Tales from Sty-Pen - Swerlie-Wherlie Meets Sox the Fox

by Brian Leo Lee

'That human over there is trying to harm animals that live round here,' said Swerlie-Wherlie angrily. 'I only just managed to save my friend Sox earlier today.'

  'That's right, he did,' Sox said, as she put a paw to her neck and gave a shudder at the memory.

  'We have to stop the human from putting those horrible things in the ground, and quickly too,' Swerlie-Wherlie said in a worried voice. 'Look, he's trying to put one in the ground now.'

  'Yes we do but how?' asked Sox.

  'Maybe I can help,' hissed Izzzzzabela, 'a friend of mine has a nest near here and there will be other friends with her. I think I can get them to help stop that horrible human from doing any more harm round here.'

  Before Swerlie-Wherlie and Sox could say anything, Izzzzzabela had slithered away.

  'We can only wait and see what happens,' said Sox and Swerlie-Wherlie nodded in agreement.

  A short time later, there was a loud shout and a scream. They both looked over the bush and saw the human surrounded by snakes. Lots and lots of them.

  'It must be Izzzzzabela and her friends,' shouted Swerlie-Wherlie and he watched as the snakes formed a ring and lift up their heads, which began to sway, this way and that way, this way and that way.

  The human had dropped the sack full of the horrible objects and as he backed away waving his arms and shouting, he stepped into the snare he had just fixed into the ground.

  It pulled tight, just above his ankle and he fell to the ground shouting for help but there was nobody else around.

  Izzzzzabela hissed a message to her friends and they all began to slither towards the human who was pulling like mad at the stick to get it out of the ground.

  Then Izzzzzabela hissed, 'NOW,' and all of her friends flicked out their forked tongues.

  The human shrank back shouting 'Go away! Go away!'

  Then with a huge tug, he pulled the stick out of the ground. He was then able to press the special place on the thin strap and it broke in two. He was free and as he got to his feet he threw the bits of the broken thing at the nearest snakes and ran through a gap in the ring of snakes, which Izzzzzabela had left ready for him to use.

  One thing for sure, he was never going to come back here again with his horrible things.

  Sox was over the moon and wanted to thank Izzzzzabela and her friends for what they had done but they had all gone before she could do so.

  'Don't worry about it,' said Swerlie-Wherlie. 'That's Izzzzzabela all over. She will be back and you will be able to thank her and her friends then.'

  'But there is one thing we have to do, Sox. Get rid of all those horrible things,'

  'You know this area pretty well don't you, Sox. Is there a place we can hide them. A place not well known.'

  Sox thought hard for a few moment and said, 'Yes, I do know of a place and it is not too far from here either.'

  So after putting the broken thing, which was still lying where it had been thrown, into the big bag with all the others, Swerlie-Wherlie and Sox, each grabbing a corner of bag with their teeth, slowly dragged it to the secret place that Sox knew of.

  It was a sort of cave, set into the hill, not too far from the stream and inside it was a deep, deep hole, into which they dropped the bag of horrible things.

  Tired but happy, Swerlie-Wherlie said, 'Come back to the farm with me and meet my family. I'm sure they will like you, Sox.'

  'That's nice of you. I would love to meet your family.'

  The walk up to the cornfield gate was tiring and Swerlie-Wherlie stopped to have a rest, before going onto the lane.

  The lane led straight to the farmyard.

  Then Swerlie-Wherlie had a sudden thought. Was he doing the right thing bringing Sox to the farm? The sty-pen was big though wasn't it? It had to be. He had a big family. Then he realized that a lot of it was open to the sky and Sox was used to her den, deep underground. Would she feel safe with all eleven of his brothers and sisters, each one trying to find the best and most comfortable space for themselves, which led to a lot of pushing and squealing.

  Then there was the food trough. That caused a lot of pushing too. Maybe he had better find a way of not taking Sox straight to the sty-pen.

  Feeling a bit awkward, Swerlie-Wherlie led Sox into the farmyard and it all happened at once.

  The clucking of the hens stopped.

  The ducks stopped quacking and Cockie the cockerel gave a huge screech and shouted.

  'FOX. FOX, Run, run for your lives!' as he flew straight to the top of the old barn.

  He was so excited at seeing a fox in broad daylight he forgot all about Barney the owl's nest, under a hole made by a loose tile in the old barn's roof.

  He lost his balance and fell through it and landed in the middle of the nest right on top of Barney himself, who was fast asleep.

  Cockie's luck went from bad to worse. He had not only woke Barney, he woke the whole brood of owlet chicks, all six of them.

  'Hey, what the .....' A startled Barney suddenly became aware of Cockie lying by the nest and his owlets, now awake, begging for food.

  'You idiot!' Barney was mad. Everyone in the farmyard knew of his bad temper and always tried to stay away from him when he was upset and he sure was upset now.

  Cockie did his best to flap his way from the nest but Barney's fierce voice made him stop.

  'You'll pay for this, Cockie, mark my words. Just look at my little darlings. All upset, because of you.'

  'Sorry. I'm so sorry Barney. I didn't mean to fall into your nest. It was an accident, honest.'

  Then Cockie had an idea that might get him out of trouble.

  'I'll make it up to you, Barney. Just say what you want me to do and I'll do it. Promise.'

  Barney looked down with his big fierce eyes and Cockie was terrified of what he might do.

  Then Barney smiled. He had thought of something, Cockie had done it big time and now was the time to make him put it right.

  'All right Cockie. I'm a reasonable owl,' said Barney. 'Let's say it was an accident but you did wake up all of my darling owlets and that's not good. They could be upset for days. Days I say.'

  Cockie cringed, waiting to be told what horrible things he had to do to please Barney.

  Barney's big eyes gleamed in the semi-darkness of the old barn roof and then he said in a fierce voice, 'Cockie, you are to feed my owlets for the next week. As many worms as they can eat. Do you understand?'

  As Cockie looked on, Barney lifted one of his feet and waved his terribly sharp talons in front of Cockle's face.

  'Y ... y ... yes, Barney,' said Cockie in a croaky voice, as he leaned back from the tip of the middle and longest talon.

  'I'll do it.'

  'Good,' said Barney, smiling to himself again. 'Now go and find out what that row in the farmyard is all about, and tell them to keep it quiet. I want to get some sleep. Okay.'

  Cockie wiped his face with the tip of his wing,

  Phew, he thought. That wasn't as bad as I thought it might have been.

  'Just as you say Barney, just as you say,' said a relieved Cockie as he climbed up to the hole in the roof and squeezed through it.

  By now the hens had run to their hut, safe inside and clucking madly to themselves and the panicky ducks, wings flapping, and quacking loudly, had run under the big tractor, hoping not to be seen.

  The Farmhouse door crashed open and Farmer Blox rushed out holding his shotgun. He had been having a nice cup of tea when the hullabaloo broke out.

  He was not happy at being disturbed and the sight of Sox the fox (he didn't notice Swerlie-Wherlie), made him lift up his shotgun and as he rushed forward he got ready to take aim and fire it.

  At that very moment, his yard dog Flash, decided to help and raced across the farmyard towards Sox.

  The lead for Flash had to be long, so that he could patrol the farmyard and that was the problem, in his eagerness to get to Sox, he ran by Farmer Blox and the lead got caught between Farmer Blox's feet. This caused him to fall and as he
did so the shotgun fired.