Musty Digs Too Deep

By Bob Cregan

Musty the badger is an adventurous creature who loves digging new chambers in his family's home. One day when some playful cubs drive him deep into some long unused chambers, he discovers ancient evil; secrets of the stone circle which sits on the land above his family's sett.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Bob Cregan
• Release date: Nov 25, 2016
• ISBN: 9781370327669

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Musty Digs Too Deep

Bob Cregan

Cover and text is Copyright © 2016 Bob Cregan

All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, distributed, or transmitted in any form or by any means, including photocopying, recording, or other electronic or mechanical methods, without the prior written permission of the author, except in the case of brief quotations embodied in critical reviews and certain other non-commercial uses permitted by copyright law.

For Linda, Anna and Jenny

Ros - the bottle is in the post.

Musty Digs Too Deep

There was a bare patch in the forest. No trees grew there, no plants larger than a blade of grass found a foothold. The grass was short; you would think it was grazed, but no farmer dared send his animals to feed upon this wild hillside, for grass was not the only thing which rose up from the earth in this special place.

In the centre of the clearing a number of massive stones stood in a circle. In the middle of this ring rose one more stone; a single monolith which, unlike the others, lay on its side like an altar. The rocks looked like they had been either thrust bodily into the ground by a giant hand, or had erupted from below, like a rejection by the earth itself. It did not matter which of these impressions an observer was left with, for neither looked natural; none of these stones belonged amongst the surrounding woods and fields. And it was this sense of something alien, together with the absence of wild vegetation, which gave the local farmers pause when it came to committing their herds to the spot.

The grass was kept short by visiting rabbits, and indeed the wild creatures of the wood seemed not to mind the place at all; deer helped the rabbits to keep down the grass, and on a steep slope, just outside the edge of the stones, a series of ten or so earthen holes indicated the presence of a group of badgers.

This story concerns one of these creatures; one of the youngest. His name could translate as "Musty’ for his unusual odour was how his family identified him and how they referred to him when communicating with the other badgers. He was a curious badger, wild and adventurous,