Into That Forest - By Louis Nowra Page 0,7

I knew no one would find us and if the tiger took us home then we would find me mother and me father there, cos maybe they floated all the way back home. Becky were telling me I was a gink when I heard a giant creaking noise coming from the river, a noise like an enormous door with creaking hinges opening. Becky suddenly grabbed me and hugged me to her chest - hugging me so hard I found it hard to breathe. I struggled against her but she were so strong and then after what seemed like minutes she let me go. I gulped down as much air as I could. Then I seen her face. It were white as a ghost. What is it? I said but she only shook her head. The tiger stood up again and moved to the edge of the bush, then it turned round and gave us that stare again. We’re going home, I said and walked towards it. Hannah! I heard her cry. She ran after me, sighing long and hard. All right, Hannah, let’s see if it takes us home. So we followed it into the bush.

What she didn’t tell me til later was why she agreed to come with me and the tiger. She had seen something both terrible and beautiful. She heard that great cracking sound and out of the corner of her eye she had seen this thing rise out of the river. That’s why she hugged me tight, cos a giant tree came out of the water and caught up in its branches were a woman in white, like some sort of sprite or angel, she said later, and it were me mother, her eyes closed, her skin pale as death. As Becky hugged me to her she seen this thing, this vision drift by. It were me mother taken by the current downriver towards Becky knew not where. If me mother were dead, she reasoned, me father were too. She knew then we had no hope of rescue. We were lost, and the only thing that could help us were the tiger. And so she reckoned she had no choice but to follow that creature she thought might be a vampire and drink our blood.

The bush were more and more thick and thorns tore at our skin. We were considerable weary trying to follow the tiger. Sometimes it stopped and looked back at us, waiting for us to catch up. Becky got trapped up in a thorny bush and it took us a long time to get her free and when she were she fell down and cried buckets, saying over and over, It doesn’t know where to go! Me stomach made loud gurgling noises and I said I were hungry which was the truth. Becky got angry with me and then yelled at the tiger, Go away! I told her not to scare the creature. She said it wanted to lose us and once we were completely lost, and we were dying of hunger, it would eat us cos it had all been a trap.

As she cried and shouted I looked at the tiger which were in front of us, just sitting there in the bush, sort of half invisible as if its stripes had been swallowed up by the shadows, and I seen its kind eyes. It were waiting for us, tongue hanging out. But it were easier for it to get through the bush than for us, so it took us some time til we could make our way through a mess of trees and bushes to a small clearing covered with dead leaves and twigs. Maybe we can find our own way home, Becky said, cos I don’t trust him. I said it were a bitch, not a he, and she weren’t going to eat us, and when I were saying this there were these loud snarling and spitting and hissing noises and suddenly, like some vision that had come out of the hole of hell, this creature jumped at Becky who were in front of me. Its jaws were open wide, its big pink tongue spitting at us. It were a Tassie Devil. We cried out in fright and Becky who was next to it started to run but fell, and lo and behold she starts to sink - right there, before me eyes. The leaves and muck were swallowing her up, like it were quicksand, but it weren’t, just this