Image by Wm Jas via Flickr

Once upon a time in a land not too far from here, there was a brightly lit wood with open glades and gently flowing streams, with every conceivable green you could imagine. The floor of this vast wood remained carpeted in flowers throughout the year. In this wood lived many creatures, most of them we know, but some we don’t. Among these creatures we do know lived a fox with all his Wiley ways. He had very few friends in this wood, they were all afraid of him as he was always hungry and most things in the forest were the right size for him to eat. All the animals used to call to each other as the fox approached, warning them of the danger, and then they would scurry off into deep under growth or into the nearest tree out of his reach. He would look up forlornly at the flustered birds in the trees mocking him while his tummy rumbled, poor fox he always went hungry. Magpie had been sitting on a branch not too far away she sat watching silently at the foxes attempts to get a meal and the teasing that was going on. She thought for a while and decided to follow the fox through the woods for a while. The fox sauntered from glade to glade while the magpie watched the goings on. The fox looked up once or twice noticing the magpie following him as he could hardly miss her in the green wood with her beautiful and striking white and black plumage that seemed to shimmer with all the colours of the rainbow when the light would strike it a certain way. When he looked up again thinking she was watching him hunting she was gone. He dropped his head again he sighed deeply; he was very lonely he wished he had someone to talk to his tummy rumbled and he moved on towards the big stream near the edge of the wood, as he approached the stream the flowers cleared and the grass shortened and there in front of him, perched on a branch just out of his reach was the magpie between him and the stream.