12. It's like Finding a Rat in a Wheatfield
It was getting dark again, Friendly knew he was running out of time, the chances of finding Spike were dwindling with every passing day. Friendly had taken his father's task to heart and had spent every waking hour since receiving the instruction trying to track down the missing rat. He'd found out through a mixture of tracking and word of mouth that Spike had left the park, disappearing deep into the forest that lay beyond the Overlook to the parks west.
Before setting out beyond the borders of the park in pursuit of Spike, Friendly had visited his sister Charmer and her mate Ranger, hoping that at least one of the pair would accompany him. After what had happened to his brother Bold, he, like the rest of his family was always wary of going beyond the park borders alone.
It turned out that Charmer was less than enthused by the idea, arguing that her father's instruction had been based on the knowledge that Spike was somewhere inside the park, and that he never intended Friendly to put himself in harm's way. Friendly saw things very differently, Spike was one of the Farthing Wood animals now, they should be taking risks to keep him safe. Ranger, ever the diplomat, had proposed he go with Friendly and that they only check the forest beyond the park, it was close enough that they could be back before night fell. Charmer was still unsure if it was a good idea, but she trusted the two of them enough that they would keep their promise and be back before nightfall.
The pair of foxes swung wide upon entering the trees of the forest, making sure to avoid the Overlook and any potential conflict with the black fox that now called it home. They'd initially begun searching the forest together before splitting up as time wore on and daylight began to dwindle. Friendly had finished searching his side of the forest without finding any sign of Spike. He now sat at the far edge of the forest, looking out on a road that skirted the edge of the tree line and split it from the patchwork of fields beyond.
Ranger was late, but that was not unusual, he had a habit of being overly precise when it came to the jobs that were assigned to him, recognising the need for immediacy was not exactly his strong suit. Friendly gazed up at the sky, there was maybe an hour of sunlight left and the clouds were beginning to turn grey, darkness and heavy rain was not a combination he relished the idea of getting caught in. He pondered whether he should go find Ranger or just wait for him to show up, he knew the two of them were rapidly running out of time to make it back to the park before nightfall. As he considered the options, he noticed a group of small black dots in the sky above a tree just beyond the field ahead of him. He squinted as hard as he could as he tried to make out what they were, crows, he thought to himself as he finally deciphered the images. Not exactly Friendly's favourite bird species that was for sure. Thieves and swindlers mostly, always with an eye on the goings of other animals, always looking for an angle to profit from. His brother had seemingly found the only honourable one amongst them, or maybe it was his brothers influence that had converted it? Friendly shook the thought of his lost brother away, now was not the time. He raised a paw and scratched an itch under his chin, maybe a group of over interested crows might be exactly what he needed right now. Perhaps one of them had seen Spike pass this way?
Friendly stood up and made his way down the short slope to the edge of the road that stood as a barrier between the forest and the farmland. He paused for a second and looked in both directions along the road, taking his time to listen closely for anything coming that might have been beyond his field of view. The road was completely empty, save for a motionless white van parked in a lay-by some distance down the road.
Once he was happy that it was all clear, Friendly crossed the road before hopping up and over the farmland's boundary wall. The field beyond had been left fallow, large rows of chewed up mud and dirt streaked across the ground towards the far side of the field and the large tree that grew there. Friendly felt exposed as he crossed, there was next to no cover in the field, any unfriendly eyes in the area would have spotted him immediately. He quickened his pace as he neared his goal, the calls of the crows growing louder in volume before becoming unbearable as he reached the base of the tree.
"Caw! What's it want?" called out a squawking voice from the tree.
"It's lost something, saw it, and that blue one in the forest," added a second.
"I'm looking for someone, I thought you might be able to help?" asked Friendly.
"Why would you think that? Caw!" responded one of the birds from the tree.
"Because I know how…" Friendly paused for a second as he thought of the correct but non-offensive word to use, "…observant crows can be, you're always smart enough to investigate all the goings on in your territory, nothing slips by you unnoticed."
"Caw, what does the fox want to make it act so polite?"
"I'm looking for a friend of mine, he might have come this way," answered Friendly.
"We've seen the blue fox you were travelling with, lost him, have you?"
Technically that was true, however Friendly knew Ranger could look after himself, he would show up eventually.
"No, the friend I'm looking for is not a fox," said Friendly.
"Caw, not a fox? What then?" squawked a cacophony of surprised crow voices.
"The friend I'm looking for is a rat, his name is Spike."
There was a momentary silence before the mass of voice's erupted into cackling laughter. "A fox that is friends with a rat, what is this? The Animals of Farthing Wood?"
Friendly looked around the birds in the tree as he waited for them to stop laughing so he could answer. "Yes."
A hush descended on the flock of birds for a second time, only it was sudden interest rather than amusement that held their tongues. There was a ruffle of feathers as a large jet-black crow hopped out from the mass of birds amongst the tree and settled on a branch close to Friendly.
"You mean the animals of Farthing Wood are real?" asked the large crow.
"Yes, you're talking to one of them."
The bird stretched its neck out and peered down at friendly as if looking for some visual cue which would confirm or deny if Friendly was telling the truth. "Nonsense, just a story, not real, caw!"
"Nonsense!" repeated the mass of bird voices from amongst the tree.
"Nonsense? You literally live on the doorstep of White Deer Park!" replied Friendly, failing to mask the frustration in his voice.
"What's a White Deer Park?" asked the large crow.
Friendly sighed. "The nature reserve the animals from Farthing Wood travelled to. I thought you had all heard the story?"
The large crow turned its head away from Friendly before entering into a whispered yet agitated discussion with the other birds in the tree. Friendly couldn't hear the words exchanged but he guessed at the content, crows had intelligences beyond most animals and if it was one thing they hated it was not knowing something. Eventually with a loud caw the large bird turned back to face him.
"Want to meet the Farthing Wood fox," said the crow.
"You've already met one," answered Friendly, a sly smile crossed his face.
"No! The Farthing Wood fox!" squawked the crow.
Friendly considered the request for a moment, his father was getting crankier in his old age and he knew he really would not appreciate a visit from a flock of bothersome crows. However, it was his father that set this task in the first place, and if this is what it took to find Spike? The thought trailed off in his mind.
"If you help me find my friend, I will take you to meet the Farthing Wood fox."
The crows in the tree began to caw loudly in excitement.
"Not seen a rat," said the large crow, "but mice are small and rat like, plenty of them in the field, maybe they have seen your friend? Come, show you I will."
Friendly followed as the large bird led a group of crows into the field beyond the tree. The land beyond was full of unharvested wheat, large golden stalks rose from the ground in tall bushy rows that crossed the length of the field. Following the birds as they flew gracefully over the crops was difficult, the rows of wheat acted like barriers that Friendly was forced to shove his way through as he scrambled to keep up.
As he pushed his way through the last row of crops Friendly collapsed into an exhausted heap, that was it, he was going no further, if the crows had pushed on into other fields they were on their own. He rolled over onto his back and closed his eyes as he panted, trying desperately to catch his breath.
"Caw, I thought Farthing Wood animals were made of sterner stuff, we've only crossed one field and you look exhausted," commented the large crow as it perched on the fence between the wheat field and the one beyond.
"Second, second generation," said Friendly through gasps for breath, "the sterner stuff, must have skipped a generation."
"Well, lucky for you, is as far as we need to go," answered the large crow. It hopped off the fence and over to a mound of earth pressed up against the boundary of the wheatfield. It began hammering on the ground with its beak.
"Wake up, wake up, know you're in there," said the crow.
Friendly, having finally caught his breath joined the crow at the mound. Initially he struggled to understand what the bird was doing, everything suddenly made sense when he heard a high-pitched voice squeak in distress from somewhere beneath his paws.
Friendly took a step back and crouched down as he tried to pinpoint where the voice was coming from. There was a small hole in the ground that led into a tunnel that disappeared underneath the mound. Friendly pressed his ear to the opening hoping to make sense of the words coming from the panicked voice.
"Please stop, the noise, it's unbearable!" squealed the voice.
Friendly held up a paw and indicated for the crow to be quiet before backing up slightly so he could talk to the voice in the tunnel. "It's okay, he's stopped. We're sorry, we didn't mean to upset you."
"Then why are you here? You're here to eat us aren't you!" squealed the voice.
"I promise you that is not why we are here," replied Friendly, "I'm just looking for a friend, I thought you might have seen him?"
Friendly spotted movement within the tunnel and suddenly the squeaking voice became louder and clearer as the owner began peeking from the opening. "Never trust a fox, we might be small, but we are not stupid?" The squeaking voice belonged to a tiny field mouse.
"Caw, could have fooled me," interrupted the crow.
Friendly winced and indicated for the crow to back off. "I'm sorry for my friend here, he's struggling to find the filter between his brain and his mouth."
"We know his kind too, not to be trusted just like you foxes." As the mouse spoke it leaned out of the hole in the ground to look up at the bird sat on top of the mound above it.
Friendly realised he wasn't going to get anywhere by appealing to the mouse's sense of duty to its fellow animals, but maybe there was another way to get what he needed? "You seem to know a lot about the other animals that live around here? Is there anything else living around here you wouldn't trust?"
"Don't trust anything but mice," said the field mouse, "and even then, you need to be careful."
"You know what I don't trust," added Friendly, "rats, am I right?"
"Yes, yes," squeaked the field mouse loudly, "there's a big one, around here, he's constantly following. Said he wants to be a mouse and live in the field like me. Told him that was ridiculous, and that he needed to go away!"
"There's a rat here, in the fields?" gasped Friendly, "which way did he go, I mean, so I can avoid it of course."
The mouse briefly peeked from the hole and pointed a paw towards the field beyond the fence at the back of the mound. "That way, into the next field."
Friendly let a smile cross his face. "Thank you for the help, I'll let you get back to whatever it is mice do on evenings like this."
Without a further word Friendly stepped over the mound, crouched under the boundary fence, and moved into the field beyond. It was another wheat field, only the rows of wheat were perpendicular to his entry point into the field instead of horizontal like the last one. Sniffing the ground he moved right and then left along the rows as he searched for some hint at where Spike was in the field. Eventually, as he neared the last row of wheat he picked up a familiar scent, following it he paced halfway down the second to last row of wheat. There, about halfway down the scent stopped, Friendly pricked up his ears and scanned around the area, he knew Spike had to be here but he couldn't pick him out from the mass of stalks.
"Friendly?"
The unexpected voice made Friendly almost jump out of his fur. He turned and looked up at the top of the wheat behind him, there, dangling from the top of an ear of wheat, was Spike.
"Spike! There you are!" exclaimed Friendly in delight, "I knew I'd find you eventually, what are you doing all the way out here?"
Spike didn't answer straight away, instead he slid slowly down the stem of the wheat grass he was hanging from before joining Friendly in the gap between the rows of wheat.
"I, I, failed as a rat, as, as a toad, and, and as a Farthing Wood animal" said Spike as he rung his paws in front of himself, "I, I, thought I could try being a mouse instead."
Friendly rolled his head to one side. "You did not fail as any of those things, and especially not as a Farthing Wood animal."
Spike continued to wring his hands together. "Toad died and, and I failed to save him."
"You didn't fail at anything Spike, Whistler told us what you did, there was nothing more you could have done, you're a Farthing Wood animal now, come back to the park where you belong."
"They, they'll all blame me," answered Spike as he dropped his head in shame.
"None of us blame you, we all miss you."
"You, you do?" sobbed Spike.
"My father, the Farthing Wood fox, sent his only remaining son out here to find you. Do you think he would have done that if he didn't care about you?"
Spike sniffed loudly as he tried to clear his nose. "I'm sorry."
"I told you, there's nothing to apologise for," answered Friendly with a reassuring smile, "now let's get you home."
"…Okay," said Spike. The pause before the acknowledgement indicated to Friendly that Spike was still conflicted about returning to the park.
"Everything is going to be alright; I promise you…" Friendly was forced to regret the words as soon as they had left his mouth. A solitary gunshot rang out across the field, both Friendly and Spike immediately hugged the ground and froze. Swivelling his ears Friendly tried to find the direction of the sound. It was difficult to locate, the shock of the initial noise and the wild squawking of crows fleeing overhead masked its direction. Friendly indicated for Spike to stay hidden before crawling forwards towards the boundary fence he had crossed earlier that evening. As he reached the fence a second shot rang out, shortly followed by a yelp of pain. Friendly recognised the voice, he felt panic explode in his chest and he rushed forwards without considering his own safety, pushing his way through the rows of wheat ahead of him as he tried desperately to reach the voice's owner.
As he neared the middle of the field he collided with another animal coming the other way. Picking himself up he looked down at the blue furred animal at his paws.
"Ranger!" shouted Friendly as he lent down and rolled the blue fox over. There was no reply, Ranger wasn't moving. Friendly checked him for wounds, but there was nothing, not even a drop of blood. He could see Ranger was still breathing and his eyes were moving yet he seemed unable to communicate or move.
"No, no, no, what's wrong with you! Get up! You need to run!" Friendly took Ranger's leg in his mouth and began pulling him backwards through the wheat towards the fence into the next field. As they stumbled through the last row he froze, there, near the far end of the fence was the silhouette of a man creeping slowly towards him. Friendly turned his head to look in the opposite direction to try and find an escape route, but it was no use. A second man, much closer than the first was creeping up on the two foxes with a gun raised. Friendly looked down at Ranger, he could see the fear in the blue fox's eyes as he stared back unable to move or communicate.
"I'm sorry."