Otter Chaos! (9 page)

“HOORAY!” cheered the otters as they swam to shore, or hurried out from their hiding places on the riverbank. The beavers could see the plan had been a success, but they were not yet relaxed enough to rejoice with their neighbours.

“You did it!” yelled Woody and Sooty, and immediately dashed over to Chip. The otter pups heaved the beaver kit up on their shoulders and did a lap of honour, plonking him down right in front of his dad.

Chuck looked at his son and, being a beaver of very few words, he simply smiled and patted him on the shoulder. Chip had seen him do this with his sisters, usually after they'd finished building a new dam together, so he knew it was an enormous display of pride.

“You're a chip off the old block after all,” said Chuck, gazing up at the trapped lion. “You may not have the skills of a builder, but you obviously inherited my brains.”

“I'll remind you of that next time you get your teeth stuck in a tree trunk and I have to pull you out by your tail!” laughed Twiggy. Then she gave Chip a big hug and added, “You are smarter than both of your silly parents put together. We never should have doubted you.”

Chip's sisters joined the family hug and the otters gathered round, smiling.

“It's not quite over yet,” warned Papa Brown, stepping up to the cage and frowning at its snarling contents. The mountain lion was suspended in the air and safely out of reach, but this didn't stop the big cat from swiping his paws through the wooden bars.

“Now we have to negotiate with him,” added Papa Black, joining his friend as he cleared his throat, to try to reason with the lion.

“As you can see, we are very good at defending our borders,” stated Papa Brown, in a calm and level tone. “But we would like to offer you a truce so that we may all live here in peace, without fear.”

The lion gave a rumbling growl and narrowed his huge eyes.

“We will set you free and let you leave here unharmed,” Papa Black continued, taking over from his friend. “But you must
never
return to this part of the river again.”

“Do we have an understanding?” asked Papa Brown.

The mountain lion scowled, but appeared to consider the offer, then he made his answer known by swiping his talon-like claws at his captors and yowling angrily. He bounced up and down in the cage and the otters and beavers took a big step back as the seesaw began to creak under his weight. The mountain lion obviously noticed that too because he stopped and grinned, and then gripped the bars with his paws and began to bounce even harder.

“This is not how it was supposed to go,” said Chip, scratching his head as the mechanism groaned and wobbled. “He was meant to admit defeat and slink back into the forest!”

“I'm not sure that seesaw will hold out much longer!” added Chuck, watching the plank flex and splinters begin to form in the middle. “In fact, now might be a good time to—”

Before the beaver could finish what he was saying, the wood split in two with an enormous crack and the cage came crashing to the ground. The drop broke enough of the bars for the lion to rip the rest apart with his paws.

“RUN FOR YOUR LIVES!” shrieked Chip.

The otters and beavers all fled in different directions. Mama Brown and Mama Black directed the young ones down to the water and the elderly otters ran and hid behind rocks. Papa Black and Papa Brown instinctively resumed their role as zigzagging decoys and tried to draw the mountain lion away from their families.

“This way, you big sack of cat-nip!” hollered Papa Brown.

“Or are you just a big scaredy-cat?” yelled Papa Black.

But the young lion had learnt his lesson from last time. He ignored the adult otters, even as they stopped and wiggled their bottoms and taunted him by blowing loud raspberries. This time he went for the slowest prey – and that was the beavers!

The Saw Sisters had already dashed into the forest, leaving Twiggy, Chuck and Chip out in the open. The beavers raced around rocks as they tried to get back to the river, but the mountain lion was faster and blocked their path, driving them up the riverbank towards the forest.

Chuck and Twiggy bravely positioned themselves between the big cat and their son, snarling and bearing their teeth, giving Chip time to join his sisters. As he reached the edge of the trees, the young kit turned to see the mountain lion leap into the air and trap his parents' flat tails under his paws.

The otters gasped in horror when the beavers were caught and immediately swam back to shore to help. Papa Brown and Papa Black doubled back too. But no one knew how to save the beavers, and … luckily they didn't need to.

Up in the forest Chip licked his finger and held it up to the wind as Holly, Willow and Hazel did what they do best. The Saw Sisters were not big on conversation, but working together they could gnaw a tree trunk to a pencil-point and send it crashing down in any direction. They just had to wait for their clever little brother to give them the exact coordinates and, as soon as he dropped his arm in the right direction, they pushed against the pine tree.

“TIMBEEEEER!!!” yelled the beaver siblings in unison.

The mountain lion turned, saw the falling tree careering towards him and released the beavers immediately. He then bounded away at speed, eyes bulging and yelping as the pine branches whipped his bottom. The big cat vanished in the canopy as the trunk hit the ground with a boom and a giant cloud of dust filled the air.

“YEEAAAW!” was the last thing the water mammals heard. When the dust cloud cleared, it revealed that the mountain lion was now trapped by
his
tail under the fallen tree.

The young beavers hurried out of the forest and hugged their parents. Then they joined the otters and gathered round the captive cat once more, although this time he was looking more sorry for himself than scary.

“Now, let's try this again, shall we?” said Papa Brown, who approached the mountain lion, but stayed out of reach of those mighty paws. “The same offer still stands.”

“And for the record, there are plenty more trees to fell,” warned Chuck, standing alongside him.

The otters and the beavers held their collective breath and watched the mountain lion as he assessed his predicament and how to get out of it. After a moment, the beast lowered his massive head and admitted defeat. The otters and beavers exhaled with relief.

The Saw Sisters instantly set to work on the section of tree that was holding down the lion and turned it into a pile of shavings and sawdust in no time. Grandpa Bruno and Grandpa Jack stood by with raised fists, just in case the big cat changed his mind, but the animal upheld his end of the truce and headed back to the forest. He had had quite enough of river mammals and did not intend to return.

The otters and beavers watched the mountain lion slip away unharmed, except for a sore tail tip and wounded pride. They waited until he was out of hearing range before they looked at each other with wide-eyed excitement and took a deep breath.

“HOORAY!” they all cheered together, dancing up and down happily.

he beavers and the otters soon set about breaking down the contraptions, sweeping away shells and stones and mopping up fish oil. The Saw Sisters made short work of the fallen tree, turning what remained into a large raft for transporting the rest of the wood upstream, which the young otters sorted into logs, planks and twigs. Beavers recycle everything and could build a whole new wing to their lodge with what they were taking away.

Once everything was done, Chuck and Twiggy made their way down to the water's edge.

“We're off home, then,” said Chuck, yawning loudly. Having been up all night constructing the massive lion-trap, the beavers were tired and in need of a good day's sleep.

“Thank you for all your help,” said Mama Brown, standing on the mooring pad, along with Mama Black and their husbands. The otters all smiled and waved goodbye at the beavers as they dived into the water.

“Aren't we going to ask them about the fish again?” whispered Papa Brown through the corner of his mouth, still smiling as the beavers resurfaced by the edge of the raft. “Now that we're being friendly and all, they might take the dam down.”

“I'm not sure we can ask them to move upstream any more,” whispered Papa Black. “Not now we all appear to like each other.”

“They do seem rather nice,” said Mama Black, still waving.

“I agree,” said Mama Brown. “It would be rude to make new friends and then ask them to go away.”

Chip was the last beaver to leave Cottonwood Lodge. He reluctantly headed down to the water, followed by his new best friends, Woody and Sooty.

“Thank you for helping me with my plan,” said Chip, still wide awake with excitement. “I couldn't have done it without you both.”

“We didn't really do anything,” said Woody. “It was all your idea.”

“And it worked a treat!” added Sooty.

“Apart from the bit where we almost got eaten!” laughed Chip.

“Your dad seemed pretty proud of you,” said Woody.

“I think he realised that thinking and planning can be as important as chopping and building,” whispered Chip. “I'll soon find out when I tell him about my new ideas for the dam – they're pretty unusual!”

“Good luck!” said Woody and Sooty together.

Chip swam to catch up with his family, who were pushing the raft upstream towards the dam, while the otters still waved from the riverbank.

Later that afternoon the raft sailed back downstream. The wood was all gone and Chip was standing on the edge, steering the craft with his flat tail, dipping it into the water like a rudder. He stopped the raft in the middle of the river and called and waved to the two otter families that were lounging around on the mooring pad.