Bridget found the pain had lessened enough by the end of the day that she could bear small walks. Her pads still ached, and she feared the cuts on her legs would start bleeding again if she did anything too stressful, but even so, it felt so good to stand up once more. Butch was so happy he licked out her ears a fourth time, which bothered Bridget almost as much as his big shaggy tail knocking her down with every swing. And yet, she found herself liking the loving hound.
The squirrel sat atop the deadwood bench, her sharp eyes watching as Bridget walked her sluggish legs across the depressed floor. Edna chirped one phrase, then another. Bridget stopped to await the rat’s translation.
“She sayhs maybe with the new dayh, youh can leev here,” he said. “If youh wish.”
That made Bridget pause. She hadn’t considered staying, but in truth, she didn’t know what she was going to do. Her heart so wanted to go back and confront Scarface, but she was afraid, and still too weak. She didn’t feel able to make even the leap up to the forest ledge!
The squirrel chattered some more. “She sayhs youh most welcome to stay,” the rat explained. “Most welcome. And we all agree. Yes, yesss. Most welcome youh are.”
Bridget half-expected the chorus to join in on that. She felt disappointed when they didn’t.
“Where is everyone?” she asked.
The squirrel chirped an answer. Bridget couldn’t help smiling at how the little thing had learned to understand her in but a day. Bridget didn’t think she’d ever learn squirrel speech.
“There’s some, some… commotion, yess, that’s it! Commotion in the streets around,” the rat said. “Tom’alaxt, he circles above. My brothers and sisters, they keep watch. So do her folk.”
Butch flung himself over the ledge. The squirrel cheeped some, then followed the great hound into the park.
“Something comes,” the rat said. Then he too departed, leaving Bridget alone in the sunken room.
Anxiety settled thick around her. Bridget started pacing about, stretching her legs as she worked off her stress. Three times she circled the dugout, taking a nibble of Butch’s dog food with each pass. Bridget didn’t think much of its taste (the brittle food certainly paled against the things Jessica served that Bridget used to think were so horrible – if only she could chow down on that stuff again!), but this dog food was better than nothing. Bridget wished she hadn’t been asleep when this “stumper” had stopped by to refill the hound’s bowls. She would have liked to lick his hand.
With each step, though, Bridget found something troubling. She had seen her share of deadwood structures these hairless ones had built, but never one like this – a room where such giants couldn’t just walk in and out. But if this dugout was indeed like the other rooms, and she bet it had to be, then somewhere it had to lead to a slope or stairs where giants could come and go without scaling that ledge. That thought cheered her, for if she could find those stairs, she too could get out and be free. But after three circles of her walls, she saw no other passages, which meant the stairs, or whatever, had to be within some neighboring room inside this huge place – and that meant one of these walls must open up, like Jessica’s front portal. Bridget just had to find it.
She heard the hawk screech a savage warning. It sounded some ways away. Butch answered from off around the grounds. As twilight settled around them, Edna sprang down to Bridget’s side, panting from her hard run. She cheeped, then repeated herself. Bridget shrugged, not knowing what else to do. Frustrated, the squirrel leaped back out, her thick tail flapping in the breeze. She soon returned with a small rat wheezing at her heels.
“She tells me never leave youh,” the rat squealed. “She says many cats on the way.”
“Many? Does that happen often?”
The squirrel offered rapid chatter. “Only when the humans come,” the rat said. “But no humans here, so this is different. And she is concerned; cats always fight. The hawk, he drives away many, but more coming. Too many.”
Edna cheeped a lively set of tones. “She says youh should hide. Now.”
“Why?” Bridget asked.
Edna scolded them both. “Do not question the elder!” the rat snapped. “Cats fight. Now hide!”
To Bridget’s amazement, Edna ran right up the side of the wall to disappear on the roof. But of course, she could do that, the feline reminded herself – she’s a squirrel.
“I hide too,” the rat said. “Cats hate rats.”
Bridget just stood there, looking at him. He stared back. Then they both laughed.
A piercing shriek split the winds. Bridget cringed at the call of Tom’alaxt the hawk. It seemed so close, echoing again and again from around the park.
Butch raced across the tree line, his red coat sparkling, his long fangs aglow in the twilight. He dove into a tall thicket, filling the glade with his terrible barks.
“Crazy, isn’t it?”
Bridget trembled at the voice. Scarface!
He sat beside her, the poor rat knocked senseless beneath the warrior’s paws.
“I should have known you’d make friends here,” he said, batting the little rodent aside.
Bridget watched the body fly and felt like crying. A friend had suffered – because of her.
“How’d you get in here?” she whispered.
“Oh, that was easy. Few things can catch me when I don’t want them to. But I must admit, I had some help.”
“The other cats….”
“You’re smart; I’ll give you that. But so am I, squirt. You see, when I realized you’d beguiled Butch and the hawk, well, I knew they’d probably try to stop me. So I had to get them out of the way.”
Bridget took a step backward. “Stop you?” she pondered aloud.
“From killing you,” Scarface answered, with a tone as friendly as any he’d ever spoken. “It’s your fault, really. I did everything I could to just get you out of the way. I didn’t want to have to hurt you – by myself, anyway.”
“But why? Why do you care – “
“I told you,” Scarface snapped, cutting her off. “I was to be Sebastian’s successor – not you! I’d waited years for that! And then you just come into my life, a cute little bundle of troublesome joy – just the perfect little kitten. How could I compete with that? I can’t, obviously. So I’ve got to get rid of you.”
“But you did!” Bridget cried, backing to the wall.
“Oh, but they know where you are now. They’ll be coming for you. So I don’t have much time, do I?”
Scarface lunged for her. She dodged to her left, evading him with ease. Still, her legs felt stiff, her chest tight.
Chuckling, he leaped for her again. She feigned left, then went right. But this time Scarface twisted back and dove straight for her head. She ducked. He soared over her, laughing.
Bridget didn’t understand him. She’d seen kittens show more finesse!
A bit of acorn shell struck her head. She twisted in anger to view the rooftop when she spied Edna tossing another acorn her way, a whole nut this time. So Bridget tested her legs and jumped atop the bench. Scarface followed, landing with such force that the deadwood construct tumbled beneath them. Rolling away from the wall, the bench landed on its side in the middle of the sunken floor.
When she’d realized what had happened, Bridget could have kissed the little squirrel. Instead, she jumped to a perch on the narrow bench board, and from there she hopped atop the ledge wall with only a tad discomfort.
Darkness settled throughout the woods. The hawk cried high above her, while on the far grass slope Bridget spied a team of rats chasing a cat. The unusual sight thrilled her.
Something landed hard on her back, pounding her into the earth. Her breath rushed out. Scarface’s fangs closed on her spine.
“Sorry, kid,” he whispered.
In one quick jerk, Bridget felt Scarface’s fearsome weight surge away. Butch was there, growling through a mouth full of calico cat. He shook the feline as he bit down, but Scarface fought back, thrusting his claws into the hound’s snout and reaching for his eyes. With a brash sweep of his neck, Butch threw Scarface across the woodlands, then bayed his scariest roar as he charged for the kill. The great warrior cat awaited the onslaught, bolting left at the last moment to leap clear of the dog, and straight for Bridget.
The image horrified her. Butch twisted about as quick as he could in the dead leaves, but Bridget knew Scarface would reach her first. He bore down on her, his eyes burning like torches in the night. Rage consumed him.
Bridget sprinted for the trees, forgetting her wounds and grief. A line of oaks loomed before her. She dove between them and tumbled down the forgotten creek bed. Her back landed in chill water. The sensation sickened her.
Howling in his fury, Scarface tore down the steep slope. Bridget thrashed about in the water, fighting the small current but even more, she battled her revulsion and deep-set fears of drowning. Her front claws snagged a fallen limb bridging the stream. She latched onto it with her last desperate surge of strength and pulled. It proved enough. With that final effort, she rolled onto the sandy shore.
Scarface towered above her. He bared his fangs – and screamed in terror!
Snapper had found his tail!
Scarface swatted at the turtle’s bony head, but Old Snapper just closed his eyes and hung on. Extending his powerful forelegs, the horned turtle started dragging Scarface into the depths.
Before that moment, Bridget had considered the attack cries of hawks and hounds were the worst she’d ever heard. They paled beneath the desperate pleas Scarface made as his tail slid into the stream. Bridget couldn’t bear to listen, and yet she knew she couldn’t help him, so she crawled away, her pain dwarfed by her shame.
“May God have mercy,” she whispered.
A pair of strong hands scooped her from the water’s edge. Bridget cried out. It was John! John had come for her! She threw herself at his neck, forgetting all the anguish she’d ever held for the gruff giant. John cuddled her against his shoulder as he stepped with care up the slope, where Jessica waited to surround her beloved cat with tears of joy.
“The Stumper!” cried the rats. “The Stumper!”
Peering between Jessica’s arms, Bridget watched Butch go running up to an old hairless giant seated on the severed remains of an oak trunk, its leftover wood cut low to the earth. The great hound rose up, planting a paw on both sides of the aged one’s head to lick his face.
“He always does this,” the man said, patting the dog’s solid chest.
A curious feeling sank into Bridget; she seemed to know that voice, though she couldn’t figure out how or why. Then Jessica nuzzled the cat against her neck, and Bridget forgot all about it.
“Beautiful setter,” John said as Butch settled at Jason’s feet. “He yours?”
“Him? Oh, no,” Jason said. “Golden retriever, actually. He lives here. Kind of an unofficial watchdog. But I tell you, he’s the most loving beast you’ll ever find. Takes care of all the kids. Every park needs a dog like him.” Then he leaned close to John and whispered, “I keep him fed, you know. Every morning – right here, from this stump. Don’t tell anyone.”
John laughed.
A great splashing echoed from the creek. Bridget cringed.
“Honey,” said Jessica, “don’t you think we’d better be going home?”
John nodded, but when the old man drew up his cane and staggered down to the water’s edge, John followed him. A few moments later they returned, Jason having traded his walking stick for a very wet and timid Scarface.
Bridget recoiled, but then she realized the old warrior had no fight left in him. The soaked feline just clung to the old man’s side, not knowing what else to do.
“Poor little thing,” Jason said, stroking the shaking cat. “That old snapping turtle almost had him down there.”
Jessica stared at Scarface, but said nothing. Her attention and love she saved for Bridget.
“Looks like his tail’s broken, and maybe a paw, too,” said the old storekeeper. Then he chuckled. “But don’t you worry,” he told the old cat. “I have a friend who’d just love to see you. Let’s go see Pep – shall we? Why not! I’m sure he’s expecting me to call right about now, anyway.”
Then Jason turned a careful eye to Bridget. “Keep an eye on her a day or two. If she’s not eating well, or if her legs stay stiff, you might want to take her down to Dr. Pepper James. Best vet in town. But my guess is you won’t need to. I think that dog there cleaned her up pretty good.”
Jessica raised Bridget up and kissed her. Bridget nearly swooned from her love.
“Thank you,” Jessica whispered.
“Oh, thank you,” Jason told her. “You don’t know how it makes me feel to see a good animal have a loving home. She’s God’s gift, you know. You take care of her, and you’ll be blessed many times over.”