Page 10 - The Black Deer and Charlie Rabbit

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The Black Deer and Charlie Rabbit
brightness with their gentle hues of blue and lilac. The native plants attracted swarms of hungry insects as gaily coloured butterflies fluttered from flower to flower.
Springtime was a new awakening for the woodland animals: a time to clean their homes or start afresh. Repairs to rooftops and broken chair legs, new curtains and carpets, pillows and duvets added to a never-ending wish list.
Besides the spring cleaning, a fire in Coopers Wood had left hundreds of animals homeless. Temporary accommodation had been found for them in Barns Wood until it was safe to return, and the woodland families had soon discovered that they were in need of a team of workers. The work was welcome, but right now Charlie and his friends had more pressing matters to attend to.
A few weeks ago, Sophia, the fairy queen, had left her residence in the secret fairy kingdom lying at the heart of Barns Wood to visit the grave of her oldest woodland gnome, Firethorn. Sophia had been hit on the head and had fallen to the ground, unconscious. When she failed to return to their enchanted garden, the fairies and the woodland animals searched for her frantically. She was eventually discovered in an old tunnel of Badger’s that had been closed off, where she had been taken by two young rats to shelter from a storm.
Before she had been injured, Sophia thought she had seen a dark misty figure nearby. When the animals had found the place where she had been attacked, they saw the ground had been trampled by a cloven-hoofed animal, a deer, which had left clumps of its black hair caught in the bushes. When she heard this, Sophia had been shocked and frightened.