Bramble was a sweet and caring rabbit. She didn't have any owners, since she was a wild rabbit. She had brown fur, and she was popular with the other animals around her. Her best friend was a very inquisitive hedgehog called Nan. The other animals had a tendency to call the gossipy hedgehog 'Nosy Nan', but she took it in good humour, for no-one could say that Nan was ill-tempered. Another of Bramble's friends was the owl, Oxford, and he was extremely knowledgable, so the animals would always turn to him for help. This three were the closest of friends, though of course they had other friends.
Now, one day, when Bramble was out picking daisies, she heard the bark of a dog. She saw that the dog was coming towards her, and she quickly hid from him. Now the dog was sniffing at the ground, and she thought that he had caught her scent. She waited, not daring to move, when she noticed that the dog was limping.
The dog was whimpering as well.
"Rabbit, I know you're there. Please help me." the dog requested. Against her better judgement, Bramble left the hedge she was hiding in, and came out to see the dog.
"Rabbit, I've been stung, and I'm in pain." whimpered the dog.
"My name is Bramble, and I shall help you, if you tell me your name." said Bramble. The black dog replied,
"My name is Mr. Paws." Bramble felt the urge to giggle, but then the dog continued speaking.
"That's what my owners called me. My mother named me Sooty, which I prefer, so please call me that."
Bramble smiled, and asked Sooty, "Where does it hurt?" and Sooty answered that it was his right paw. However, he did not know what it was that stung him. Bramble decided that it was probably a bee sting.
"Bees can be such pests, but they always give us plenty of honey." she told him after she mentioned her suspicions. Bramble wasn't too sure on how to cure a bee sting, so she took Sooty to see Oxford the owl.
Bramble knocked at the foot of the tree in which Oxford lived. Oxford, who was high up in the tree, couldn't see who was on the ground.
"Who knocks at my tree?" asked Oxford. Bramble replied,
"It is Bramble Rabbit, and I need help."
Oxford swooped down from the branches, frightening Sooty, who had never seen an owl before.
"Who is this, Bramble?" asked Oxford.
Bramble replied, "This is Sooty, and I think he's got a bee sting, but we don't know how to cure it." Oxford chuckled at this.
"All you need is some cream to put on the sting, and that should help. If you don't have any, I think I have some." he said, and at that moment he flew up to a hole in the tree. He climbed in, and Bramble assumed that he was searching for the cream. He came back down a few minutes later, carrying nothing.
"I'm sorry, Bramble and Sooty, but I believe that I used the last of it when Sally Squirrel was stung by a bee." he said regretfully, his beak clicking, and his wide eyes sad.
Bramble sighed sadly. At this rate, poor Sooty would suffer even more. It was then that Oxford had another idea.
"I'm sure that you would be able to buy some cream at the village shop. Of course, you would need money. Margie Magpie always has money stashed away in her nest, she loves shiny things. You could go to her nest and ask her for some money." he sounded quite happy now that he had been able to help after all.
So then Sooty and Bramble set off for Margie's nest. It wasn't too far away from Oxford's nest, luckily for Sooty's sore paw. Margie had left some shiny things on the ground, which she had brought back with her after flying around the woods. She was in the process of taking the shiny things up to her nest, one by one. When she landed on the ground, she saw Bramble and Sooty.
