Gatemoodle

Chapter 14: Woodhouse, Part 3

            After supper, they sat and watched the night. "So many pretty fireflies!" said Alice. "And are those owls calling?"

Josh looked over at the big tent. "They're all inside, and their lanterns are off. So, Danny Boy, your time has come. Are you going to produce a Sasquatch? And more important, are you gonna produce one in a way that Callahan and Company don't shoot it?"

"That's why we set up our tents with the entrances facing the woods. We need to pretend to conk out for the night. Then we slip out."

They raised their voices, said good night, and crawled into their tents. After a few minutes, Dan and Josh crawled back out and got Alice. Dan led them quietly back to the log where he had been sitting with Maggie that time.

"Please wait," said Alice. "I don't believe in Sasquatch for a minute. But you seem so serious about it, like there really will be one. And...I'm really scared out here in the dark woods."

"I'm sorry, Alice," said Dan. "You don't have to be here for this part. We'll walk you back to your tent."

Josh said, "Yeah, but then I'm coming back here with Dan. I gotta see what happens."

Alice sighed. "Well...I'll stay with you guys. I'm more scared about being alone in the campground with Callahan than I am about being out here."

"OK, then, ready?" Dan took from his pocket the graven sunstone that Nellie had given him—it seemed so long ago—and placed it on the log. He didn't know if it had any power to make him brave; if so, and this worked, he would just have to do without it. He was counting on the other thing Nellie had said, that any nearby wodwose would sense the stone.

But nothing happened for a few minutes, and Josh said, "That's it?"

"Give it time," said Dan. But he was starting to worry. He had no idea how long it would take a wodwose to respond, and he really didn't know if one would at all. He just couldn't come up with any other plan. "Half an hour, OK? Watch the fireflies." Dan felt his stomach clench for a moment—were those will-o'-the-wisps over there, like he had seen by the Inland stream? No, just regular fireflies, he decided.

Something strong and hard as iron gripped Dan's shoulder. Alice screamed, and Josh shouted, "Jesus H. Christ!"

Then they heard Callahan's distant voice: "Wake up! Our little friends have stirred up some action in the woods! Come and get 'em!"

A voice like rocks scraping on rocks said, "Foolish lettermen warn hunters. Follow."

A big hand scooped up the sunstone, and Dan had no choice about following, because the creature's other hand kept gripping his shoulder and yanked him along. He thought he heard Josh and Alice behind. It was hard to get a good look at the thing in the dark, especially because Dan was too close to get a whole view, but he could tell it was hairy. It wasn't as tall as he remembered, though. They traveled for what felt like a long time, and Dan vaguely noticed through a screen of fear that it was much easier to walk than it should have been; they weren't constantly tripping on roots and rocks or crashing through brush. It was as though things were getting out of their way. Finally they stepped through a narrow opening in a huge windfall that backed up against two gigantic trees to form a natural fort, open to the sky but surrounded on all four sides. It glowed with the phosphorescence Dan had seen when the wodwose first appeared last fall.

As Josh and Alice came in, the thing released Dan and said, "How did thief come by sunstone?"

"Not a thief!" Dan gasped. "Nellie Longarms gave it to me. I have brought it here to return it to you!"