Forest Page 10

  “None, Treebud. They are weaklings without a spark of courage. I need no help. If you’d like to take a break, I’ll look after them for a few minutes.”

  “Nice of you. Perhaps I will go off for a bit of breakfast now that the troops have left. Can I bring you anything?”

  “No, but you can take over for me when you get back.”

  “Agreed.” There was a bustle of retreating paws. Then quiet.

  “You! Cowards! Move farther back. And no talking.” The cruel shadow of the guard fell over Woodbine and Laurel in their hole. They squeaked in terror and cringed together like the most pitiful of cowards. Never had they been so miserable. Never had the world seemed so dreadful. It is all very well to speak of courage when you are safe, but when you are crushed for hours in a hot, dark hole and surrounded by guards who boast of their talent for torture—forget it. With tear-filled eyes, the prisoners gazed up into the brutal, evil, angry face of…

  “Brown Nut! What are you—”

  “Sh-sh! Do you want me to get caught?…Take that, you mink-tailed rat!” Brown Nut’s foot materialized suddenly in front of Woodbine’s nose, halting just before it struck. “Let that be a lesson to you to keep away from the light!”

  A second later her anxious face looked in at them. “Are you all right? Good. Wait for my signal. We’re going to make a run for it.”

  She vanished again and became the loathsome shadow of the guard.

  In the moments that followed, Woodbine and Laurel tried frantically to untangle their legs, and to rub their paws to get the blood moving through them again. They had been cramped for so long that they were afraid they had lost the ability to run. There was not much time to worry, though. Brown Nut’s tail flicked into the opening, a sign that they must prepare for flight.

  An instant later the tail snapped out of sight as Brown Nut leapt for a branch below. Woodbine and Laurel appeared in the entrance, blinking in the bright daylight. Then they also sprang for the branch, and all three spiraled headlong down a pine tree’s trunk. Across open ground they fled, into a clump of bushes, through a thicket of young scrub trees, and up another pine tree, where they hid out briefly, their eyes watching the branches on all sides.

  They sped off again, following Brown Nut. And though their escape was quickly discovered, and a search party formed, it posed no danger. The three mink-tails soon slipped out of sight and were lost in Upper Forest’s green swirl of leaves.

  From the Supreme Commander’s headquarters, a half-rotted pine tree at the center of his camp: “Well? What of the prisoners?”

  “We regret to report, sir, that their escape has been successful. They have fled into the Third Quadrant.”

  “This news does not please me. Have the responsible guards been punished?”

  “Yes, Supreme Commander, sir. The guard Treebud is on his way to the swamp now, for drowning. The second guard was an impostor. She tricked Treebud into taking a break for breakfast. Then she helped the prisoners escape and went with them.”

  “Who is this traitor? Have you a name?”

  “Brown Nut, sir. The prisoner’s sister.?’

  “Brown Nut! I am sorry to hear it. She has survived the aliens, then, and returned to undermine our cause. Send five hundred soldier minks to search the Third Quadrant immediately. All three traitors must be caught! I fear they will try to make their way to the Elders. Triple our security forces around Great Stump.”

  “Yes, Supreme Commander, sir. But I will have to order some troops back from the front to make up that number. Every male, female, and kit is involved in our attack on the aliens this morning.”

  “Well, do it, idiot!”

  “Yes sir. Here are three messenger minks from the front, Supreme Commander. They come with information about the attack.”

  “Speak up, fools! How goes our glorious fight?”

  “Very well, sir.”

  “Excellently, sir.”

  “Brilliantly, sir!”

  “Well? Go on!”

  “The apple orchards north of town are being destroyed, sir, according to plan. The fruit is being devoured and the trees damaged.”

  “Good! Many aliens depend on these apples for their livelihood.”

  “Our attack on the aliens’ communication system is going well, too, sir. Many lines along their paths have been bitten through or clawed.”

  “Good work! The aliens will be forced outside their box nests to communicate, which they will not like. Especially since our troops are there, waiting to swoop down!”

  “The magic juice is our next target, sir.”

  “All right! We have them by the throat! When these actions are completed, send our troops, to the Lower Region pathways to cut off incoming aid. The aliens must be made to taste fear on their tongues. Only then will they go forever from our town.”

  “Ahem! Supreme Commander, sir. I must report also, with great sadness, the death in battle of five mink-tail squirrels in the First Quadrant, five more in the Second, and fifteen in the Fourth, where a band of aliens is roaming with fire weapons.”

  “Excellent! We have hardly been injured at all! What are a mere twenty-five minks subtracted from the thousands in our power swarms? It will make no difference to our battle plan at all!”

  “Yes, sir. I suppose not, sir. Some of them were children.”

  “Well, we have plenty more to take their places! Order all swarms to the Fourth Quadrant immediately to destroy this alien band. Then proceed with the magic juice attacks. And now please leave me. I must begin to make plans for our victory celebration. Shall we have fireworks? The aliens’ weapons will be ours for the taking!”

  The sun was about halfway up the sky when Woodbine, Laurel, and Brown Nut reached the majestic beeches that grew around Great Stump. So tall and thick-leaved were these trees that the clearing surrounding the stump was still in shadow, though the morning was well advanced.

  “We must move quickly,” Brown Nut told the others. “The shade gives us cover to make our approach. An hour from now the ground will be bright with sunlight. Also, Barker is too smart not to know where we are headed. He will certainly have ordered more troops to Great Stump to keep us away. At the moment, the Elders are lightly guarded, it appears.”

  “But even if we do get in, will the Elders agree to listen to us?” Laurel whispered anxiously. “They may simply call the guards and order us dragged off.”

  “That is true, but we must take the risk,” Woodbine answered. “Our ancient leaders are the only ones with power enough to challenge Barker.”

  “And if the Elders are persuaded against Barker, will Forest’s mink-tails follow?” Laurel asked. “Barker has raised in their blood a hunger for battle. Perhaps the Elders’ power is already gone.”

  “There is no way to tell,” Brown Nut said, “unless we try. And we must try immediately, or lose our advantage.”

  Not long after, the mink-tails separated and crept to hiding places around the clearing. Then, taking their cue from Woodbine, they each set out toward the stump, using the sort of scamper-and-halt, scuttle-and-freeze technique that is the trademark of all squirrels crossing open ground. At first there was no movement anywhere, and it seemed that the stump guards might be asleep at their posts, or off eating a late breakfast. The three came quite close to Great Stump, close enough to see the jagged hole in its crown that led down to the Elders’ chambers below.

  But then, suddenly, the game was up. As if some warning system had been tripped (and perhaps it had), Woodbine found himself leapt upon by guards on the stump’s eastern flank. At the same moment Laurel, though she dodged brilliantly, was attacked and brought down on the west side. Brown Nut, to the south, did not even bother to put up a fight. She tried, true to form, to bluster her way through.

  “Please! I am the kidnapped Brown Nut, recently released by the aliens,” Woodbine heard her say to the guards in outraged tones.

  “Oh, sure! Brown Nut! Ha, ha. She is long dead in the aliens’ clutches.” Se
veral guards chuckled together.

  “I am not dead! I come with a message from the aliens,” said Brown Nut, becoming more inventive. “Please escort me to the Elders at once. My companions and I have top-secret information that must reach their ears.”

  “Top-secret information. Ha, ha, ha, ha. Barker would love this. Take her away, Woodside.”

  Still Brown Nut would not give up. She shook off her captors and narrowed her eyes.

  “My message is not for Supreme Commander Barker but for our wise leaders,” she spat out. “I warn you, guards, if the Elders do not receive this message, they will be extremely angry. It is an answer to a message they sent yesterday, in utmost secrecy, to the Lower Region. Do you think the Elders are Barker’s servants? Of course not! They report to no one and take action of their own!”

  The guards were thrown into spluttering confusion by this statement, which was such a complete lie that Woodbine’s paws began to sweat.

  “Did the Elders send a message to the Lower Region?” the guards asked one another.

  “I don’t know.”

  “Maybe this mink-tail is telling the truth.”

  “Maybe she is lying.”

  “We don’t want to anger the Elders.”

  “We don’t want to upset Barker, either.”

  “So take them to the Elders and see what happens. What harm could it do?”

  “I dunno.”

  “Sure, take them.”

  “But we have orders from the Supreme Commander not to allow anyone…”

  This last remark was drowned out, luckily, by the guards urging their captives forward into the stump’s entrance. A few moments later, Brown Nut, Woodbine, and Laurel found themselves being escorted along a tunnel that plunged almost straight down into the ground.

  It was an ancient tunnel, one that the young mink-tails had only heard tell of in stories. In the old, old days, Great Stump had been a living tree, a tremendous beech that towered over all the other trees around it. At that time mink-tail leaders had craved height, and the beech became a natural gathering place for them. Only as the years went on, and the great tree had aged and lost branches, decayed, and turned hollow, had the gathering place gradually settled groundward. Then a windstorm had knocked the beech over altogether, and the wise ones’ chamber had moved underground.

  The tunnel followed the track of the old tree’s giant tap root and ended deep in the earth at the Elders’ vast ceremonial chamber. Now, as Woodbine was hustled toward this fabulous place, he recalled the story of the brilliant mink-tail builder Wolfeye, who had conceived and designed the chamber, and then, through sheer force of will (a will that carried on even after his death), persuaded generations of squirrels to labor underground for a hundred years. A hundred years! It seemed impossible. Woodbine could not imagine spending even a week in this dark and gritty world. Mink-tails were not underground hibernators, like some in the squirrel family.

  “Halt! Please proceed slowly. The chamber is just ahead,” a guard warned.

  Then they were passing into a hall whose ceiling curved pale and high over their heads, and whose walls glowed dimly from some luminous mineral embedded in them. The feeling the room gave was of an immense and peaceful center. It was as if they had come inside a moon and were gazing out through its shining skin.

  “Amazing!” breathed Laurel.

  “Incredible!” gasped Woodbine.

  “There they are,” Brown Nut said in her sensible, unflappable way. “The Elders. Don’t forget to bow.”

  And there they were indeed, a rather gloomy-looking group of silver-haired leaders perched on a raised platform at one end of the chamber. As the little troop of visitors approached, the Elders’ heads came up, one by one, and their tails rose here and there to attention. They looked like a bleary-eyed, many-headed creature rousing itself after a long nap. As they more or less were, Woodbine later found out, for so many days had passed since they had last been consulted that their minds had begun to dim.

  “Barker? Is that you?” the Elders called out together, peering and squinting at the oncoming forms. This was such a pathetic cry to hear from the once-powerful protectors of Forest’s ancient realm that Woodbine felt his heart sink into his stomach. Brown Nut, however, wasted no time on emotion.

  “Honorable lords and ladies,” she began. “We are here to report terrible happenings in Forest. May we come closer and speak to you in private?”

  The Elders nodded groggily and drew back on their platform to make room. Terrible happenings? Where was Supreme Commander Barker? He handled these things.

  “But it’s about Barker that we’ve come to see you,” Woodbine told the many heads. “Do you know that the mink-tails are at war? We are attacking the aliens at this very moment.”

  The Elders blinked in surprise at this information. But they had no time to answer because just then the sound of running feet echoed from the tunnel, and a breathless group of guards burst into the great chamber. Without stopping to bow, they rushed directly for the Elders’ platform.

  “Arrest these spies at once!” a voice barked out behind the guards. “Remove them from the chamber! Whoever let them in will pay in blood.”

  “Barker!” squeaked Laurel, shrinking back in fright.

  In seconds the three young mink-tails were gripped by the guards, who began to drag them away. The Elders drew aside from this scuffle with distaste. They were not used to violence of any sort, but to see it here, in the great ceremonial hall, well, it was disrespectful. No—more than that—it was shocking! Actually, it was an outrage, and should be stopped before it went any further!

  “Guards! Release the visitors!” the Elders commanded. “They came to speak to us about affairs of state. We are curious to hear what they have to say.”

  The guards stopped in confusion and looked over at Barker. What should they do now?

  “Guards! Take the cowards away!” the Supreme Commander ordered. “Our wise Elders do not understand. The affairs of Forest have grown too complicated for their fine old heads!”

  “Oh no they haven’t!” the Elders shouted back angrily. “We begin to see quite clearly what is happening in our land. Guards! The visitors are ordered to stay!”

  At this, Barker himself stepped with a slippery movement onto the Elders’ platform. He bowed deeply to the wrathful leaders and softened his voice.

  “Your majesties, I beg your pardon,” he said, in such oily tones that Woodbine, standing nearby, bristled. “I only wanted to protect you from unpleasantness. These youngsters are traitors with nothing to say but lies.”

  “We Elders will be the judge of that,” the Elders rumbled back. “Guards! Remove your grip from our visitors.”

  “Guards! Take them away!” thundered Barker.

  The guards’ heads swung back and forth. They did not know whom to believe, or whom to obey. They stood still, holding fast to Laurel, Woodbine, and Brown Nut while they tried to make up their minds. The sight of this indecision sent Barker into a rage.

  “Idiots!” he screamed. “I am Supreme Commander. Listen to me, not these old fur balls. They are weak and have no bite.”

  At the mention of fur balls, Woodbine’s tail shot straight up in the air. Until this moment, he had been submitting quietly to the guards’ grip. Now a terrible fury flashed through him. Before he could stop himself, he wrenched free and lunged at Barker. Snap! He sunk his teeth deep into Barker’s ratty tail. Oh, it felt so good!

  There was a shriek of pain. Several guards sprang forward to tear the two apart. This was a most fortunate turn of events. The Elders, seeing Barker in the hands of the guards, promptly ordered them to take the traitor away, And the guards, shocked back to their old loyalties, promptly did as they were told. In a second the crisis was over.

  “Let me go!” Barker cried as they dragged him off. “It’s a trick! I have done nothing—only served the mink-tails faithfully!”

  The Elders turned their backs. Their minds had become crystal-sharp. The
y saw all that they had missed during the past days. They came forward and congratulated Woodbine on his timely bite, “though we do not as a rule approve of this kind of activity,” they added hastily.

  “Woodbine doesn’t, either,” Brown Nut assured them, with a stern look at her brother. “He usually has better control of himself.”

  Woodbine nodded sheepishly and silently vowed to keep a short leash on himself in the future. He was still not sure how it had happened. He was normally such a shy, retiring squirrel.

  “And now tell us quickly about this war!” the Elders demanded. “What fools we have been. We may all be wiped out. Is it possible to call back our troops before any more damage is done?”

  “I am afraid it may already be too late,” Brown Nut said. “I’ve been speaking just now to Barker’s guards. Our power swarms are at this very minute closing in on a band of aliens with weapons not far from here. Their orders are to destroy them.”

  “Destroy them! But I thought we were only going after their living systems!” Woodbine said in alarm. “We were never supposed to actually kill the aliens.”

  “These aliens have been killing soldier minks in the Fourth Quadrant,” Brown Nut said, “so there is deep feeling against them.”

  The Elders sighed and shook their many heads. “What fools we were!” they moaned again. “Come. Let us go quickly to the Fourth Quadrant. We must all pray that the battle has not yet begun!”

  LOWER FOREST

  THE TERRIBLE HEAT THAT had plagued Forest for the better part of two weeks was on the rise again as Amber, Wendell, and Professor Spark sped along toward town in the professor’s old car. The hayfields on either side of the road were wilting in the sun. An odor of scorched tar came in through the windows, which were wide open and streaming wind.

  “Whew!” shouted the professor above the blow. “This is worse than India! No, no, not you, sweetie,” she added, patting the dog, which had lunged to its feet in the front seat. Amber, who was occupying the front seat, too, inched closer to the door.

  “Take a left at the next corner,” she called across to the professor. “Apple Farm Road. It heads right into town. I think we should stop at the firehouse first, to find out if the search-and-destroyers have left, and where they might have gone.”