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is in leaf.’

There was something about that evening that seemed to affect the entire population of Farthing Wood. The atmosphere was remarkably quiet. A spring breeze, a cool breeze, blew across the grassland. Nothing stirred. Not a single otter appeared. Were they suspicious? Lean Fox broke the silence.
    ‘It doesn’t look as if there’s anything to chase after all,’ he said.
    ‘Give them time,’ said Lean Vixen.
    The sun sank below the horizon. Darkness cloaked the foxes and the stream ran black. At last there was movement. Something approached, then turned and set off in another direction.
    ‘Follow it,’ Lean Vixen yapped. The foxes ran forward. The creature, which was indeed an otter, turned at the sound of running feet. Far from taking fright, it stood its ground. The foxes’ rush slowed, then halted.
    ‘Rather unfair odds, isn’t it?’ Sleek Otter asked, for it was she.
    ‘Are you alone?’ Stout Fox growled.
    ‘You have eyes.’
    ‘Then where are the others?’ a young fox piped up.
    ‘How should I know? In the Wood perhaps.’
    ‘In the Wood?’ Stout Fox barked. ‘Nothing passed us as we came. How can that be?’
    ‘Hardly likely they’d want to come face to face with a force of foxes,’ Sleek Otter observed, ‘if they are in the Wood.’
    ‘What game is this?’ Lean Vixen snarled.
    ‘There is more than one way to enter a Wood,’ was the reply and Sleek Otter tittered.
    Lean Vixen was infuriated. Had the otters outmanoeuvred them again? While the foxes were standing idle, were they plundering the woodland in their absence?
    ‘Back to the Wood!’ she roared. ‘They’ve gone behind our backs!’
    The foxes, in one mass, turned and galloped towards the trees. Sleek Otter could hardly contain herself. She rolled over in her delight, whistling and giggling. Her cool-headedness had tricked the other animals into retreat. For she knew quite well not one otter, apart from herself, had yet left its holt.
    Try as they might, and they searched high and low in twos and threes, the foxes couldn’t find anything to chase. But their activity flushed some other creatures into the open. Amongst these were hedgehogs. The hedgehogs were very frightened, but soon realized the foxes were after different game. Sage Hedgehog unrolled himself and called to the others, ‘We’re safe for the moment. We’re of no interest to them.’
    Stout Fox paused to grunt, ‘Not unless you can tell me if you’ve seen otters tonight.’
    ‘No. None. Why do you seek them?’
    ‘We’re at loggerheads. Foxes and otters need tosettle their differences and now there’s only one way …’
    ‘You wish to fight them?’
    Stout Fox growled, ‘If necessary. But certainly to frighten them.’
    ‘Then we hedgehogs shall remain silent,’ said the sage one bravely. ‘Were we to see otters, we couldn’t expose them to danger.’
    ‘Very well. But we foxes will find them one way or another,’ Stout Fox replied determinedly.
    ‘We take no sides in your dispute,’ the hedgehog continued. ‘But we wish the otters no harm. Indeed their presence here must be preserved.’
    ‘Not in Farthing Wood!’ Stout Fox snapped. ‘We have our own ideas about that!’
    ‘Don’t do anything we shall all regret,’ Sage Hedgehog pleaded. ‘If the otters go, I dread the consequences. You’re more sensible than most. I appeal to you to avert a disaster.’
    ‘Stuff and nonsense,’ Stout Fox remarked dismissively. He knew all about Sage Hedgehog. ‘You and your crackpot notions! Now listen to me. We foxes mean to keep the otters out of our territory. There’s no two ways about that. And we’ll use any means necessary.’
    ‘No, no,’ wailed Sage Hedgehog. ‘We shall all be losers. Don’t let the humans in!’
    ‘Humans? They’ve been coming and going here ever since I can remember,’ Stout Fox said and went on his way.
    Sage Hedgehog’s head sank on to his paws. More to himself than to any other creature he murmured