CHAPTER 16 – Distraction
"Distraction..." Buttercup muttered, rifling in the area near the river, and came up with a duck egg. "Foxes like eggs, right?"
"I think so." Woody replied. He blinked. "Where did you get that?"
"This?" Buttercup indicated the egg. "It was just sitting here. Along with these three others."
"Seems a bit simple," Woody remarked, wandering closer to look at a small nest on the water's edge. He noticed Buttercup's look at him, confused. "Nothing is ever simple." The cowboy doll added.
As he finished speaking , there was a swishing sound from nearby and both toys jumped, turning to face the wrath of a large female duck – she squawked in anger when she saw Buttercup touching one of her precious eggs.
She started to run at them and both toys, spooked, started to roll the egg away. "Faster!" Woody gasped, urging Buttercup on, and they managed to get the egg back into the long grass. They were lost in the darkness to the female duck, who stopped just short of her nest and quacked after them.
Catching their breath, Woody uttered another question.
"How are we going to manage a trade off between this egg and Buzz?"
"Simple." Buttercup replied. "We go over there and just do the swap in front of the vixen's eyes. "
Woody blinked. "We?"
"Sure. What, you getting cold feet, cowboy?"
"No." Woody was affronted.
"Well, then, come on." Buttercup passed him the egg. "You hold this, I'll get Buzz."
They crept through the tall grass towards the foxes slowly. The mother fox was now in the middle of giving fox cub number two a wash, and it looked like Buzz was going to be receiving one shortly after. Buttercup crept around a nearby rock, and peeped out the other side.
"Ok...put the egg there," he indicated the space in front of him, "...and make a break for it, sheriff."
"Are you sure this is going to work?" Woody hissed, and Buttercup shrugged.
"Nope."
"Ok, I'm going then!" Woody whispered, and put the egg down."Good luck...!"
Buttercup nodded mutely and peeked out from behind the rock again. The mother fox was grooming herself now, distracting completely from her task of her third "cub".
Buttercup took his chance. "Buzz!" he hissed, and the space toy caught the whisper and looked up. "Run!" instructed Buttercup, motioning Buzz towards him.
Buzz glanced across at the two cubs, who were pawing at each other...then at the mother fox who was grooming her back paw...and before he had chance for a second thought his feet were hitting the floor and he was panting for breath. The mother fox, having seen him get up and dart off, followed.
Buzz ran behind the rock where Buttercup was waiting. "Jump on, Buzz!" Buttercup shouted, and the space toy jumped up on the unicorn. They took off just as the mother fox rounded the rock...and there, nestled in the grass, she found the duck egg.
With a low bark of joy, she nosed the egg and looked after the fleeing toys, before rolling the egg back to her cubs, who pounced on it with excited barks as well.
Meanwhile Buzz and Buttercup were catching their breath in the nearby reeds. "That was a good plan," Buzz panted, petting Buttercup. "I'm impressed."
"And skilfully executed, too." he heard Woody's voice behind him and jumped, turning around, coming face to face with the cowboy doll. Buzz gulped.
'Execution...? '
" Listen, Woody, I understand if you're still mad at me," he started, but Woody put a hand on his shoulder.
"Buzz, I'm sorry. I jumped to conclusions." He grinned. "I understand Jessie has affection for you, and if you want to keep her away, that's fine, I don't mind." He coughed. "Actually...I might have put Slinky up to that truth or dare thing."
Buzz stared. Woody coughed again. "I kind of got the impression that night me and Jessie found you under the tea table that you were going to bypass every girl in the room, regardless of whether she was my sister or not, so I arranged with Slinky for truth and dare to be incorporated into game play at some point. I just didn't know it was going to be so soon."
Buzz was still staring at Woody. Woody shifted, feeling a little uncomfortable, until Buzz suddenly started to laugh. "You...you got Slinky to? To...hahahaha," the space toy doubled up laughing.
Now it was Woody's turn to stare at Buzz. "I'm sorry, you lost me." he complained.
Buzz collected himself. "That's so funny...you thought you'd get me back, but you didn't...I actually...I actually realised how I felt about Jessie right after I did the dare. "
Woody blinked. "So when you were saying it was untrue...how you felt about her...?"
Buzz nodded. "It took me a few hours to realise the reason why I felt so uncomfortable speaking to her about something so personal is because it –was- personal. To me."
Woody stared. "So you and Jessie...?"
"Had a big fight, and she stormed off. She was actually going to jump off the window sill and I had to rescue her." Buzz blushed.
"Buzz Lightyear, you dark horse, you," Woody ribbed his friend, who blushed even darker pink.
"Alright sheriff. You caught me," Buzz mocked, holding up his hands, "Better slap the cuffs on."
"I think I'll leave that up to my deputy, Bazooka Jane." Woody chuckled, enjoying seeing the look of pure embarrassment on Buzz's face at his words.