Sunset
The red sun rolls towards the sea Its last glow tints the tower above The war is done. The land is free. The lion girds himself for love. Helmet and armour laid aside The heavy mane hangs splendidly He licks the blood clots from his...
Bentley's Peace: III
The Cousin Wilberforce who appeared at the dinner table was a different creature to the one who had arrived at the front door. Spruced up, bathed and brushed, he was a presentable fox indeed. He was wearing a tail spat with his evening dress; it was an...
Bentley's Peace: II
Bentley's first thought was to find Grace, but she had already left. Schützer was alone in the kitchen, drying up the tea things. When he saw Bentley's face he put down the tea towel and pulled out a chair for him. "Vhat ist?" Bentley sat at the...
Bentley's Peace: I
On that first morning of peace, Bentley Pringle ffox woke from a dream of running across No Man's Land to a sunlit bedroom. He was wearing striped pyjamas that smelled of mothballs. A sporting print hung above the bed. He was home. He had seen his...
Rodentia
Tuco-tuco, marmot, mara Guinea pig and capybara The paca and the pacarana With all the seeds their cheeks can garner. Bringing fruit and other booty Woodchuck, coypu and agouti. Hopping dusty deserts o'er Go the springhare and jerboa Crossing...
Ground Control to Major Ward
"All systems check. Shutdown complete." Major Conrad Victor Ward snapped the last switch closed and took a deep breath, ears pricked in the sudden silence. Lights stopped blinking; air stopped humming. There was only a tall, white-haired lion squashed...
Secret Santa
As was their custom, Flink left the office five minutes after Krister. The malamute's car was waiting round the corner, engine running. Flink darted a look to left and right before opening the front passenger door. Once inside, he pulled off his...
The Countdown
FIVE, brayed the voice of Control, making her ears prick and the fur rise along her spine. A mission FOUR the sake of all furkind, the media had called it. At the boom of THREE she braced in the launch suit, giddy with pure oxygen, and tucked her...
Colliewood & Whine
Rodolfo Volpino (better-known to his adoring fans as Rudolph Volpino, or simply Volpino; like the great doyenne of Colliewood, Lassie herself, he was famous enough to need only one name) sighed and fidgeted in the makeup chair. "Almost done," the...
Freshers’ Week Friend
Sitting on the narrow bed, I performed an inventory of my new home: - Four off-white walls, awaiting posters. - One desk. - One chair. - One bookcase. - One washbasin. - Two suitcases. - Three cardboard boxes, two containing books, one containing...
A Christmas Truce
Just our luck to be in the front line on Christmas Eve. And a colder, wetter, filthier Christmas Eve I had never known, nor hope to again. "Ruddy perishing perishing ruddy...." Barrie muttered. He'd been trying to strike a match for the last...
A Major Calls
We'd have gone anywhere for Captain ffox. The whole bloody lot of us. Anywhere except...well, I won't repeat what Barrie said once. Very crude, that boy. I was worried at first, when I learned I was being transferred to ffox's platoon. He...