Tuffy Turtle's Arc

Chapter 9 of 10

Tuffy left the raccoon family's ruined clearing and started east along the ridge path. He meant to check the burrows near the oak groves before dark. The mother raccoon's words still sat warm in his chest. Someone had waited. Someone had known he would come. A chipmunk cut across the path in front of him, breathing hard. She grabbed his foreleg. She had seen a stranger near the eastern oak groves. Tall. Moving fast. The face matched the one the fox had described from the journal — the suspect Chief Fox was hunting. Tuffy's stomach turned cold. The chipmunk pointed once and ran on toward home. Tuffy tried to think. The fox was gone with his father searching the western trails. Chief Fox was somewhere out in the forest, unreachable. If the suspect slipped through the oak groves before anyone reached the station, he would vanish into the deeper woods. Tuffy could not chase him. His legs were too slow. His shell was too heavy. But he could carry the message. He turned south and walked toward the police station. He walked until his feet ached and his breath came in short pulls. The brick building sat at the end of the path, its door propped open. The cruiser was parked outside. Tuffy climbed the step and called inside. Chief Fox came out from the back room, hat already in his paw. His grey muzzle was tight. He was a fox who had run this forest for forty years, and right now he looked like a creature who had not slept in three days. He saw Tuffy's face and stopped moving. "Talk," Chief Fox said. Tuffy told him. The chipmunk. The oak groves. The stranger from the journal. Chief Fox listened without interrupting. When Tuffy finished, the chief pulled his hat on. "Eastern groves," Chief Fox said. "How long ago." "Maybe an hour. I came straight here." Chief Fox nodded once. He walked to the cruiser and opened the door. Then he stopped and looked back at Tuffy. "You did the right thing, son. Coming here instead of chasing him. A turtle in the oak groves alone with that one — I'd be pulling you out of a hole tonight." He paused. His voice went flat. "He's my brother's business. I'll handle him." The cruiser pulled away and disappeared down the path. Tuffy stood on the step alone. He had not caught the suspect. He had not saved anyone with his own paws. He had only carried a message from one animal to another. But the chief was moving now, and the suspect had a hunter on his trail because Tuffy had walked the message here. He started back toward the swamp. The mist was rising off the water between the leaning trees. Somewhere out in the groves, Chief Fox was closing in. Tuffy did not know how it would end. He kept walking anyway. Someone tomorrow would still need him.