Tales of Terry 2 (part 2)

Terry blinked and pulled in to his shell to think for a moment. Then a voice in the blackness.
   "Hello again. Sorry I didn't stop before. Couldn't. On the trail of breakfast and could not stop. They might move slowly but they certainly know how to hide."
            Terry slowly poked his head out and prised open one tightly closed eye and then the other. It did not help, it was just as black, just as empty. Then it moved.
The Blackness moved.
Or at least something black moved in the Blackness, Terry thought. There must be different shades of blackness! But how.....?
   "Cann't you talk? Cat got your tongue?" asked the Black something, cheekily.
    "Well?" it asked. Not nastily, not impatiently, Terry thought, so he tried to answer. It was not words that came out but a loud hiss, which made the Blackness jump hastily backwards.
    "What are you?" it asked in a scared voice. "A snake?"
Terry swallowed and tried again.
    "No, of course not. Sorry, I didn't mean to frighten you. Only, you frightened ME!"
The Blackness came closer to Terry again and peered at him. Light was reflected from somewhere in the alley and Terry could just make out two small eyes, one either side of a pointed nose. It gave the animal shape and he realised it was not much bigger than himself.
   "What are You?" he asked curiously, then added "sorry" as he remembered his manners.
He tried to stand a little higher. "My name is Terry", he told the Blackness bravely, politely. "And I am a tortoise."
   "Really?" said the black shape. "How interesting. I have only ever met one other of your kind and she was a big yellow boss pot who chased me out of her garden. Foreign, she was, spoke funny." He fell silent.
Probably thinking about the bossy tortoise, thought Terry. I hope he doesn't think all tortoises are bossy.
   "My name is Peasy," said the shape, "I am a hedgehog. I expect you knew that."
   "No," said Terry, "I can't see very much at night. Well, nothing at all, really. All I can see are black things surrounded by blackness. And," he hesitated. Would Peasy think him stupid? Brainless? Oh well, it was a chance he would have to take, there was no use pretending. He took a deep breath.     "And I don't know what a hedgehog is."
The night time was silent as Peasy thought about this.
  "Well," he finally said. "Well! I thought tortoises knew everything! That Boss Pot certainly thought she did!"
Terry thought Peasy sounded disappointed, so apologised again.
  "I am sorry, perhaps she did know everything, but I do NOT know everything and that includes what a hedgehog IS. I probably know lots and lots of things and one of them is not all tortoises are bossy."
  "I'm sure they are not" replied Peasy quickly, not wanting to upset this new friend. He changed the subject.
  "As you can not see me, can you smell me? Is that how you get about at night?" he asked curiously.
Terry shook his head. "I don't get about at night. I stay in the bicycle shed." He stopped. "Used to stay in a bicycle shed. Used to," he amended sadly.
Peasy decided to ignore the last bit and moved closer to Terry.
  "Then perhaps you would like to walk around me, get to know what a hedgehog is like".
Terry smiled gratefully and began to walk around the prickly ball, a long prickly ball. The spikes tickled his shell and they grew all around the animal. Except for his front. Terry lifted a hard scaly paw to Peasy's face and gently felt around the small area of thick skin and the soft, damp, pointed nose. He replaced his paw on the ground.
  "Thank you" he said. "Your nose, is that how YOU get around at night?"
  "Yes" confirmed Peasy. "And now I am hungry. Are you?"
  "Oh yes"' said Terry, surprised to find he was.
  "Well, come with me. There is a place down here, it is a garden belonging to a house and the Humans there keep animals. All sorts of different animals. There is always plenty of food there, bound to be something you like. Always something I like! Come on."
Peasy scurried off and Terry tried to follow. "Don't rush. Please wait!" he panted, afraid of being left behind. Being in the dark by himself again.
                 But he need not have worried. Peasy was waiting patiently  for him by the entrance to the garden. Terry looked up.
    "No door?"
   "No" said Peasy. "Sometimes there is a gate, to keep the dogs in, but not tonight."
  "Dogs?" asked Terry, warily. He did not like dogs.
  "Not tonight" reassured Peasy. "Now come over here. Lettuce and such things, that's what you like, isn't it?"
   "How do you know that?" Terry asked, surprised.
  "Easy peasy - Mrs. Boss Pot of course!" he replied. "Now here it all is, next to the rabbits. Tuck in!"
  "Wont anyone mind?" asked the cautious tortoise.
  "No. I will just be over here if you want me, getting my own dinner. Don't go rushing off now, this is a nice place to stay at night. There are quiet corners where no-one comes. I will clear a space for you and then you can rest. And be safe."
Peasy smiled and Terry was very happy. A friend, food and a safe place to hide during the dark time. But he couldn't help whispering, "Boss Pot!"
Peasy only chuckled. "Yes, a little. Do you mind?"
  "No. We are friends, aren't we?"
  "Yes" replied Peasy. "And I don't know about you, but this friend needs feeding. See you later."

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  "Was he always bossy?" asked the child.
  "'Course he was" said the squirrel, "hedgehogs always are."
  Prickles grunted, too sleepy to argue.
   "Where is he now?" asked the child, "and what did you eat? Did you always sleep there? Are the rabbits still there? How many were there? Can anyone get food in the garden? And.......?"
  "Questions, questions" sighed Terry. "They will all have to wait until tomorrow. Now shoo, all of you. Your parents will be expecting you back and I need my sleep."
  "But I want to know....." cried the child.
   "No, not today" interrupted Terry, "although......" he relented, "I will answer one question." He smiled. "One you did not ask. And then you must promise to go."
Reluctantly the child nodded agreement and the animals followed suit.
  "Peasy" Terry began, "Peasy was a girl."
  "A girl!" the child exclaimed, "how boring!"
  "Not at all" smiled Terry, "it made no difference. In fact it was a long time before Peasy told me she was female. It was not obvious, with all those prickly bits."
  "Like shell" muttered Prickles, as he fell soundly asleep.

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Tales of Terry 2 (part 1)

"Once upon a time. Once upon a time," the young ones chanted. "Once upon a time. Plea..ea..eas...ase."
Terry opened on eye and saw his audience gathered on the lawn. The grey squirrels, the pet rabbits in their special cage, two young geese who were nibbling at the grass and a very small hedgehog sitting shyly at the edge of the group, in the shade of an old rowen tree. Terry stared at the animal, seeming to recognise him. But it could not be his old friend. Hedgehogs do not live so long, perhaps he was a relative?
  "You there, young prickly. Not seen you before. Do you live round here or just passing through?"
The hedgehog snuffled at the ground and looked up at the tortoise.
   "Yes - well, used to. Too old to stay at home now. Time to find a new place. My place."
He looked proud for a moment, proud to be thought old enough to fend for himself. Then he looked at Terry and felt young and embarrassed. He shuffled his feet.
   "Do you mind? Shall I go? It's just that the weather is so warm and this looked like a cool place to rest."
He began to move backwards.
   "Safe. Friendly. But I can go....." He moved further in to the shadows, reluctantly.
   "Sorry. I didn't mean to bother anyone."
"No bother. Stay."
The hedgehog stopped when he heard the firm voice.
  "What is your name?" The tortoise was being friendly but the hedgehog had never met a tortoise and did not know this. But he answered politely as he had been taught at home.
   "Prickles".
"Really? You have the look of someone I used to know."
The hedgehog grew cautious, not knowing if the comparison was going to be a good one or not.
  "Hmm. Even more so," Terry muttered to himself. Out loud he said "I bet you can't run faster than our friend the squirrel, here."
  "'Cause I can," replied Prickles confidently.
"Bet you can't" piped up the squirrel, trying to look big and fast. Prickles looked him up and down.
  "Easy peasy" he replied and settled down with his eyes closed.
The squirrel bounced over and pushed him - very carefully because of the spines - and said "Okay, let's do it. Go on, try and see if it is so easy peasy."
The tortoise, not wanting to see the young animals competing, intervened.
  "No, no, it is too hot to run around. I did not want to start an argument, I just wanted to see if this hedgehog was any different from the rest of his kind."
The squirrel stopped but the rabbits asked the question first.
  "And is he?" stopping for only a moments inquisitiveness before returning to grazing the grass.
Prickles sat up to listen and the other animals also paid attention.
  "No" replied Terry. "All the same, they are. It is either a family trait or something peculiar to all hedgehogs, but they all seem to think every problem is 'easy peasy' and therefore no problem at all."
He sighed and lowered his head, while still looking at the young Prickles.
"That might be why they are so relaxed about life." He paused, then added, It might also be why they are, in the main, solitary creatures. It is hard to live with someone who has fearless confidence."
  "Do you know many hedgehogs?" asked Prickles, who wasn't sure if he liked this tortoise person.
"Course he does," butted in the squirrel. "You don't live as long as he does and not know lots and lots and LOTS of hedgehogs."
 "Was any ever a special friend?" ventured Prickles, awed by the evident age of the animal.
Terry smiled; at least his mouth stretched and his eyes blinked (this was how a tortoise smiled).
"Yes. Once I had a very special friend - the sort of friend who makes your heart feel warm. We shared many adventures, a long time ago."
His head nodded slowly as he remembered those times, so far away. Terry opened his eyes lazily as he felt the long forgotten caress of prickles against his shell.
"Tell me a tale of your friend, please. The one who made your heart warm."
Terry looked down.
"Please. If you feel like telling a story."
He was hesitant, after all he was new here. But then the others began to chant..........Story....story...... and Terry raised himself on his paws and waited for silence. The animals all settled down and Terry closed his eyes, remembering.

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                      The friends had met that first evening after Terry had decided to leave his Place. The garden and yard where he had spent so many happy times with the Little Lady and her family. Right from that day, so long ago, when she and her first Small One had chosen him out of all the other animals gathered in the pet shop, he had been happy with that growing family.
But that was behind him now. He had pushed his way through the Red Door, fallen off the ledge and learned how to get right way up (all by himself!) after landing upside-down on his shell.
               Now he was walking down the dark alleyway, tall dark walls on either side of him. It was growing darker and he wanted to find some quiet, secure place to spend the night. He could not see in the dark and was used to spending the dark time in a warm dry corner of the bicycle shed.
            He looked about, left and right. there were no bicycle sheds in the alley. There might have been one in one of the yards, but the yards were all hidden behind closed, dark yards, firmly latched.  He was too shy to push his way under any of the doors. There might be a big stripy cat waiting to pounce on intruders. Or an even bigger dog.
No.
 He did not like other animals when they were so big you could not see them all in one eyeful. They might shout at him or try to bite him and his shell had been bashed enough for one day.
So he marched as quickly as he could, down the stone path. He stopped suddenly and looked about. In front was as dark as the walls on either side. Was this the end of the alley or was it night-time? He walked slowly forward and .......bump!
       Oh good, he sighed. It was just another wall. He stretched his neck, looking up as far as he could. There was still some light up there. Still some time to find a place in which to await morning.
          He turned round to the left, slowly, as tortoises do.
Front left paw back a bit.
Front right paw left a bit.
Back right paw up a bit.
Back left paw picked up and put down in almost (but not quite) the same place.
Then repeat it all. Front left paw. Front right paw. Back right paw. Back left paw. Until he was facing left of where he was at the beginning.
It all sounds very complicated but to a tortoise it is quite normal and he doesn't even think about how he is doing it.
If an owl was flying overhead, he would look like the hands on a clock turning round (he back left paw being at the centre of the imaginary clock face).
   Suddenly a dark shape scurried past and Terry stopped still as he felt the peculiar tickle of prickles on his shell.
"' Scuse me," shouted a voice. "Back in a minute," as it hurried down the alley.
               The voice sounded friendly and Terry decided to follow it.In front was very dark but Terry could here snuffling, pushing and moving sounds and he walked towards them. The alley was deep here and smelled odd. He did not know what it smelt of because tortoises don't have very good noses - not for smelling. It was more like a beak, good for eating. But the smell was not a smell he liked very much. To be truthful, not at all.
He slowed down, and noticed everything was dark. Just like the walls. He looked up as far as he could.
Oh dear.
That was dark as well. He moved even slower. Now it was so dark he could not even see where the walls were.
How could he possibly find a safe place to hide until the sun shone again?
Stop and listen - and listen. No sounds to be heard.
He shook his head determinedly. Of course there were sounds, don't be silly! Terry chided himself. You just have to listen more carefully.
So he took a deep breath and tried his ears again.
Now he could hear sounds.
Oh, good!
Now that was a sound he remembered. A long droning noise that had been getting louder as he came further down the alley. And that noise - that was an animal in the sky. He had heard that sometimes when he was in the bicycle shed. And that ....? What was that......? (he did not know what it was).
And that?............. and that? ....... I don't know what they are!
And that?....... What is THAT?.........
Terry closed his eyes and tried to whistle - a tortoise type whistle that sounded like a hiss to anyone except another tortoise.
It's all right, he tried to reassure himself, they are just noises. Unfamiliar noises, but they can not harm me. I'm sure they cannot. Whistle, just whistle and .... oh!
What was that?
He stopped hissing (sorry, whistling) and held his breath. Was there something out there? What was it?
Will it go away?
Should he run away?
Would it run after him if he did?
Oh dear, oh dear! What to do? What to do?
           Luckily, before he could faint from fright, a voice in the blackness asked, "Are you still here? I can smell you but where exactly.......? BUMP!

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