Trapped: A Tale of Friendship Bog Page 3

  “Why don’t we talk to Cheeco?” he said. “He might know something about Nisk.”

  Alix glanced at the tree next to them. “I’ve been watching him. He’s right over there.”

  “What?” Leeper said. “He followed us?”

  Alix didn’t answer. He sprang up the tree trunk and grabbed the chipmunk.

  “Ow! Ow!” Cheeco cried. “Let go of me!”

  Alix dragged him down to where Pibbin and Leeper stood. “Why are you following us?”

  Cheeco squirmed, but Alix held onto his arm and glared at him.

  Finally Cheeco spoke in a squeaky voice. “Too bad about Duffy. I sure hope you find him.”

  Alix gave him a little shake. “Do you know where Nisk is? We have to talk to him.”

  “Sure, sure.” Cheeco’s voice still had a squeak to it. “Hey, we’re all friends, aren’t we? Pib, I tried to help you, didn’t I? I’m sure everything will turn out okay for Duffy.”

  Pibbin hopped up into the thorns to see Cheeco better. Why did he look so scared?

  Maybe it was just because Alix was holding him tightly, and he had sharp claws.

  Or maybe Cheeco knew something he didn’t want to talk about.

  “Tell us about Nisk,” Pibbin said.

  “Let go of me, okay?”

  Alix let go, but he stayed close.

  “Nisk is an old grump and he talks funny,” Cheeco said, “but sometimes he’s nice.”

  “So you know him,” Alix said. “Have you ever seen him with Duffy?”

  “Who, me?” Cheeco scratched at his ear and looked up into the tree.

  “Yes, you,” Alix said. “Or have you seen Duffy anywhere near this tree?”

  Cheeco shrugged. “Not really.”

  This was going to take too long, Pibbin thought. Marteena had seen Cheeco with Duffy, no matter what he said.

  Pibbin climbed higher in the thorns. “What were you doing with Duffy the other day?”

  “Duffy? Me? We just took a walk down by Singing Stream.”

  “No.” Alix snarled, showing his teeth. “Duffy doesn’t go for walks. We were building something. Why did you take him down there?”

  Cheeco leaned away. “Duffy likes pine-seed candy.”

  “So what?” Alix flicked his tail.

  “So I took him down there to get some.”

  “From who?” Alix said.

  “Umm . . . Nisk.”

  “Why?”

  Cheeco scratched his ear again. “I dunno. Nisk asked me to, and he’s a nice old grump.”

  “Why?” Alix said again.

  “I guess he wanted to talk to him.”

  Pibbin spoke up. “What did Nisk give you?”

  “Me?” Cheeco kept scratching at his ear.

  With Cheeco, it was best to wait, so he did.

  “Oh,” Cheeco said. “That silver thing I showed you? He knows I like shiny stuff.”

  Alix frowned. “Then what?”

  “Nisk said he would get Duffy the candy, and they went off so they could have a nice visit.”

  Alix grabbed for him. “It’s dangerous in Fox Woods! You left him there alone with a stranger?”

  Cheeco squirmed. “Let go, or I’m not talking.”

  Alix growled something, but he let him go. “So then what?”

  “I was really tired.” Cheeco yawned, a big yawn that looked fake.

  “I waited around for a while,” he said. “And then I left. Duffy knows how to get home from there, and it’s not very far.”

  He jerked away, scampered up the tree trunk, and disappeared among the leaves.

  After a minute, his voice came down from the top of the tree. “I’m sorry about Duffy! I’m really, really sorry!”

  Alix stared up into the tree, and his tail drooped. “A nice old grump! Is he telling us a bunch of lies?”

  “Maybe not,” Pibbin said. “He showed me that shiny plate, and Marteena saw them together a couple of days ago.”

  “So Nisk got Duffy,” Leeper said. “We should talk to Marteena. She knows about everything that happens in Fox Woods.”

  Alix turned. “You go on ahead, and I’ll catch up. I want to check on Mom.”

  Alix joined them by the time they reached Singing Stream, and Pibbin began to look for Marteena’s tree. It must be near, but . . .

  He stopped. Why were the peepers so quiet?

  “Wait,” Pibbin said. “Listen.”

  Beside them, three tiny voices whispered. “Fox. Coming. Soon.”

  Pibbin jumped for a tree. Alix scrambled up another tree. Leeper dived into the water.

  Pibbin kept climbing until he was too high for a fox to reach. He looked down.

  The fox didn’t make a sound as he strolled through the trees. He stopped here and there to look around and sniff at the ground.

  Pibbin shivered as he watched.

  He’d heard about that clever black nose. It could find the trail of a squirrel or a mouse or a frog—even an old trail. And then the fox would follow it, faster than you’d think.

  The fox sniffed at the foot of the tree Alix had climbed, glanced up into the branches as if he were looking for a nice fat squirrel, and sat down.

  Pibbin crept around to the other side of the tree, hoping he was somewhere near Marteena’s home.

  “Pib!” Her cheerful voice came from the next tree over. “Wait for me!”

  Back Door?

  Marteena crept from one branch to the next, jumped onto a connecting branch, and soon stood beside him.

  “Fox,” Pibbin said.

  “Yes, he’s still there. Come with me—I’ve got a storeroom in this tree, higher up.”

  She showed him a hole with an opening just the right size for the two of them to climb through. They sat on the bags of seeds and nuts she’d hidden there.

  “Don’t worry about that old fox,” she said. “He and his brothers think they own these woods. He’ll be gone soon.”

  “The sooner the better,” Pibbin said. “We’re in a hurry.”

  He told her about the notes, and how they’d tried to find Nisk, and what Cheeco had said about Duffy.

  Marteena’s little black eyes looked worried. “I’ve talked with Nisk. He’s lonely and scared. He gets his words mixed up sometimes, but that’s because of his head, you know.”

  “I didn’t know,” Pibbin said. “He’s new to Friendship Bog, isn’t he?”

  She nodded. “Uncle Dip found him hanging onto a branch, half-dead. His head was bleeding, and he couldn’t remember anything except the fox that grabbed him.”

  “How’d he ever get away?”

  “Somehow. He couldn’t remember that, or his name, or where he lived.”

  Marteena reached into a bag and pulled out a handful of tiny seeds. “Would you like a snack?”

  He shook his head. “No, thanks.”

  Marteena went on. “So Uncle Dip and some of the other Bog-Keepers helped him. They found him a nice big tree to live in.”

  That sounded like something the Bog-Keepers would do. “I guess they brought him good things to eat, didn’t they?” Pibbin asked.

  “You’re right! And Uncle Dip came to see him, too.”

  “Did he ever tell you he wanted Zip’s tree?”

  “No, he only talks about the things he picks up. At night. That’s odd for a squirrel, but he says it’s the best time. His back door is just up the stream from here, so I see him come and go.”

  “Back door?”

  “A lot of us have back doors,” Marteena said. “I have one for my ground nest, with a nice little tunnel, in case I need it.”

  So that’s where Nisk had taken Duffy. “What does Nisk’s back door look like?”

  “I’m not sure. He ducks under a log, and all of a sudden he’s gone.”

  Pibbin’s toes began to clench. That sounded like the way into the tunnel he’d found. No, it couldn’t be.

  Marteena still looked worried. “Be careful around Nisk. He’s so much bigger than you! And he�
�s smart. Almost too smart. Makes me wonder!”

  Pibbin wished he could take a trip far away, like back to Wild Bog. He didn’t want to hear that Nisk was so smart, and he didn’t want to go back into that tunnel. But . . . maybe it wasn’t Nisk’s tunnel at all.

  Claws scratched on the tree bark outside, and Alix’s face appeared in the opening. “Hi! Thought I’d find you here. The fox is gone.”

  “Good!” Pibbin said. “I found out that Marteena knows Nisk.”

  She stood up and smiled at Alix. “I hope you find your brother.”

  Alix thanked her and they went to join Leeper, who was waiting at the foot of the tree.

  “There’s a place I have to show you,” Pibbin said.

  He started off through the trees to where he had found the tunnel, and on the way, he told them everything Marteena had said about Nisk.

  Alix nodded. “So she thinks his back door might be around here? At least we’d have a place to start looking. It’ll be dark soon.”

  There were plenty of fallen trees lying around, but it didn’t take Pibbin long to find the one he remembered. “This hole might not belong to Nisk,” he said, hoping he was right.

  He hopped up onto the tree and down the other side. There was the hole. And there was the gate, but someone had closed it.

  Leeper hopped up next to the gate. “Hey!” He pointed at the bottom rail. A mark had been painted there:

  “I didn’t see that before,” Pibbin said. This must be Nisk’s tunnel, for sure.

  Leeper hopped over the rail and into the tunnel, so he did too.

  Alix picked up a stick, pulled the gate open and stepped past it. “You’ve already been in this tunnel?”

  “Yes.” Pibbin didn’t say how much the tunnel had scared him, but he told them about the deep crack and the net.

  “That’s where the tunnel ends,” he said. “Except for the window.”

  He could still see the window in his mind—and the little face. A squirrel?

  Slowly he said, “It must have been Duffy.”

  “What?” Alix stared at him.

  “I saw a face in the window for only a second,” Pibbin said. “But now I think it might have been a little squirrel like Duffy.”

  “Maybe that’s where Nisk is keeping him,” Leeper said.

  “I’m going to find out,” Alix said.

  “Me too,” Pibbin said. His legs began to shake as he followed his friends into the darkness.

  Traps

  The tunnel grew darker and damp, just as Pibbin remembered. He also remembered the gruff squirrel voice that shouted at him.

  He and Leeper could hop quietly through the leaves, but not Alix. Would the angry squirrel hear them coming? But maybe he was out tonight.

  At the storeroom, Alix poked his stick at the leaves spilling out of the bags. “Looks like Nisk has plenty of leaves for his notes. Maybe he’s going to write a book.”

  Leeper exclaimed happily when he saw the ants, which were still crawling along the stick.

  He and Pibbin ate a few quick mouthfuls and caught up with Alix.

  The crack didn’t slow them down for long. Alix and Leeper jumped across it, and Pibbin crept along the wall as he had done before.

  As they came to the steps, Pibbin whispered, “See that flat space? I think there’s something under the leaves that makes the net go up.”

  Alix used his stick to press on the leaves. “Let’s see what this does.”

  Nothing happened.

  “Good!” Alix said. “Let’s go!”

  They started across the leaves, and plop! a net dropped over them.

  “Yikes!” Alix cried. “He changed it!”

  But the net wasn’t tight, like the other one, and they were still standing on the ground.

  Pibbin pulled at the side of the net. “We can get out,” he said, and crept under its edge.

  “Maybe he was trying to scare us off,” Alix said as he and Leeper followed.

  “This tunnel has to go somewhere,” Leeper said. He hopped toward the dried roots and vines that hung like a curtain ahead of them.

  “Look here.” He pulled the vines aside.

  Alix bounded past him. “A door!”

  It wasn’t much of a door, rough-cut and small, but Alix pushed it open. He crawled through, with Pibbin and Leeper behind him.

  They ended up in a tiny space with walls made of logs. Ropes hung down in one corner, but there was no sign of Duffy.

  The only way out of the room was another tunnel, and Pibbin looked at it with dismay. He’d hoped for a nice treehouse with rooms, not all these tunnels.

  The tunnel was level at first, which made for easy hopping. They followed it, with Alix in the lead, Pibbin next, and Leeper behind him.

  After a long while, it began to curve up between tree roots. Were they coming to Nisk’s tree house?

  Ahead of them, the tunnel grew narrow, and the floor was covered with branches. Why?

  Alix must have wondered too because he turned to say something, but his words were lost as twigs snapped, and he fell out of sight

  Suddenly Pibbin was falling. He grabbed at the air, did a flip, and landed on top of Alix.

  They seemed to be at the bottom of a deep hole.

  He heard rustling sounds over his head, and a minute later, Leeper’s voice floated down to them. “You okay in there?”

  “Yeah,” Alix said. “Pib, how about moving over, just a little?

  Pibbin crawled off him, and Alix said, “I’m sorry about this. I should have stopped when I saw those branches on the ground. I know about these traps!”

  He leaped at the side of the hole, sending down a shower of dirt, and fell back with a thump.

  “Slick and steep,” he said.

  “Pib,” Leeper called, “can you climb up the side?”

  “I think so,” Pibbin said, and started inching up toward him, clinging to the side of the hole with the sticky pads on his toes.

  “Wish I could do that!” Alix said. “Hey, Leeper, do you see any long branches near you?”

  “A couple of them aren’t broken,” Leeper said. “But they’re heavy. As soon as Pib gets up here, maybe we can get one for you.”

  Pibbin kept climbing. Almost there.

  As soon as he crawled out, he hopped over to help Leeper with the branch.

  Together they pushed it to the edge of the hole and let one end fall down inside.

  A minute later, Alix had climbed up it and was standing beside them.

  Leeper looked worried. “Nisk really doesn’t want visitors, does he?”

  “Marteena told me he was smart,” Pibbin said. “But I didn’t know he’d be this smart.”

  “Yeah.” Alix shook the dirt out of his fur. “I’ll have to be more careful. Let’s go.”

  The tunnel grew wider, and then it turned and turned again.

  It took them into a large open space filled with bags and boxes and piles of small round stones like the ones Pibbin had seen by the bog.

  Was this the end?

  No, on the other side of the storeroom was something that looked like the opening of another tunnel.

  They circled around the boxes and bags to find out.

  “A smaller tunnel,” Alix said. He sighed and headed into it. Leeper shrugged and looked at Pibbin, and they followed him.

  They hadn’t gone far when a rattling sound made them stop.

  Too late.

  The roof fell down.

  Onto them. Around them.

  “Not again!” Leeper said. “How can we ever get out of this?”

  Pibbin looked more closely. It had woven sides, like a cage.

  Alix was already pushing at it. “Too big and too heavy,” he said. “But it’s just a basket.”

  He started chewing. “Tough,” he mumbled.

  A few minutes later, he had made a small hole. Pibbin and Leeper hopped through.

  Alix chewed some more and slipped out to join them.

  “Crazy old gal
oot,” Alix said. “I’ve had enough of this.”

  An old galoot? Pibbin wondered what that could be. Someone really strange?

  Never mind—Alix was marching down the tunnel. He’d found another stick, and he waved it in front of him as if he were beating off a dozen old galoots.

  What next?

  Finally, the tunnel ended in front of six wooden steps. Another tunnel opened off to one side.

  “Which way?” Alix said.

  Pibbin hopped close to the first step and looked up at a red-painted door. “Maybe this is Nisk’s house.”

  “Probably,” Alix said. “Let’s be careful.”

  He bounded up the steps, pulled open the door, and stepped back, saying, “What kind of a trap does he have here?”

  They stared into the room ahead of them and looked at each other for a long minute. At last, Alix waved them forward.

  Hurry!

  Now they stood in a real room with a floor made of wood and tiny square windows.

  Baskets of dried mushrooms leaned against one wall. It was so quiet that Pibbin could hear the peepers singing outside.

  Alix looked at the mushrooms as if he’d like to eat a few, but he kept going.

  “Duffy’s got to be here somewhere,” he said. “Where? Where?”

  They searched through room after room. Nisk had built a proper treehouse, with each room higher than the first and tiny ladders to join them.

  Pibbin hopped past bags of acorns and pinecones and more dried mushrooms.

  He jumped across the dried berries that spilled out of a bag and climbed up to look into a basket of corncobs.

  Nisk had packed his house with food and a few odd things. Quite a few odd things.

  Was that a turtle’s shell? Why would he want those bits of colored glass? Or those clumps of dried moss? Or these strips of bark?

  Where, in all of this, would Nisk put a small squirrel? Nothing here looked like a cage.

  Brown feathers drifted out of a box as they hurried past. What would Nisk use feathers for?

  Pibbin stared at a pile of tiny white bones and hopped quickly away from them.

  He slowed to look at something that was the shape of a fat stump.