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A Deathly Calm

The animals are travelling through cabbage fields. Everyone is feeling very uneasy. It’s too exposed here points out Fox. He urges everyone to get a move until they can find somewhere safe to stop. Mrs Rabbit is about to take a bite out of a cabbage, when Fox calls for her to stop. He does not like the strange smell, and there is no animal, insect or flower about. Owl soon brings the explanation, she has spotted some drums of poison by the farmhouse. Fox calls the animals together as Owl explains that everything around them is deadly. Fox says they must get out of there as soon as possible.

The animals rest in an orchard. Kestrel informs Fox that there is a town a short distance away. That night Fox, Vixen, Owl and Whistler go scavenging for food in the town and find fish and vegetables, which Whistler airlifts back to the other animals. Fox is raiding a dustbin when he knocks the lid off. The noise alerts two dogs, who chase after Fox and Vixen. Fox tells Vixen they must split, and the dogs chase Fox. He manages to lose them when he runs across a railway line, in the path of a train. He barely manages to get across safely. The animals worry when Vixen comes back without Fox.

The next morning the animals are trying to get out of the poisoned land, when two tractors enter the field spraying poison. Just then Fox turns up and tells them they must head back the way they have just come to escape the spray. In the panic, Rabbit trips over a stone and gets sprayed. He thinks he is going to die but Fox explains that while the poison would kill a mouse, it's probably not enough to kill a larger animal. The animals just have one last obstacle between them and White Deer Park; they must get through the town.