Frado was lost. Tink was sure, and he was getting very
worried. Percy, who had been grazing along with him that morning,
was beginning to notice that Tink was becoming visibly upset.
Tink had been munching along steadily at first but now was spending
more time looking around than munching.
“Are you all right, Tink?” Percy asked.
“Babette’s not coming out today, you know. She has
lessons and a farrier appointment. Remember? Were you
looking for her? Are you sick? What’s wrong?”
That morning had started off normally enough. It was very
hot, but not so hot that the horses were kept in. Tink and Percy
had begun the serious business of keeping the grass short in their
field and Frado, as usual, had joined them, chasing and leaping after
butterflies, and growling and pouncing at crickets. Then HE had
appeared.
HE was the fattest, most arrogant little chipmunk and he had been
driving Frado crazy for several days now. The chipmunk would
appear, sometimes with something to munch on, sometimes without, plunk
his little butt on the ground (exposing the roundest little pot belly)
and stare at Frado. That’s all he did but that stare said
it all. That stare said, “I dare you, you whimp. You
can’t get me. Try it - I dare you!” It drove
Frado nuts. Frado would start out growling and then sprint after
the chipmunk who would dart into a weedy patch. Frado would
pounce into the weeds and scratch and search and dig, accumulating an
impressive collection of itchy burdocks in the process, but he would
never find the chipmunk. Frado would whine in frustration and
stalk back to his original spot, but the joy would be gone from his day
because he knew that before long the enemy would return. After a
few minutes, or a half hour, or an hour (Frado never knew how long it
would be) there the chipmunk would be and Frado would be forced
to repeat the whole process again. And again and again. It
really was taking the fun out of his days in the pasture.
The previous night Frado had done some serious thinking.
Where did that chipmunk keep disappearing to, he wondered. How
did he keep losing it? He went to sleep thinking about the
problem and he dreampt about it all night. This morning, just as
he began to wake up, he pictured the chipmunk coming right out the
other side of the weed clump. It was scampering off (and laughing
at him, too!) as Frado himself searched intently within the weeds for
its hiding place. Now Frado knew where the chipmunk was
disappearing to and he woke up with a newly determined (and slightly
embarrassed) attitude. He’d get that chipmunk today!
Frado played that morning with a new, carefree demeanor.
That alone had worried Tink slightly since he knew as well as Frado
that the chipmunk would be back. The fact that Frado wasn’t
worried and tense while he waited let Tink know that something was up,
and when something was up with Frado it usually meant trouble.
Trouble that Tink would have to straighten out.
Finally the little beast showed up. It sat down and grinned
at Frado. Frado ignored it for a minute in an effort to give it
some false confidence. Suddenly they were off. The chipmunk
darted into a weedy area and Frado followed, but this time he
didn’t stop. Frado ran right through the weeds and right
out the other side, and, sure enough, there was one very surprised
chipmunk. Frado almost got him then. The chipmunk actually
felt the air stir as one of Frado’s paws landed. He heard
Frado’s snapping teeth behind him. That chipmunk was no
longer arrogant or confident. He was scared and he ran for his
life. He twisted and turned, forcing Frado to make sudden stops
and turns, but Frado didn’t give up. The chipmunk ran
through weed patches that hung Frado up slightly and slowed him down
temporarily, but Frado didn’t give up. On and on they went,
circling and sprinting, but Frado refused to be led astray and he
refused to give up. That was one very scared chipmunk.
Tink really hoped that Frado wouldn’t catch the chipmunk
(what would he do with it, after all?) but he was happy to see the
chipmunk learning a lesson and hoped that Frado would be left in peace
now. He didn’t begin to worry until the chipmunk led Frado
under the fence at the back of the pasture and into the woods.
Tink knew how Frado hated those woods. After all, these
weren’t just any woods, those were the haunted woods, the woods
that all the horses knew better than to enter. Tink and Frado had
gone on an adventure in those woods once. While the woods were
lovely, the trip hadn’t been a pleasant experience. Why,
Fortress had even seen monsters in those woods - his tales of battling
those monsters had helped make him into one of the most feared and
respected horses on the place. Tink knew that Frado would never
enter those woods in his right mind, so as he watched the darkness at
the edge of the woods swallow up his friend and the chipmunk, he began
to worry.
“Frado is lost, Percy. I just know he is. And
in the haunted woods, too! We’ve got to go and get
him!”
Soon, after he had filled Percy in on the background on Frado and
the woods, he had Percy worried, too. They decided that they
would have to go find Frado. Percy was a little bit disappointed
that his first trip out was to be a rescue mission rather than one of
Tink’s famous adventures, but he quickly put such selfish
thoughts out of his mind. The pair trot briskly off to the back
of the pasture and neatly popped over the fence. (This was a bad
thing to do, both horses knew, and they felt a little bit badly about
being disobedient, but, after all, this was an emergency. Frado
needed help and no one else knew. What else could Tink and Percy
do?)
Tink entered the woods very cautiously while Percy marched happily next to him.
“These really are lovely woods,” Percy said, “And it is ever so much cooler in here.”
“Shh!” hissed Tink, “The monsters!”
“Did you see any monsters when you were in here last?” asked Percy.
“Well... no.”
“Who has actually seen the monsters?” persisted Percy.
“Fortress has. He said they were terrible, very
big and ferocious. He said if he were a pony, one of those
monsters could have eaten him in one bite!” replied Tink.
“Oh, poo! Fortress was telling stories again. He does that all the time.”
Tink’s eyes got big and round, “He was? He
does?” he stuttered. Then, scrambling to recover, “Of
course he tells stories! I knew that all the time.”
This was said in a loud voice so as to show that he wasn’t afraid
of any nonexistent monsters.
The two walked along, calling for Frado and enjoying the
beautiful woods. “I wonder why the humans don’t ever
bring us to ride in here?” Percy mused.
Soon they had an answer to that question. Tink had paused
for a moment off to one side to peek in that direction for Frado.
The ground was rather mucky there and didn’t make it a pleasant
place to stay long but as Tink went to turn back and rejoin Percy he
found that he had a little bit of trouble picking up his left front
foot. He tried the right hind and that was kind of stuck
too. In fact, all four feet were stuck. Suddenly Tink was
very scared and he tried to pick up all of his feet and run, but the
muck just got gooier and gooier and his feet stuck tighter and
tighter. Tink quickly realized that not only were his feet stuck,
they were sinking! Soon the muck was up to his knees and hocks
and he couldn’t move his legs at all. He slowly kept
sinking and sinking. Finally, just as his belly was sinking into
the muck, Tink felt his feet hit solid ground. To Tink’s
great relief he stopped sinking, but now he was stuck fast and
couldn’t move anything but his head and tail (which he had held
up as he sank). Percy, who had run over (but not too close) and
watched in horror and amazement, said, “What are you doing down
there, Tink. Stop being silly and get out of there right
now!” But Tink couldn’t. Although Percy tried
to grab his mane or tail to pull him out, if he got too close to Tink
he could feel the ground getting mucky and sticky and quickly backed
off. Finally the horses decided Percy would have to go home and
let the humans come help Tink. Percy wheeled and ran for home as
quickly as he could, leaving Tink standing in his spot,
embarrassed, scared and alone.
As Percy emerged from the woods he was spotted by one of the many
humans who were out searching for he and Tink. They were worried
about the horses before, but were now even more worried about Tink
since they knew that the horses would not have separated if they could
help it. Several of them ran into the woods where Percy had been
and it didn’t take them long to come across the dirty, forlorn,
and very stuck pony.
Soon it seemed that anyone and everyone who had anything to
do with the stables were standing around Tink’s muck hole,
scratching their heads and debating what to do, while off to one side
Susie and Lily clung to each other and cried. Now that Tink had
so much company he was a lot less scared, but a lot more
embarrassed. He really wished that Susie and Lily would stop
crying and get him out of here.
Forever went by. Finally Tink heard the noise of a huge
motor - too big to be a truck - and he could hear branches snapping and
breaking. Soon an enormous yellow crane rolled into sight and
stopped. Then things seemed to move quickly as a big sling was
fished under and around Tink’s belly and he was slowly pulled
from the sucking mud and set on solid ground. Tink and several of
the men were visions in brown and Susie and Lily didn’t look too
good either after they threw their arms around Tink and hugged and
kissed him. Many of the onlookers clapped and cheered which would
have made Tink feel good if there weren’t the others - the ones
who were stomping about muttering things about brains and money drains
(the ones like Susie’s dad). Tink put his nose in the air
and tried to muster as much dignity as he could as Susie and Lily led
him off towards home.
Tink was given a bath (so many of his adventures seemed to
involve baths) and led back to his barn. He was looking forward
to resting his tired, aching muscles. As he walked into the barn
he spotted Frado curled up in his spot in front of Tink’s
stall. Tink felt an overwhelming sense of relief (how could he
have forgotten about poor, missing Frado, he wondered with a guilty
start), and then suddenly felt anger flood through his body.
“What are you doing here, Frado?” he snapped.
“Why aren’t you lost? Why aren’t you still in
the woods with the chipmunk?”
Frado blinked sleepy eyes at Tink. “Lost? In
the woods? Not me! No siree! I wouldn’t go into
those woods. That stupid chipmunk did though. When he did,
I guessed that took care of him, all right, and I veered off and ran
along the edge of the woods and then to the big barn. One of the
new boarders brought her dog and she’s really nice. We had
a great time playing all afternoon but if you’ll excuse me, it
was very hard work and I’m tired now. Wake me when dinner
comes.”
With that he tucked his nose back under a hind leg and, with a
great, contented sigh, went back to sleep.
Well! Tink was angry! He looked across the aisle at Percy
and his eyes met Percy’s angry eyes (although Percy was a bit
less sure just who he was angry with). All that worry! All
that fuss! All that getting in trouble! And for what?
Frado was home all the time!
Suddenly Tink smiled - Frado was home! Frado was home, safe and
sound and suddenly all was right with the world again. Tink
looked across the aisle at Percy and Percy smiled as he realized that
the hairy little beast had come to mean a lot to him in the short
amount of time Percy had been here. Percy just wasn’t sure
which hairy little beast he meant.