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Stand Your Ground: Firebird Tears

Chapter 4

The Entrance

Vidia stood perfectly still. She watched the strange creature without a sound.

The armadillo was just moseying along, and Vidia didn't want to change that.

Suddenly he turned his head and just looked at her. She froze completely and didn't even blink as the creature scrutinized her.

An ant stepped on her foot, and she instinctively jerked back, but the armadillo launched himself several feet in the air.

She stepped back, amazed, and stared wide-eyed at the armored animal who had just landed.

He turned suddenly and started to dig. Vidia stepped back and watched the dirt fly through the air, dotting the area. Suddenly it stopped, and the armadillo was out of sight.

Vidia cautiously walked to the edge of the sizable hole. The armadillo was curled into a ball – like a roly poly bug.

"Hey, have you seen a hole in the ground?" Vidia asked, loudly. She found herself lying on the ground with a clump of dirt on her stomach, and another clump of dirt landed next to her. Then it was flying everywhere. Vidia scrambled out of range before she realized that he wasn't attacking, just digging because he was scared of her.

She sighed and left.

Stand Your Ground

Vidia squinted her eyes against the light of the setting sun.

"Time to go back." She muttered, to no one. She turned abruptly, shuffling her feet, then one unexpectedly stuck.

She cleared the leaves off the root holding her foot down. She wiggled it, trying to get free, then stomped her unrestrained foot in frustration. Suddenly, she found herself falling – down -down . . . she gave a cry as she impacted the ground. She climbed to her feet and looked around. It wasn't until the dust cleared that she realized that she was standing in the entrance to the Shadow Shelter.

"Yes!" Vidia spun around in delight. "I found it! I found the entrance! Fawn! Tink! Scruffy!" she yelled. "I found the entrance! Rosetta, Dessa, Sil! I found it!" she paused a moment. "Hey, Silvermist! Tinkerbell! Iridessa! Scruffy!" she waited, but heard no replies. "Scruffy? Fawn? Rosetta?" she tried to shout louder. She waited longer, but she didn't hear any replies.

"Huh." Vidia snorted. "I don't need them to get back to camp." she began to climb up the side of the cave, but the soil was dry and loose, and it deposited her right where she started, along with a cloud of dust and dirt. She tried again, but didn't get anywhere near the top. Her heart started beating faster and louder.

"Scruffy? Fawn! Tink!" she called again. "Anyone? Help!"

She sat down with her back to the wall. "I'll just wait here for a little while – they'll get back to camp, and then look for me – but I was an hour late last time, so they might give me extra time . . . so I might be here for quite a while . . . Well, that doesn't matter. What could hurt me here, anyway? Things that live in a cave . . . crickets, centipedes – I can take care of those, no problem." she talked to herself in a frightened voice to calm herself down. "Oh, right. Vicious . . . bats." she looked around, nervously. "But bats only come out at – night." she glanced at the quickly darkening sky.

She stood, hearing the grass above her rustle. "Hey, Scruffy, is that you?" she called, trying to disguise her relief. "What took you so long?"

Her visitor poked his long head over the hole.

Vidia's eyes grew wide, and she stepped back instinctively. She'd never heard of a fox eating a fairy, but this fox was not well-fed, and looked at her eagerly – hungrily.

Vidia did her best to dim her glow a little, but didn't have much success.

"Ahh!" she shrieked and jumped back as the fox jumped nimbly into the cave and turned around to look at her.

She pressed her back to the rock and sat down on the ground, pulling her knees to her chest in an effort to make herself smaller.

At least he'll bruise his nose when he eats me. She thought, regretfully.

Stand Your Ground: Firebird Tears

Iridessa jumped up as Silvermist landed in the camp. "Did you see Vidia?" she asked, worried.

"Don't worry, Dessa – it isn't actually dark yet, and she was a bit late last time." Fawn reminded.

"But bats come out at night." Rosetta reminded her, nervously.

"What's up with you and bats, Ro?" Fawn asked, grinning. "You have a clear dislike of them."

Tink landed nearby and walked over to them. "That's everyone except – Vidia."

"Sure wish Sera was here." Rosetta said, wistfully. "Scouting fairies hear everything."

"Don't worry, I'm sure she's all right. If she hasn't come when it's dark, we'll go and look for her." Tinkerbell decided.

Stand Your Ground

Vidia had no idea how long she sat there waiting for the fox to make a threatening move.

Something made a scuffling noise up on the ground. "Tinkerbell? Scruffy?" Vidia shouted. "Help!"

Raggedy peeked over the edge.

"Raggedy, run! It's a fox! He'll eat you!" Vidia warned. "Run! Find Tinkerbell and the other fairies."

Raggedy took off, but the fox had seen her, and he jumped out of the hole and raced after.

"Hey, come back here!" Vidia shouted, but neither heard.

Stand Your Ground

Silvermist straightened. "Do you guys hear that?"

"It's Vidia!" Rosetta crowed, elated.

"I don't think so." Silvermist responded, with a frown on her face. She listened carefully. "It has four legs – Vidia certainly doesn't."

A mouse raced into the clearing. "Hey, little buddy!" Fawn exclaimed, catching her. "What's the matter?"

The mouse squeaked frantically. "You're talking too fast. Slow down." Fawn instructed calmly.

The mouse squeaked even faster, but Fawn managed to decipher it. "Fly!" she shouted, lifting the mouse into the air with her.

Scruffy jumped into the air, but landed flat on his face, his pixie dust having worn off a while back.

Silvermist and Tinkerbell grabbed him and lifted him up with them.

The fox looked up at them mournfully, then slinked away.

"This mouse says she's seen Vidia!" Fawn told the other fairies. "She's stuck in the fox's den."

"He might be going back there! Tinkerbell exclaimed. "Where is it?"

"Raggedy says she can lead us there on the ground." Fawn translated the squeaks.

"Hey, that's like my name." Scruffy was surprised.

The mouse squeaked some more.

"Raggedy says that Vidia named her." Fawn replied. They landed on the ground and Raggedy pranced away, with the others following.

Stand Your Ground

Vidia ran up the side of the hole and grabbed the edge, but the dirt crumbled in her fingers, and she fell back down. She frowned in determination, and tried again.

She got her arm up over the side and managed to catch hold of a small grass seedling, but only with one hand. She dug her fingers into the ground, trying to get a grip, but the dirt moved with her hand, not holding her still.

"Vidia, let me help!" a hand was laid on hers.

Vidia gasped and let go of the seedling, tumbling down.

She groaned. "Sil, what took you so long?" she repeated her earlier question, but it didn't sound nearly so sarcastic now.

Silvermist flew down and looked around. "You found the Shadow Shelter entrance!" she exclaimed.

"The first good thing that has happened all day." Vidia sighed, and Silvermist gave her a hand back up to the ground.

"We've been really worried again, Vidia." Rosetta scolded.

"Wasn't my fault." Vidia leaned against Scruffy. "Hey, Raggedy!"

Raggedy waved a paw.

"So what do we do next?" Rosetta asked.

A chipmunk raced into the camp and chittered so fast that Fawn couldn't hear him. "Slow down, little guy." she laughed. "What's the problem?"

"Fox."

Fawn turned to Vidia.

"The fox is coming back. Let's get out of here." Vidia led the way on the ground. "Everyone, this is Nibbles." she introduced them when they were a good distance away.

"Vidia, since when do you speak chipmunk?" Fawn demanded.

"Since never. I just guessed because that was the way he chittered when the weasel attacked us." Vidia paused. "Nibbles, Raggedy and I got rid of him together."

"A weasel?" Rosetta squealed. "Oh, my!"

"The fox will probably leave to go hunting in the morning." Fawn said, "We can slip in then."

Vidia nodded. "Shall we go back to the camp?"

"Actually, I snatched up the supplies when the fox came." Iridessa held up a large bag. "This looks like a good place for camp."

They set up camp quickly, and everyone settled down to sleep.

"Hey, Vidia?"

She sat up. "Yeah, Scruffy?"

"Goodnight."

She groaned and lay back down.

"Goodnight, Vidia."

"Cut it out."

"Come on, if you'd just say it, I won't keep you awake any more."

"Goodnight." Vidia said, sulkily.

Stand Your Ground

Vidia opened an eye. "That isn't good." she murmured, looking up at the face of a drooling fox. "Good morning!" she said, quietly.

He put his front paw on her middle, driving the breath from her. She coughed.

She shoved it off. "Scruffy!" she screamed, rolling away from the fox. "Help!"

The fox opened his mouth and lunged.