"Children will cheer for the Mole, and adults who have faced their own struggles for true love will see their lives reflected in the Mole’s quest.” Brian Patterson

Mole and Owl
by Charles Duffie

Daring the wide world for love.

Against all odds, a Mole and Owl fall in love... until one night, she disappears. To find her, Mole must do more than leave his safe underground home and risk a world of ravens, eagles and wolves. He must become the kind of animal he has always dreamed he could be. But are courage, hope, and love enough in a world filled with so much danger?

Includes over a dozen color illustrations from five of Japan’s classic artists.

"...the emotion, the philosophy, and the poetical strength compare with the writings of Kipling and Saint Exupéry." Manos Tselikas
Includes over a dozen color illustrations
Mole looked up. Something had shifted in the world.
Branches trembled. Birds stopped singing on the same note. Even the river, now at his back, felt more agitated, rushing away against the banks.

He jumped to his feet. Turning, turning, he stared in every direction: bush and tree and bramble and sky, a collage of leafy shapes. It was the world, just the world.

Then the breeze shifted, bringing news from upwind. His eyes widened, his throat tightened, and suddenly he was running, instinct taking over, fear shouting through his body, shouting the word Wolf.

Padded footfalls dropped in behind, rhythmic and swift. Mole didn’t dare turn to look, but he knew he couldn’t outrun that sound. The river widened on his left, the bank rose on his right, walling him in as if the earth itself was helping the hunter.

Glancing up, he saw jays and squirrels hunched on safe branches. In their frightened eyes he saw his life pass.

Lungs burned, legs cramped, his heart ached in his chest. A huff of breath hit his shoulder.

He spun and scrambled up the steep bank, clawing at roots and stones. The top of the ridge came closer, a shelter of thick green, bushes to hide, time enough to tunnel, that’s all he needed—another moment!

He was one reach away, his life that close, when something hard knocked his feet out from under him. He tumbled down with a sad cry, rolling into the shallows of the river, and thumped his head on a smooth stone. He lay on his back, dazed, staring up at a magnificent knot of clouds that seemed to hug each other as the wind pulled them apart.

A weight fell on his chest and a huge shadow blocked the light. Mole found himself staring up into the gray eyes of a Wolf. The hunter’s shoulders held up the sky. Clouds rolled off his shaggy back.

“A mole above ground,” the Wolf said, his voice deep and quiet. “And so far from his porch.”

“I have a reason,” Mole stammered. “I will not die! I can not die! Not yet—”

The Wolf said, "I have hunted many of your kind. They always surrender. Why the sudden courage? What is so important? Why must a mole, of all the creatures in these woods, not die today?”

“Love?” Mole asked.

“Are you guessing?” the Wolf demanded.

“Love,” Mole repeated with a nod, trying to sound certain.

As he began to explain, he felt the fear fall from his body. For a moment, his brave desire so ruled his timid nature that he spoke without trembling, even into the steady gaze of a hungry Wolf.