The fox cub sat up, still panting heavily and said in a croaky voice, 'Oooo, thank you. Thank you. I never thought I would get free from that horrible thing. What is it?'
'Well, it's something that some humans make I think. I have heard that some of them don't like us animals and we should keep away from that sort. I'm lucky. I live on Farmer Blox's farm and he looks after all of us very well. Anyway, I'm Swerlie-Wherlie. Who are you?'
The fox cub rubbed with a paw where the thing had been tight round the neck and groaned.
'That hurts. Oh, my name is Sox, because of my two white front paws. No other fox has any like me as far as I know.'
'Hi, nice to meet you Sox. If you could manage it, let's see if we can find something to eat.'
'Well, I could do with a drink first, and then I know just the place. Follow me.'
After a drink from the stream, Sox led Swerlie-Wherlie through the wood until she (for Sox was a fox cub vixen), stopped by a fallen tree.
Swerlie-Wherlie looked around, puzzled.
'I can't see anything to eat here,' he said and he looked around again. 'No, nothing here.'
Sox laughed and jumping up onto the rotting tree trunk, began to scratch the bark. Her sharp claws, hidden at first like cat claws, soon ripped strips of soft bark away and all sorts of insects appeared, running this way and that way, trying to escape,
Holding her bushy tail high, so that it didn't touch the tree trunk, Sox flicked out her tongue and began to feast on as many insects as she could catch, pausing for just a moment to say, 'Yummy, yummy. Don't you want some, Swerlie-Wherlie?'
But Swerlie-Wherlie wasn't to be seen. He could smell a hazelnut tree and he wasn't going to miss the chance of a feast of his own.
A while later he came back, walking quite slowly to the fallen tree, licking his chops. What a feast! No, it had been a banquet. My, how he had gobbled up the hazelnuts. So many, he couldn't have counted them (if he could count of course). In fact he had eaten like a pig and he laughed at the thought.
Sox was sitting on the tree trunk, licking her nose. An insect had nipped her but she didn't mind. That sort of thing sometimes happens when you eat insects.
She looked across to Swerlie-Wherlie as he wandered back. A silly smile on his face.
'Hi, what's so funny?' she asked him.
'Oh, nothing really, I was just thinking.'
And he burst out laughing.
'Oh go on, tell me,' pleaded Sox.
'Well ... I just thought that I had made a pig of myself eating too many hazelnuts. Then of course I realized that I was a pig ....,' and he giggled again.
Sox sat up. 'You silly thing,' she said. Then she saw the joke and laughed loudly as well.
Jumping up, she said. 'Come on, I feel a lot better. Let's go to my place and I can tell my mum what happened to me and how you helped rescue me.'
'There's no need for that,' said Swerlie-Wherlie shyly. 'Anybody would have done what I did.'
'I don't think so and I want you to come. Okay.'
'Well, if you really want me to - all right I will.'
Sox nodded and said, 'I'll race you.'
'Hey, come back,' Swerlie -Wherlie called out.
Too late, Sox had gone. She had run quickly round the fallen tree, then with a loud chuckle, jumped right back over it.
'Come on slow coach,' she teased Swerlie-Wherlie. Then Sox stopped by him.
'Sorry, let's walk together, shall we?'
'You bet, agreed Swerlie-Wherlie,' knowing that his short little legs would not have been able to keep up with her anyway.
They walked along by the stream for a while, and then Sox crouched down and crawled under a thick bush.
'You have to keep your head down Swerlie-Wherlie. We are nearly there.'
Then to his surprise Sox disappeared.
Scrambling along under the bush, it was quite dark and he couldn't see very far. Then he felt a hole in the ground. It was a big hole, big enough for him to fall into. He stopped, feeling a bit scared.'
'It's all right,' Sox called. 'You can crawl along the burrow and in a minute you will be able to see me.'
Taking a big breath, Swerlie-Wherlie sort of slid into it and crept along in the dark. Then a few moments later, he could see again.
He puffed out his cheeks in relief as he looked around.
Sox was sitting under a small hole in the roof of the burrow, through which a patch of sunlight shone.
Further along it had been widened into a den. Four pairs of eyes glinted in the sunlight as they looked at him curiously. It was more than big enough for her family (mum and three sisters), to rest in. They were told of Sox's mishap and so glad that she had been rescued by Swerlie-Wherlie.
'I'm so glad to meet you Swerlie-Wherlie,' said Sox's mum in a quiet voice. 'We shall never forget what you did to save our little Sox.'
'Errr. I. Errr. I just did what I thought was right,' Swerlie-Wherlie said feeling very embarrassed.
'Well thank you again.' she said with a big smile.
'Now, do you like crab apples?'
Swerlie-Wherlie's eyes opened wide.
'You bet I do,' he answered with a big grin.
"Sox, pass your friend some of those in the corner. I'm sure he would like more than one, wouldn't you?' Mum asked, with a twinkle in her eyes.
Swerlie-Wherlie nodded his head so much it nearly fell off.
He actually scoffed several but refused more on the grounds that he was full, thank you. I shouldn't have had so many hazelnuts, he thought to himself.
Then Sox's mum told them that she was a little tired. It had been a late night last night, so would they all go out to play and to Swerlie-Wherlie, she added. 'Do come back anytime. You will always be welcome.'
So Swerlie-Wherlie thanked her for the apples and said bye-bye.
Sox and her three sisters rushed out through the burrow leaving Swerlie-Wherlie to find his own way out by himself.
Puffing and blowing, he met up with Sox, who was waiting for him by the big bush. Her sisters had disappeared.
'Hang on, please. Let me get my breath back,' he gasped.
'You need more exercise,' laughed Sox. 'Come on you can do it.'
'Its all right for you,' protested Swerlie-Wherlie. 'You're used to crawling along burrows, I'm not.'
'Okay, we'll walk slowly then. Do you mind if we go back to that little wood?'
'Why go back there?' asked Swerlie-Wherlie, 'That's where you got hurt.'
'That's why I need to go back. To see if I'm not scared to do so.'
'Well, if I were you, I wouldn't go back.'
'I have to. Don't you see?'
They walked on in silence for a while and were in sight of the little wood, when Sox said, 'Look, is that a human over there?'
It was and he was doing something strange, thought Swerlie-Wherlie.
He had what humans called a sack and he was pulling something out of it.
'Get down,' whispered Sox urgently, as they both crouched beneath a thick bush. 'He has one of those things I had round my neck'.
She was right, thought Swerlie-Wherlie. The human was holding a stick, just like the one he had dug up earlier that day.
'What can we do?' whispered Sox. 'Those things will hurt lots of animals.'
Just then a rustling in the bushes made her look round.
'Hello Swerlie-Wherlie, fancy meeting you round here. You are a long way from the farm, aren't you,' hissed Izzzzzabela, the grass snake.
Sox nearly jumped out of her fur when she saw what it was and she bared her tiny teeth. Then she relaxed when she heard Izzzzzabela say hello to Swerlie-Wherlie.
'Hi, Izzzzzabela, What are you doing round here? I was only thinking about you the other day and when I might see you again.'
'I live near here,' she hissed quietly.
'What's going on and why are you trying to hide?'
Tales from Sty-Pen - Swerlie-Wherlie Meets Sox the Fox Page 2
