Feeding Grounds by David Brian

Author:David Brian [Brian, David]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Amazon: B095YQTPXY
Publisher: Night-Flyer Publishing
Published: 2021-06-15T00:00:00+00:00

Forty-Four

“What do you think caused it?” Liam said, dipping to his knees and squatting to inspect a foot-deep trail in the snow leading away from the fence.

Jack shook his head. “No idea, mate.” He turned and looked nervously around. “More to the point, where is whatever did this? It has to be a big animal. The depression it left is as wide as either of us.”

Liam was studying the path the creature had made. Some parts of the indentation were cut deeper into the snow than others, as if something heavy had been dragged over the ground. There was also an abundance of other, smaller disturbances scored all around the track. Liam figured the marks had been caused by how the thing moved, because he had caught a glimpse of the creature: it was definitely an animal. A grey-furred animal. The cut in the snow ran close to the fencing at the backs of the houses, before vanishing from sight into a dense copse of trees.

Jack pointed towards the growth. “Whatever it was went over there. C’mon!”

Liam grabbed his forearm. “Hold up a minute. Perhaps we should go. We can tell your mum and the people in the cafe. Then we can bring them back to check things out.”

“Don’t be a wuss, mate.” He pulled the phone from his pocket and held it out before him. “I don’t know what animal did this. You saw it and you’re still not certain what it was, but I intend on getting proof of life. Are you in, or not?”

“Okay,” Liam agreed. “But it’s snowing again, and by the look of the sky it will only get worse. We’ll check out behind those trees, but if we don’t find anything over there we give up and go fetch the adults. Deal?”

Jack grinned like the cat that got the cream, and gave his friend a playful dig on the arm. Then he turned and stepped onto the tread of snow. Liam followed behind, with each of them studying the indentation as they walked its path.

Jack stopped as he reached the treeline. He set the camera on the phone before looking at his friend. “You ready, mate?”

“Ready,” Liam said, a degree of regret marking his voice as he realized that he wouldn’t be taking any photos even though the mysterious animal was his discovery. How he wished he hadn’t left the phone at home on the cabinet beside his bed.

Dipping their knees and ducking their heads, the boys carefully manoeuvred their way beneath a crop of low hanging branches. The bed of leaves provided a perfect mattress for the falling snow, and neither of the boys fancied a hefty drop of the white stuff down their necklines.

They found themselves standing beneath a concave of branches, the grouping of trees providing enough shelter to keep a thirty-foot circle of ground free of snow. It would have made a perfect den for boys of their age, but neither of them gave a thought to such things.

It was

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