Otter Chaos!

by Michael Broad

  “Now we have to negotiate with him,” added Papa Black, joining his friend as he cleared his throat, to try to reason with the lion.

  “As you can see, we are very good at defending our borders,” stated Papa Brown, in a calm and level tone. “But we would like to offer you a truce so that we may all live here in peace, without fear.”

  The lion gave a rumbling growl and narrowed his huge eyes.

  “We will set you free and let you leave here unharmed,” Papa Black continued, taking over from his friend. “But you must never return to this part of the river again.”

  “Do we have an understanding?” asked Papa Brown.

  The mountain lion scowled, but appeared to consider the offer, then he made his answer known by swiping his talon-like claws at his captors and yowling angrily. He bounced up and down in the cage and the otters and beavers took a big step back as the seesaw began to creak under his weight. The mountain lion obviously noticed that too because he stopped and grinned, and then gripped the bars with his paws and began to bounce even harder.

  “This is not how it was supposed to go,” said Chip, scratching his head as the mechanism groaned and wobbled. “He was meant to admit defeat and slink back into the forest!”

  “I’m not sure that seesaw will hold out much longer!” added Chuck, watching the plank flex and splinters begin to form in the middle. “In fact, now might be a good time to—”

  Before the beaver could finish what he was saying, the wood split in two with an enormous crack and the cage came crashing to the ground. The drop broke enough of the bars for the lion to rip the rest apart with his paws.

  “RUN FOR YOUR LIVES!” shrieked Chip.

  The otters and beavers all fled in different directions. Mama Brown and Mama Black directed the young ones down to the water and the elderly otters ran and hid behind rocks. Papa Black and Papa Brown instinctively resumed their role as zigzagging decoys and tried to draw the mountain lion away from their families.

  “This way, you big sack of cat-nip!” hollered Papa Brown.

  “Or are you just a big scaredy-cat?” yelled Papa Black.

  But the young lion had learnt his lesson from last time. He ignored the adult otters, even as they stopped and wiggled their bottoms and taunted him by blowing loud raspberries. This time he went for the slowest prey – and that was the beavers!

  The Saw Sisters had already dashed into the forest, leaving Twiggy, Chuck and Chip out in the open. The beavers raced around rocks as they tried to get back to the river, but the mountain lion was faster and blocked their path, driving them up the riverbank towards the forest.

  Chuck and Twiggy bravely positioned themselves between the big cat and their son, snarling and bearing their teeth, giving Chip time to join his sisters. As he reached the edge of the trees, the young kit turned to see the mountain lion leap into the air and trap his parents’ flat tails under his paws.

  The otters gasped in horror when the beavers were caught and immediately swam back to shore to help. Papa Brown and Papa Black doubled back too. But no one knew how to save the beavers, and … luckily they didn’t need to.

  Up in the forest Chip licked his finger and held it up to the wind as Holly, Willow and Hazel did what they do best. The Saw Sisters were not big on conversation, but working together they could gnaw a tree trunk to a pencil-point and send it crashing down in any direction. They just had to wait for their clever little brother to give them the exact coordinates and, as soon as he dropped his arm in the right direction, they pushed against the pine tree.

  “TIMBEEEEER!!!” yelled the beaver siblings in unison.

  The mountain lion turned, saw the falling tree careering towards him and released the beavers immediately. He then bounded away at speed, eyes bulging and yelping as the pine branches whipped his bottom. The big cat vanished in the canopy as the trunk hit the ground with a boom and a giant cloud of dust filled the air.

  “YEEAAAW!” was the last thing the water mammals heard. When the dust cloud cleared, it revealed that the mountain lion was now trapped by his tail under the fallen tree.

  The young beavers hurried out of the forest and hugged their parents. Then they joined the otters and gathered round the captive cat once more, although this time he was looking more sorry for himself than scary.

  “Now, let’s try this again, shall we?” said Papa Brown, who approached the mountain lion, but stayed out of reach of those mighty paws. “The same offer still stands.”

  “And for the record, there are plenty more trees to fell,” warned Chuck, standing alongside him.

  The otters and the beavers held their collective breath and watched the mountain lion as he assessed his predicament and how to get out of it. After a moment, the beast lowered his massive head and admitted defeat. The otters and beavers exhaled with relief.

  The Saw Sisters instantly set to work on the section of tree that was holding down the lion and turned it into a pile of shavings and sawdust in no time. Grandpa Bruno and Grandpa Jack stood by with raised fists, just in case the big cat changed his mind, but the animal upheld his end of the truce and headed back to the forest. He had had quite enough of river mammals and did not intend to return.

  The otters and beavers watched the mountain lion slip away unharmed, except for a sore tail tip and wounded pride. They waited until he was out of hearing range before they looked at each other with wide-eyed excitement and took a deep breath.

  “HOORAY!” they all cheered together, dancing up and down happily.

  he beavers and the otters soon set about breaking down the contraptions, sweeping away shells and stones and mopping up fish oil. The Saw Sisters made short work of the fallen tree, turning what remained into a large raft for transporting the rest of the wood upstream, which the young otters sorted into logs, planks and twigs. Beavers recycle everything and could build a whole new wing to their lodge with what they were taking away.

  Once everything was done, Chuck and Twiggy made their way down to the water’s edge.

  “We’re off home, then,” said Chuck, yawning loudly. Having been up all night constructing the massive lion-trap, the beavers were tired and in need of a good day’s sleep.

  “Thank you for all your help,” said Mama Brown, standing on the mooring pad, along with Mama Black and their husbands. The otters all smiled and waved goodbye at the beavers as they dived into the water.

  “Aren’t we going to ask them about the fish again?” whispered Papa Brown through the corner of his mouth, still smiling as the beavers resurfaced by the edge of the raft. “Now that we’re being friendly and all, they might take the dam down.”

  “I’m not sure we can ask them to move upstream any more,” whispered Papa Black. “Not now we all appear to like each other.”

  “They do seem rather nice,” said Mama Black, still waving.

  “I agree,” said Mama Brown. “It would be rude to make new friends and then ask them to go away.”

  Chip was the last beaver to leave Cottonwood Lodge. He reluctantly headed down to the water, followed by his new best friends, Woody and Sooty.

  “Thank you for helping me with my plan,” said Chip, still wide awake with excitement. “I couldn’t have done it without you both.”

  “We didn’t really do anything,” said Woody. “It was all your idea.”

  “And it worked a treat!” added Sooty.

  “Apart from the bit where we almost got eaten!” laughed Chip.

  “Your dad seemed pretty proud of you,” said Woody.

  “I think he realised that thinking and planning can be as important as chopping and building,” whispered Chip. “I’ll soon find out when I tell him about my new ideas for the dam – they’re pretty unusual!”

  “Good luck!” said Woody and Sooty together.

  Chip swam to catch up with his family, who were pushing the raft upstream towards the dam, while the otters still waved from the riverbank.

  Later that afternoon the raft sailed back downstream.
The wood was all gone and Chip was standing on the edge, steering the craft with his flat tail, dipping it into the water like a rudder. He stopped the raft in the middle of the river and called and waved to the two otter families that were lounging around on the mooring pad.

  The otters appeared just as exhausted as the beavers had been after working through the night. But instead of suffering from a lack of sleep, they were just hungry. They hadn’t eaten anything all day except Mama Black and Mama Brown’s Fish Pie Surprise, which was a brand-new recipe. It had an outer crust of crispy riverweed and a filling of riverweed blobs in a riverweed sauce, so the only ‘surprise’ was that the fish pie contained no fish whatsoever.

  “What’s he saying?” asked Grandma Maple, squinting at the kit.

  “Something about a clam?” asked Beanie, hopefully.

  “I think he wants us to see the dam,” suggested Sooty. “He mentioned that he had plans to make some changes to it.”

  “I bet it’s something amazing,” said Woody.

  “Wasn’t the dam big enough already?” grumbled Grandpa Bruno. “Perhaps they’re not content with cutting off our fish supply. Maybe they would like to blot out the sun too!”

  “Don’t be like that,” said Mama Brown. “Let’s swim upstream and take a look at what they’ve done.” Mama Brown was using a tone of voice saved for occasions when refusal was not an option.

  The otters all noted the special tone and dived into the water. Woody and Sooty joined Chip, riding on top of the raft, and noticed that the young beaver seemed very excited.

  “I showed my parents the plans for additions to the dam and they thought it was a great idea,” he said. “In fact, they liked it so much they put off going to bed and went straight to work after we left you!”

  They pushed the raft past the river bend and carried on towards the waiting beavers. The otters all looked at the dam and frowned at each other. It wasn’t that they didn’t like the changes – they just couldn’t work out what was different about it. It appeared to be the same huge heap of logs and branches they’d seen last time.

  “Oh, my goodness!” gasped Mama Brown as Chip hopped from the raft and joined his sisters and parents on the dam. “I’ve never seen anything so beautiful!”

  “I agree,” said Mama Black. “It really is quite breathtaking!”

  “That’s very kind of you to say so,” Chuck frowned, shifting uncomfortably. “We didn’t actually change anything on top, but it’s nice to know the classic birds-nest-filled-with-hedgehogs design is still appreciated.”

  “The changes are all underwater,” grinned Twiggy.

  The Saw Sisters opened their mouths to say something, but were too excited to speak. So they hopped up and down instead, clapping their paws together with glee.

  “My talented daughters did all the complicated construction and followed their brother’s plans beautifully,” said Chuck, patting his son on the head. “But it was all Chip’s idea, so I think he should be the one to show you.”

  The otters gathered round, with Sooty and Woody at the front, as Chip lifted a paw and pulled down what looked like an ordinary branch. But it was actually a long lever, similar to those used in the lion trap. There was a loud clunk and then the sound of grinding wheels and cogs, but no one had any idea what they were meant to be looking at.

  “Fish!” gasped Beanie, peering into the water. “I just saw a fish!”

  “Are you sure it wasn’t fish-shaped riverweed?” grumbled Grandpa Bruno.

  “I just saw one too!” said Woody, pointing to the left. “I think it was a salmon!”

  “And crayfish!” said Sooty, pointing to the right. “There are loads of them!”

  The otters watched the colourful fish shapes darting past the raft and dived off to get a closer look. Once underwater, they could see why the beavers were so pleased with their work. Running along the bottom of the dam was a complicated network of cogs and levers that opened and closed wooden flaps. The flaps allowed fish to pass through at the lightest touch and closed again afterwards so the water level on the beavers’ side of the dam remained high.

  The otters dashed about in the river, chasing the fish and each other, doing somersaults and backflips. They gathered clams and crayfish and anything that wasn’t green or riverweedy. Then they all swam back to the surface, with arms and mouths full of food, to thank their neighbours.

  But, scanning the length of the dam, they found the beavers were nowhere to be seen.

  “Where are they?” asked Sooty.

  “I think I hear them,” said Woody, and everyone stopped and listened, tilting their heads to a distant noise.

  “ZZZZZZZ! ZZZZZZZ! ZZZZZZZ!”

  Deep rumbling snores were coming from the entrance to the beavers’ lodge, growing louder with every moment that passed. It seemed Chuck, Twiggy, Chip and the Saw Sisters were finally catching up with their sleep.

  When the beavers awoke later that evening, after a well-earned rest, they stepped out of their lodge and dived in the water to find that the otters had gone home. Then they spotted the raft with a little pile of crayfish in the middle.

  Beavers like a crayfish supper as much as any other river mammal, so they hopped aboard the raft and polished off the pile in no time. Only then did they notice the long rope of knotted riverweed tied to the raft and, when they hauled it in, the raft moved forward, pulling them downstream.

  The rope stretched all the way round the river-bend, over the mooring pad of Cottonwood Lodge and down through the entrance. The beavers followed it all the way to the large central chamber and found the otters sitting in front of an enormous fishy banquet, smiling at their baffled guests.

  “We were meant to do this earlier,” said Mama Brown, standing up and beaming at the sight of their neighbours. “But for one reason or another we were unable.”

  “I don’t understand,” said Chuck.

  “You tell them, Grandpa,” said Woody, as he and Sooty nudged the reluctant old otter out of his seat and, for the first time in a long while, he didn’t appear grumpy at all, owing to a belly full of fish.

  “We just wanted to invite you all to Cottonwood Lodge for an otter feast, and to say …” said Grandpa Bruno, opening his arms and smiling so everyone could stand and join in together.

  “WELCOME TO THE NEIGHBOURHOOD!” cheered the otters.

  The beavers didn’t need to be asked twice. They sat down and ate heartily with their neighbours, and the otters were happy to share their fishy feast and their small section of the river with their new friends.

  igh above the river in the Wild West forest, the mountain lion paced along the tree-line at the edge of the riverbank, considering his options, as the water mammals celebrated their new-found friendship.

  The lion planned to honour his promise to steer clear of the otters and beavers, but he was worried what might happen if he encountered one of them by accident. He gazed up at the tall, heavy pine trees and tucked his tail underneath him with a shudder. Perhaps the safest thing would be to move far away from the river altogether.

  So the mountain lion turned back into the forest and crossed the stream and kept on going. He walked for days and days into the wild Wild West, which was so far from the river that no otters or beavers were ever likely to bother him.

  But, like the beavers with the otters, he soon discovered that his new home was already spoken for. The mountain lion had entered another animal’s territory, and he was about to begin a brand-new friendship of his own with a mountain lioness.

  Find out how the Brown family and the Black family met in the first OTTER CHAOS adventure!

  Woody the otter pup is splish-splash happy! His family are moving to a big new den downstream. But when they arrive, another family are already there! The only way to decide who stays is an otterly chaotic sports day! On your marks get set … GO!

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  www.awesomeanimalsbooks.com

  Copyright

  First published in Great Britain by HarperCollins Children’s Books in 2013

  HarperCollins Children’s Books is a division of HarperCollinsPublishers Ltd,

  77-85 Fulham Palace Road, Hammersmith, London, W6 8JB.

  The HarperCollins website address is:

  www.harpercollins.co.uk

  Text copyright © Michael Broad 2013

  Illustrations copyright © Jim Field 2013

  Michael Broad and Jim Field assert the moral right to be identified as the author and illustrator of this work.

  Source ISBN: 9780007489756

  Ebook Edition © 2013 ISBN: 9780007489763

  Version 1

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