by Julie Hunt
I drank the water. When I looked into the hole again, I saw a fierce little face. The animal opened his mouth and showed me a set of tiny teeth before backing away. His tail came into sight: a red plume tipped with white. I heard him spit at me again, then chomping sounds came from within. On the floor of the cave I could see a scattering of fine white bones. I would have liked some more water, but I decided I wasn’t game to put my arm in again.
I looked at the road below. There didn’t seem to be an easy way down to it. Cling-vine was growing out of the rock face, but I doubted it was strong enough to take my weight. I decided I needed to eat before I tried to make my descent.
As soon as I took out the bread, something shot past my shoulder and leapt into the tree. A face peered down at me through the leaves: a sharp, narrow face fringed with reddish fur. The eyes were bright and mean. If the creature sprang at me now I could fall. I broke off a small piece of bread and threw it, and he caught it in midair.
‘There, we’re even,’ I whispered. ‘Bread for water. Now go away.’
I put half the bread back in the bag and began eating the rest. The creature ate too, then moved closer, wanting more.
‘I need this. I have a long way to go.’
He blinked and held my gaze. His eyes were grey-green, like the marshes.
‘I have to eat. I have to get down from here,’ I told him, as I threw him another piece of bread.
The creature caught it, then he ate slowly, looking deep into my eyes.
‘What are you?’ I asked. He wasn’t like any animal I had seen near the Overhang. He wasn’t a rabbit or a fox.
‘You’re small and sleek,’ I said. ‘And you are not to be trusted. I’ll call you a sleek.’
The creature blinked and closed his eyes as if satisfied, then suddenly he sprang, snatching the remaining bread out of my hands and disappearing down the rock face. I held onto the tree and leaned out over the drop, but I couldn’t see where he’d gone.
I cut myself a hunk of cheese and had another drink, then I undid the rope, packed it away with the blanket and began the climb down.
The cling-vine was stronger than I’d expected, so I used it to lower myself a little way at a time until my feet found a narrow ledge, then I paused for a moment before carefully lowering myself further.
Suddenly I heard a high-pitched cheeping sound from above. I looked up and saw the sleek – then I heard the same sound below; he was now crouched on a rock beneath me, and his fur was standing on end. I hadn’t see him move – he’d simply disappeared from above and appeared below – so I wasn’t sure if he was actually the same creature or another one.
When I continued lowering myself towards him he shrieked in alarm, so I froze. I tried to find a foothold and realised there was nothing beneath me.
‘Thank you, little sleek,’ I gasped, as I pulled myself back up to the ledge.
The sleek went quiet and stayed where he was. His fur settled. I climbed along the wall and began coming down a different way.
Luckily I had always been a good climber. I’d found the hole in the night cave and climbed up onto my ledge at the Overhang before I was old enough to walk. Marlie had always been scared I would fall – so scared that in the end she’d put a rope on me and kept me tethered to the cow-yard fence when she was busy.
I adjusted the weight of the bag on my back and decided to only look as far down as the next foothold. I was glad the face of the escarpment was solid here and not the crumbling rock I had seen out near the Gap that day I’d met the stranger.
Eventually I found a long groove in the rock wall and squeezed into it; then, bracing myself with my hands and feet, I made my way down the groove like a person coming down a chimney.
The sun was low in the sky by the time I reached the bottom. I was surprised to find the sleek waiting for me. He looked friendlier than he had on the escarpment. He was no bigger than a cat, but he was finer. His ears were pointy and his fur shone in the last rays of the sun.
When I sat down on the ground, he sat down, too.
‘You saved my life up there, Sleek.’
He looked so soft and silky that I thought I might touch him, but when I reached out he spat and scratched me just as he had done in the hole. Then he turned and skittered away. I saw the white tip of his tail disappear into the long grass. I tore off another piece of blanket, and after I had bandaged my hand, I slung the bag over my shoulder and began walking along the road.
After a while the road left the escarpment and wound through trees and open fields. The ground was soft and springy underfoot, nothing like the hard ground near the Overhang and the road that led to the Gap. There weren’t many stones about, and those I saw were covered in moss. Lichen grew on the tree trunks and some sort of feathery vine trailed from the lower branches into long grass.
Not good cattle country, I thought. Plenty of feed, but their hoofs would rot in this wet ground.
I decided to stop and have a proper look inside the bag before the sun went down. The stranger had travelled light. Apart from the rope and blanket and the things Wim had added, there was only a wooden bowl and a spare shirt, like the one he had been wearing.
I took out the bread. Immediately there was a rustling in the grass nearby and the sleek appeared, his eyes fixed on the food. I held out a small piece. He snatched it from my hand and gobbled it; then he watched me suspiciously, waiting for more.
‘That’s all for you,’ I said. ‘I’ve got to make this last.’
When I took out the cheese, the sleek didn’t wait for me to eat it in front of him. He sprang at me, as he had on the escarpment, snatching the whole cheese from my hands. He was tremendously strong: the cheese was nearly as big as him, and he was gone with it in an instant, disappearing into the grass.
‘You’re not getting away with this!’ I cried and ran after him.
The sleek might have been strong, but the cheese was heavy and hard to hold in his mouth. After a while he slowed down, and when he did I lurched towards him and grabbed it. He darted away, then he stopped, staring back at me defiantly.
I put the cheese in the bag. ‘Shoo, Sleek! Go away!’
He flattened his ears, stood up on his hind legs with his nose in the air and made a clicking noise – the same sound that Marlie sometimes made when she disapproved of whatever I was doing.
I clapped my hands and the sleek dropped onto all fours and ran off, heading, it seemed, for the road. I was still cross with him, but when he paused and looked over his shoulder I followed. It wasn’t like I had any other company.
The sleek moved easily in front of me, weaving in and out of the long grass. As we walked, the grass became taller. Soon it was almost too tall to push through. I was about to turn around when I fell forward into what looked to be a large nest. It was made of sticks and reeds and lined with soft grass.
By now it was getting dark, so there seemed no point in going any further. I turned my back on the sleek and ate out of the bag, biting off chunks of cheese and gulping them down. Then I took out the blanket and, putting the bag under me so the sleek couldn’t steal the rest of the food, I lay down inside the nest. I was exhausted from the climb and from my escape the night before. I put my hands behind my head and watched the moon rising, the same moon I had seen from the escarpment. That seemed ages ago.
I wondered about Wim and Marlie and hoped Alban Bane had gone home by now. It would be terrible if he and his gang were camped outside the Overhang waiting for me, and worse if he took Marlie back with him. Poor Marlie. One way or another, I had always brought her trouble. I put my hand on the cow charm and tried to remember the last thing she had said to me. Go well, Peat. Tears stung my eyes and my throat felt tight. I thought about the cows. Who would look after them if Marlie was taken?
The sleek watched me with lazy eyes from a small distance, his head between his paws.
‘I don’t know what’s going to happen, Sleek, but I know one thing for sure – I can’t ever go back to
the Overhang.’
He yawned and closed his eyes. After a while he curled up and went to sleep.
Things could be worse, I told myself. At least I’m alive.
It was true: I was alive and safe; I had food in my bag, Marlie’s cow charm around my neck, and a companion, if not a friend, in the sleek.
The only problem was that I was heading for the marshes.
THE GREEN ROAD
The next morning the sleek led me through tall grass until we found the road. It was green and narrow and so overgrown in places that it was barely there. It was the sort of road you could see better with your eyes half closed than open. It wound in and out of trees and shrubs, sometimes looping back on itself. Occasionally I caught a glimpse of the escarpment through the greenery, but it was far away. Birds twittered above, and the bushes on either side of me were full of small rustlings. At each sound the sleek hissed and spat.
‘Are you always this angry?’ I asked.
The sleek stopped and glared at me as if he could understand what I said.
‘No harm meant,’ I muttered. ‘Let’s go.’
He didn’t move. His red tail flared and seemed to grow brighter.
‘Look, I didn’t mean anything . . .’
I tried to step past him and suddenly he sprang, sinking his teeth into my leg. He was only small, but the weight of him and the shock of his attack knocked me over. I clutched my leg with both hands and tried not to cry. When I looked up the sleek was sitting in the middle of the path grooming his tail, which had settled back to normal size.
I lifted my hands and examined the bite. The tooth marks were deep. Blood ran down onto my foot, and my whole leg was hurting even though the wound was just below the knee. I found the strip of blanket I had used to protect my arm earlier when I’d reached into the hole and bound my lower leg with it. The sleek watched me from the corner of his eye with a bored expression, then he turned and continued along the path. I limped along behind for some time, until I decided to eat the last of the food. When I stopped the sleek did, too. He sat on his haunches and sniffed the air, his ears twitching, then he put his head between his paws, his eyes on the bag.
I suppose he’ll want half, I thought.
The moment I opened the bag, the sleek sprang. He took the last of my bread and was gone.
‘Good riddance!’ I yelled.
There was nothing to do but continue on alone. The path grew spongy underfoot, and it passed by a series of small ponds. Sometimes it skirted the water and other times it went straight through. The undergrowth on either side was thick, and the water in each pond seemed deeper than the last. By mid-morning I was wet and hungry and miserable. My leg-bandage was muddy and bits of weed were caught in the hem of my dress. I wished Marlie was here. However hard my life had been at the Overhang, I’d always had my sister by my side.
When the path disappeared into a large pool, I decided to try to find a way around rather than wading through, because the water looked as if it would be over my head. I put down the bag and followed a vague animal track that soon petered out. When I came back, something had been through my possessions. The blanket was half pulled out, the cup lay on the path and the cheese was gone.
‘Sleek, you wretched creature!’
I slumped on the ground and looked at the water in despair. A nose broke the surface: the sleek was swimming towards me with my rope in his mouth! He dropped it at my feet, backed away and waited. I pulled the rope. It was snagged on something. When I pulled harder, what seemed to be a piece of the bank broke free. I hauled it towards me and found it was a nest, like the one I had slept in the night before. If only I had a paddle I could use it as a boat, I thought.
I picked up my things and tested it with my foot before carefully stepping in. The nest pulled away from the shore. The sleek had the rope in his mouth and he was towing me. His strength surprised me.
‘Good little sleek!’ I said when we reached the other side. He dropped the rope and spat at me, then he dived back into the water.
Soon he reappeared with something in his mouth. He placed a long green tuber at my feet and stared, as if daring me to pick it up. It looked like a long potato, and when I nibbled one end I found it was crunchy and sweet. After I had finished it, he turned and ran up the path.
I didn’t trust the sleek. He had helped me down the escarpment, but he had also scratched and bitten me. He had given me food, but only after he had stolen what I had. Still, I decided to follow him until I worked out whether he was a friend or an enemy. It was better to have a companion than to have nobody at all.
In the late afternoon he left the path. A mist came down and it started to rain. The sleek went a short way, then he stood aside to let me pass and I walked ahead. I had not gone far when a little hut appeared before me through the soft rain. It stood on stilts and was made of woven reeds. From a distance it looked flimsy, and as I drew closer it looked even more flimsy. I had never seen a building like that before. It had a ladder made of twigs that were only as thick as my little finger. I was sure they would snap as soon as I put my foot on them, but I gave it a try and they didn’t. The ladder creaked as I climbed up. A hessian bag hung over the doorway, and when I pulled it aside I could see a fishing net, a woven mat and a bed made of bundled reeds. Everything had a greenish tinge. I thought at first that it was mould, but when I touched the floor I found it was actually a fine layer of dust, green dust. No one had been there for a long time, and the hut had taken on the colour of the marshy country around it.
The sleek didn’t follow me up the ladder. He turned and disappeared into the mist. I crawled inside the hut, sat on the bed and looked out.
At the Overhang Marlie and I had liked misty days like this. We couldn’t take the cattle out in case we lost one, so we would light the fire and sit by it, and Marlie would sing the songs she’d learned from our mother. They were old songs, and although the tunes were sad, the words were happy.
I put the stranger’s blanket around my shoulders and hummed to myself.
If the sleek doesn’t come back, I won’t care, I thought. I could stay here forever. Maybe I could catch fish and dive for the long green tubers.
But the sleek returned at dusk. He had something in his mouth: the pale shoots of a plant. Each one was the size of your finger. He dropped them on the mat and watched me eat. The shoots were delicious – sweet and crunchy, like the tubers.
‘Thank you, Sleek,’ I said.
He disappeared down the ladder and didn’t return until dark. This time it wasn’t wild food he was carrying but some sort of cake with seeds in it.
‘So it’s not just me you steal from?’ I muttered. It gave me a strange feeling to think there were other people around; I hoped they weren’t like the people of Skerrick.
The sleek looked at me out of the corner of his eye, then he curled up and went to sleep.
AMOS LAST
The mist continued for days, so I stayed in the stilt hut. I was glad we weren’t moving because my leg had swollen up from the sleek bite and it hurt every time I put my foot down.
The sleek came and went, bringing me food: more cake, an apple, a piece of cooked meat. I was beginning to think Marlie’s cow charm really was lucky – I would stay here and the sleek would look after me.
On the third day, however, the mist lifted and the sleek grew restless. He spat at me and looked at the ladder. When I refused to pack my bag he crouched against the reed wall of the hut with his tail spreading behind him. I watched it change colour from reddish-brown to a deep crimson before I picked up my things.
This time the sleek did not lead the way. Instead he kept a distance behind me, as if making sure I wouldn’t double back to the stilt hut, which was exactly what I wanted to do. I found a path and limped along it. My leg hurt with each step and I wanted to rest, but the sleek wouldn’t let me – he drove me on, nipping at my heels whenever I slowed down, and when the path joined up with the road his nipping got worse.
&nbs
p; I was almost in tears when I came around a corner and found the roadway blocked by a donkey cart. Startled, the donkey leapt forward and lost half his load, which was made up of long green tubers like the one the sleek had given me.
‘Halt, Bray!’
A man appeared from the undergrowth. I backed away. He was covered in mud and his arms were full of tubers. He was tall – almost as tall as the stranger. His grey hair was close-cropped and he had a thick black beard.
‘How many times do I have to tell you? Steadfastness in the face of adversity,’ he said. The donkey put down his head and started grazing.
The man turned to me. ‘Not your fault,’ he said. ‘He’s always been flighty. It’s the breed. But you can help me pick these up. Would you mind?’
I shook my head. As I put down my bag I noticed the sleek sliding away into long grass.
‘Would you be a Morrow or an Ebb?’ the man asked. ‘You have the look of an Ebb, but seeing as you are here, lost, you must be a Morrow. So careless, those Morrows. You’re the second child of theirs I’ve picked up this season.’
‘I’m not either,’ I said.
The man looked at me in surprise, then he gave a crafty smile.
‘You’re a Morrow if ever there was one. Do you know how I know?’
He didn’t wait for a reply.
‘Because all Morrows lie!’ He roared with laughter, and the donkey joined in. ‘See? Even Bray likes your joke!’
Although I hadn’t made a joke, I laughed as well. I was so glad to find a kind and friendly person.
‘Had your lunch?’ The man reached into a basket at the front of the little cart and pulled out some cake just like the sleek had brought me. ‘You’ll be wanting a ride, I expect? Well, I can’t be taking you home until after the Third Mist. No point in setting out unless there’s a chance of reaching the destination, eh, Bray?’
The donkey raised its head.
‘So, to be on the safe side, you should stay with us until all the mists are done.’