The contest was tomorrow, and a badger had wrecked Fluff Whispercoil's bed. Fluff coiled in the doorway and stared at the damage. Three cracked teacups lay in a jagged pile. A favorite book had been split down the spine, its pages curled and chewed. Sugar cubes from the shelf were scattered across the floor like spilled teeth. Fluff was a snake the length of a garden hose, covered head to tail in soft fur, and every year Fluff entered the village contest for coziest creature in Dewfang. Every year, Fluff lost. This year Fluff had a plan: rest deep, warm through, and let the judges press their hands into that fur until they admitted what they always admitted, that Fluff was the warmest thing they had ever touched. The badger had ruined the resting part. Fluff slid through the wreckage and found the worst of it under a tipped bowl. A small pink stuffed bunny lay there, one ear bent, fur matted with dirt. It had been a gift from the judge who first called Fluff warm, years ago, when Fluff was still small enough to fit inside a teacup. Fluff lifted the bunny with the tip of a tail and set it on the windowsill. Then Fluff went to find the badger. The badger was three gardens away, snout deep in a hole, flinging acorns over its shoulder. Fluff did not fight. Fluff wrapped, slow and heavy, around the badger's middle and squeezed once, polite but firm. The badger froze. Fluff explained, in the calm voice Fluff used with judges, that the bed was not a pantry and the books were not for chewing. The badger blinked. Fluff loosened one coil and pointed with the tail at the oak grove across the lane, where the acorns fell thick every autumn. The badger waddled off without looking back. Fluff returned and worked through the night. Fluff swept sugar cubes into a cup, stacked the cracked dishes by the door, and smoothed the torn pages flat under the heaviest book left whole. The bed was gone. There was no time to build another before sunrise. Fluff climbed the windowsill, curled around the pink bunny, and tried to settle. The fur on Fluff's back would not lie flat. The judging would begin in six hours, and for the first time in five contests, Fluff would arrive at the table tired.