Lucent the fox had called a meeting of the dark animals. Along about four o’clock, the creatures started appearing. The black wolf, Corrigan snarled at Lucent as he approached the small grove of trees where the dark animals had agreed to meet. “What is this all about fox?”

  “Just wait,” Lucent said. “We’ve got a doozy of a problem and it is going to help us all to come up with a solution.”

  Bobby bear sauntered in just then with berry juice dripping down his mouth and belly. Following him was the rat family, the Rifferties. Behind the Rifferties came a copperhead and a rattlesnake, the ferret family and the rest of the dark animals. Lucent sat up on a large rock in the middle of the grove and called for the animals’ attention. “ I have called you here together because we have a problem. Nogdorf has chosen a new Herbal Wizard of the South and is even now, training him. Just today, a mourning dove was wounded and I was headed over to it to have a nice meal, when Nogdorf taught the Herbal Wizard how to heal the dove and practically stole the dove right out of my mouth. I don’t have to tell you the importance of that act. It affects every one of us and sooner or later, you will all start missing meals if we don’t do something about it.”

  The animals got their heads together and came up with a plan.

  Nogdorf didn’t know what time Lester’s wife usually left on her mouse hunts, so he packed a couple of sandwiches and hid behind a well near Lester’s burrow to wait for Mrs. Rabbit to start her nightly operations. He was pretty well convinced that Lester was lying about the whole thing, but he would spend tonight watching to make sure.

  Meanwhile, Lester finished up with his cooking and wrapped the pot with moss. He dug a hole about two feet away from the creek and placed the pot in it. Before he covered it up with more moss and replaced the dirt over it to keep it nice and cool, he thought, “The arthritis in my knee has been bothering me. I think I will just try some of this mixture and see if it is any good. Aarg, it tastes terrible. Well, medicine tastes pretty bad, after all. I can see why Nogdorf makes it into cookies. It probably goes down a lot easier.” He had a little more and then finished putting the mixture away for the night.

  Lester walked back over to the garden to close it down for the night. On the way, he started feeling a little dizzy. “I think I will just sit down in the long grass for a few minutes until I feel better. What is that pounding noise? It sounds like drums. And what is causing that whooshing noise? It sounds like what Missy Rabbit said the sea sounds like: whoosh and splash, shoosh and splash! My knees don’t hurt at all, anymore. Oh, I am so dizzy. I will just lay my head down here too in this soft, cuddly grass.” Lester was asleep before you could say, “Jackrabbit.”

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  Nogdorf got all comfortable, eating small bites of his Reuben sandwich to make it last. “Whew, I do love my sauerkraut. And that spicy mustard goes so well with it. Wait, did I just see a rabbit come out of the burrow? Sure enough, she took off like a bat out of hell. Well, I’m glad I put on my running shoes. Here I go.” He took off after Mrs. Rabbit. Nogdorf got up close enough to see Mrs. Rabbit grab up a poor defenseless mouse and with a swift movement, bopped off his head and threw the body one way and the head a different way. Just as quickly, Mrs. Rabbit took off at full speed.

  There was nothing Nogdorf could do for the poor beheaded mouse, so he followed Mrs. Rabbit. After watching her repeat the cruelty she had just used on the poor mouse, Nogdorf had seen enough. He would go home and research cures that could possibly help her with this terrible affliction.

  When Mrs. Rabbit woke up the next morning and Lester hadn’t come home yet, she started worrying about him. “He has never stayed out all night. This just isn’t like him. I don’t know where he is working now, so I can’t go looking for him. Well, the only thing to do is go about my business and wait.”

  Lucent and Corrigan had made a temporary truce so that they could work together for now. They had chosen two creatures to be spies on Lester and Nogdorf. The copperhead, Sneaky and one of the ferrets, Trouble, were the first of the spies and started out on their way to the important watch.

  As Nogdorf got close to the garden, walking through the tall grass, he tripped over something. He looked down as he stood up and saw something orange. “That must be what I tripped over. What is it?” As he bent down he saw Lester and frowned. “Lester, wake up. What are you doing here?”

  Before Lester could answer, he caught sight of Trouble and Sneaky, trying to sneak up on them. “What are you creatures of the dark doing here?” he growled.

  “Just came to say, ‘Hello’,” Trouble stammered out.

  Sneaky eased over toward the helpless Lester, who was trying to wake up out of his fog. Nogdorf threw his shoe at Sneaky and hit him on the head. “Owtch! What was that for?” Sneaky yelled, backing off.

  Nogdorf said, “Both of you get away from our garden and tell anyone else who has ideas of causing problems to stay away too. You don’t belong here and next time one of you comes around, it won’t be a shoe.” He pulled out a gun and pointed it at Sneaky and Trouble. He didn’t have to say another word. They both took off and didn’t look back.

  Nogdorf turned to Lester, who had gone back to sleep. “What is the matter with you, Lester?”

  Lester opened one eye, and said, “I was really dizzy and hearing drums and all sorts of things. I think there is something wrong with the medicine we were making. I only sampled it and it did help my arthritis, but then I felt pretty funky.”

  Nogdorf laughed at his silly apprentice.