Barnaby is questing! Episode 1/25

Spring and Easter are approaching quickly. All the pets of PnF land are considering what they need to buy for their new Easter outfits; they want to look smart and fresh when they attend the Easter egg hunt. Only this year there have been grumblings and those grumblings have reached the ears of Petula and Maxwell.

Petula the sweet little piglet and Maxwell the Vole were sitting around the kitchen table in Maxwell’s house.
“Every pet in town is talking about this,” said Maxwell, “And something has to be done. We can’t let Easter be ruined.”

Petula agreed, “I can understand the view of the ducks and chicks. Bunnies have been the main face of Easter for many years and bunnies don’t even lay eggs.”

A knock on the kitchen door caused the two friends to stop chatting.

Maxwell answered the door and there stood their neighbour Barnaby.

Barnaby is questing! Episode 2/25

“Come in and good morning, we were just discussing the rumblings that have been heard in town.” Maxwell brought Barnaby a cup of tea and asked them to join in the discussion.

Barnaby took a seat and accepted the tea. “I don’t know what all the fuss is about. Why now? What caused this to happen?”

Petula said, “We have to find out. If we talk to the bunnies and the ducks we may find the solution. Usually, life in PnF land is peaceful with little drama, so something started all this and surely it won’t be difficult to get everyone to settle down and agree on a solution.” Petula was always cheerful and filled with common sense.

It was decided that first they would go visit the bunnies and then the ducks, as many as they could find.

Barnaby is questing! Episode 3/25

Outside of Maxwell’s house, the three were deciding on where to look for bunnies when they met with a duck named George. George seemed to be agitated and he was holding an egg.

“Just look what I found.”George held out the egg to Maxwell, “It is too early for eggs to be appearing, those bunnies are up to something and where they are getting the eggs from I don’t know.”

Barnaby is questing! Episode 4/25

Some background story.



As long as the oldest resident of PnF land could remember, bunnies had always delivered the eggs on Easter morning. The ducks and chicks would supply the eggs, and for a week, the bunnies, ducks and chicks would get together—in a secret place— each day and paint the eggs.

No one had ever heard a grumble about it. They worked together and made Easter a joyous time for all.

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Petula talked to George, telling him that they were looking into the problem and hoped to have it all sorted out soon.

Barnaby thought for a while and decided he would go and talk to some bunnies while Petula and Maxwell talked with some ducks.

Heading toward a place where he knew bunnies liked to hang out, Barnaby saw a flash out of the corner of his eye. A bunny was scampering away, and there, hidden behind flowers and trees, were painted eggs.

What on earth is going on.

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Barnaby collected the eggs and continued to where a group of bunnies gathered each morning to nibble on the sweet clover.

“Hey guys! What news?”

The bunnies, all but one, hopped away.

“Wait,” yelled Barnaby, “I just want to talk with you.”

The lone bunny stared at Barnaby with a suspicious look in its eyes.

“Are you working for the ducks?”

“What? No! I am trying to find out what started all this fuss. Do you know anything?”

The bunny answered, “If you mean all this about ducks wanting to take over Easter, you better talk to the ducks.” And the bunny scampered away.

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While Barnaby had been trying to gather information from some of the bunnies, Petula and Maxwell headed to one of the many ponds in the area.

Petula mused, “I wonder how Barnaby is getting on with the bunnies?”

Maxwell thought before answering, “I don’t know, this is all so mysterious. We will get to the bottom of it. Look, I see the pond.”

Maxwell spied a painted egg behind a tree. He walked over and picked it up.

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“Another painted egg.” Before Maxwell could say more, a duck walked up to them.

“I see you are finding eggs, too,” said Wade.

Petula looked at Wade, “You mean you are not doing this? I mean, the ducks are not responsible for all the eggs we are starting to find around town and in the woods?”

"No,” said Wade, “We are finding them closer and closer to where we like to hang out, the ponds especially. It is as if this is a sign for us.”

Barnaby is questing! Episode 9/25

Petula, Maxwell and Wade walked over to the pond.

Wade called out to the ducks that were in the water, “Has anyone seen anything suspicious lately or does any duck know anything about these eggs? You can speak up, I know we are all curious about this.”

No duck spoke out.

Petula asked, “Wade, I know you and George are puzzled about all this, but do you recall any duck saying they were unhappy with Easter being represented by a bunny? This is what this is all about. At least those are the rumours in town.”

Barnaby is questing! Episode 10/25

“I have never heard a duck say they were unhappy with the way things are done at Easter,” said Wade.

Petula and Maxwell looked at each other.

“The ducks did not start this. We need to focus on the bunnies, but maybe they did not start this either. We never considered a third party in all this.”

Maxwell and Petula thanked Wade and started to walk back toward town, both deep in their thoughts.

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Along the way, they saw a few more eggs.

“These eggs are appearing more frequently, “said Petula.

Maxwell was going to answer Petula but a loud commotion halted them.

“The grumbles have turned into a rumble!” A voice was yelling.

“Rumble, in the square in town.”

Suddenly Barnaby appeared before Maxwell and Petula, he was out of breath.

“What is going on Barnaby? Wait, catch your breath and tell us.”

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Barnaby caught he breath and explained. “I was coming back from visiting some of the bunnies, which by the way, only one would talk to me about the rumours, and that one bunny said to ask the ducks. None of the other bunnies would talk to me. Anyway I was coming to see if I could find you, and suddenly there was all this yelling and noise, and in the town square, some bunnies and ducks were fighting.”

“This is bad,” said Maxwell, “We better hurry to the square and see if we can help.”

Barnaby is questing! Episode 13/25

Barnaby, Petula and Maxwell heard the commotion, and upon entering the town square, they could not believe what greeted their eyes.

Rumble indeed. Ducks and bunnies were running around wildly flinging eggs at everyone and everything. Chairs and tables were overturned, broken eggshells lay all over, and egg dripped off buildings and puddled on the square.

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Petula was fed up, and that was rare for her. She walked to the centre of the square and yelled.

“STOP IT!”

Maxwell ran to grab a rabbit who was in danger of having a table fall on them. Then he started to set the chairs and tables right-side up.

Barnaby had raced off to break up a fight on the hill.

Things were starting to settle down. Some ducks and bunnies had wandered off but many still stood in the square.

“This is disgraceful,” yelled Petula, “We will get to the bottom of all this. Fighting is not the answer, now all of you go home.”

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When all the ducks and bunnies had left the square Maxwell borrowed some buckets and mops and along with Barnaby started to clean up the egg mess. Petula picked up broken egg shells and any eggs that had managed to stay intact.

“What a mess,” sighed Barnaby.

As soon as everything was sparkling clean, they all sat down with some tea.

Barnaby spoke up, “I overheard two bunnies talking about meeting up tomorrow night in some secret place. I think we should see if we can find out where and go there. We may learn something.”

Wearlily they all agreed, but for now, the only thing they wanted to do was go home and rest.

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Home at last, Maxwell crawled into bed and though he wanted to think things through he found he could not concentrate, soon his eyes closed and he drifted off.

Petula made a cup of tea and some toast before going to sleep. She thought about what Barnaby said he had overheard. They had all agreed to meet up the next day and see if they could find out where this secret bunny meeting would take place. There was more to this, Petula was sure.

Barnaby went to sleep as soon as he got home, it had been an exhausting day.

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The next morning, Petula and Maxwell met in front of Barnaby’s house. They knocked on the door, but there was no answer.

“What now, should we wait?” asked Petula.

“I think it best if we wait a while. Maybe Barnaby went to the store.”

They did not have to wait long, Barnaby came around the corner.

“Sorry guys, I was out early, and I got some information. The bunnies are meeting in the clearing in the Spooky Woods.”

“How did you find that out?” asked Maxwell.

“I overheard some bunnies while I was walking through the park. They never saw me. They were talking about how to contact someone called Raven.”

“Then that is where we will go tonight.” Petula and Maxwell said in unison.

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Darkness came and the three headed out to the woods. They approached carefully taking care not to make any noise. Sure enough, in the clearing, the bunnies were gathered, but what was this, there were ravens, not a Raven and there was a goose.

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Barnaby, Petula and Maxwell got as close as they could, to hear what was being said.

The goose was speaking, “Here is another basket of goose eggs for you to paint.”

One of the bunnies spoke up, “Those ducks are not going to take over Easter. We will show them.”

Maxwell turned to speak to Barnaby but found he was not there.

“Where did Barnaby go?”

Petula had no idea.

Suddenly a rustling altered Maxwell, “Barnaby where did you go?”

“I wanted to hear what those ravens over there were saying. It appears they started all this by spreading rumours to the bunnies. They told the bunnies that the ducks had been plotting to take over Easter. They left the rest up to the bunnies, who, of course, were not happy that the ducks did not even discuss this with them. So the bunnies have been getting goose eggs to paint and leave hidden around town; as a message to the ducks, oh yeah, take this, we will get a jump on Easter. Then some ducks thought, why not be the face of Easter instead of bunnies? The ravens think this whole mess they started is hilarious.”

Maxwell and Petula sat for a few minutes thinking.

“I have heard enough; let’s bust up this meeting of theirs and expose them for their trickery.”

Barnaby is questing! Episode 20/25

Barnaby, Maxwell and Petula jumped out and ran into the clearing, yelling, “Stop right there, you miscreants. We heard every word you said. The ravens started all this nonsense, and it stops now.”

As soon as the ravens heard that, they all flew away, complaining in harsh caws about how their fun was now spoiled.

The bunnies had no idea that the ravens had set all this up for fun. Now, the bunnies felt ashamed of how they had behaved.

“Did any of you talk to a duck and ask them if they planned to take over Easter?”

No bunny there had talked to a duck about this.

Petula said, “Tomorrow we are going to have a town meeting and explain all this to the ducks, and to make up for this mess, a duck is going to be chosen, by vote, to represent Easter this year. Then, you can all take turns each year or decide amongst yourselves who will be putting eggs around at Easter.”

The bunnies agreed that this was fair, as they owed the ducks an apology, so they were happy for a duck to be chosen to represent Easter this year.

Barnaby is questing! Episode 21/25

Maxwell, Barnaby and Petula had spent the morning running around and telling the ducks and bunnies about the meeting in the afternoon.

They met in a large field outside of town, and when the ducks heard what the ravens had been up to, they were shocked. A lively discussion ensued, and everyone agreed that the next day, voting would be held to choose the duck who would represent Easter this year.

Having settled everything, Maxwell concluded the meeting by saying, “You have all worked hard together in the past, and I hope you won’t let some bored ravens change that.”

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The voting took place in the same field the following afternoon. The area was set up with a spot for voting, and on display sat a beautiful painted egg that a bunny and duck had painted together that morning to show they could indeed work together despite what had happened.

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The votes were tallied, and the winner announced. A lovely little duck with flowers on her feathers, who was new to PnF land, had won by a large margin. All the ducks cheered loudly and congratulated the little duck.

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Maxwell presented the winner with a special bouquet of spring flowers. All the ducks gathered around to wish the winner good luck.

Maxwell instructed the winner on their job. “This is a big task. The other ducks know you can do this, and it will be fun; you are making history. The eggs will all be delivered to you the night before Easter, and all you have to do is go around hiding eggs in town and the parks before the sun rises on Easter morning.”

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It's time to party.

Petula presented Barnaby with a rare egg and thanked he for helping out with the mystery.

The party had everyone talking and laughing. Plans were made to meet up with the bunnies to start painting more eggs.

Maxwell and Petula stood off to the side, and Petula said, “I am glad it all worked out. It all could have been avoided, but maybe a lesson was learned.”

Maxwell nodded, “I am sure it was. Easter will be great this year, maybe even sweeter because a disaster was avoided. Talking and not jumping to conclusions is important to avoid getting egg on your face.”

Petula laughed and smiled, looking at the ducks enjoying themselves.
Barnaby has found all the eggs he can carry! Please select another pet as visitor, so it can find some more!