Badger and Crab and the Flood Read online

  And dead fishes too.

  My pool gives me food

  That is tasty and good.

  I’m here on this rock,

  I can see far and wide.

  I’m on tippy toes

  Keeping watch for my foes.

  ‘Except Badger is not my foe,’ Crab reminded himself when he stopped singing. ‘He is my friend and it would be good to see him again and sort out the fishing pool.’

  * * *

  ‘It’s no good,’ Badger said sadly to himself. He had just reached the pony field, but not only was there no pony but the field itself was under water – it was just a great big lake - not a field at all. Another stream came tumbling down by the side of the hedge and it too had overflowed its banks and turned the field into the lake. Badger sat down under an oak tree looking at the watery scene in dismay. He was tired and wet and hungry. Mrs B and the twins would be waiting for him and hoping he had good news about supper, but there was nothing to eat here and he had come all this way in vain. He would have to return empty pawed. But by the time he got home it would be nearly daylight and too late for any more hunting. He lay down, resting his head on his front paws while he decided what to do.

  Badger nearly nodded off to sleep for a moment, but suddenly he was alert. He sat up with a start as first one acorn and then another dropped from the tree above him and landed on his nose. He looked up in surprise. He couldn’t see anyone, so he thought he might as well eat the acorns even though he knew they would be old and tasteless and just not very nice. He spat out a bit of horrid chewy stalk and as he did so he felt feathery wings silently brush his face. It was Tawny Owl.

  ‘You’re a long way from home, Badger,’ Owl said as he swooped upwards again and sat on a low branch above Badger’s head. ‘What are you doing in this part of the wood?’ He casually threw down another acorn that he had been holding in his left talon. It pinged Badger on his back.

  ‘Looking for supper,’ Badger said miserably. ‘But there isn’t any. It’s just water everywhere. Why are you here, Owl, this isn’t your territory either, is it?’ Idly he picked up the acorn and looked at it.

  ‘No,’ Owl said blinking. ‘I can’t hunt on open ground in this weather. My feathers get waterlogged. I’ve been hoping for some luck in the woods, but I’ve flown further than I meant and still not found anything. Voles don’t like the rain.’ He shook his feathers. ‘You might as well eat that last acorn, you know. Better than nothing.’

  Badger nodded and chewed on the acorn for a moment. He swallowed it with difficulty. It wasn’t very nice.

  ‘The thing is, Owl, by the time I get back to Mrs B it will be too late to go hunting anywhere else and she’s expecting me to have good news about supper and I shall disappoint her. I don’t know what to do.’

  ‘I was about to give up hunting and go home myself,’ Owl said putting his head on one side. ‘Why don’t I tell Mrs B not to wait for you but to see what she can find for herself? I shall get there quicker than you.’

  ‘That would be kind, Owl,’ Badger said. ‘Thank you very much indeed. Tell her I’ll be back as soon as I can.’

  ‘Will do.’ Tawny Owl rose silently from his branch and swooped away under the oak tree and through the wood, keeping low beneath the trees to avoid the rain.

  Slowly Badger got to his feet and turned round to retrace his steps back to the beach. He noticed some bluebell bulbs with green shoots just poking up from the ground. He had a quick dig and ate a few before he trotted on. He would keep an eye out for a mouse or a frog or even another slithery slug. But he knew it would take him a long time to get home and he didn’t want to be out in daylight. He needed to hurry and he would have to go to bed hungry.

  Badger’s legs were aching when he finally reached the beach. To his dismay he could see that the tide had come in and the stream he had crossed was now part of the sea. It was too deep for him and had big swirly whirlpool-like currents. Trying to cross further up didn’t look any easier, either. The stream had turned into a huge gushy toffee-brown flood that he knew he would never be able to get through. This was really bad news. He might have to wait for hours for the tide to go out again. He would have to hide, maybe all day. There would be enemies: people might come, Moonfaces as Crab called them. And dogs. Badger hated dogs. Dogs dug badgers out of their setts, as he knew to his cost. But where could he hide?

  He slumped wearily to the ground in a black and white soggy heap, looking miserably at the foaming water in front of him.

  Crab had been having a little sleep in his crack in the rock and didn’t immediately see Badger come back. He was woken by an irritating piece of seaweed that flapped across his face in a sudden gust of wind. He put up his pincer to move it and as he did so he saw a strange black and white pile of fur lying by the side of the stream not far from him.

  ‘Badger,’ Crab shouted as he got to his legs and scrambled sideways down the rock. ‘Badger, wake up. You can’t go to sleep there. It’s dangerous. The tide’s coming in.’ Crab sidled as fast as he could to the pile of fur. He prodded Badger’s nose with his pincer and did a worried little dance on the sand in front of Badger. ‘Get up, get up,’ he shouted, waving his pincers in the air.

  Badger opened his eyes in a tired way. ‘Oh, hello, Crab,’ he said. ‘How did you know I was here? I’m stuck. I can’t swim through that flood. I’ll never get home tonight.’ He flopped down again wearily onto the sand.

  Crab sat down in front of Badger and rocked back on his shell as he thought.

  The tide slurped closer to Badger’s legs. Soon the water would cover him. Crab looked at the stream and then at the sea.

  ‘You must get up, Badger. I know what we’ll do. You’re right, the current here is too strong for you to swim across but if you swim out to sea and round onto the beach you should be all right.’ He pointed at the sea with his pincer. ‘You’ll miss the worst of the currents and the tide will help carry you back to shore as well. Come on, I’ll show you the way and I’ll be on the sea floor below you.’ Crab got up on to all eight legs and poked his pincer into Badger’s face again to make him move.

  Badger looked where Crab had pointed. He shook his head, ‘It’s no good, Crab, I’m not a good enough swimmer. I’ll only drown if I try. It’s too far.’

  Crab frowned and thought hard for another moment. ‘Wait here for a minute, then. But move away from the tide.’ Crab watched while Badger hitched himself a few metres further from the water and lay down again. Then Crab ran at top speed into the sea and disappeared under the waves, leaving Badger wondering what he was doing and where he was going.

  Crab scuttled crabwise across the sea floor deeper and deeper out into the bay. After a little while he turned towards the shore again but much further along the coast. When he had nearly reached the shore he swam upwards beating his back legs as hard as he could until he reached the surface of the water. This was the dangerous part of his mission. His pale coloured shell could easily be seen in the dark by the cormorants and herring gulls if they were awake or by big eels or dogfish if they were swimming close by. Crab tried not to think about the danger and swam as fast as he could until he was close to some big rocks that jutted out into the sea. On one rock, lazily sleeping after having had a very good supper of conger eel, were Seal Pup and Seal Pup’s mum. Crab clambered onto their rock and used his climbing legs to hitch himself onto the flat bit of the rock close to Seal Pup’s mum’s nose.

  ‘Wake up,’ he shouted loudly. ‘We need help.’

  Seal Pup’s mum opened her eyes sleepily. ‘Hello, Crab,’ she said. ‘What’s up?’

  ‘It’s Badger,’ Crab replied. ‘He’s stuck because the stream is flooded and he can’t swim across, the current is too strong. He’ll have to swim out to sea and round onto the beach, but he says it’s too far and he’ll drown as badgers aren’t good swimmers. You must help him. He has to get home before daylight
.’

  Seal Pup’s mum sat up and waved her flipper at him. ‘Of course we’ll help. Seal Pup wouldn’t be alive now if it wasn’t for you and Badger saving her from the plastic bag and the spider crabs. What do you want us to do?’

  Crab briefly explained and then Seal Pup’s mum woke Seal Pup and they both slid off their rock and dived down into the sea. A few moments later they were waiting in the water just off the beach close to where Badger was lying. Crab jumped off the rock after them and sank as quickly as he could to the sea floor. He hurried to catch them up and organise everyone. He scrambled out of the sea, a bit out of breath, and raced up to Badger.

  ‘Come on, Badger. Get in the sea and start swimming. Seal Pup will be on one side of you and her mum on the other side. They’ll help you all the way and I shall be nearby too. You’ll be all right. It’ll be fine.’

  Badger wasn’t at all sure that it would be fine, but he didn’t think he had another choice. He got to his feet a bit unsteadily as he was so tired. He trundled down to the edge of the sea and gingerly waded into the waves. Crab followed him. A big wave came bouncing in and knocked Badger off his paws and he quickly found he had to swim. His fur became all wet and heavy. His paws weren’t much good as paddles either. He tried to struggle forward. Very soon he was out of his depth. Then another big wave washed over him and by mistake he swallowed a very large mouthful of horrible salty water and began to choke. ‘I’m going to drown,’ he thought, ‘I do hope Mrs B and the twins will be all right without me. Goodbye, everyone …’ He started to sink so he shut his eyes and tried to blot out the watery death that he knew was coming to him. He thought about his cosy home, about the worm field and about Owl and Fox and his other friends whom he knew he would never see again. He drifted downwards.

  Crab, who was on the seafloor below, looked up and saw Badger’s body slowly sinking towards him. ‘No,’ he shouted in a waterlogged sort of voice.

  Seal Pup’s mum who had been treading water nearby heard Crab shout and realised what was happening. She whistled to Seal Pup and they both swam as fast as they could until they were one on each side of Badger. They put their noses carefully under his tummy and gently lifted him up to the surface of the water.

  Badger gasped and took in a big snoutful of fresh air and then he sneezed and spat out a great deal of salty water. He thrashed hard with his paws and let the seals steer him out into the deeper water. They swam with him round in a big arc, keeping clear of the muddy swirly stream water. Then the seals carefully guided him back in towards the beach. They kept his snout above water and although he gulped down lots more salty sea he wasn’t in any further danger of drowning. The tide helped to push them all towards the beach and it wasn’t long before Badger could put his paws on the sandy bottom again. The waves buffeted him a bit as he made his way onto the beach but he knew that he was safe, thanks to his friends. The seals watched him struggle out of the sea. He had a big shake to get rid of some of the water from his fur. Then he turned back and groggily gave them a wave of thanks. They raised their flippers at him to say goodbye before diving down under the water and swimming back to their rock.

  Crab reached the beach soon afterwards and scuttled after Badger who had flopped down in a very wet heap as far from the sea as he could manage. He was exhausted.

  ‘If we had remade our pool like I suggested last time we met,’ Crab said a bit rudely as he eyed Badger, ‘you wouldn’t have needed to go on a wild-worm chase and we could be having a fishy feast right now.’

  Badger was too tired to answer. He shut his eyes and drifted off to sleep, quite forgetting that he hadn’t had any supper or that it was nearly the end of the night. He had also forgotten to thank Crab for rescuing him.

  Crab sighed. He had spent a lot of time and effort helping this big furry creature and now he was tired and hungry too. But Badger couldn’t stay on the beach. He was a land animal, not a sea creature and he should be back in the wood where he belonged and he, Crab, should be back in his pool, where he belonged. Crab drummed his legs on the sand in a worried way. How could he get Badger home again? He looked at the sky. It was still raining but there were slithers of morning light beginning to appear across the sea. It was becoming dangerous for both of them to be out in the open. He looked again at the sleeping Badger and made up his mind. He moved close to Badger’s face with his right pincer raised.

  ‘Ow,’ screamed Badger. ‘Ow,’ he yelled again, lumbering to his feet, ‘what are you doing? Get off, Crab. Leave me alone. That hurt.’ Badger raised his paw with his claws out ready to scratch Crab’s face. But Crab danced out of reach and then swiped at Badger’s nose again with his pincers. He gripped as hard as he could and big spots of blood ran from Badger’s nose and dripped on to the sand. Badger was very angry. He lifted his right paw again ready to attack. Crab let go and backed quickly away.

  ‘Good,’ said Crab sternly, hopping from claw to claw, just out of Badger’s reach. ‘Serves you right. I hope I have hurt you. You have to wake up. You have to go home. You can’t stay here. You are a stupid land animal and you shouldn’t mess about at the seaside. If you can’t swim you shouldn’t be on the beach. GO HOME NOW and don’t come back.’ Crab drummed his legs up and down on the sand again. He was very angry too.

  Badger growled loudly. He was really awake now. He could smash Crab’s shell with one quick blow of his paw. Then he could eat him. He wouldn’t need to look for any other supper. Crab meat was delicious. He arched his back ready to give a killer blow.

  Crab knew his life was in danger. Staying just out of paws’ reach he lowered his pincers. He swivelled both his eyes and gave Badger the most piercing stare he could manage, looking directly into Badger’s brown eyes. He stood on tip claw.

  Their eyes remained locked together as the seconds passed.

  Then Badger slowly put his paw down and turned his head away. He looked at the sand.

  ‘Good,’ said Crab.

  Badger didn’t say anything. He turned his back on Crab and slowly lumbered away up the beach and into the wood.

  Crab watched him go. Then he sighed and walked sadly towards his favourite pool and slid into the water.

  * * *

  The next evening the rain had finally stopped. The woods were dripping wet, the paths were muddy and the stream was still gushing furiously when Badger woke up after a very long sleep. But it wasn’t raining. Mrs B was waiting patiently for him to get up. She had sent the twins out on their own telling them not to go too far away. She wanted to know what had happened the night before. Badger had come home very late and very wet. He hadn’t explained anything to her and she was worried. She had also noticed his bloody nose.

  ‘Sit down, Badger,’ Mrs B said firmly, blocking the door of the sett. ‘You’re not going out until I hear exactly what you were doing last night and why you didn’t come home at the proper time.’

  Badger looked shamefaced and sat down.

  He knew Mrs B wouldn’t let him leave the sett until she had heard what had happened. He knew he had to tell her the whole truth. Particularly the bit when he was rude to Crab who had done so much to help him.

  When Badger had finished explaining Mrs B looked at him carefully. ‘Well, Badger,’ she said. ‘I know you were only trying to find food for us in the first place, but I do think you were rather silly trying to get across the flooded stream, and then forgetting about the tide wasn’t very clever either, was it?’ She paused, raising her eyebrows at him.

  Badger shook his head.

  ‘You were very lucky that Crab was around, not to mention Mrs Seal and Seal Pup too. But it seems to me that the worst thing was forgetting to thank Crab for rescuing you, wasn’t it? It was also very selfish to fall asleep on the beach at that time in the morning. I’m not surprised that Crab attacked you. But he was only trying to help, don’t you see that?’

  Badger nodded.

  ‘So,’ Mrs B
went on, ‘what are you going to do now?’ She put her paw up to stop Badger from saying anything, ‘Yes, I know you’re hungry, and so am I, but first things first. You have to say sorry to Crab.’ She lowered her paw.

  ‘I know,’ Badger said sorrowfully. ‘I’ll do that, but I was also wondering if, to make things better so that we can be friends again, we might rebuild the fishing pool for him? If you helped me it wouldn’t take too long, would it?’ He looked hopefully at Mrs B.

  It was her turn to nod. ‘That’s a kind thought. He’d like that. It might help us too, now I think about it. With all this rain making hunting so difficult it would be good to have another place to go and get supper sometimes. I dare say we would soon get used to being on the beach more often.’

  ‘Let’s go and find the twins, then, and perhaps have a snack on the way,’ Badger looked at Mrs B again, ‘if we all go down to the beach together we should have time to make the pool before dawn. Maybe the twins can be useful, too.’

  * * *

  Moon helpfully came out from behind a cloud as the badgers left the sett and shone a soft silver light through the trees and over the path.

  ‘Thank goodness it’s stopped raining,’ Mrs B said as she bustled along behind Badger nudging the twins ahead of her. ‘I can’t think what’s going on; we’ve had nothing but rain for days at a time this winter. You’d think it would be better by now. But it hasn’t been better until tonight. Not only is there very little food about but I’m fed up with endless muddy paws sploshing in and out of the house all night long too. Never-ending work for some people.’ She shook her head.

  Badger looked back at her over his shoulder. ‘Never mind,’ he said, ‘let’s have a quick worm or two in the wheat field before we start building the pool. That’ll set us all up nicely.’