The Rebellion
The barn was filled with anticipation.
It was also filled with approximately one hundred and fifty animals
from the woodlands surrounding the old abandoned farm. There were owls,
badgers, squirrels, rabbits, mice, hedgehogs, foxes, pheasants and many
other small animals - all of them talking excitedly amongst themselves.
An old fox stood in front of the gatherers and let his level gaze
travel over the unlikely crowd. His left eye twitched once; twice;
thrice; then repeatedly, as if it had become a separate entity out of
his control. He tried as much as possible to stay still, however he
couldn’t bear the sensation any longer and suddenly began a sort of
dance, trying in vain to stop the odd tickling sensation now travelling
through his body.
As sudden as it began, it stopped when the cause of his discomfort had
reached its destination in between his ears. The grey little mouse
twitched its nose and wriggled its feelers, then rose onto its back
legs and cleared its throat.
“My dear fellow animals,” it began in a low squeaky voice, looking around the large room.
Nobody took any notice.
The little fur ball sighed heavily. He rolled his eyes and smoothed his
coat with his front feet before scuttling over to the fox’s left ear. A
few seconds and a hushed instruction later, he was back between the
ears and the fox gave a few sharp barks to get everyone’s attention.
One by one, the animals stop the chattering and turned to listen to the
rodent. The latter took a deep breath, released it and took another
before speaking again.
“My dear fellow animals,” he paused briefly. “As you all know, we are
here today to discuss our plan of action regarding the – the-,” the
mouse almost spat in disgust. “The Deer Problem.
Let me point out that, of course, we don’t want to see any of our
community hurt. However, the deer population has become too arrogant
and with that, too dangerous to the rest of us. We simply cannot ignore
this issue any longer.”
“Just this morning the old stag sneered at my children!” a small hedgehog sniffed indignantly and let her disgust be known.
“It’s true,” a badger added heatedly. “I’ve seen it with my own eyes! They mock us and our children at every opportunity.”
“Now, now,” the mouse picked up again, both paws in the air to calm the
rising chatter. “We all know how the deer behave. What we have to do
now is find a solution to the problem. I tried my best to find out from
several of the friendlier does just how they managed to get this kind
of protection from the two-legged ones. They claim they do not know.”
He made a disbelieving snorting noise. “They said they clearly were the
bald ones’ favourites and that we should just let the issue go and deal
with it.”
Shouts of outrage erupted throughout the whole barn; not anyone present stayed still at that titbit of information.
“Deal with it we shall!” The angry statement came from a ragged looking
hare who stomped his back feet in excitement. The fox barked again to
restore order.
“Indeed. And you will all be pleased to know that a small number of us
already have taken action.” The mouse once again held up his paws to
keep everyone quiet. “We have destroyed the long sticks with the signs
on. Now the deer are not treated any different than us; they have no
advantage and no reason to mistreat us simply because we do not have
our own warning signs to cross the paths those bald ones use with their
contraptions.”
Loud cheering was heard throughout. It was commonly known that crossing
the big paths was dangerous, especially during the cover of night when,
logically, it should be safest. The congregation discussed and
finalised the new plans for the next two hours of the night. At the
end, after everyone was well informed and knew their part in the
rebellion, the mouse climbed back onto the old fox.
“Before we conclude this meeting, let us, for a moment, remember all
those who are no longer with us.” A short silence followed his request.
“May we all be careful in the future and may we not lose too many more
in such tragic circumstance.”
A few weeks passed and found the same participants gather again at the
old abandoned barn. Again, the mouse was up front, taking centre stage.
“Order!” he shouted as loud as he could. “We are here to discuss the
failure of our last action plan. The bald ones have resurrected those
signs, much to the delight of the stags who now are more arrogant than
ever before, even threatening some of us with pushing us onto the path at inopportune moments.
“We, the council, have come up with a revised plan. We have discussed
at length and have decided that we will no longer fight the symptoms
but the cause.
We shall repeat our last coup and destroy the deer’s signs and in
addition to that, we shall put up a woodlands watch programme. This way
we can spy on the bald ones and so we shall be able to prevent them to
resurrect those signs until we find a way to tell them to make one sign
for all.”
They applauded by thumping their feet, shouts of agreement and a couple
of hedgehog young rolled up into balls in their over-excitement. After
calm was restored, the party discussed the new plan of action in great
detail.
Then the congregation scattered, ready to put the plan into action and the Woodlands Neighbourhood Watch began that very day.
Only a couple of weeks later, a man in an illuminated jacket got out of
his van and unloaded the pole and the new sign to warn drivers of the
possibility of deer crossing. Unbeknown to him, a small army sat in
wait, prepared and determined to stop him from doing just that. He
whistled a happy tune to himself, enjoying the sunshine.
Right above him, in the tall trees, the army got into position.
Countless pairs of eyes darted here and there, marking the subject.
Once honed in on the target, all blinked in unison. Their leader gave a
few silent instructions to the troops, putting the plan into action.
The squirrels took careful aim with the walnuts, and let go.
~ End ~
