Wolfy Ferocious (A Central Acre Park Adventure)

Trix, the miniature horse, has big dreams. She wants to be the best scientist in the world. She wants to observe everything and know everything. There is just one problem. She has hooves and no hands. How will she record her amazing discoveries?! With the help of all of her animal friends, of course!

Welcome to Central Acre Park! It’s a farm in the middle of a big city surrounded by honking horns, concrete sidewalks, and skyscrapers. It’s full of curious animals who have a lot to learn about the scientific world. Each day is a new adventure. Today, Trix and her friends are helping a pesky barn critter find a new home.

***

Trix was just about to fall asleep in her stall when she heard a rustling in the sawdust. Crunch, crunch. Something was munching on an insect in a shadowy corner.

“Hello?” Trix called, trying to be brave. Nighttime was scary. She couldn’t see anything in the dim light.

A small, fierce voice came from the corner: “I am Wolfgang the Wolf Spider.”

“Uh, okay,” Trix said, closing her eyes again. “Goodnight then.”

“I’m going to EAT you!” he cried.

The miniature horse’s eyes snapped open, and her ears twitched in the spider’s direction. Trix wasn’t usually afraid of arachnids. That was the scientific name for eight-legged creatures, like spiders. She was bigger than all of them! And spiders didn’t eat horses. Did they?

“Get out of here!” a grumpy voice called from above in the rafters. “It’s bedtime, you goon. Try to eat unreasonably large prey tomorrow.”

The grumpy voice belonged to Garbanzo the raccoon. He usually bedded down in a hammock above Trix’s head. He had brought a few smelly snacks to bed. He had taken them from the trash that the human visitors left at the park. Trix could hear crunching coming from above her head.

“Go back to making your webs,” Trix said sleepily. “You can hunt me tomorrow.”

“I don’t make webs. I’m a wolf spider,” Wolfgang scoffed.

“Go to bed!” Trix and Garbanzo said loudly.

Wolfgang was silent. The spider seemed to be thinking about their wish to come back during the day.

“Okay! I’m going, but not because you told me to,” Wolfgang said. “I’ll be back when you least expect it!”

Trix frowned. It was just one little spider. It didn’t even have a web. She snorted and settled back down to sleep.

Harrumph, she thought. I can handle one little spider… Tomorrow.

***

The next morning, Trix woke to eight pairs of legs crawling across her face. She stamped her hoof and shook her head. When it didn’t let go, she called out for Garbanzo, but the raccoon had already slunk out to find more snacks.

A big brown and orange spider with fuzzy legs stared at her, upside down. It was Wolfgang. All eight of his eyes blinked. “I’m going to eat you!” he announced.

“I don’t think so,” said Trix.

The miniature horse shook her head so hard she tossed the spider out of her stall. He scuttled away down the aisle, past the wash stall, and toward the barn office.

Trix sighed with relief. Hopefully, he was gone for good this time.

But Trix’s relief didn’t last long. After the human farm assistant brought her bucket of grain, the same spider popped out.

“I’m going to eat you!” the spider shouted again.

Trix kicked her grain bucket so hard that the spider fell out and onto the straw. She stamped until she was sure she’d scared him away.

Bam! Bam! Bam!

The confused farm assistant came running back to see about all the noise. “Whoa there, girl. Do you want to go outside?”

Trix rushed to the door. She danced nervously on her tippy toes the whole way out to the pasture. Outside in the warm daylight, she could breathe again. She happily greeted her friends. “Hello!” she said to the chattering ducks and chickens.

“Good morning!” she called to Garbanzo as he rummaged for garbage scraps.

Pendragon, the bearded dragon lizard, waved as he lay in the sunlight.

Trix bent down for a mouthful of crunchy hay, only to nearly chomp down on that pesky spider.

“I’m going to eat you!” Wolfgang cried, jumping toward her flaring nostrils.

Trix took off across the pasture, bucking and snorting. The farm assistant returned to check on her and tried to calm her down.

“Trix! What’s gotten into you, girl?” the farm assistant asked.

The farm assistant gave her a few fond pats and went back inside.

Trix would not be calmed. That spider was getting on her last nerve. She trotted breathlessly over to Pendragon and Garbanzo, who were sitting on the fence. They were gaping at her.

“What’s up with you?” Garbanzo asked in between bites. He munched on a half-eaten piece of sandwich he’d found in the trash.

“There’s this spider, and he won’t leave me alone!” she said.

Pendragon and Garbanzo looked at each other. This was the most distressed they’d ever seen Trix. Usually, she was calm, curious, and totally focused on her scientific research.

“I, Wolfgang the Wolf Spider, am going to eat you!” a small voice yelled from the grass.

Garbanzo chuckled. “Is that what’s got you so upset?”

“Wolf spiders are delicious.” Pendragon smacked his lips and thrashed his scaly tail from side to side. “I’ll take care of him for you.”

“No! You can’t eat me,” Wolfgang said. “I am a mighty hunter. I am hungry enough to eat a horse.”

“Now that’s just ridiculous.” The raccoon rolled his eyes. “Go back to your web, Wolfy.”

Trix sighed. That nickname could have been cute if the spider wasn’t so annoying.

“Wolf spiders don’t make webs,” Wolfgang scoffed. “We make burrows underground and plug up our nests with pebbles when it gets too wet.”

“Shouldn’t you be doing that instead of bothering Trix?” Pendragon asked, puzzled.

This gave the spider pause. “Well,” he said. “My nest was destroyed. I haven’t found a new spot with enough tasty food nearby. I thought I’d find big prey that I could snack on for a long time.”

Garbanzo and Pendragon looked at each other again and burst out laughing.

“Let’s help you find a nice, new burrow far away from the barn,” Trix suggested. She ignored the others’ laughter. She trotted to the pasture gate and unlocked it with her teeth. “Come on.”

Wolfgang and Pendragon rode on Garbanzo’s back. The spider sat on the raccoon’s head, eyeing the lizard nervously.

They stopped at the pond where lots of birds were swooping around to catch insects.

“No,” said Wolfgang. “Too wet. Birds and lizards are my enemies.” He glanced at Pendragon. “No offense.”

“None taken,” Pendragon said.

They stopped at an open, grassy field where humans often came to play sports.

Wolfgang shook his head. “No, too dry. Too many stomping feet.”

Next, they went to a garden full of plants and tons of insects — ants, butterflies, mosquitoes, grasshoppers, gnats, june beetles, cicadas, leafhoppers, bees, and crickets galore!

“Hmm, this looks all right, I guess,” Wolfgang said grudgingly. He scuttled off toward a patch of dirt and began quickly digging.

Trix gathered sticks in her mouth to strengthen the roof. Garbanzo searched for pebbles that Wolfgang could roll across the entrance if it got too rainy.

Pendragon unhelpfully snapped up a few crickets. He wandered back to his rock to take in the warm sunlight to digest his meal.

The horse, raccoon, and spider stood back to look at their work. It didn’t look too shabby! Now they could add Burrow Architects to the long list of things they’d learned on the farm. And they added wolf spider to the growing farm species list.