“Let me get this right. Lexi thinks the birds are loud?” Gracie muttered to Buzz, and he giggled.
“So, Lexi,” said Isla brightly, catching up to her. “We’re going to Craggy Woods first. Would you like a map so you can get to know your way around?” Isla pulled one out of her pocket.
“A map?” said Lexi. “Nah. Thanks, but I don’t need one. I’ve been here a gazillion times already.” She sauntered ahead towards Dooey Burn Bridge, dropping a sweetie wrapper as she went.
“Er, Lexi?” said Buzz, bending down to pick up the wrapper.
Lexi turned round and her face fell. “Oh, I’m sorry,” she said, with a look of horror. She pulled out the packet of sweets from her pocket. “I’ve not even offered you one!”
“Oh no, that’s OK,” said Buzz. “I meant—”
“The orange ones are my favourites,” she said, pushing the bag into Buzz’s hand. “Try one!”
“No thanks,” he said. Isla and Gracie shook their heads too.
Lexi shrugged, looking a little hurt, and pushed the bag back in her pocket. “Suit yourselves,” she said.
There was a gate just over the bridge, which led to the woodland paths. Lexi held it open so they could all walk through.
“Thanks,” said Gracie, but then Lexi walked away without closing the gate behind her. “Lexi, you’re meant to close gates when you’re out in the countryside…” she said. But Lexi was striding ahead and took no notice. Gracie sighed and ran back to swing the gate shut.
“I love nature,” Lexi announced, marching onwards.
“So,” began Buzz, in his best trying-to-make-an-effort-voice, “what’s your favourite woodland animal?”
“Ooh… red squirrels,” said Lexi.
“Cool,” said Buzz. “I like them too. Have you ever seen one?”
“You’re kidding, right? Of course I’ve seen one!” She guffawed loudly and gave Buzz a friendly thump on the arm. “I’ve seen hundreds!”
Buzz grimaced. “Really? They’re actually pretty rare.”
“We did a red squirrel watch last year,” said Isla, “and we hardly saw any.”
“They’re everywhere!” Lexi chuckled. “You just have to look up, guys!”
Isla was about to argue back, but it was hard to get a word in because Lexi wouldn’t stop talking. She told them about all the animals she’d seen and how much of a countryside expert she was. Isla glanced over at Buzz and Gracie, who were walking alongside them with their arms tightly folded. She knew they were feeling annoyed.
They walked on through Craggy Woods until they got back to the wire fence where they’d rescued the trapped fawn.
“Why are we stopping here?” asked Lexi.
“To check for the fawn, remember?” reminded Buzz.
Lexi frowned and plonked herself down on a tree stump. “Och well, I’ll just have a wee rest,” she said and pulled out her bag of sweets.
The others began walking around, scanning the area. “Well, there’s no sign of it lying injured, which is a good thing,” said Isla.
“Guys!” yelled Gracie. “Come and see this!”
Isla and Buzz rushed over to Gracie, who was standing by a tall Scots pine tree.
“Is that what I think it is?” Gracie said, pointing to a smear of something dark and sticky on the bark. Isla knelt down for a better look. Buzz touched it lightly and his fingers came away red.
“It’s blood,” confirmed Buzz.
“Ew!” squealed Lexi.
“And at the same height as the fawn’s neck,” said Gracie.
“Maybe the fawn was more badly injured than we thought,” said Isla. “Come on, let’s look for more clues.”
5
Determined to find the injured fawn, the Animal Adventure Club crept further into Craggy Woods.
“It gets pretty dark in the middle of a forest, doesn’t it?” said Lexi, still chewing her sweets. “We won’t be able to see much later on.”
“That’s why we brought our torches,” sighed Buzz, snatching up another sweetie wrapper Lexi had dropped on the forest floor. He stuffed it into his pocket and glared at Lexi, who was walking on ahead.
The low afternoon sun shone through the trees and on to a carpet of spring bluebells.
“Those flowers are gorgeous! I bet Lisa would love a bunch to brighten up the rangers’ lodge,” said Lexi, trampling through the patch of bluebells and bending down to pluck a few from the forest floor.
“Stop!” shrieked Gracie. Everyone jumped.
Isla looked over to Lexi, who was frozen in shock, her fist clenched around the clump of delicate flowers.
“What is it? Are they… poisonous?” whispered Lexi, almost too scared to move.
“I think Gracie was trying to say that you shouldn’t pick wildflowers, Lexi,” said Isla gently.
Lexi frowned at Gracie, let go of the flowers and stood up. “You gave me a real fright,” she said.
“I didn’t mean to shout,” said Gracie, “but you shouldn’t do that.”
Isla threw Gracie a look that meant ‘Don’t say any more!’ But it didn’t work.
“Wildflowers are for everyone to enjoy,” Gracie added, folding her arms.
“Well, I didn’t know, OK?” Lexi’s face flushed bright red and she glared angrily at Gracie. “I just thought Lisa would like them. You shouldn’t shout at people, Gracie.”
Isla could see tears brimming in Lexi’s eyes and she suddenly felt sorry for her.
“I’m going back to the lodge,” Lexi huffed, and she turned around and stomped off through the trees.
“Come back, Lexi!” shouted Isla. “We didn’t mean to upset you!”
But Lexi didn’t reply.
“Maybe we should just let her go,” muttered Buzz. “She’ll cool off.”
“No, we have to go after her,” said Isla.
“Ugh!” said Gracie, shaking her head. “Me and my big mouth. I’ll go and say sorry.”
Isla put her hand on her friend’s arm. “We’ll all go after her, Gracie. We’ll make it right. Come on.”
They followed the path that Lexi had taken.
“If she’s going to the lodge, she’s set off in the wrong direction,” said Buzz.
“Hey, wait,” said Gracie. “Look at this.” She pointed to a patch of soft mud. “Prints!” she said.
“Lexi’s?” asked Buzz.
“No, the fawn’s,” said Gracie. “They’re deer hoofprints, or ‘slots’ to be exact. And they’re going in the opposite direction to Lexi.”
They gathered round and looked carefully at the small curved prints on the ground.
“I don’t think these slots have been here long,” said Gracie excitedly. “The fawn might be close by!”
“In that case, I think we need to follow the tracks,” said Isla. “If the fawn is still bleeding, it could need help. We can keep looking for Lexi afterwards.”
The others nodded in agreement. Isla signalled to them to keep as quiet as possible, so they didn’t scare off the injured fawn.
“Here!” whispered Buzz, shining his torch towards a patch of red on a branch of a small tree. “More blood!”
“It must be very close,” murmured Isla. “Let’s keep still and quiet for a moment.”
They stood listening. The trees swayed and creaked in the breeze, and from the treetops they could hear the joyful call of a chaffinch. Isla scanned all around them.
If I were an injured fawn, where would I go? Isla thought to herself. Somewhere I couldn’t be seen, of course. I wouldn’t want to be found. Where would I be camouflaged if I had light-coloured fur and darker spots?
There was a faint rustling nearby, and a slight movement caught Isla’s eye. She peered over to a patch of dried leaves. I’d hide in fallen leaves! She tapped Buzz and Gracie on their arms and pointed.
There, curled up against a tree, was the fawn. With the dried leaves as a nest, it was almost completely hidden. They could just make out its soft downy fur, dappled body, large velve
t ears and shiny black nose.
“Aw, poor wee thing,” gasped Gracie.
“I can see a cut on its neck,” murmured Buzz. “What are we going to do?”
“Remember what Lisa said: we can’t go too near,” warned Isla. “Its mother might be nearby. And we really shouldn’t interfere.”
“But if we leave it here, it’ll be in danger from other animals. An injured fawn would be easy to catch,” whispered Buzz.
“I think there’s another animal around already,” said Gracie, crouching down. “Look at these.”
Buzz and Isla looked into the soft mud and saw another set of prints. Isla thought they looked familiar. “Wait a second,” she said, taking her notepad out of her rucksack and flipping it open to a drawing. “Gracie, these prints look just like ones that I found in my garden. I drew them to show you. I thought they belonged to…”
“A fox!” Gracie whispered.
She moved forward to look at Isla’s picture of the pawprints and stepped on a large branch. It snapped loudly. Spooked, the fawn bounded up and shot away into the trees ahead.
“Oh no!” groaned Gracie. “First it was my big mouth and now it’s my stupid big feet!”
“Don’t be hard on yourself, Gracie,” said Isla kindly, putting her arm around her friend’s shoulder. “At least we know the fawn can run away from predators.”
“We can’t risk leaving it this time, though,” said Buzz, shaking his head. “The fawn has a cut on its neck, and it may need stitches and medicine to stop any infection.”
“And we know there’s definitely a fox around, so the fawn is in danger from that too,” said Gracie.
“We’d better hurry back to the lodge,” said Isla. “This time we really do need Lisa’s help.”
6
“Lisa?” called Buzz as the Animal Adventure Club all tumbled into the rangers’ lodge.
Lisa was holding Spiky and peering into his ears.
“Yay! You’re back!” she said cheerfully. “Two seconds, I’m just giving Spiky his last dose of ear drops. He’s looking great!”
“Lisa, it’s the fawn,” blurted Gracie. “We saw a nasty cut on its neck and we think it’s badly injured, but then I stood on a branch and it ran off.”
“Whoa!” said Lisa. “Slow down, Gracie.” She popped Spiky back in his cage, took off her gloves and came over to the group. She frowned. “Hey, wait a minute, where’s Lexi?”
“Er… We thought she was with you,” stammered Isla.
“She said she was coming back to the lodge,” said Buzz.
“You let her come back by herself?” asked Lisa quietly. “She wouldn’t know the way.”
Isla, Buzz and Gracie looked at each other awkwardly.
“But she stormed off,” said Gracie. “She left the gate open, and she was picking wildflowers. I told her she shouldn’t.”
“And she was dropping sweetie wrappers,” added Buzz. “I had to pick them up.”
“We tried to stop her,” said Isla.
Lisa frowned and folded her arms. A guilty silence hung over the children. Isla knew that they weren’t telling Lisa the whole truth.
“But maybe we didn’t try hard enough,” said Isla, chewing her thumbnail.
Gracie looked down at her feet. “It was sort of my fault,” she muttered. “I think I upset her. I got a bit, well… angry.”
Lisa didn’t need to say anything. The children knew from her face that she was disappointed. She grabbed her jacket and swung it round her shoulders.
“Look,” she said, “I know Lexi can sometimes put her foot in it and say the wrong thing. Loudly,” she added, with a twinkle in her eye. “The thing is, it’s all a bit of an act. Between you and me, she was really nervous before we came today. That’s why we were late. She had changed her mind and wasn’t going to come, but I persuaded her. I said I knew you would make her feel welcome.”
Isla shifted her feet uncomfortably. She could feel her face getting very hot.
“But why didn’t she want to come?” asked Buzz.
“She was a bit scared. Behind all that confidence, Lexi is shy. She’s only been in Pittendooey for a few weeks and it’s very hard to move to a small town when you don’t know a soul. It’s not easy fitting in. Remember, you’ve all known each other forever! Well, at least since nursery.”
Buzz, Gracie and Isla glanced at each other guiltily.
“She’s just been trying too hard. Can you give her a chance?” asked Lisa.
The children nodded.
“We’re really sorry,” said Isla.
“We’ll make it up to her,” Gracie promised.
“Well, we need to find her first,” said Lisa, opening the door of the lodge. “Now, what about the fawn. Did you actually see it?”
“Yes, curled up under a tree in Craggy Woods, but it ran off,” said Gracie.
“And before that, we found more patches of blood,” added Buzz.
Lisa glanced at her watch. “Right, it’s 5 p.m. now, so we need to find Lexi before it gets late. At least it won’t get dark for a while. I’ll check Craggy Woods, and keep my eyes open for the fawn too. Sounds like it’s not too badly injured if it’s up and about,” Lisa reassured them. “I’m sure its mother will be nearby and looking out for it. But if I need to, I can call my friend the vet at the wildlife hospital in Strathdooey. You follow the path the other way, towards the boat sheds, to look for Lexi,” she said, setting off towards Dooey Burn Bridge.
“I hope Lexi’s found her way onto the path,” said Buzz as they walked around the east side of Loch Dooey. “Then at least we’ll meet her as she comes round the loch.”
“I don’t have a good feeling about this,” said Isla. “She was very upset when she left us.”
Dark clouds filled the sky as they walked along, and a few spots of rain quickly turned into a shower. They all pulled up their hoods and trudged on through the gloom.
“Lexi!” yelled Gracie, her eyes wide and anxious. “Where are you? Lexi!”
Her voice echoed around the reserve. They all stopped walking and stood silently, listening. The rain was falling heavily now, pattering on the surface of the loch in a million tiny round ripples. The wind was picking up too. There was no reply, only the distant cry of an oyster catcher.
“Where is she?” said Buzz, sounding panicky. “What are we going to do?”
7
“Come on, guys!” said Isla, putting her arms around Gracie and Buzz. “We’re the Animal Adventure Club, remember? What do our club rules say about problems?”
Buzz sniffed and wiped a drop of rain from the end of his nose. “‘We will deal with problems calmly…’”
“‘…and come up with a sensible plan,’” finished Gracie, grinning. “You’re right, Isla, we can do this!”
Standing together in the pouring rain, Gracie, Buzz and Isla nodded and gave each other a small, wet fist bump.
“So,” said Isla, “I’ve got an idea. Gracie, what would you do if you were tracking an animal?”
“First I would look for signs,” Gracie began.
“What sort of signs?” asked Buzz.
“Well, the obvious ones, like footprints or tracks. But other things too, like animal fur or feathers caught on fences, or chew marks.”
“OK, that’s a good start. What else?” said Isla as they continued walking.
“I suppose I would try to think like that animal,” Gracie said. “So I’d try to guess what the animal might do and where it might go.”
“Right,” said Buzz. “So we need to think like Lexi. Where might she have gone after she left us?”
“Remember, she was heading out of Craggy Woods, but not on the main path,” said Isla. “She might have come up and over the old Roman fort remains.”
“And if she did that, then she’d have gone down the hill towards the Boggy Burn,” Gracie continued.
“And then she would have ended up in Barleycorn Forest!” finished Buzz. “Why don’t we try heading down the hill
towards the burn and see if we can find any clues. Then we’ll know if we’re on the right lines.” They all nodded in agreement.
Feeling more focussed, Isla, Buzz and Gracie moved away from the path around the loch towards the Boggy Burn. It was very soft and sticky underfoot. The rain was pelting on their hoods now and they carefully scanned the ground as they walked.
Although Isla was worried about Lexi, she couldn’t help thinking about the injured fawn. She remembered it curled up in the leaves, frightened. Like Lexi, the fawn might be cold and all alone. We must keep an eye out for it, she thought, while we’re looking for Lexi. It could easily have wandered over to this part of the reserve.
“Aha!” shouted Buzz, snapping Isla out of her thoughts. He pointed to something shiny on the ground. They quickly gathered round as Buzz picked up the object. “It’s a sweetie wrapper!” He reached into his pocket to pull out one of the sweetie wrappers he’d picked up earlier. “It’s the same. It’s Lexi’s all right!”
“Good,” said Isla. “We’re on her trail.”
“Yup,” said Gracie. “And what’s this?” She reached down and began heaving at something sparkly stuck in the boggy ground. With a loud sucking noise, she pulled it out of the mud. “Lexi’s trainer! I recognise the sparkles even under all that mud!”
“Oh no,” said Isla. “Poor Lexi only has one shoe!”
Gracie peered closely at the ground and said, “Look at this!” There was a clear set of tracks: a shoe print followed by a bare foot. “She went this way.”
The Animal Adventure Club set off quickly, following the footprint trail until they were on the edge of Barleycorn Forest. Someone had left the gate wide open. They looked at each other.
“We’re definitely on the right path,” said Gracie.
Barleycorn Forest was on the other side of the reserve from Craggy Woods, and much larger. The trees stood closer together, which made it feel very dark and a little scary. The footprints led them up towards one of the nature trails that wound through the forest, but then they stopped.
The Baby Deer Rescue (Animal Adventure Club 1) Page 2