Deep in Hollow Wood, where the brambles curl and the moon peeks through the leaves, our story begins...
Bramble woke up cross.
He wasn't entirely sure why, but the feeling sat in his chest like a stone. Perhaps it was because he'd dreamed about the Dark Hollow again. Perhaps it was because the sun was too bright. Perhaps it was simply one of those mornings.
When Hazel arrived at his door with a basket of blackberries, she was humming.
"Morning, Bramble! I picked these on the far side of the Hollow. They're enormous this year."
Bramble felt the crossness grow sharper.
"You went through without me," he said.
Hazel blinked. "Well, yes. You were still asleep, and I — "
"You always go through without me," Bramble interrupted. His voice came out snappish and tight. "You make it look so easy."
There was a horrible silence.
Hazel put the basket down carefully. "I wasn't trying to make anything look easy," she said, very quietly. "I was bringing you blackberries."
She turned and walked away through the ferns.
Bramble stood by his door, alone, with the stone in his chest now twice as heavy.
He sat down. He looked at the blackberries. They really were enormous.
He felt awful.
By the time Old Oakley came shuffling past, Bramble had his face in his paws.
"That's a sorry sort of sight," said the badger kindly.
"I was horrid to Hazel," Bramble mumbled. "I said something mean and now she's gone and I don't know how to fix it."
"Do you know what you ought to say?"
"Sorry," said Bramble miserably.
"Well then," said Old Oakley. "Off you go."
Bramble found Hazel sitting by the stream, trailing one paw in the water.
"I'm sorry," he said, all in a rush. "I wasn't cross at you. I was cross at me. You didn't do anything wrong. You were being kind and I was horrid and I'm really, truly sorry."
Hazel looked at him for a long moment.
Then she smiled, just a little. "Thank you for saying so."
"Friends?" whispered Bramble.
"Friends," said Hazel firmly.
Old Oakley was still there when they walked back together. He nodded approvingly.
"That's good, that is," he said. "Saying sorry properly. That takes a different sort of courage, you know."
Bramble hadn't thought of it that way before.
"Speaking of courage," Old Oakley went on, more gently now, "young Pip's mum has been poorly these past few days. Nothing dangerous, but she needs elderflower medicine to help her feel better."
"Can you make it?" asked Hazel at once.
"I can," said Oakley. "But the elderflowers only grow in one place."
He looked toward the trees.
"On the far side of the Dark Hollow."
And as Hollow Wood grew quiet and the stars came out to watch, it was time to rest — until tomorrow's tale.