Fox's Feud by Colin Dann Read Free Book Online

father?’ Bold asked the hawk hastily. ‘Is he in difficulties?’
    ‘You could put it that way,’ Kestrel returned scathingly. ‘Why, is he to have the good fortune of being rescued by you?’
    The bird’s sarcasm was lost on Bold, who was more concerned with his family’s whereabouts. ‘Please tell me, Kestrel,’ he begged, ‘where he is – and the others, too.’
    Kestrel relented a little as he recognized the real concern in the cub’s voice. ‘Your mother and sister are quite safe. They’re lying low a little way ahead. Apparently your father went ahead on his own to the enemy camp, but your brother followed him.’
    ‘You must get Vixen and Charmer back here with us straight away,’ said Badger. ‘Tell them Bold is safe. But surely, Scarface will have told Fox his cub is no longer with them?’ he added on a thought.
    ‘I don’t know what they’ve told him, but Fox and Friendly are in real peril. They’re completely surrounded by hostile animals.’
    Bold gulped. ‘I must help them. I caused the trouble,’ he muttered woefully.
    ‘You’ll stay here with us,’ Badger said sharply. ‘When your mother and sister return, you must all go back to your den. Fox will find a way out of his predicament, I know.’ But his words belied his true feelings, and he feared for his friend’s safety.
    Kestrel flew off again and soon Vixen and Charmer could be seen on the path back. Bold greeted them lavishly.
    ‘I told Kestrel to pass on the news to Fox,’ said Vixen. She looked at Badger worriedly. ‘How will he ever get away?’ she whispered.
    ‘By superior cunning,’ Mole answered confidently. ‘Scarface is not in the same league.’
    Vixen smiled thinly at Mole’s attempt at cheerfulness. ‘I believe he has Owl with him,’ she said. ‘Perhaps the two of them – ’ She broke off lamely. A miserable silence followed.
    Bold became more and more restless. Then, suddenly, he cried out: ‘Here’s my brother coming!’
    Friendly was indeed coming, but a more woeful, dejected beast would have been hard to find. He crept upto his mother and licked her muzzle forlornly. Then he looked at Bold. ‘I’m glad to see you safe and unhurt,’ he said. ‘But we cubs and our mother are only allowed to be so at the expense of our father.’
    All the animals began talking at once. ‘What do you mean?’ ‘What’s happened?’ ‘Is he dead?’ ‘What have they done to him?’ came the cries.
    Friendly looked at them all expressionlessly. ‘So that I might go free, Fox has offered himself to the enemy to do with him what they will.’
    ‘What will they do? Oh, this is too awful,’ cried the anguished Vixen in despair. ‘Friendly, you should have stayed with your father,’ she moaned.
    ‘I wanted to,’ muttered her offspring, ‘but he insisted-he ordered me away.’
    ‘And Owl? Kestrel? Are they with him?’ Vixen wailed.
    ‘Oh yes,’ he replied. ‘The birds will stay with him. But what can they do amongst a dozen or so hostile foxes?’
    ‘A dozen!’ all the animals cried, looking from one to the other in horror, each one hoping another would make some sort of suggestion. Bold looked sicker and sicker with each passing minute. His sturdy form seemed to wilt as he felt the full impact of his recklessness.
    Badger, as nominal leader, knew that it must be he who should make a decision. Yet what could he decide? The little band of friends was outnumbered and outmatched to a hopeless degree by a dozen foxes. He pondered miserably. The other animals found themselves, one by one, looking towards him for guidance.
    Badger stood up and shook himself, trying to assume an expression of resolve. ‘Well, my friends, we seem to be in a pretty pickle,’ he said. ‘We can’t go forward and attack in the hope of freeing Fox, because we’d simply be hastening our own ends. Rabbits and squirrels and moles are not much of a test for an army of foxes. No, we can’trisk anything like that. So I don’t see