Cupcakes and Tea

Chapter Seven - The Hiding Place

When Toph woke next morning to the huddles of his companions peeking through the crafted wall of sticks and flax, he heard not only their breathing unnaturally quiet, but the scrapping and scratching of something big, something clawed, and something with a large snout that sniffed heavily as though a meal laid before its eyes. Toph crawled over to the cave mouth and peeped through one of the sticks spacings to find four giant badger-like beasts looking almost lost outside their burrow of which had been infiltrated by nine highly edible occupants resting at the entrance.

It mustn't have been long after dawn for the outside seemed to lighten rather slowly the longer they crouched, panting, watching the beasts claw their way around the opening of trees in search for their burrow. As blind as they were, according to Cat, the crafted wall Anna had thought would come in handy had confused the beasts into thinking their burrow no longer existed; or, perhaps, had caved in during the night when they had scuttled into the dark for whatever reason they had planned. Toph, however, really didn't care for the time being why they had left their burrow in the first place, all he wanted to know was a way out in which they could move along in search for The Witch. Of course, he thought, he would need to be prepared for whatever Anna has planned, because she must have something planned; so, he threw his bag onto his back, tied his shoes in place (his blanket now packed inside Anna's bag that Cat carried due to his size and considerable amount of strength), and wrapped his swords-belt round his waist.

Clawing and sniffing grew louder as they stood there, motionless, as one of the badgers was making its way along the base of the hill scratching around for its burrow entrance. Toph could see its shadow growing closer and closer, and neither Cat, Kevin, Same Ol', Anna, Ninety-Eight, E nor Jen, not even the cowardly little white dog who remained curled in a ball next to the extinguished logs, were moving to do something – none of which spoke, either. The large badger had found something mysterious leaning against the hill … something that was never there the last time they were there, not that they would have noticed, thought Toph, who was now moving quietly towards Anna to whisper a plan. He knew what they had to do, no matter how stupid and foolish it was going to sound for there were nine of they, and only four of them.

'Toph,' said Anna, in the smallest whisper she could get, 'it's Suzie.'

Toph looked out of the crafted wall and saw a green sparrow soaring in a circular motion around the sky. She must have known what Anna's crafting looked like for it seemed she was trying to find a way through their wall, but the large badger was too close to the entrance that, if she were seen, it would give their hideout away instantly; however, Suzie thought ahead of that. After one last circle in front of the sky, Suzie dived through the air and begun flapping her attention in front of all the badgers. At first they could not see that Suzie was there, so she pecked their snouts and chirped aloud, and all four badgers paced slyly towards the bird for they now had its scent in their system. Toph's plan seemed to come to him even better now they had a diversion; he picked the wall out of the way, and placed it as gentle and softly as he could on the ground; they followed Toph's lead, without major hesitation, towards the behinds of the badgers. The beasts looked as though they were about to pounce on to Suzie, but she was far too small and swift and clever for them; tweeting to and fro confusing her whereabouts as Toph clambered onto the backside of one of the badgers who did not seem to feel his weight; Ninety-Eight took the same badger as he; Same Ol' and Kevin, naturally, shared a badger, likewise with Jen and E; Cat with the Snoop and Anna taking the final, and larger, badger.

Toph's palms began to tingle and sweat as he sat clenching not too tightly, though not too loosely, on the badger's coat, as Ninety-Eight held his waist; he had a slight feeling that once the beasts knew they had a feast upon their backs, they would roll amongst the flooring trying to squash their breakfast; and, unmistakably, Toph figured everyone else felt exactly the same way – their plan was running smoothly out of pure luck. Suzie fluttered her greens wings egotistically as she made her way to the path, taking a left which set them on track towards The Witch's castle.