Tales from Hallowed Hollow
The Greatest Gift of All
Written by
Marg Watt
Moorna Publications
Text copyright © Marg Watt 2010
Illustrations copyright © Jenny Finn 2010
ISBN: 978-0-9871069-4-0
Published by Moorna Publications at Smashwords
The moral rights of the author and illustrator have been asserted.
All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced or transmitted by any means or entity, including internet search engines or retailers, in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying (except under statutory exceptions provisions of the Australian Copyright Act 1968), recording, scanning, or by any information storage and retrieval system without the prior written permission of Moorna Publications.
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The summer season cycle that followed the spring season when young Cass, the badger dog pup was born, would long be remembered as being the year of the worst floods in living memory for humans. But for all the creatures living in and around the area of Hallowed Hollow and Saxby Wood, it would be remembered forever as the summer Quern, the aging dog fox, gave Cass the greatest gift of all.
In doing so, Quern saved the young badger’s life while unintentionally ensuring his own name became a legion. This legion would be passed on from mouth to mouth, and beak to beak, throughout the animal kingdom forever. He would be regarded as the great hero of Hallowed Hollow.
Cass was one of three badger pups, born during that early springtime, to Meako the sow badger, deep within her clan sett dug into one of the steeper parts of Wharley Brook’s bank among a small copse of trees.
Of the two male, and one female badger pups born to Meako that year, Cass was the most adventurous, inquisitive and daring of them, even though they enjoyed all the many and varied experiences that most brothers and sisters do while growing up together.
However, neither his brother, nor his sister took much notice of, or cared much about it, Cass loved the very sight of Wharley Brook.
He was constantly thrilled by everything Wharley Brook offered in its constantly changing moods. It flowed quietly, almost gently at some of the open sections, and tumbled, tossed and foamed where the banks closed it in, while submerged rocks caused eddies and ever changing patterns to the surface waters.
The brook’s ever changing patterns and shapes gripped his imagination, and the way the sun caught ripples of water, causing them to sparkle and dim, delighted and saddened him in turn.
Even the ever-changing sound of the running waters of the brook also thrilled him as it changed at different points along its course. The more exciting sounds came from where the water tumbled over small waterfalls that had been created long before, when the soft earth had been washed away leaving large exposed rocks and boulders to become smoothed and worn.
Cass found it exciting, almost frightening sometimes, when he thought about what may lie beneath the deeper sections of the brook where the water ran almost silently by, and only the sudden sounds of a jumping fish broke the quietness as it flopped back into the water again.
Then there was the totally different sound of a large beetle, or flying bug, hitting the surface at high speed; only to be swept along in the current until a feeding fish swam up from its home in one of the deep holes in the brook’s bed to gulp the unfortunate insect down before disappearing below the water’s surface once more, leaving barely a ripple to show its passing.
The very sight and sounds of Wharley Brook excited Cass, and he was unable to resist the charm and fascination it held for him.
More often than not, when Cass’s brother and sister went off to tumble and play with other badger cubs living around the area, Cass could be found wandering alone along the banks of Wharley Brook, sometimes stopping to roll joyously on his back while juggling a small stone around between his paws.
Other times he would poke the tip of his snout into the water’s edge in an attempt to discover what lay beneath the surface, and at other times still he would be busily upturning rocks and large stones, seeking out, and greedily gobbling down the beetles, bugs and worms he discovered hidden beneath them.
Meako, Cass’s mother, found herself becoming increasingly concerned, about this somewhat different son of hers, for two reasons.