In The Woods

Chapter 9

The Not-So-Silver-Lining
         
         The forest woke up late in the day the next morning.  Everyone was still shaken and upset from the war, and they sent Hawk into the city to find out what had become of the Exterminator.  He flew back with the news.
         "I peered into the hospital and there he was, shrieking in a wheel-chair.  One of his friends stood next to him.  The man, rubbing his fat bald head, asked what was wrong.  'Robby has broken his spine right below his neck.  He is paralyzed from the neck down, so I don't believe he will be doing any more tree chopping.'  That's all the nurse said," explained Hawk to Old Oak, obviously overcome with different emotions.  All the animals and trees knew that they had succeeded in saving their forest, but they had also ruined a man's life, not that it hadn't already been ruined enough.  "Hmm..." Old Oak thought long and hard over what was to be done.  Finally, after a long while, the old tree had a plan.
         
         All the animals got busy collecting bits of the forest.  Rocks, flowers, branches, bark, leaves, grass, moss, and even dirt was collected and but in a huge sack made of woven reeds.  "Now," began Old Oak in his deep, rumbling voice, "how long is the Exterminator going to be in the hospital, or is he being transferred somewhere?" He turned to Hawk, who pondered the question a moment before answering, "Oh, yeah!  The nurse also said that he went absolutely insane and that he had to be put in an asylum.  He kept on yelling, 'Blasted trees!  Rotten squirrels!  Horrid rabbits!" and just shrieking until his face turned blue!  So he's going to the asylum across the street from the hospital today," he looked up at Old Oak looking quite pleased with himself.
         Old Oak smiled.  "Okay, Hawk, you lead the way to the asylum.  The wolves," he paused and looked to Wolf expectantly, "will pull the sack behind us..."  Wolf bent his head low, smiling.  "Will do!" he agreed sounding amused.  Old Oak nodded and continued. "... and the mountain lions and deer can carry the provisions, because this will be a long journey and you will be in need of food..." Deer and Mountain Lion nodded. "... and we'll need some small animals to pick up anything that comes out and jump up to put it back in the sack.  Perhaps the rabbits would be willing," Rabbit's eyes lit up and Old Oak kept talking, "because I happen to know that there are rabbits that are very close, eh-hem, to the wolves." 
         Rabbit smiled a small embarrassed smile and she made patterns in the dirt with her feet as she blushed.  Old Oak laughed quietly at her. "Alright," he shouted in his deep voice.  "Time for all you animals to go bring our forest to the Exterminator in the asylum!" He beamed and looked around proudly at the cheering animals and at Rabbit, clapping and looking around still pink-faced and embarrassed.  The old tree smiled at the rabbit again, who kept glancing back to see Wolf's dark, gentle eyes watching her and his slightly amused expression seeing her embarrassed behavior.  "What're we all waitin' fer?" exclaimed Mrs. Dormouse, popping up out of nowhere. "Time ta go an' visit our ol' friend the Exterminator!  C'mon, c'mon!" she yelled enthusiastically, accidentally smacking Wolf in the face with her cane.  The animals cheered as they took off after Hawk, and the trees waved wildly sending leaves flying around like confetti.

         "Oh, oh!  Here's the hospital... and there's the asylum!" Hawk said, pointing at a very distant place that hardly anyone actually could see.  "Speaking of which," he continued, "we animals put up a good fight.  There were in fact over sixty men who attempted to sabotage our forest, twenty of which went down at the pits and thirty or more who actually were attacked by some of us.  I looked into the hospital and saw that two floors of the place were filled up with the Exterminator's awful friends.  Many had large bumps on their heads from the rock slingshots and some had interesting designs pecked on their faces, heads, or even arms and legs from the woodpeckers, and almost every one of them had a broken bone along with innumerable bites and scratches!  We should be very proud of ourselves," Hawk explained proudly as he flew.  They had been traveling for four days and had just made it into town, dodging cars and buses and living off the food that was packed for the trip.
         Rabbit scrambled around with the other rabbits, picking up branches and leaves and stones and putting them back into the sack.  She did get that nasty cut bandaged up, and it kept getting snagged on things.  A twig got snagged on her little cast, and so she grabbed a stone and jumped up to throw the two things back into the sack.  She didn't realize it right away, but she landed right next to Wolf. 
Wolf smiled at the happy little rabbit and grabbed her in his paws and ruffled up the fur on the top of her head. 
         "Oh my goodness!" she squealed at first, and then whipping around, she realized it was Wolf.  "Oh, it's you!" she said, now relaxed and smiling.  She hugged the wolf's shaggy neck, gave him a little kiss on the cheek, smiled quickly, blushed a deep red, and hopped back over the sack to continue her work.  Wolf just stood there, dumbfounded, and rubbed at his cheek.  One of the other wolves thumped his back playfully and said, "Got a girlfriend, have you?" Then he paused and said, "Well, don't just stand there, you goose!" A goose heard and started honking angrily at the wolf and attacking his head with her wide beak.  "Sorry!" cried the wolf.  "I didn't mean it!  It wasn't supposed to be offensive!"
         Wolf grinned at him and continued to drag the sack along, but he never stopped watching little Rabbit hop around, picking up twigs and stones and putting them back in their place.  And Rabbit kept looking up at Wolf, blushing and smiling and waving at him.  Another rabbit looked at her waving at Wolf and then looked at Rabbit's face and smiled.  "Hello, Rabbit!  We have work to do!" she called giggling and waving a feather in her face.  "Oh, yes!" said Rabbit, shaking herself back to reality.  She waved once more to Wolf and continued her work, and Wolf once again smiled and had to tear his eyes away from the little rabbit.
         Finally, they arrived in the parking lot of the asylum.  Hawk pointed out a storm cellar and explained how they were to get upstairs to the Exterminators room without being noticed.  The mountain lions and wolves pried the storm cellar open with their claws.  They hid their food and then made their way to the elevator, which Hawk operated.  Sack in tow, they made their way to the Exterminator's room without making hardly a sound.  The entire troop got all the way down the hall without being even glimpsed by anyone but one nurse. 
         Luckily, this nurse was very fond of animals and just followed them down the hall looking interested.  She scratched behind Rabbit's soft, drooping ears, thinking Rabbit would like it.  Instead, the little rabbit shrank back and just stared up at the woman with wide, bright eyes and Wolf jumped in front of her and made a quiet growling noise.  The woman took a step back and grinned in disbelief.  "My, my!" was all she said.  Wolf glared at her for only a couple more moments before leaping back to help his friends, and Rabbit approached the woman slowly before nuzzling against her leg and jumping back to picking up  stuff coming out of the sack.  The nurse kept watching and decided to help.
         The nurse jogged to the front of the animal crowd and stared up at Hawk with authority showing in her face.  Hawk landed near her feet, bowing low, and halted the animal troop.  Wolf spoke up.  "We've come to see the Ex... I mean, Robby.  He is  on this floor, correct?" he asked, and the nurse just stared at the animals, not sure if she wanted to admit that a wolf had just spoken to her.  Finally, she found courage to talk.  "You can speak!" she exclaimed. 
         "Why, of course I can speak.  I am a wolf!  Have you never heard a wolf howl?  That is also a form of wolf speech. All of us animals can talk, just like you," he answered dryly.  "Oh. Well, yes, Robby is on this floor at the very end of the second hall, the one around the corner.  Would you like some help?" she inquired, pretending she was talking to an actual person.  "Why, that would be lovely of you," chirped Robin gratefully.  The nurse raised an eyebrow and said, "Very well, then.  Off we go," and she started leading them to the Exterminator.  "Pick up the pace, woman!  We need ta git to the man quick so as we can out o' yer face as soon as we're done with what we've gotta do!" scolded Mrs. Dormouse smacking the nurse's legs with her cane and shifting her day lily.  The lady smiled and jogged the rest of the way to the room.  She opened the door slowly and told them to wait outside for a minute.
         "Mr. Robby?" she asked.  "What?  Whaddya need, you creep?  Come to give me horse pills, I presume?" he snapped.  "You have some visitors.  Shall I let them in?  They've come a long way to see you."  "Okay, okay.  But make it snappy," he barked.  "Very well, your majesty," she sighed sarcastically.  She strolled out of the room and closed the door.  "You can go inside, now," she said, beckoning them to go in.  "Thank you," said Hawk and Wolf together, and they went right in.  Nurse followed the troop inside.
         "Greetings, Exterminator!  We thought you might like some company!" said Hawk warmly.  "WHAT?" the Exterminator screeched.  "Yes, sir, and we brought you some of our forest to brighten your day," said Rabbit cheerfully.  "Yup!" chirruped Robin and Mrs. Finchley in agreement.  "No!" cried the crippled man, not able to get up, but instead twisting his head this way and that.  "Come on, everyone!  Let's make this room into a jungle!" smiled Wolf, and everyone started redecorating the room. 
         Branches were hung from the ceiling, and others were stuck to the walls to look like trees.  A thick rug of leaves was laid out on the floor and all the loose leaves were put on the branches of the fake trees.  Bird feathers were placed in random nooks around the room and made into birds in trees.  Stones were piled all around the room. Rabbit and Robin covered the Exterminator's entire wheelchair in colorful pebble designs, Robin just giggling at Rabbit.  Rabbit had tossed a couple of pebbles at Wolf and made him jump, and when he saw it was Rabbit, he grinned and pitched a very irritated Hawk at her thinking he was the bag of feathers.  "What do you think you're doing?" the poor bird cried gasping.  Robin and Rabbit were laughing hysterically, and Wolf was saying, "I'm so sorry!" over and over again. 
         Mole saw what was going on and snuck around behind Hawk.  Hawk didn't see him, so, biting his lip in concentration, he slowly bent over and -pluck!- he pulled out one of Hawks tail feathers and ran off waving it in the air.  "Aagh!" he cried, then, eyes darting back and forth, he spotted Mole waving around the feather. "Hey!  Give that back, you moron!" he shouted heatedly.  Then he swooped after him and caught Mole in his talons.  Mole didn't worry at all.  He raised the feather up to Hawk's chin and started tickling him.  "Tickle the feather duster!" cried Mole, who was highly amused by the laughing Hawk.  "Hey! Stop that, you stupid dirt brain!" yelled Hawk between laughs, "And I am not a feather duster!" Finally, Mole gave back the feather to Hawk and Hawk walked away still laughing.
         All the while, the Exterminator was shrieking, "No, no, no!  Blasted birds!  Cheeky chipmunks!  Stinking squirrels!  Rotten rabbits!  Malevolent mountain lions!  Wicked wolves!  Malicious moles!  Stupid skunks!" and idiotic things like that while the nurse ignored him and kept saying how lovely it was that the animals had come to cheer him up since he'd be stuck there for the rest of his life.  Once the entire room was decorated, Squirrel made sure that all the animals were accounted for and they left back for the woods.  "Thank you!  I'm sure you made Robby's day!" called the nurse smiling.  The Exterminator, or Robby, started screeching something unintelligible and twisting around his head, but that didn't matter to the animals; that was the last time they would ever have to see the Exterminator.

         "Well, how did it go?" asked Old Oak when they arrived at the forest a couple days later.  "Lovely!" twittered Robin excitedly.  "Robby's room is a forest now for sure!" chimed in Squirrel, proudly flagging his tail and twirling his whiskers.  "We made his day," said Porcupine sarcastically and rolling her eyes.  "It was so much fun!" said Rabbit smiling and clapping her paws together,  "I want to do it again!"  "Some of us had a more painful experience than others, but it was exciting nonetheless," admitted Hawk, rubbing his pinfeathers and winking at Wolf.  Wolf lowered his head slightly in apology and Mole started cracking up and rolling around on the ground muttering something about feather dusters and pinfeathers.          "I am glad our plan was successful and that you all had a good time, but now..." he paused, looking sad.  Then suddenly, after all the animals started to look very anxious and the trees all started to look like they were in on a very funny joke, he put on a broad smile and looked happily out at the crowd, lifted his branches toward the sky and shouted, "it's time to have a celebration!  Compliments of the trees!" The animals cheered and the trees thumped each other's backs and grinned. 
         Mrs. Dormouse started swinging around her cane and bopping people on the head with it.  Mole and Squirrel started drinking and getting drunk, and Mole snuck up behind Hawk and pulled out one of his feathers again.  "Oh, you!" smiled Hawk, and he pulled out some of Mole's fluffy fur and they started chasing each other around the wood.  Molly and Squirrelette, Mole and Squirrel's wives, talked to each other over their knitting over how immature their husbands were.  Robin and the Finchleys started chatting happily together.  Elm and Maple hung out together discussing the fun that they had setting up the party.  Rabbit kissed Wolf on the cheek and Wolf gave her a hug and ruffled the fur on the top of her head.    Raccoon sat contentedly eating a fish.  Everyone had something to do and was happy.  Even the flowers seemed to whisper in the breeze excitedly.  Then a rainbow spread across the sky.  It wasn't exactly a silver lining in the clouds, but it was better.
         The party ran long into the night.  The forest could enjoy itself again.  They would never have to see the Exterminator again for the rest of their lives.  They were safe now and would be forever.