Speaker 1: Hello, and welcome to a special taster of our new
premium only story. We hope you like it. Hell yeao. Hello.
I'm Josephine and this is the Animal Tales podcast, home
to over four hundred and fifty stories written just for you.
Our Friday story is especially for our Premium subscribers only.
Anya is a Premium member from England and she would
like a story with a mouse. Don't forget to listen
to the animal facts after the story to learn more
about this creature. For now, it's time to sit back
and get comfy, because it's time to begin One Wet Mouse.
It was raining again. It had been raining for so
long now that Anya couldn't remember the last time there
had been a sunny day. She was cold and damp
and quite miserable in her little mouse hole. She had
tried leaving the hole once or twice in the hope
of locating some food, but the heavy rain drops had
quickly pushed her back into the dry again. This is
no good, grumbled Anya. I can't stay here. I need
warmth and something to eat, and I'm not going to
find it shivering in here. But that of course meant
going back outside, where the pounding rain would beat upon
her little mouse body. Anya poked her nose from the
hole and stared at the drizzle. I'm going to need
an umbrella, she said. Anya's mousehole was at the base
of an old, tumbled down wall, in a gap between
two of the red bricks. Beside the hole, to the
left grew a large dandelion, while to the right a
very young tree had taken root. It would be many,
many years until it looked like most other trees, for
at present it was little more than a spindly stick
with a handful of broad leaves. Anya reached up to
the nearest leaf and plucked it. It was just large
enough to be an ideal umbrella for a mouse off.
I go, then, said Anya, holding the leaf above her
whiskered head. She was not entirely sure where she was
going or what she might find, but she knew she
couldn't stay here. At the end of the brick wall
was an ancient rusting block of metal, surrounded by large
dock leaves that sprouted around it. The metal block had
once been part of a car's engine and had sat
upon that patch of ground for many long years. Perhaps
this would provide a warmer drier place for Anya to
wait out the rain. A promising gap between the dock
leaves made a tunnel to beneath the rusty block. This
looked like a good place to start, but as her
twitching nose reached forward, another nose appeared from underneath the block.
What's this? Who are you? Snapped the hedgehog. What are
you doing trying to come into my house? I'm so sorry,
yelped Anya. I was just looking for somewhere warmer than
my mouse hole, with maybe something to eat. You'll not
find that here, said the hedgehog, sounding a little less grumpy.
My house is riddled with leeks, and I'm chilled to
the bone, and I've had nothing to eat in such
a long time. As the hedgehog said this, his belly rumbled.
It was loud enough for Anya to hear over the
pitter patter of the falling rain. Then I'm sorry to
have troubled you, said the mouse, as raindrops splashed and
bounced from her leaf. I'll try some place else. Please wait,
said the hedgehog urgently. Could I could I come with you?
I don't really know where I'm going, admitted Anya, but
some company would be nice. Do you have something you
could use as an umbrella. I know just the thing,
said the hedgehog. He pulled up a large dock leaf
and held it over his own head to mirror Anya
with her own leaf. There, how's that? That's perfect, said
the mouse, and on they went through the falling rain.
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