Al ran through the wood, stumbling over the bracken lying snapped on the ground. A small birds nest was overturned on a rotted out log, broken eggs underneath. A fledgeling kookaburra, chirping miserably lay beside. She stopped and picked it up, cooing gently.
“Where’s your mummy?” Al asked, “I will call you Hillary.” Al and Hillary continued their mad run through the woods. She glanced behind her, wondering if the man was still following. All clear. Glancing forward she saw him leaning against a tree. Not all clear. The knife came down, missing her by inches, and she took off, leaping over logs with the grace of a doe, a small bird sitting on her shoulder.
Al’s eyes moved back and forth until she spotted her prize. She lunged, but Hillary got there first, guzzling down the small grub. Al’s high laugh pierced the air, and she picked up the fledgling, then waltzed back to the small hut she built half way up an old squiggly gumtree. Hillary giggled warningly causing Al to whirl around. A lone wolf growled, crawling forward with certainty, certain it would get its snack. Al backed away slowly and the wolf followed. She swallowed and looked at the tree behind it. She blinked, for she had spotted a small pup whimpering in a woodpeckers lair up the squiggly gum. The woodpecker would not be happy and would chuck out the young wolf with no regrets. Al ran toward the tree, scrambled up it, settled down Hillary in a small nook and returned the pup to its mother. Who was male? “NO!” Al realised her mistake. The mother hid the pup up there, to hide from other wolves, like the one she had just given a snack. She leaping forward, grabbed the small wolf and scrambled up the gum. Hillary laughed in fright as the baby wolf pounced on her. This wolf couldn’t stay, for Hillary’s sake.
Al pulled at the fronds sticking out of the earth. She heaved and it gave way, causing her to fall, jarring her back. She ran back to camp, grasping the carrot.
She had made a knife a while ago, and she used it now, to cut the carrot and an apple from an apple tree not far off. She lit a small fire and cooked them with some spring water. Hillary sat on a branch, watching Al, she then whirled around gliding down to the ground, guzzling up the centipede. Then she froze, wheezing loudly. Al didn’t waste a second, she swung down and scooped her up. “Are you okay? Hillary?” Hillary laughed sadly and Al bit her lip, glancing up at her home. They climbed up and collected their things and ran all the way to her old house. ‘Mother?’ Al looked around the clean, pristine house. Up the stairs to her mother’s room.
“Who are you” Al started at the sound of her mother’s voice.
“Mother? It’s me. Alice”
“No. It’s Al, not Alice.”
“I know, I changed it but that doesn’t matter, do you have any medicine. For kookaburras?”
“I am not a vet anymore. When he came and you ran...” She sniffed.
“I know, but he didn’t get me, I’m here.”
Al’s mother stood suddenly mad. “THREE MONTHS, Alice. Why did you not come back?” Al sighed.
“I didn’t know if you were here!” Al stood and handed Hillary over. “I thought he might be here and-”
“It wasn’t worth the risk.”
“Yes! Wait. No! You’re important and right. I should have come back. But do you know what’s wrong with Hillary or will I be forced to go to a different vet?”
“You wouldn’t.”
“Just help me. We can argue later but now...”
“Come” Al followed her mother back down the stairs to the shed, where the medicines were kept. It was empty. Al groaned,
“Is The Good Vet still open?” Al referred to the vet in the city a small walk away from here but her mother silenced her with a finger to her lips. She opened a trapdoor Al didn’t even know existed. “What is this place?” She said as she climbed down the ladder and gasped as she saw medicines lined up. “Wow” Her mother placed Hillary on a table and put on her gloves. A vial was emptied into the kookaburra’s mouth. After that Al turned away, not wanting to see the horrors of the vet life.
“Done”
“Good” Al scooped up Hillary and held the fledgeling to her chest.
“Will” Her mother swallowed “Will you stay?”
“Of course” She beamed down at her daughter.
“What if-”
“Gone”
ns 15.158.61.21da2
