5

Determined to find the injured fawn, the Animal Adventure Club crept further into Craggy Woods.

“It gets pretty dark in the middle of a forest, doesn’t it?” said Lexi, still chewing her sweets. “We won’t be able to see much later on.”

“That’s why we brought our torches,” sighed Buzz, snatching up another sweetie wrapper Lexi had dropped on the forest floor. He stuffed it into his pocket and glared at Lexi, who was walking on ahead.

The low afternoon sun shone through the trees and on to a carpet of spring bluebells.

“Those flowers are gorgeous! I bet Lisa would love a bunch to brighten up the rangers’ lodge,” said Lexi, trampling through the patch of bluebells and bending down to pluck a few from the forest floor.

“Stop!” shrieked Gracie. Everyone jumped.

Isla looked over to Lexi, who was frozen in shock, her fist clenched around the clump of delicate flowers.

“What is it? Are they… poisonous?” whispered Lexi, almost too scared to move.

“I think Gracie was trying to say that you shouldn’t pick wildflowers, Lexi,” said Isla gently.

Lexi frowned at Gracie, let go of the flowers and stood up. “You gave me a real fright,” she said.

“I didn’t mean to shout,” said Gracie, “but you shouldn’t do that.”

Isla threw Gracie a look that meant ‘Don’t say any more!’ But it didn’t work.

“Wildflowers are for everyone to enjoy,” Gracie added, folding her arms.

“Well, I didn’t know, OK?” Lexi’s face flushed bright red and she glared angrily at Gracie. “I just thought Lisa would like them. You shouldn’t shout at people, Gracie.”

Isla could see tears brimming in Lexi’s eyes and she suddenly felt sorry for her.

“I’m going back to the lodge,” Lexi huffed, and she turned around and stomped off through the trees.

“Come back, Lexi!” shouted Isla. “We didn’t mean to upset you!”

But Lexi didn’t reply.

“Maybe we should just let her go,” muttered Buzz. “She’ll cool off.”

“No, we have to go after her,” said Isla.

“Ugh!” said Gracie, shaking her head. “Me and my big mouth. I’ll go and say sorry.”

Isla put her hand on her friend’s arm. “We’ll all go after her, Gracie. We’ll make it right. Come on.”

They followed the path that Lexi had taken.

“If she’s going to the lodge, she’s set off in the wrong direction,” said Buzz.

“Hey, wait,” said Gracie. “Look at this.” She pointed to a patch of soft mud. “Prints!” she said.

“Lexi’s?” asked Buzz.

“No, the fawn’s,” said Gracie. “They’re deer hoofprints, or ‘slots’ to be exact. And they’re going in the opposite direction to Lexi.”

They gathered round and looked carefully at the small curved prints on the ground.

“I don’t think these slots have been here long,” said Gracie excitedly. “The fawn might be close by!”

“In that case, I think we need to follow the tracks,” said Isla. “If the fawn is still bleeding, it could need help. We can keep looking for Lexi afterwards.”

The others nodded in agreement. Isla signalled to them to keep as quiet as possible, so they didn’t scare off the injured fawn.

“Here!” whispered Buzz, shining his torch towards a patch of red on a branch of a small tree. “More blood!”

“It must be very close,” murmured Isla. “Let’s keep still and quiet for a moment.”

They stood listening. The trees swayed and creaked in the breeze, and from the treetops they could hear the joyful call of a chaffinch. Isla scanned all around them.

If I were an injured fawn, where would I go? Isla thought to herself. Somewhere I couldn’t be seen, of course. I wouldn’t want to be found. Where would I be camouflaged if I had light-coloured fur and darker spots?

There was a faint rustling nearby, and a slight movement caught Isla’s eye. She peered over to a patch of dried leaves. I’d hide in fallen leaves! She tapped Buzz and Gracie on their arms and pointed.

There, curled up against a tree, was the fawn. With the dried leaves as a nest, it was almost completely hidden. They could just make out its soft downy fur, dappled body, large velvet ears and shiny black nose.

“Aw, poor wee thing,” gasped Gracie.

“I can see a cut on its neck,” murmured Buzz. “What are we going to do?”

“Remember what Lisa said: we can’t go too near,” warned Isla. “Its mother might be nearby. And we really shouldn’t interfere.”

“But if we leave it here, it’ll be in danger from other animals. An injured fawn would be easy to catch,” whispered Buzz.

“I think there’s another animal around already,” said Gracie, crouching down. “Look at these.”

Buzz and Isla looked into the soft mud and saw another set of prints. Isla thought they looked familiar. “Wait a second,” she said, taking her notepad out of her rucksack and flipping it open to a drawing. “Gracie, these prints look just like ones that I found in my garden. I drew them to show you. I thought they belonged to…”

“A fox!” Gracie whispered.

She moved forward to look at Isla’s picture of the pawprints and stepped on a large branch. It snapped loudly. Spooked, the fawn bounded up and shot away into the trees ahead.

“Oh no!” groaned Gracie. “First it was my big mouth and now it’s my stupid big feet!”

“Don’t be hard on yourself, Gracie,” said Isla kindly, putting her arm around her friend’s shoulder. “At least we know the fawn can run away from predators.”

“We can’t risk leaving it this time, though,” said Buzz, shaking his head. “The fawn has a cut on its neck, and it may need stitches and medicine to stop any infection.”

“And we know there’s definitely a fox around, so the fawn is in danger from that too,” said Gracie.

“We’d better hurry back to the lodge,” said Isla. “This time we really do need Lisa’s help.”