Chapter 5
“I don’t like this.” Tanuki shifted in the leather pack that hung aside the horse. The badger huffed as the horse walked along, causing the pack to bump repeatedly against its side.
“I…oof…don’t like this…oof…at all.”
“Shush, you,” Gullin said as he reached down to push Tanuki a little deeper into the pouch. “I’ll be having enough trouble explaining things without having to explain a talking groundhog on top of it.”
Tanuki shot his head up out of the pouch again. “You know darn well I’m a badger!
Why do you keep calling me ‘groundhog’? Do I look like I hog ground? At least when I call you ‘smelly man,’ I’m being accurate.”
Gullin shoved Tanuki down again. “Sometimes I wish you hadn’t bothered to learn English.”
Baba Yaga, sitting behind Gullin, puffed away on her lon
