Where The Creatures Hide

After two hours of walking they had reached the summit of the tor, their shoes muddy and their legs worn. The skies had cleared and from here they could see the hills in the east stretching out to the seas in the west. The winds were keen but at least, Karin reflected, there was no sign of rain.

            She watched her daughter collapse onto the grass beside her with sympathetic eyes.

            'I'm sorry sweetie, you're doing great. This is the highest point for miles – they can't get near us here without you seeing them'.

            Anna smiled at her mother, but it was a false smile, the sort that children use to con their parents into believing they're okay. Karin didn't fall for it anymore, not now that she knew about the Creature.

            'I'm hungry,' whispered Anna, and Karin crouched down, swinging her rucksack off her shoulder and digging into it for some hastily gathered snacks – some breakfast bars, bananas, crisps, and a plastic bottle of milk. Anna took the bananas and devoured two before drinking deeply from the milk.

            Karin surveyed the valleys around them.

            'Can you see them?'

            Anna slowly wiped the milk from her mouth and looked around.

            'They're not here,' she responded, 'yet.'

            Karin went to put her arms around Anna, but she stood up and headed over to the cairn that marked the peak.

            'When will it be dark?'

            'I don't know sweetie, about 8?'

            'What do we do then?'

            Karin paused.

            'I've got a torch,' she answered pathetically.

            Anna began to take the stones from the cairn, and with the stoic conviction of a soldier dropped behind enemy lines, she built a stone circle around the two of them, sitting inside it and glancing from time to time down the hill.

            'Are you cold sweetie?'

            'No.'

            'Do you need anything else to eat?'

            'No thank you.'

            'Are you… scared?'

            Anna was silent.

            'I don’t want you to worry about your brother,' Karin said tentatively, 'he'll be okay, he'll be fine. We just need to know what it is and what it's done to him. And then we'll…. What is it?'

            Anna had risen to her feet. She was staring down the hillside to the north, back the way they had come. A little way down there was a long stone wall that bordered the last of the farms they had crossed before entering public land. A few minutes ago it had been filled with sheep, but now they were gone.

            Karin stared and stared but she could see nothing.

            'Is it the Creature?'

            Anna did not lower her gaze but lifted two fingers.

            'Two? Where are they?'

            'Behind the wall. They like to hide behind walls.'

            Anna looked down at the circle of stones around them.

© PS Owen 2015