The Search for Stefolous

A throng of rats filed into the den and began sniffing about the floor, the walls and the crevices in the walls. Some even squeezed into the cavities, kicking out dirt as they did so.

A sniffer stopped and stood up on its hind legs next to the seaweed pile where Stefolous was hiding.

Mite asked, "Found something?"

"I... I think I can smell a tortoise here."

Vixen humph-ed. "I had a tortoise for lunch and relieved myself there."

Quiet. Then Wilma screeched, "What! We will be smelling that the whole night."

Vixen picked up the argument, "Well, this place did not smell fresh when I came in, so naturally I thought that you relieve yourselves in here."

Winnie said, "That is the smell of the seaweed. We are sorry for the confusion, Minister."

"What do you need seaweed for?" Mite asked, wrinkling his nose after taking a sniff of the air.

Wilma said, "Our mother told us that it is good for our health. It keeps our bodies thin and makes our fur shine."

"But it will not do anything for us now!" Wanda exclaimed.

"I must apologize again," Vixen said, though the words were tinged with a hint of sarcasm.

"Regardless, we still need to search the pile," Mite said.

The mouse that made the find began to snuffle about the seaweed. He tugged and pushed aside as much leaves as he possibly could then began burrowing in. Vixen pretended to doze while the weasels went outside. Every now and then the little mouse would poke its head out as though to get some air, but soon it would return back into the pile. Finally it came out, covered in salt, sand and the scent of iodine and ammonia.

"Nothing there, Chief Mite," it reported.

"Good. Now go outside and clean yourself." The Chief's remark received a few snickers to the side.

A few moments after the mouse went out, the sisters came back in. Before long all the remaining mice reported their findings and with a curt nod to Vixen, Mite and his troop left the dwelling.

Wilma was about to make a comment when they heard scratching coming from a hole in the wall. A little mouse appeared and Vixen said to it, "You better come out of there quickly. Chief Officer Mite has brought the troop to another den."

The mouse scrambled out of the hole, tumbled down to the floor and bolted out of the den without so much as a squeak of goodbye or a thank you. The females waited some moments longer, pretending to doze, but actually using all their faculties of smell and hearing to check their surroundings.

Finally Vixen got up and approached the pile of seaweed together with Winnie. Wanda and Wilma went outside, both to stop anyone from coming in or from going out.

A cough and a sputter issued as the last of the seaweed was pulled away from Stefolous. "Goodness," he said, "I thought that I was done for."

"So did us," Vixen said. "How did you fool it?"

"I grabbed a few stems and pulled myself into my shell then clung on for dear life. When it began nibbling at the leaves, I thought that it had found me. But it stopped after a while."

Winnie said, "The seaweeds are very salty."

Stefolous stretched himself out of the hole in the ground just as Wilma and Wanda returned from outside.

Wilma asked, "What do we do next?"

Vixen said, "I am going to ask the goats if they will give him political asylum."

Wanda said, "Why not ask for Wolf's help?"

"Wolf has his own political agenda. I don't think it would be wise."

"But isn't his political agenda to fight Fox?" Winnie asked.

"Yes, it is. But he has yet to prove to me that he is any better than Fox."

"Vixen is right," Wilma said. "It is better for Stefolous if he goes to an uninvolved third party."

Stefolous shrank into his shell. The mountain goats? But they don't have warm muddy ponds in their hills.

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