Run with the Wind Read Online Free Page B

air’s clear and pure now that the snow has come. It’ll do your throat good to get out for a while. You needn’t go far, and the snow will soon cover your tracks. Off you goboth of you, while I rest up for a bit.’
    As Fang and Vickey limped painfully up out of the quarry, Old Sage Brush called after them: ‘One more thing. If you meet Black Tip, don’t be eating anything out there. Bring it back here where it won’t be seen.’
    Black Tip was agreeably surprised to find that the ducks had laid their eggs in the meadow, just as Old Sage Brush had said they would, and with the snow reducing visibility and quickly covering his tracks, he made several trips. On his last trip, he caught up with Vickey and Fang returning to the quarry. He was delighted to see how much good the exercise had done them. So was Old Sage Brush, and he told them they must exercise from now on until they were strong enough to fend for themselves again.
    The old fox flicked his tongue around his mouth to lick off the remains of an egg yolk. ‘Now, Vickey,’ he said, ‘what’s all this about?’
    Vickey looked at Black Tip, then at Fang. Whatever about Black Tip, she knew Fang was sceptical about the whole thing. However, she plucked up courage and raised her fine muzzle in a way that said: ‘You can think what you like, but I’m going to say it.’
    ‘Well?’ urged Old Sage Brush.
    ‘We’re fed up with the way we’re being treated,’ said Vickey ‘We want to learn the secret of survival.’

Four
Under Beech Paw
    T here was something odd about Old Sage Brush that neither Black Tip nor Fang could quite figure out. Perhaps it was his strange habit of never looking them straight in the eye. Whenever he was talking to them, he seemed to look up at the rim of the quarry, or beyond it to the sky, as if it was from some great unseen power out there that he drew his wisdom. When Vickey told him what they wanted, they thought he would burst out laughing. Instead, he just gnawed at a mallard bone and said nothing.
    ‘Vickey said you told her the secret of survival is to be found in this valley,’ ventured Black Tip. ‘Can that be so?’
    Old Sage Brush looked skywards again, as if making up his mind whether he should take them into his confidence or not. Then he nodded, saying: ‘Perhaps.’
    ‘And those who find it?’ wondered Vickey. ‘Will they learn how to live in peace with man?’
    Before the old fox could answer, Black Tip said: ‘I was always led to believe we will only find that sort of peace in the after-life.’
    ‘We’ve all been led to believe that we’ll find a happy hunting-ground in the after-life,’ said Old Sage Brush.
    Fang raised his head as if about to say something, but decided against it.
    ‘I’m sure Fang was taught to believe in the after-life too,’ continued Old Sage Brush, ‘even though he’s an unbeliever now …’
    Fang raised his head again, surprised that the old fox should have correctly guessed the reason for his silence, and mumbled something in agreement.
    ‘You see,’ said the old fox, ‘all creatures have been taught to believe that something better awaits them when they die. Who knows, maybe even man believes the same, although how he feels he deserves it, is beyond me.’
    ‘But the secret of survival,’ urged Vickey. ‘What do you know about it?’
    ‘I know such a secret does exist for those who wish to seek it,’ he told her. ‘It doesn’t enable them to live in peace with man, but it does enable them to live.’
    ‘And it’s to be found here in this valley?’ asked Fang, curiosity finally getting the better of him.
    Old Sage Brush nodded. ‘You see, Vulpes, being the fox god, and therefore being wiser than any of the other gods, did something special for the fox,’
    ‘What was that?’ asked Black Tip.
    ‘He realised that the time might come when, like the wolf, foxes might be in danger of being wiped out. So he created a valley where they could learn the secret of