Young Fredle - Louise Yates [39]
Fredle couldn’t swallow.
“And you’d be?” Rilf asked.
“You don’t want to know its name,” protested Rad as he passed on the ice cream container.
“Why not?” asked Rec, who Fredle could now see was larger even than his large friends. “You got a problem with eating something whose name you know?”
“Not everyone’s a greedyguts, like you,” said Rimble.
“Fredle!”
Fredle yelled it out as loud as he could.
If their knowing that he had a name, knowing what that name was, would give him a chance to survive, then he wanted to have that chance. “I’m Fredle!” he yelled again.
11
The Rowdy Boys
“Fredle, is it?” Rilf said. “Well. Pleased to meet you, Fredle.”
Seized by a sudden inspiration, Fredle shouted up at the raccoon faces, “I’m inedible!”
This announcement was greeted by silence. Here, wherever it was that they were, with trees looming out of dark shadows—and he smelled stones, too—here the wind was less noticeable, so the silence was all the more loud. Fredle waited to find out if he’d been very smart, or maybe very stupid.
At last, “Woo-Hah,” said Rec, who really was about twice as big as the others. “Woo-Hah, Woo-Hah,” the others joined in, and Fredle hoped this was raccoon laughter, not raccoon irritation.
Captain Rilf’s snout had more silver mixed in with the dark gray-brown than the others, so it shone, slightly, in the pale predawn light. “Fredle inedible? That’s incredible,” he said. “Woo-Hah.”
“Woo-Hah,” the others echoed him.
Then the smallest of the four spoke up with youthful enthusiasm. “So, Cap’n, which part do you take? The haunch?” and Rilf answered sharply, “Back off, Rimble. Did you hear me say anything about eating the mouse right now? Did anyone? No, I didn’t think so.”
“He’ll tell us when,” said the fourth raccoon, whose round ears were as black as the stripe around his eyes. “You know you don’t have to worry about going hungry with the Cap’n in charge.”
“Yeah, Rimble. You shouldn’t just think about stuffing your face,” said Rec, and even Fredle could understand why the others snorted and huffed at this.
“Look who’s talking,” said Rad.
“Face-stuffer yourself,” said Rimble.
Rec growled and took a swipe at the smaller raccoon. Fredle edged closer to Captain Rilf, which he hoped was the safest place to be as Rimble snapped his teeth at Rec, warning him, “Better not.”
“Better not what?”
“Fight! Fight!” cheered Rad, but Rilf called a halt to it. “Not now. It’s almost morning and nobody’s hungry, are they? Are any of you hungry? After a good forage and then ice cream? So why fight over a mouse?”
The two combatants turned to him, their quarrel already forgotten. “It was a good night’s pickings,” they agreed. “And ice cream. And mouse! You got us quite a night, Cap’n.”
“Rec took a cheese wrapper and I saw it first. I called it. It was mine,” Rimble complained.
“Squealer,” Rec growled.
“He did. You know you did, Rec. So he has to give me some of his. Maybe his share of mouse.”
“Just you try—”
“Cap’n said none of that, you two,” Rad warned them.
Rilf spoke as if he hadn’t even heard the new quarrel. “Tonight’s food’s taken care of without including mouse. I say we introduce ourselves to our new little … friend. It’s getting light and we’ll be bunking down soon.” He looked down at Fredle, crouching uneasily near his front paws. “You already know who I am, and this young squirt is Rimble and this great, fat lout—”
Rec made a growling noise.
“—I should say, this big, strong giant of a raccoon—”
“Woo-Hah,” they all laughed, even Rec.
“—is Rec, and this is Rad. He’s my second in command.”
Rimble added, “We’re the Rowdy Boys. Everyone knows about us, all over the farm, both sides of the mountain. We’re the Rowdy Boys and we’re dangerous, so don’t try to mess with us.”
“Don’t be stupid, Rimble,” said Rad. “How’s a mouse going to mess with us?”
“You calling me stupid?” Rimble snarled. “That mouse needs warning.”
“Woo-Hah,” laughed Rec. “You’re scared of something that size? He’s barely two mouthfuls apiece, he can’t hurt us.