by Nigel Hinton
‘Do all ravens’ feathers feel slimy, Mr Stripe?’ asked Rufus Rabbit.
‘Oh, don’t be such a hinfant, Rufus,’ Baby B scoffed. ‘Mr Stripe said it was strange, didn’t he?’
‘Baby B, don’t be unkind to an animal younger than yourself,’ Mr Stripe said.
‘But he’s always askering silly questions just so you think he’s working hardest and he …’ Baby B stopped when he saw the fierce look his teacher was giving him.
‘Well, ma’am,’ Mr Stripe said, turning back to Mrs Badger, ‘I’d say that if Retsnom has gone, we’re all better off without him.’
‘Oh, I shan’t miss him, I’ll grant you that,’ Mrs Badger replied. ‘But now we don’t know where he is or what kind of mischief he’s up to. And mark my words, he’s up to something wicked – I can feel it in my bones.’
For the next two days, all the animals joined in a search of the island without finding a single clue. Then Sergeant Robin came flying back with the news that he’d spotted some raven’s feathers underneath an oak tree in the middle of the forest.
Everybody dashed to the tree and what they saw made them all shiver.
There was no sign of Retsnom but the tree was starting to wither. The leaves had turned black, the bark was peeling, and a thick, green slime was oozing from the trunk.
Mr Stripe picked up the feathers and looked at them.
‘Yes, they belong to Retsnom all right,’ he said. ‘He must have perched in this tree.’
‘But why has the tree all gone horrible?’ Nick asked.
‘I don’t know,’ Mr Stripe murmured. ‘I just don’t know. I’ve never seen anything like it.’
During the next week, though, Mr Stripe and all the others saw plenty of things like it. All over the forest hundreds of trees started to wither exactly like the oak tree.
‘It’s so terrible, Mr Stripe,’ Mrs Badger said as they walked round the courtyard of Beaver Towers one day. ‘Whatever are we going to do?’
‘I think the time has come to get some advice from Mr Edgar,’ Mr Stripe replied. ‘We’ll get Baby B and Nick to ask for help.’
But Baby B and Nick couldn’t contact Mr Edgar.
They sat in the library every evening and concentrated as hard as they could, but nothing happened. Baby B kept saying that perhaps it was because Mr Edgar and Philip were too far away, but he couldn’t help remembering the rhyme about think-talking:
You must earn it to learn it.
Misuse it, and you’ll lose it.
Baby B was scared. Trees were dying all over the island. The rabbits said their carrots weren’t growing. The sheep reported that the grass had started to shrivel and turn brown. Everybody noticed that the water in the wells looked cloudy and tasted strange. And Baby B’s mother and father came back from fishing one day and announced that all the fish had disappeared from the rivers.
There was danger at Beaver Towers and they needed help, but they couldn’t get it.
Then the dreams started.
CHAPTER ELEVEN
Retsnom was coming closer.
Baby B couldn’t see him but he knew he was there, somewhere in the dark cave, and he could hear a slithering sound getting closer. He wanted to run away but when he tried to move his legs, they seemed stuck to the ground.
And now Retsnom was even closer – just round the corner of the cave. The slithering noise was getting louder and louder. Baby B opened his mouth to scream for help, but no sound came out.
Then, suddenly, he wasn’t in the cave. He was floating through the forest, just below the tops of the trees. The sun was shining. A voice was calling to him.
‘This way!’ the voice called. ‘This way! Come and see me. I am your friend.’
The voice was so gentle and kind that all the fears about the dark cave melted away. Baby B was excited and filled with longing. Soon he would see this new friend with the lovely voice. He would never be scared again because this friend would protect him and look after him.
He was floating across a big clearing in the forest now. He looked around and saw that all of the animals of the island were floating with him. And they all looked happy. They were smiling because they were going to see the friend with the lovely voice. The sun was shining down on them all.
‘Here I am,’ called the voice. ‘Come to me. You’ll be safe with me.’
And then they all saw him, standing at the top of a tree on the edge of the clearing.
It was Retsnom.
His wings were spread wide and the sun was shining on him so that all the colours of the rainbow seemed to glisten on his glossy feathers. He looked magnificent – so beautiful and powerful that the animals hardly dared to look at him.
Then Baby B woke up.
He lay awake in his bed until the morning, unable to go back to sleep.
Baby B was sitting in the classroom waiting for school to begin, when Nick came through the door and rushed straight over to him.
‘I had another dream,’ the little hedgehog whispered. ‘It was horrible. I was in this cave and there was this scary noise. And then I was flying in the forest and it was all lovely and then I saw Retsnom. Only he wasn’t black and slimy, he was –’
‘All the colours of the rainbow!’ Baby B gasped. ‘Oh Nick, we had the same dream.’
At that moment, Mr Stripe came into the room so they couldn’t go on talking. But Baby B couldn’t concentrate on the lesson. He kept thinking about the dream and, on top of that, he felt very tired because he had been awake so long during the night.
Then Baby B noticed that all the young animals were yawning. Everybody was tired – so tired, in fact, that one of the young squirrels and a couple of the badgers actually fell asleep at their desks and Mr Stripe had to wake them up.
‘Wakey, wakey, you dozy creatures!’ Mr Stripe growled as he shook their shoulders. Then he put his paw in front of his mouth and yawned himself. ‘Oh dear, it must be catching! No, I know why I’m tired – I had a most peculiar dream last night and then I simply couldn’t get back to sleep.’
Baby B and Nick’s eyes were nearly popping out of their heads as they turned and looked at each other.
Mrs Badger was sleeping in her chair when Baby B and Nick arrived at her house after school. She woke up with a start and then rubbed her eyes.
‘Bless my soul, I must have been having forty winks! It’s probably because I didn’t sleep very well last night. I had a dream and then I couldn’t get back to sleep.’
‘We did have it as well!’ Nick squeaked.
‘Everybody did, even Rufus Rabbit,’ Baby B added. ‘It was about Retsnom.’
‘That’s right,’ Mrs Badger said. ‘Such a nice dream it was. I think we’ve all been most unfair to that poor creature – he’s really very friendly and he just wants to help us.’
‘No, Mrs Badger,’ Baby B burst out. ‘Me and Nick, we were talking after school and we think he’s doing a sort of think-talk to hippotrize us so that we like him. That’s what we think, don’t we, Nick?’
The little hedgehog nodded.
‘Hypnotize us? Bless my soul, what a silly idea!’ Mrs Badger said. ‘Besides, you can’t hypnotize someone and make them do what they don’t want to do.’
‘Yes, but this is special hippotrizing while you are asleep!’ Baby B went on. ‘He wants us to like him and he’s pertending to be nice but look what he’s doing to the trees.’
‘He’s deading them and making all that green stuff come out of them,’ Nick said, shivering.
‘Really, you two do talk the most nonsense I’ve ever heard. Killing trees. Trying to hypnotize us. Whatever will you think of next! Retsnom is our friend.’
‘But, Mrs Badger, you said he was up to something wicked. You said you could feel it in your bones!’ Baby B pointed out.
‘Well, I was wrong!’ Mrs Badger snapped. ‘And I don’t want you to say another word against Retsnom – do you hear?’
Baby B and Nick were shocked. Her voice was angry and severe. S
he stared at them so fiercely that she didn’t even look like the Mrs Badger they both loved so much.
‘Not another word, do you hear?’ she snapped again.
They gulped and nodded but as soon as she went out to the kitchen, Baby B pointed to the front door. They tiptoed over to it.
Baby B lifted the latch as quietly as he could, then they ran away down the path and out of the garden gate. Only when they reached the safety of some trees at the other side of the field did they stop to catch their breath.
‘It’s true!’ Baby B panted. ‘He’s hippotrizing everybody to make them do what he wants. Mrs Badger’s the first one who believes him but soon it will be everybody. Oh Nick, what are we going to do?’
CHAPTER TWELVE
As Baby B got into bed that evening, he asked his mother if she could leave the night light burning in his room because he didn’t want to sleep in the dark.
‘What on earth are you scared of?’ his mother asked as she tucked him up in bed.
‘I keep having horrible dreams about Retsnom,’ Baby B said, hoping she would give him a cuddle and stay with him for a while.
‘They’re not horrible at all. We’ve all been having dreams like that and they’re lovely. Retsnom is our friend and you should be grateful you can dream about him. I can’t wait to have another one tonight. Now, off to sleep with you and no more silliness!’
She blew out the night light and went straight out of the room without even looking back at him. Normally she always let him have a night light if he wanted it and she never left the room without tickling his ears and giving him a goodnight kiss.
He wanted to call her back and tell her she had forgotten, but he knew it would do no good. She had been taken over by Retsnom.
Baby B lay in his bed and wiped a tear from his eye.
Well, he wouldn’t go to sleep. That way he wouldn’t let Retsnom come creeping into his dreams and try to make him think he was a nice, friendly bird. He wasn’t. He was horrible and evil and Baby B wished he’d never gone to Round Rock Island and found him.
He wished he hadn’t done silly things with his think-talking powers too. If only he could still contact Mr Edgar and Flipip. They would know what to do. But now he had no one to help him. Mrs Badger and his own mother already believed Retsnom and soon everybody else would too.
Suddenly Baby B heard the door to his bedroom click open. He lay very still in the dark and listened. Someone padded softly over to his bed. He could hear breathing right next to him.
‘Baby B, wake up!’
‘Nick!’ Baby B whispered in relief. ‘What are you doing here?’
‘I don’t like it very much in my bed in the dark by myself. Can I come in with you?’
‘Yes, all right,’ Baby B said, grateful that he wouldn’t be alone in the night. ‘But be careful with your spikes because they are millions prickerly’
They lay in bed with the pillow between them so that Nick’s spikes wouldn’t prickle Baby B every time one of them moved.
It made the dark much less scary to be able to talk to each other. And even when they weren’t talking, it was comforting to know there was a friend nearby in case of danger.
For a long time they kept awake by nudging each other every five minutes. But as it got later and later, they got more and more tired until Nick forgot to nudge Baby B and Baby B forgot to nudge Nick and they both fell fast asleep.
They were floating through the forest together. They crossed the sunlit clearing and saw the rainbow-coloured Retsnom talking to all the animals of the island. Mrs Badger, Mr Stripe, Mick, Baby B’s mother and father – everyone was there and they were all looking up at Retsnom with smiles on their faces.
‘I am your friend,’ Retsnom was saying as Baby B and Nick floated nearer. ‘I have come to help you all. But there are two silly animals who are not your friends. They are telling lies about me and trying to trick you all. And there they are!’
Retsnom pointed his wing at Baby B and Nick and all the animals turned and stared at them.
‘They are your enemies,’ Retsnom squawked. ‘You must capture them and bring them to me. Now!’
Baby B woke up as he felt something stab into him. Nick had rolled right over the pillow and was lying on top of him moaning, ‘No! No! Help!’
‘Nick, wake up!’ Baby B shouted, pushing the hedgehog off him and jumping out of bed.
‘What is it?’ Nick asked, jerking awake.
‘We’ve got to go before they catch us!’ Baby B said, pulling on his dungarees and getting the straps done up right at the very first go.
‘Why?’ Nick said.
‘You saw the dream, didn’t you? Retsnom is telling everybody that you and me are the henemy.’
Just then, they heard the sound of voices from all over the castle. The animals were waking up and rushing out of their rooms to do what Retsnom had told them. Baby B and Nick listened for a moment and then dashed for the door.
They fled along the corridor and started down the stairs. Baby B jumped them two at a time and Nick tried to copy him, but the little hedgehog lost his footing and went head over heels. He quickly rolled himself into a ball and bounced faster and faster until he reached the bottom before Baby B.
‘Come on!’ Baby B said as Nick unrolled himself. ‘We’ve got to get downstairs to the Great Hall and out of the door before anyone sees us.’
They scampered along the landing to the main stairs. They were just about to race down them when a couple of rabbits ran into the Great Hall. They were quickly followed by Mick and a group of other animals.
Baby B and Nick pressed themselves back into the shadows at the top of the stairs.
‘Nick’s room is empty!’ they heard Mick shout. ‘He must be in Baby B’s room. Come on, let’s get them!’
Baby B and Nick heard them running up the stairs and for a moment they were too scared to move. Then the little beaver glanced along the corridor and saw the library door. Of course – the secret passageway!
‘Quick, follow me!’ he whispered to Nick.
They darted along the corridor and dived into the library just as the animals reached the top of the stairs and charged off in the other direction.
There was no time to lose. They ran to the bookcase and pulled. The bookcase swung open like a door and they looked down the steep stone stairs that led to the secret tunnel.
It was dark down there and they didn’t want to go, but there was no other way. They stepped on to the first step and closed the bookcase behind them. Then, holding on to each other’s paw, they started the long journey down the stairs and along the tunnel.
‘We’re safe,’ Nick said, when they finally came out through a bunch of ferns at the end of the tunnel.
The moon came out from behind some clouds and lit up all the trees of the forest with its silver light.
Baby B hoped that Nick was right, but he couldn’t help thinking that somewhere, out there in the forest, Retsnom was perched in his tree.
CHAPTER THIRTEEN
Baby B and Nick crept along the forest path.
The moon shone through the trees, casting scary shadows on the ground. Every few seconds the two young animals froze, their ears pricked and their eyes wide open to check for danger.
Suddenly, a wind blew across the forest, rattling branches and making the leaves whisper and flap. Baby B and Nick peered anxiously up at the trees. Perhaps Retsnom was up there somewhere, ready to swoop down and grab them with his sharp raven’s claws.
The wind passed and silence fell. Now it was so quiet that they felt as if the noise from every step they took was echoing round the forest, telling their enemy where they were.
Hardly daring to breathe, they tiptoed onwards through the heart of the forest. They moved so slowly that it took ages and ages before they came out of the trees and stood on the edge of the open fields.
The moonlight was so bright that if Retsnom was flying above the island he would see them at once. They hid under a clump of f
erns and waited and waited until finally some big clouds rolled across the sky and covered up the moon.
‘Come on, Nick,’ Baby B whispered. ‘If we do millions fast running we can get to the Manor before the moon comes out again.’
‘Why is we going there?’
‘Because I know a millions good place for hiding. Quick!’
Under cover of the darkness they sped across the fields and through the orchards that led to the Manor. Just as they reached the front door, the moon came out from behind the clouds and flooded everywhere with its cold light. They pushed open the door and darted inside.
The rambling old house belonged to Mr Edgar but Baby B and his parents had lived there for a while until they had moved into Beaver Towers. Now Mr Edgar used it as a place to stay when he wanted a bit of peace and quiet. Since he’d been away, nobody had been there and it smelled dusty and unlived in.
Baby B led the way along the corridor, down some twisting stone steps, along another corridor, and down some even twistier steps. He opened a door into a small room and ran straight across to the huge fireplace. Carved into the stone on the back wall of the fireplace was the figure of a beaver. Baby B reached up and pressed the flat tail of the figure, and the stone swung open to reveal a doorway.
‘Where does it go?’ Nick asked, peering down the steps inside.
‘It’s the cellar where Grandpa Edgar keeps the logs,’ Baby B said. ‘Nobody will ever finding us here. Come on.’
It was very dark in the cellar but they lit a small oil lamp and made themselves comfortable on a pile of logs. Although Mr Edgar was a long way away, it was good to be in his house. They could imagine him sitting in his favourite chair in front of the fire and they could almost hear his voice telling them not to worry. It made them feel safe at last.
It was still night-time and they were very tired but they didn’t dare go to sleep in case they dreamed about Retsnom. Baby B made up a little tune and started humming it to help them keep awake. Nick joined in for a while but then he suddenly stopped and Baby B saw that he had tears in his eyes.