Chapter One
On an island in the middle of the sea, a long way from anywhere, a small beaver was rocking up and down on a swing. His name was Baby B.
If you could have looked down on the island at that moment, you would have shouted, ‘Look out, Baby B! There’s something horrible coming just over the hill. Quick, run away.’
But you weren’t there, so Baby B went on swinging happily.
He had been happy all day. His granddad, Mr Edgar Beaver, had taken him to see their old friend Mrs Badger. They had eaten a delicious lunch, then the grown-ups had decided to have a little snooze. So Baby B went into the garden to have a swing.
He loved the swoop up and down as high as he could. And while he was swinging he always made up songs. Today’s song went like this:
‘Zoom, zoom, buzz, whee
I am flying like a bee.
Zoom, zoom, buzz, why
Am I being like a fly?’
Sometimes Baby B stopped singing and shouted, ‘Look at me, robin, I’m as highest as you!’
The robin was sitting on the branch above the swing. He liked it best when Baby B was singing because he could whistle along to the tune.
Baby B stopped singing and put all his effort into making the swing go higher. He pumped his little legs backwards and forwards and the swing climbed up and up.
‘Look at me, robin,’ he shouted, ‘I’m as highest as …’. And then he stopped. His mouth fell open with frights and his eyes nearly popped out if his head.
Something that looked like a huge brown snake was wriggling down the hill behind Mrs Badger’s house. It was moving very fast. Nearer and nearer. And it was enormous. Already its head was near the house and its body stretched all the way back to the top of the hill.
Suddenly the head of the snake came round the side of the house and started moving across the grass towards the tree. As it came nearer, Baby B saw that it wasn’t a snake at all. Something was pushing the earth up out of the ground.
‘Help, it’s an earthquaker,’ he shouted.
The tree began to tremble and there was a horrible hissing and rumbling. Baby B hung on to the swing and squeezed his eyes shut. A nasty smell like bad eggs and drains floated up to his nose.
The noise faded away and the shaking stopped.
Baby B’s heart was beating fast and the horrible smell was making him feel sick. When he opened his eyes, the long line of earth stretched right underneath the swing and away into the forest behind him.
He jumped off the swing and started running to Mrs Badger’s house. Suddenly, he felt something wet and squelchy under his feet. He stopped and looked. Thousands of pink, slimy worms were wriggling and squirming their way up out of the earth.
‘Help! Wrigglers!’ shouted Baby B and he jumped and hopped and skipped his way to Mrs Badger’s front door.
He burst into the parlour shouting and screaming.
‘Wake up. Wake up. It’s an earthquaker and wigglers. Look out, they’re coming.’
He jumped into Mrs Badger’s lap and hid his head under her apron.