Lexi yawned and stretched. The sun had peeked over the very tops of the nearby low hills moments ago, and she was wide awake, ready for a long day of digging and exploring. She'd found a small field with lots of lumps and bumps all over the ground, and she was determined to dig and find out what was causing it. She dashed out the entrance of her den and headed over tot he grassy area with the mysterious lumpy ground.

When she arrived, she paused, crouching in the shadows. She looked around to see if anyone or anything was nearby. The air carried no unusual sounds, and she didn't smell anything interesting, so she crept forward and began to dig into one of the mounds. Before long, the edge of something shiny poked through. Lexi uncovered it, brushing off as much dirt as she could manage with her own dirt-covered paws, and stared at the object in front of her. It was some sort of metal circle with a jagged edge; they almost looked like teeth. "I wonder what this is for..." she thought. "Maybe if I put lots of them together?" She unearthed a few more, and nudged them together on the ground, until the teeth interlocked. It took her several tries, because whenever one turned, the others touching turned with it, but she finally managed to get four of the foreign shapes pushed together in a group.

Of The Epidemic