Urchin and the Rage Tide Read Online Free PDF Page B

will ask the Heart not to be angry with you.”
    “Say thank you to Brother Mossberry, Twirl,” said Cherry. Twirl looked down at her paws and muttered something.
    Mossberry lowered his voice, as if he were being spied on. “Gather in our shoreline burrow in two nights’ time. We must become familiar with the shore. Don’t all arrive at the same time, or by the same route. Be careful. You could tell the king about our meetings if you wished to. He does not know that his rule is over. I say to you—do not betray me. Do not betray each other. I am the Chosen One.”
    Cherry bent over Twirl, who was sulking. “D’you hear that, Twirl?” she snapped. “That means you keep your mouth shut.”

    Did any of them, except little Twirl, doubt Mossberry? Did any of them remember that the king and the tower animals had always been good to them, or that the Heart had always been kind? If they did think so, they didn’t dare say so. They were too much in awe of Mossberry.

CHAPTER THREE
    HEN A FEW MORE DAYS HAD PASSED , it was time to evacuate the tower. A host of small hedgehogs and squirrels had gathered around Urchin, the smaller ones bobbing up and down to be noticed. He held a claw to his lips for quiet.
    “Now, explorers,” he said, “have you all packed a bag, ready to move?”
    The small animals gazing up at him all nodded solemnly, still watching his face. They each had a satchel on their backs containing a cloak, a drinking bottle, and the little possessions—combs, toys, and favorite treasures—that they wanted to take to the new burrows. The little girl animals all wanted to hold Sepia’s paws, until she seemed to have one clinging to every claw. Prince Oakleaf came to the help of a tiny squirrel whose satchel kept slipping from her shoulder.
    “Is that the king?” whispered a hedgehog, curtsying.
    “No, it’s his son,” said Urchin. “Everybody ready? Now, I need someone to do a special job for the king!”
    A dozen or so small paws shot up toward the sky. Every squirrel stretched up very straight and tall, hoping to be noticed.
    “I think that’s about everyone,” said Prince Oakleaf. “We have a box here of equipment from the tower to be moved to safety.”
    “I’ll carry it!” cried a small voice.
    “No, me!”
    “Please, we can take it between us!” said two very small hedgehogs who looked swamped by their satchels already.
    “Perhaps you could all carry something,” said Urchin. “That would be a great help to King Crispin and all of us.”
    Delighted by the idea of helping the king, all the small animals reached out. Prince Oakleaf put a saucepan into one pair of paws and a bag of clothes-pegs into another, and hung a coil of washing line around the shoulders of an otter. Urchin saw the delight on their faces and pictured them scurrying away later to tell their parents of how they’d helped King Crispin. Even the animals who had attached themselves to Sepia let go so that they could carry brushes, buckets, and rolling pins. One young hedgehog stretched out a paw, then withdrew it and seemed to think again.
    “Oh! Excuse me, sir, I have to go and see if it’s all right,” he said, and scuttled away toward a burrow. There were sighs of “Oh, Pottle!” from the other animals.
    “Pottle’s always like this, Master Urchin, sir,” said a hedgehog. “He always asks if it’s all right with his mom before he does anything.”
    “It’s for the king!” said another. “What couldn’t be right about it?”
    “It’s fair enough,” said Prince Oakleaf, “if he wants to check with his mom.”
    “Yes, sir, but then she always goes and asks somebody else,” complained a squirrel.
    “Somebody else?” repeated Sepia.
    “Any particular somebody?” asked Prince Oakleaf.
    “Don’t know,” said the squirrel, and the animals fell to discussing between themselves who it was that Pottle’s mom always asked about things. They had decided that they didn’t know who it was, but it