Work Text:
As Vixen lay there half asleep beneath the setting sun, the cubs tumbled around in the grass, playing. Friendly grabbed hold of Dreamer's ear. She wrestled him off. Laughing, he pretended to fall over, then when the others crowded around to see if he was alright, he pounced, landing on top of Bold and bowling him to the floor.
Bold gave him a kick. "I'll get my own back on you!" he promised.
"Children!" Vixen called to them. "Settle down! You're attracting danger from the whole park!"
"Nothing can hurt us!" proclaimed Bold. "We're at the top of the food chain!"
Owl fluttered down onto a low tree branch. "Have you ever heard the tale of the fox cub who got eaten by the hungry sparrowhawk?"
The cubs stared at her.
"Suffice it to say, it is not a pleasant tale!" Owl made herself comfortable, then turned to Vixen. "Perhaps I can be of service, Vixen. You get some sleep, and I'll watch after them for now."
"Thank you Owl. That's very kind."
Owl puffed herself up and looked important. "You would do the same for me," she replied.
"Huh, yeah," snorted Bold. "Like that fat old chicken is ever gonna lay an egg."
"Bold!" Vixen scolded. She gave Owl an apologetic look. "I'm so sorry."
"Not to worry," Owl replied. If she was hurt, she did a good job of hiding it. "Sticks and stones, Vixen. Sticks and stones!" She turned to the cubs. "And I'll tell you something else. There are one or two tales of Owls making off with fox cubs, too. Think about that, the next time you open your mouth."
The cubs continued their game. Bold leapt on Friendly and pretended to bite his tale. Charmer came to Friendly's rescue, grabbing Bold's foot and tickling it with her whiskers. Bold squealed, and the others laughed.
"Children!" Owl hooted at them. "You are making too much noise. Settle down."
"What else are we supposed to do?" asked Bold.
"If you sit still, I shall tell you a story. Gather round," she made a gesture with her wing.
"Are you going to tell us about the hungry sparrowhawk?" Bold's bright eyes gleamed with the promise of adventure and excitement.
"Certainly not. I'm going to tell you about..." Owl paused for effect "...the ghost of White Deer Park."
They crowded round her tree. "A ghost?" Dreamer piped up.
"That's right. Many years ago, before even I was born, which, I might tell you, was a long time ago... there was a Hare who went by the name of Lightning. One night, during a great storm, lightning struck her den, by the riverbank, killing her mother and the other leverets. But Lightning survived, and from this incident she got her name. She grew up to become a great, clever creature, with long bounding legs and powerful muscles. And no one could ever catch her – not fox, not badger, not stoat, not weasel... not even sparrowhawk. The rumour went that she had learned the secret of lightning itself... for when that storm struck her den, she absorbed its power, and it became a part of her."
The fox cubs stared, wide eyed. "Like magic," said Dreamer.
"Indeed," said Owl. "Then one day... Lightning disappeared."
"How?" asked Charmer.
"Why?" said Friendly.
"No one knows," Owl told them. "But on dark nights, if you go up to the hedgerow by the river where her den was, and you look very hard... you can still see her... a ghostly figure running like lightning through the night."
The cubs sat down, wondering over the story. Owl yawned, her eyes drooping. Night hadn't fallen yet, and she wasn't accustomed to staying awake through the day. Vixen slept too. As Owl nodded off, the cubs confided in each other.
"Let's go check out that den!" Bold said.
"I want to see it," Dreamer agreed.
"It could be dangerous," Friendly cautioned them. "We shouldn't stray from our own den."
Charmer seemed to be of mixed opinion. "I think it'll be alright, so long as we're careful."
"Scarface might have his patrols out looking for us," Friendly pointed out. "We should wait 'til mother wakes up, and ask her to go with us."
"Friendly's scared," teased Bold.
"I'm just being practical!"
"Look," said Bold, "like Charmer said, we'll be careful. We'll just go and have a quick look, then come right back. What d'you say, Dreamer?"
"I'm going," Dreamer grinned. "What about you, Charmer?"
Charmer thought about it for a moment. "Alright," she said, "I'll come along."
"This isn't a good idea," Friendly muttered, but as they slunk off, he went with them.
It didn't take them long to reach the hedgerow by the river. By now night had begun to fall, a misty purple haze settling across the sky. A number of hedgehogs were out, and they balled themselves up as the cubs approached.
"Here we are," said Bold. "This looks like it used to be a den." He sniffed the floor. "Any hares are long gone now."
A rumble broke through the sky, and black clouds formed overhead. The cubs shivered and gathered together. Raindrops began to spatter down.
"Let's go back," said Charmer.
"I second that," Friendly agreed.
"No!" argued Dreamer. "I want to see the ghost!" She plodded forward, away from the group, sniffing around her as she went.
Then a thunderclap pulsed out of the sky, and suddenly the landscape around them went bright. "Lightning!" Dreamer cried, excited. "The ghost is here!"
Friendly was frightened. He backed away, into the hedgerow. "I want to go home."
"We'll look around a bit longer," Bold decided. "Then we'll go back."
Bold and Dreamer went down into the riverbank. Friendly hung back, and Charmer dithered in the middle. As Bold nosed the river, Dreamer watched the ripples. Another clap of thunder split the sky, and when the lightning flashed again, they saw their reflections shining in the water's crisp surface. Between them stood a hare, large as life, sparkling in the moonlight. They spun round, but there was no one there.
"Lightning!" Dreamer cried. "I saw her!"
"I saw her too!" said Bold. He raised his head and called to Charmer and Friendly. "The ghost is here!"
The other two came down to look at the water. "There's nothing there," said Friendly. "It's just your imagination."
"But I saw her!" Dreamer insisted.
Another thunderclap, and this time when lightning burst the skies open, they all saw it. A giant white hare leapt out of the water, her eyes wide and gleaming, her mouth open. All four cubs squealed and backed up as the hare ran towards them. She bore down on them, big as a hunting dog and twice as ferocious. Terrified, they turned and bolted back the way they'd come, and they didn't stop until they arrived back at the den, soaking and frightened. They collapsed in a heap.
Fortunately, both Owl and Vixen were still asleep, and hadn't noticed their departure. They made themselves scarce inside the warm dry den, and tried to pretend that nothing had happened.
Presently Vixen awoke. "Children," she said, "ready to go out for a walk? I thought we might go hunting by the river tonight, by the hedgerow. What do you say? Your first expedition!"
"I think I'll sit it out," said Bold.
"Me too," said Charmer.
"But you've been asking me to take you hunting for weeks!"
"We changed our minds," said Friendly.
"There's ghosts out there!" cried Charmer.
"Has that silly old bird been telling you ghost stories?" Vixen laughed. "You shouldn't listen to her. She's just trying to scare you."
"But..." Dreamer's mouth flapped as she tried to make up her mind whether to come clean.
"Owl said there was a big white ghost," Charmer said tactfully. "By the river."
A snorting noise at the mouth of the den interrupted them. Vixen turned to see who it was. Popping her head out, she found herself looking into the face of a white hind. "Can I help you... er...?"
"Lily," the hind introduced herself. "I understand my son Trey has been out chasing fox cubs. I wanted to come and apologise for any trouble he caused you." She turned her head and nudged a fawn into the entrance of Vixen's Earth. "Go on, Trey. Say you're sorry."
Trey stared at the floor and said nothing.
"It's alright," said Vixen. "My cubs haven't been away from the den. It must've been Lady Blue's cubs he frightened."
Lily looked at her son. "You said they were red fox cubs."
At that point Bold appeared in the tunnel, and when he saw Trey, his eyes widened. "It's him!" he cried. "It's the ghost!" He ran back down the tunnel, calling to his brother and sisters. "It was just a stupid fawn all along!"
"Say you're sorry, Trey," Trey's mother urged.
Trey looked up. He had a sulky look on his face. "SORRY!" he spat.
"You should work on your manners, young man," Vixen told him, nodded a goodbye to Lily, pretended not to notice Trey sticking out his tongue, and went back down the tunnel. "Now," she said to her cubs, "about your little outing..."
Charmer had an innocent look on her face. "Oh, what outing, mother?"