Llama Drama (4 page)

The younger ones laughed openly at the old coyote.

Captain took a deep breath and counted to ten. Let them laugh at him all they liked.
He who laughs last,
he reminded himself,
laughs longest
. Yes, siree.

n Wednesday morning, as dawn was breaking, Farmer Palmer began to load his animals for the much anticipated County Fair. Truck by truck they set off in convoy. Mama and Papa Llama watched them go.

Mama Llama's chest swelled with emotion: partly pride, but a little envy too. She wished she could have gone and seen her children take part in their events. But she had to accept that her own and Papa Llama's show days were over.

By mid-morning all the animals were in their pens at the County Fair. A chorus of bleating and baaa-ing and braying and honking could be heard as a huge wave of excitement spread throughout the livestock yard.

Lewie was relieved to see that he wasn't housed too far away from his family although, as Guard Llama, he was on the opposite side of the yard with all the other Guard Llamas, each with his own flock of sheep.

In the next pen, Lewie was rather nervous to see a huge, powerfully built llama who looked much older than him. Lewie bravely tried to introduce himself. “Hello, my name's Lewie …” he began. But the big llama lifted his nose and turned away, refusing even to acknowledge him. Lewie felt a little crushed.

Throughout the morning, the llama continued to ignore Lewie, although he talked happily to the two llamas on his other side. They were clearly all old friends. Lewie soon discovered that the huge llama was called Hadrian, but his nickname was
The Wall
. Lewie could easily see where that name had come from.

One of the other llamas was called Blunderbuss and belonged to Farmer Blunkett. The third, much older llama was called Wellington.

A couple of times Lewie looked over to find the three Guard Llamas watching him and sniggering.

“What would
The Terminator
say if he could see the specimen they've replaced him with?” Hadrian muttered, shaking his head.

“An absolute disgrace, that's what it is,” Blunderbuss and Wellington agreed.

Lewie tried to ignore them, but he felt a little disappointed not to have made any new friends here. So he was pleased when Nelson, another Guard Llama, arrived and was put into the empty pen next to his. Nelson belonged to Farmer Nettles and, luckily, was friendlier than the others.

“I used to be in that gang, you know,” Nelson said, nodding towards the other llamas, “before I lost my eye. Now they treat me like an outcast.”

“How did you lose it?” Lewie asked gently.

“Coyotes,” Nelson said sadly. “I put up a good fight, but it cost me this eye.”

Lewie felt like the new boy among all these more experienced, battle-scarred older llamas. The idea of him stealing the prize for
Best Guard Llama
was looking like a joke.

Nelson told Lewie that Hadrian had won the prize for years. “
Somehow
he always wins,” Nelson said gloomily. “Rules get bent – or broken … accidents happen … animals have been known to disappear!
It would be a foolish llama that ran up against The Wall!
” he warned Lewie. “Take my advice: keep your head down like me and forget all about prizes. Nowadays, I just want a quiet life,” he added, sighing. “I'd like to retire, like
The Terminator
.”

Lewie was glad to have made a friend at last, but he found Nelson a little … downbeat.
Still, losing an eye would make any llama a bit sad
, he thought. After hearing Nelson's story about Hadrian, Lewie was feeling even more nervous.

Later in the day, Lewie was glad to see Millie come back. She fussed over the animals, checking their feed and water several times before she was satisfied. Farmer Palmer was surrounded by a group of other farmers, teasing one another about who had the best – and the worst – livestock. They all looked Lewie up and down; no one seemed impressed.

“He's very young, isn't he,” said Farmer Nettles.

“Barely out of nappies,” joked Farmer Blunkett.

“A bit skinny,” said another. “What're you feeding him on? Birdseed?”

“My Blunderbuss would make four of him,” Farmer Blunkett concluded.

Farmer Palmer wasn't in the least bit bothered by their jokes. “You'll see, Lewie's a llama in a million,” he told them all.

Just then, Farmer Hardman arrived, along with two of his farm workers. He agreed that Lewie would be no competition for his llama, Hadrian.

“I'm sure one day Lewie'll grow into a wonderful Guard Llama,” he told Farmer Palmer, “… maybe in twenty years or so!”

His two workmen laughed loudly as if their boss had made a great joke.

Lewie wasn't amused.

After the farmers had left, the two workmen hung around, leaning against the gate of Lewie's pen, staring at him. It made Lewie feel very self-conscious. The bigger man, called Bolt, ate his way through a whole packet of biscuits. The smaller man, called Dolt, had a scruffy ponytail tied back with a piece of red string, the frayed end of which he liked to chew. The men talked in low voices, although it didn't seem to occur to them that Lewie might understand what they were saying.

“No worries here, then,” said Bolt, looking around the yard at all the Guard Llamas.

“What about this new one?” Dolt asked, nodding at Lewie. “He's an unknown quantity.”

“Look at him,” laughed Bolt. “Wet, weedy, wimpy. No worries for us there.”

“Still … remember what the boss said,” Dolt reminded him.

“I know –
whatever it takes
,” Bolt said menacingly.

The two men left then, but not before Bolt had thrown his screwed-up biscuit packet into Lewie's pen, leaving it for Millie to clear up.

Oh no, Lewie didn't like the look of those two – not one little bit.

Later, as his flock settled down for the night, Lewie couldn't help overhearing Hadrian bullying his own sheep. Hadrian had caught one or two chatting to Ginger and the others. He butted them away from the fence.

“There's to be no mixing with this riffraff,” Hadrian warned the sheep. “They're the competition, remember. Any of you dare to let me down and there'll be
consequences
,” he hissed threateningly. The sheep huddled together, trembling.