Otter Chaos! (7 page)

“He was so fast!” said Chip. “I'm glad you got away!”

The otters were startled by the voice and looked around to see the young beaver kit behind them. They were so surprised at his sudden appearance that they nearly gave the alarm screech.

“You saw it too?” asked Woody, swimming over to his friend.

“We came up over the dam just as you all dived in,” said Chip. “The mountain lion was right behind you!”

“We could hear his paws on the ground!” said Sooty, swimming over to join them.

“And his loud breathing,” added Woody, doing an impression of a panting lion with his tongue hanging out, which made everyone laugh very loudly.

The rest of the otters swam over to hear what Chip had to say about the predator. The kit appeared to be out in the river alone, so they made sure not to crowd around and frighten him.

“Has your family seen him since?” Grandma Maple asked kindly.

“Yes, ma'am,” Chip replied shyly. “We've seen him stalking at the edge of the forest. Dad says to keep a constant lookout and stay close to the river.”

Just then Chip's dad rose out of the water, followed by Twiggy and their three daughters. Chuck looked as bad-tempered as ever. He motioned for his son to join his sisters, who all tutted with disapproval as Chip approached them. Twiggy's mood didn't seem any better and she nudged her husband to say something to the otters.

“We wouldn't need to look out for mountain lions if you lot hadn't led one to the river where we live!” growled Chuck, picking at his huge front teeth with a fish bone.

“Well,
we
wouldn't have been chased by a mountain lion if you hadn't built that stupid dam,” growled Papa Brown, waving a paw at the enormous wall of wood.

“How do you work that out?” scoffed Chuck.

“We only happened upon the mountain lion because you stole all our fish and forced us into the Wild West!” retorted Papa Black. “It was the only other place we could get a decent meal to feed our families.”

There was silence for a moment, broken only by snorting and snuffling from both camps, and much puffing out of chests as the situation turned into a stand-off between the otters and the beavers. Grandpa Bruno swung his paws, while Grandpa Jack held him back.

“No one is entirely to blame,” Mama Brown said firmly.

“Well, if you ask me—” said Twiggy.

“If we asked you,” interrupted Mama Black, smiling hopefully at the beaver, “I'm sure you would agree that no good can come from our husbands fighting. Especially when we have young ones to protect against a common enemy.”

Twiggy screwed up her nose and frowned as she thought about what had just been said to her. Then she looked at Chuck and her children and nodded in agreement.

“So I propose that we put all our differences aside for now and join forces,” added Mama Brown, smiling at the beavers. “And I would like to invite you all back to Cottonwood Lodge, where we can tackle the problem of the mountain lion … together.”

he otters and beavers somehow managed to cram into the central chamber at Cottonwood Lodge. Papa Brown and Papa Black stood before the mud wall that they had previously used as a drawing board.

“I would first like to offer a very warm welcome to the beaver family!” said Papa Brown, smiling at the beavers. “And I'd like to welcome all the otters back to what has become our secret mission headquarters. It seems like only yesterday we were in here plotting to get rid of those pesky—”

“Eagles!” interrupted Papa Black.

“Eagles?” frowned Papa Brown, and then realised what he'd been about to say. The purpose of their last big meeting had been to get rid of the beavers and their dam. “Yes, eagles!” he added quickly. “Horrible things – flapping about with their sharp talons.”

“What eagles?” said Chuck. “I haven't seen any eagles.”

“That's because we shooed them all away,” said Papa Black, turning to the wall and using his stick to draw a weird blob shape. “But now we are up against this chap here!” he said, pointing to the picture.

“A crocodile?” said Twiggy, tilting her head.

“No,” said Papa Black. “A mountain lion.”

“That looks more like a crocodile to me,” said Twiggy, glancing around to see what everyone else thought of the drawing. “It definitely doesn't look like a lion.”

“It does have a reptile quality to it,” agreed Chuck.

Papa Black sighed and quickly shortened the tail and added some whiskers. He looked back to Chuck and Twiggy, who squinted at the drawing and shrugged.

“Anyway … this mountain lion has come after us once and now he's lurking at the edge of the forest,” said Papa Brown. “Big cats like him are partial to an otter or a beaver for lunch, so it's only a matter of time before he tries again. We need to find a way to stop him coming back here for good.”

“Otters and beavers both have their own unique skills, and with so many of us we should be able to come up with a plan,” added Papa Black. “Now, does anyone have any ideas?”

The young otters offered the usual suggestions, ranging from trying to speak to the mountain lion nicely, pushing him off a cliff, or turning him into a toad or a turnip. The eager otters all put something forward, but nothing was heard from the beavers.

“Do any of the beavers have any ideas as to how to get rid of the mountain lion?” asked Papa Brown, casting his eyes across the sea of black and brown heads, and resting on three rusty red ones grouped in the middle.

The Saw Sisters stared back at him and said nothing. Had they been asked to chop down a tree, or chomp through a log, they would have been first in line, but coming up with ideas wasn't really their thing. Neither was talking.

Twiggy saw her daughters looking uncomfortable and quickly spoke up. “The crocodile could scare the mountain lion off,” she said.

“Or the eagles,” said Chuck. “It's a shame you got rid of them.”

There was an awkward silence during which the otters all looked round, wondering whether the beavers were joking or if crocodiles and eagles were the best they could come up with.

“We beavers are builders,” Chuck growled angrily, standing up and waving his arms about. “Well, most of us are. Chip has yet to fell a tree or stack a log and is a huge disappointment, but the rest of us
build
!”

“We know what you do! It's your building that got us into this mess in the first place!” said Papa Brown bitterly, who would not be yelled at in his own lodge. “What's your point?”

“I'm saying, if you come up with a plan that relies on good, honest building, then we'll build it for you,” said Chuck, sitting down again defiantly. “But I have yet to hear a single suggestion that isn't full of holes, and if there's one thing beavers hate, it's holes!”

The adult otters agreed with the beavers that none of the proposals would work on their own. They were about to suggest that everyone take a break when they noticed Woody and Sooty waving at the back of the chamber.

“Chip has a plan!” said Woody.

“And it's a really clever one,” added Sooty.

“Oh, this should be good,” Chuck grumbled sarcastically. The Saw Sisters narrowed their eyes at their brother, but a look from their mum told them to be quiet until they'd heard what he had to say.

The young beaver kit made his way to the front and swallowed.

Chip had been happy to plot and plan with his otter friends, who both thought his ideas were brilliant, but when it came to explaining them to the grown-ups, he suddenly became shy. Woody and Sooty quickly joined him at the front of the chamber and revealed the whole plan while the beaver kit took the stick from Papa Black and turned to the mud wall behind him.

Chip wiped out the drawing of the peculiar crocodile-mountain-lion mutant and then drew a grid across the wall. He proceeded to map out his plan as the otter pups described each phase in great detail. The beaver also made a little drawing of each contraption to be built and indicated the size it needed to be.

The Saw Sisters watched the plan unfold and although they didn't completely understand it, they were still impressed that their little brother, who was rubbish at building, had a talent for inventing things that
others
could build. Twiggy was beaming at her son's hidden genius, and kept nudging Chuck. But her husband was not a beaver who would change his mind easily. Chuck had only ever wanted a son who could build a dam, so that he could follow in his paw prints. He simply watched and grunted from time to time until his son stopped drawing and the otter pups stopped talking.

“Well?” said Papa Brown excitedly, stepping up to the front again and addressing the scowling Chuck, the smiling Twiggy and the befuddled Saw Sisters. “Can you build it?”

“Of course we can build it,” said the head beaver, scratching his chin as he scanned the complicated blueprint, while Chip stood next to it and hoped to see a flicker of pride from his father. “But whether it will work or not is another matter entirely!”