank stood up to say something but then thought better of it and sat
down again. The rabbits meanwhile were shuffling back into the bush,
unsure whether they should make a run for it.
Hank stood up again.
"You made a deal!" he shouted. "Leave the rabbits alone."
Then he sat down again. Behind Lemsip.
"He's right," agreed Nose, "now where are the others?"
"Hhmmm." Fever responded, then he let out a low whistle. Three more
foxes, although considerably smaller than Fever, bounded from behind a
small Fern and sat obediently by the Fever's paws.
"My three sons." he said. "I thought it would do them good to see a bit
of the real world for a change. They get soooooo bored." he
explained.
The fox cubs were around the same size as the rabbits and they were
happy to see any potential play partners. Skipping away from Fever's
side one by one, they made their way to the larger of bunnies and
crouched before them, front legs down, bottoms in the air.
"Hello Big Ears", Yogi said.
Walter, the larger rabbit that Yogi had approached, looked down at the
young fox.
"Big Ears eh?" he said.
"Yeah Big Ears." he repeated, "Hey, I like your tail, it's kind of
bobbly."
Yogi smiled. He admired this young cub's courage.
"Do you like acorns?" he asked.
"Love 'em." He replied.
The other two cubs bounded amongst the rabbits.
"Me toooo!" they cried.
Nose breathed a sigh of relief and extended a hand to the father foxes
head and patted him.
"I think we'll all get along fine," he said and motioned for everyone
to gather around.
"Listen everyone. Lemsip please pay attention, it was only a small hole
and Blimp has apologised. Today is a very important day. We have to
stop our homes from being destroyed."
George mumbled something to Cricket who nodded in agreement while
Lemsip stared at the ground - afraid of more craters appearing under
his feet.
"Several of us have been very busy," he shouted, looking at George,
urging him to forget about food for just a few minutes, "our task is to
confront the Yellow Tree-Eater with our Wooden Scaring Monster."
Nose waited for his words to sink in. Then he signalled to Harry the
carpenter who was just visible to his left, standing behind the red
berry bush.
"I give you The Great Wooden Head."
Silence descended on the forest animals and they looked to where Nose's
hand pointed.

From the bushes a loud crunching ensued.
Step by step.
Crunch - pause - Crunch.
At exactly the same moment the yellow tractor's engine started
up.

Everything stopped.
The pixies, the rabbits - who were naturally nervous, the foxes, even
the trees appeared to stand still for a moment. Every one seemed aware
that something big was about to happen.
And that big something was yellow and it was shaped liked a tractor,
yet Nose and Lemsip and George and the rest of the pixies had never
seen a tractor, so to them it just remained a big yellow thing. That
made a lot of noise (and smelt like bad smoke as Lemsip later pointed
out).
The tractor sent long vibrating sounds deep into the forest making the
leaves tremble on the forest floor. And this made every one very
nervous, just like the rabbits.
Ralph, the tractor driver only knew that he was happy that the
tractor's engine had started first time. He looked up at the clear blue
morning sky and thanked the weather for staying dry. Only last Tuesday
he had tried to start the tractor only to listen to the engine splutter
twice, shake three times then nothing. Ralph had then noticed the
petrol gauge pointing to the big red 'E'. This had meant a two mile
trek back to farmer Pete's house to buy a very expensive can of petrol
. He had even had to engage in small talk with Pete which was quite
difficult as farmer Pete only knew about pigs and blackcurrant cake -
which is fine - but Ralph didn't care too much for cake and as for
pigs, well. They smelt. That's what Ralph knew about pigs.
So Ralph stepped on the accelerator and hummed to himself as he and the
very large yellow tractor moved forward.

Panic ensued.
"What now!?" three rabbits shouted in unison.
Nose climbed up onto the tallest tree stump he could find.
"Every one stay calm" he shouted uncertainly.
"We still have the element of surprise" he shouted.
"What's an element?" one of the fox cubs asked George.
"Ahhh." said George.
"An element is very, very important. And it's all mixed in with the
surprise bit."
"Which means?" said the fox cub.
"That you'll find out in a minute when we surprise the yellow tree
eater."
The cub continued to look at George.
"Daaad! What's an ele&;#8230;"
"SSShhhhhhh!" said Nose.
"If we all keep our heads we shall be fine. We can.."
"Excuse me!" shouted Greg, one of the elder rabbits.
"What do you mean 'keep our heads'? Is there a risk that heads will be
lost?"
"Look!" said Nose, "just keep all questions to yourselves and listen
carefully and I will explain what we all have to do.
Now&;#8230;"
Suddenly there was a crunching noise from the bush - no - two crunching
sounds One after the other. And they kept coming. Closer and closer.
One after the other.
Nose looked up and stared high above him. Only this crunching noise
didn't scare him, in fact it made him clap his hands together, again
and again.
It was an incredible sight. A real life walking tree monster. His plan
was coming together. He only hoped that it was in time.
No one said a word. They only stared. Not knowing whether to be scared
or whether to join Nose in his clapping and dancing on the tree stump.
Lemsip decided to keep his eyes on Nose as he felt that so much dancing
would surely end in Nose ending up face down in the dirt sooner rather
than later.
Soon though all eyes were on the tree monster.
The eyes were made up by the owls, staring intently ahead.
George had never seen owls in daylight and he was sure that the owls
had never seen this early in the morning. They actually looked quite
startled, which was useful as it lent a certain eeriness to the look of
the monster.
Below the owls, holding the claws of the birds feet, stood six dormice.
Their job was to hold the two owls steady. Both the owls and the
dormice had made a pact. If you don't drop us then we won't eat you.
Which meant that the dormice were doing their job very well, although
with a particular edge that meant they kept nudging and whispering to
each other, reminding the one next to the next one to grip the talons
tightly.
"What if we drop them, what if we drop them.." they whispered.
The shoulders were made up by two rather reluctant squirrels, allowing
their tails to rest around their bodies, forming a roundness that sort
of resembled shoulders, although the tails swayed scantily in the wind
every now and then, tickling the rabbits who gripped the long wooden
pole that made up the main part of the scaremonster's body. They
squeaked in terror each step the monster made, then giggled as the fur
of the squirrel's tails brushed against their noses. This just left the
pixies at the bottom of the contraption, acting as feet. Shifting the
legs forward, one after the other. Four pixies to each leg. One set of
four shouting 'left foot', then shoving the weight of the monster
forward, the other four shouting 'right foot' then pushing forward on
the other side.
As they lifted and pushed, the blackbirds groaned and tutted as they
attempted to lift and pull the string driven contraption on its
way.
Nose had devised that each time the string was pulled, makeshift arms
would swing outwards. Nose was particularly proud of this part of the
design as he had made the fingers out of rather imposing sticks and as
these swished in the wind it added a quite sinister edge to the whole
apparition.
All in all it appeared to be working.
Every one was so into what they were doing, pulling, pushing, flying
and dragging that they almost didn't notice the yellow tractor
approaching.
It wasn't difficult to spot. Amongst the green trees and the brownness
of the tree trunks Ralph and his tractor stood out like a daffodil in a
sea of frogs.
Nose almost fell from the tree stump.
"It's here!" he shouted, "It's here. Everyone do something!
Anything!"
As it was they didn't have to do too much more.

Ralph had other things on his mind.
Like, how long he had to work before he could stop and drink his tea
and eat the sandwiches that his wife had made up for him the night
before. He liked surprises you see. Sometimes it was peanut butter,
sometimes, when Mrs. Ralph was feeling a little adventurous she made
his favourite - marmalade and sausage. No that, made his day. Marmalade
and sausage with plenty of margarine.
Ralph figured if he worked hard he could clear three trees before
eleven, then he would have a cup of tea and a biscuit (chocolate), then
clear another three before lunch. He looked up at the blue sky and
smiled.
The track was narrow but Ralph could make his way through by running
over the smaller bushes. He smiled as the tractor lurched to the side
and he felt the satisfying crunch of the beech bush under the left
tractor tyre.
'No problem' he said to himself.
Then he looked ahead.
And almost wet himself.

The only other time this had happened was when farmer Pete had played a
joke on Ralph.
With the pigs.
As he had been checking the oil on the tractor, as he did so on a
weekly basis, standing by the road side, just before he turned off on
the track that led to where he was supposed to be clearing the trees,
Pete had let the pigs out of their pen.
The fact that they hadn't been fed and that they had smelt Ralph's
marmalade and sausage sandwiches had not helped.
The pigs became like puppies trying to feed on their mother's
milk.
Ralph, for a moment, became a surrogate mother pig.
Ralph had climbed onto the tractor roof to escape the hungry pigs. Much
to Pete's delight. Ralph had been forced to sound the horn on the
tractor and only then had they scrurried back to their pen.

Now though Ralph was truly scared.
As he looked into the approaching thing - this was the only way he
could describe 'it' - and looked into the four eyes of the two owls, he
stopped humming and began to whimper. Then he allowed his eyes to
descend down the neck of the dormice onto the tails of the squirrels
and he was sure that what he was looking at was definitely not human.
Or animal. It was - different. At the point where he saw the rabbits,
clawing desperately onto each other, followed by the pixies. Shouting,
'left', then 'right'. Ralph wet himself.
The tractor didn't have a brake as such but it had a reverse gear and
Ralph ground the gear box dry as he selected the backwards option as
quickly as he could.
Just as he started to think that things were going his way and that the
nightmare thing that was coming his way was in fact getting smaller as
he backed away, the scaremonster started to get bigger. Well not
bigger, but what happened was that two of the pixies shouted 'left',
instead of 'right' and things went a little pear-shaped. The
scaremonster started to topple over towards the tractor. It landed with
a large thump just to the side of where Ralph sat.
Whuumph!
Of course it did not settle there.
The rabbits started screeching. The owls fluttered madly. The dormice
scarpered for dear life. The squirrels twittered and ran for the trees
and the pixies, well the pixies just did what pixies do best when
threatened - they ran at Ralph.
Ralph sat for a split second. Taking in all that was happening around
him. Then he started to scream. And run.
And how did he run. Faster than any pixie, faster than the squirrels in
the trees, in fact faster than he had ever ran in his life - which is
pretty fast.
He didn't even stop to turn off the engine of the tractor.
Nose took great delight in turning the key of the tractor and suddenly
the noise stopped.
Bounding back onto the tree stump Nose declared loudly,
"We have defeated the tree eater!"
Then he started to clap again and promptly fell onto his back which
delighted George greatly.
Then the owls started to hoot and the fox cubs howled and the pixies
gathered in a huddle patting each others backs.
Lemsip helped Nose back onto his feet.
"I think you deserve congratulations Nose."
"I think I would prefer a new back really." he replied.

The moles escape route came in very handy.
Too handy really.
Everyone bar Ralph tried to get into two holes that had been left by
the moles. 'Emergency routes' they had been described as by Nose.
It was only the fact that George, in his haste to escape the terror he
felt, managed to get stuck in the main hole that led to the mole's den
that barred the way of everyone else following him. Two rabbits found
themselves climbing into what they thought was a large hole only to
find themselves meeting George's big bottom. It kind of brought
everything to an end.
And finally everyone started to calm down.

Everyone stopped scrurrying in circles and listened to Nose as he at
last found his tree stump and lunged into his final speech. He was very
happy with himself.

"I would like to begin by thanking everyone here today." He began, "the
owls&;#8230;."
'Never again' - everyone could hear, followed by swishes and branches
being disrupted high above them.
"And the rabbits&;#8230;.."
'No, no.nooooh - foxes, owls, nooooh!"
"Look!" shouted Lemsip, "let's all start by not being scared of each
other.
Let's just realize that today, for a moment we could stand together and
be something very big. Something big enough to stand up to a very big
yellow tree eater. OK?!"
A few blackbirds twitted in agreement.
Then the fox cubs barked as well. The elder rabbits nodded towards the
foxes realizing they were safe for the time being and twitched and
thumped their hind legs on the ground.
Nose sighed and started to help George from the mole hole.
"We live to fight another day George."
"I'm truly glad," said George, "and truly hungry."
"And I," said Lemsip, "think we all deserve one of Chef's best
meals."
And for once, George was in agreement.