As he entered the den, the level of noise that was coming from the circle shocked Charlie. His friends were obviously in the middle of a heated debate.
'No, no, no, you are wrong, admit it! Shouted Carol. 'It has red eyes, is the size of two elephants and has a hundred sharp teeth!' she was bellowing. As the speaker finished she continued to ignore Charlie's presence, as she was too busy directing an angry stare across at George, who was vigorously shaking his head to show that he totally disagreed with what she was saying.
Before Carol could continue with her description, Brian interrupted her with 'Look, I've told you! It has one eye, four huge arms and sharper claws than teeth.' Charlie being totally confused with what was going on decided to just join the seated circle making as little noise as possible. As his friends scootched to make room for him, Charlie politely enquired 'What are you all talking about?'
Whilst Charlie silently listened, he was informed that they were talking about the dangerous and deadly monster that lived in the forest. The snarling, angry giant that roamed the forest alone, ready to attack anything that got left or lost in its territory. The whole group offered extensive images of the terrifying beast. Well not quite all, as Charlie observed. Strangely enough, it was the twins who were keeping quiet, the two individuals in the room who to Charlie's knowledge were the only ones to have ever been unfortunate enough to get lost in the forest.
As Charlie thought about this fact he looked over to the two silent brothers who apart from exchanging nervous glances between each other seemed determined to stay quiet. They were clearly uncomfortable with the content of the conversation. Not wanting to see his friends become distressed due to the discussion Charlie decided to interrupt and change the subject of the conversation. He cleared his throat to hush the others around him and then enquired about what the plan for the rest of the day was. And even before you could say 'flibble, wibble, dribble' the talk of monsters and forests had vanished and another debate had occurred.
In the end it was decided that they would go for a climb up Mount Mini. Charlie got excited about going on yet another adventure. Charlie's enthusiasm was unfortunately short-lived, because suddenly from outside came the shouts from Mother Chicken for him to come back home. After two more attempts of trying to ignore his mother Charlie gave up hope of getting away so huffily left the den to head home. So much for his adventure.
On entering the house, Charlie was met with the grumbling of his brothers and sisters, who like him had been dragged away from playing with their friends by Mother Chicken's orders. Charlie was just about to join in with the moaning and complaining, but quickly decided against this idea, as he heard his mother's footsteps approaching from behind. After swiftly scanning the room to check that all her children were back Mother Chicken exclaimed, 'Come on then, off we go then.'
'Off we go where?' Cried the young chicks in unison. 'To the forest!' Yelled Mother Chicken, before turning round and getting ready to march off.
The other chicks immediately moved in to position behind their leader. Charlie tried to do the same thing, but he couldn't. He was too panic-stricken with the thought of going in to the forest. Not only were his legs quivering so much that he couldn't move, his brain was also trying to cope with an assortment of terrifying images that were swimming around inside his head. In these images, he was not just simply gathering in all the worst parts of how the gang had described what they knew of the forest monster and then joining them together to create one huge, snarling beast. Oh no, he was doing all that and then taking this huge, snarling beast and mixing it in to a nightmare about the forest that he was re-living at the same time. This was not good.
It was only after about the fifth attempt of snapping Charlie out of his whirl winding terror that Mother Chicken was able to grab his attention and push him to the back of the line so that they were finally ready to head off.
With every step through the creepy nether world Charlie's legs felt as heavy as they had done in his disastrous dream. He was sure that each tree was grabbing for him, that each bush was trying to trip him, and that each pile of leaves was hiding a hole that was going to ensnare him. Yet worse than this, he knew that behind him there was a beast lurking and preparing itself for a swift, deadly attack on him if he lost sight of his family, even for one second. So as drained as he was, he was determined to keep up and not lose sight of those in front. His family were his safety! Charlie knew that he would not be able to survive if he was left all alone in this tortured jungle.
After some time in the forest Mother Chicken detected that the walk was becoming both mentally and physically demanding for Charlie and some of the other chicks. She had noticed the anxious glances around their feet and the panicky twitches whenever there was any kind of movement in the nearby undergrowth. It was for this reason that she decided to use the small clearing that they were now in to take a needed rest. As all her young slumped on to the wet, sloppy ground to relax, Mother Chicken located herself next to Charlie and said 'You see, it is not scary and upsetting is it?'
'No…no, it's not too bad.' Charlie whimpered in agreement while he nervously inspected their vicinity. He was not going to admit to his mother that he was petrified right at this point in time. He recognised that she was trying in her own way to help him and so even though it was not working too well, he was not going to spoil her effort. Charlie was so determined to make Mother Chicken feel that she had succeeded with her plan that he was even able to raise a shaky smile to convince her.
Suddenly, the shaky, fakey smile started to shake more vigorously. This was because the surrounding ground that they were peacefully relaxing on began to violently wobble and waver. As he scanned round to check everyone's face, Charlie saw that like him the whole of his family had quickly realised that this noise was coming from something big, something extremely big, and something extremely close-by. They all tried to stand still, but the crashing, bashing and banging was not helping.
Whilst Charlie's brothers and sisters held their breath, Charlie was trying to fight off those awful pictures that had returned to the inside of his head.
Whack! Crash! Bash! The monster was getting nearer. Charlie wanted to run, he wanted to hide, he wanted to cry, but he couldn't move. His feet were too stiff to budge, his arms too heavy to lift and his eyes too transfixed on the direction of where the ferocious beast was coming from. The trees trembled, the leaves rustled, the stones on the floor shook and Charlie just shuddered.
Suddenly they all heard a 'Whoosh!' and a 'Boom!' Then, there in front of them, stood the biggest animal that they had ever seen. Its whole shadow cast darkness on all of the startled chicks and their surroundings. This animal was broad, it was brown and it was smiling. Before any of the chicks had time to look around and see that they were all as confused as each other the burly bear took in a deep breath and then said 'Well come on then someone, give us a cuddle.'
As each of the chicks ran the last sentence through their head to check that they had heard correctly, Mother Chicken began to laugh and laugh and laugh. In fact, she didn't stop laughing until she saw through her tears that Charlie and her other bemused young were stood sulkily in front of her waiting for an explanation. Mother Chicken just controlled herself, looked at them all and smiled as she cheerily said 'Got you!' Boy, she was soon regretting saying this and was wishing that she could turn back time, because now each of her children had figured out that this had been a set up and they had all turned their sulky face in to an extremely stern and severe sulky face. They were clearly not impressed by this trick and their harsh expressions were not going to be easily removed.
'Come on,' Mum said innocently, 'it was only a joke that Brian and I came up with for you.' The unmoved chicks turned from their mother to shoot their daggered eyes at the bear who was now frowning. The chicks ignored the fakey, shaky frown, instead they all began to tap the ground with their right foot. They each shook their head slowly from side to side and they all started to tut and tut and tut, getting louder and louder and louder each time.
'Oh no!' exclaimed the bear to his partner in crime, 'What have you got me into?'
'I don't know.' Mother Chicken replied hesitantly. 'They don't look happy do they?'
'You're telling me,' came the concerned bears response.
'I think that we had better explain.' The two animals said together. Charlie nodded his head to show that he wholeheartedly agreed with this idea.
Mother Chicken decided to start off. She told her young, that after being concerned with how scared Charlie had been after his nightmare, that she had been in no doubt that the best thing to do was to arrange a visit in to the forest, to show him and all of her anxious young that there was nothing to be afraid of. She then described how she had met with Brian so that he would turn up, just like he had, to show the chicks that they would be protected in the forest if they ever got injured or lost, just as she had told Charlie after his terrible dream. They had decided on doing a joke to make it funny, but now regretted that. Well, regretted it a little bit, because it was still kind of funny - ish.
Brian took over from Mother Chicken to give details of why he had wanted to get involved. He spoke of wanting to help out his friend, so that her family felt safe enough to explore new boundaries instead of being curled up at home and worrying over nothing. Secondly, he mentioned how he wanted to use this opportunity to stop the cruel and hurtful rumours that were being spread about him by other animals. He substantiated on this point by explaining that the way to dispel the hurtful claims that were being spread around was for him to meet animals like them, to show them that he was totally different to all the myths about him. The plan was that once they had seen how thoughtful he was they could go back and tell everyone else the truth. Consequently, he would feel better about all of them and they would all feel a lot better about him. He admitted that they hadn't got off to the best start, thanks to Mother Chicken and her brain wave, or brain freeze as he said it turned out to be. However, he explained, 'From now on, I am going to show you that the forest is fun, fun, fun and not "Help me Mum! Help me Mum!"'
To show the children exactly what he meant Brian took the whole family on an adventure through the forest. He helped them climb the tallest trees, he helped them dive in to leaves, he helped them jump over rocks and he helped them crawl through caves. By doing this he was demonstrating to the chicks that the forest was a wonderland for them to explore, and explore safely because he was always ready to assist them if they ever got into trouble. Charlie, just like his brothers and sisters, had a magnificent time doing activities that were new, exciting and so different than what they had expected. This forest did not scare him, it was his new playground. And Brian was certainly not a beast, but a fantastically, funny friend who made them all feel completely secure with whatever they were doing.
After they had investigated a small part of the forest the exhausted adventurers went back to the clearing where they had first met Brian to relax and take a well-earned rest. After a while, a content and calm Charlie asked Brian 'Why don't you ever come out of the forest to show people that you are not scary?'
Brian chuckled before explaining 'I would love to come out and visit, but I am so busy doing this. If I came out then what happens when someone falls in to a hole or hurts him or herself on a climb? No one will be around to rescue them. If that happened can you imagine what the animals would say about me then?'
Charlie carefully considered what Brian had said, he then nodded his head in agreement as he thought about all those animals that he knew who love to have the opportunity to complain and blame individuals when something has happened, even though it is not that animals fault whatsoever. Charlie thought about how those animals would certainly come up with cruel stories that would describe Brian as a nasty, uncaring ogre if anything did ever happen. Charlie then pondered how he would feel being a protector like Brian. He enjoyed the idea of helping scared, hurt or lost animals, but then did not like the idea of being away from his family all the time or having to stay awake all through the night. As Charlie reflected on these issues he wondered whether Brian was concerned about them as well 'Do you ever get sad at being so alone that you don't meet anyone, not even your family?' He asked.
'Are you kidding? Not in this job!' Brian replied 'I'm always meeting new and different animals. Today I met all of you; yesterday I met a mole that had dug a bit too far and got lost. I had never met a French animal before. Then the day before that I was helping an injured badger who had a terrible cut on his leg and last week I met two really upset squirrels. Two squirrels who I think that you know.'
'Oh, you met the twins!' Charlie loudly exclaimed 'That must have been why they were quiet when everyone was calling you a monster.' As he said this Charlie fell silent and thoughtfully considered how he had earlier jumped to totally the wrong conclusion about the twins. He recognised that he had been completely wrong to make up his mind on their actions so quickly without bothering to find out any of the facts. He felt disappointed that he had judged them so harshly, but he also felt very proud to know the two animals.
On hearing of the twins reaction Brian beamed a large smile from wuzzle to snuzzle before cheerfully saying 'Well that was kind of them, but that is what I would expect from such polite squirrels. They were so pleasant when I met them, even though they were very scared. I remember them both hugging me really tightly and thanking me so much when I rescued them. You see, it is for animals like them that I do this. I couldn't do any other job, because seeing the reaction of creatures like those two youngsters is so special and memorable. They are all so relieved and ecstatic after being so desperately sad and the sensation I get inside of witnessing that transformation is absolutely magnificent. The experience is so satisfying because it makes me feel so good about myself. I can't think of anything as fantastic. With regards my family, they regularly visit me and are all totally jealous of me, because they know that I am doing a job that I just adore.' Brian reflected on what he had said before finishing off with 'It's my life, it's my way and I like it.'
Later that day the exhausted chick family headed home. But this time as they moved through the forest they didn't tremble, they didn't shudder and they certainly didn't shake. Instead they chatted, laughed and joked about everything that they had done during the day and about everything that they were going to do tomorrow in the fantastic forest.
When they got home the tired chicks soon fell to sleep. Mother Chicken was weary enough to join them in dreamland, but she didn't. Instead she stayed awake to beam from wuzzle to snuzzle and lovingly gaze over her flock of stars.
