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Bingo is not the only one to see ghosties in the night . . .
Night in the forest was of course worse than day if that were possible. Gloom oozed from beneath the thick tangle of branches and covered the ground beneath the trees in a creeping blanket of unease. Sassy did not stray too far from the little fire those above the ravine had made for themselves. She had scrunched herself up, back against a rock, knees drawn up to her chin beneath her ragged cloak. The thought of sleep gave her the willies; she was sure that if she closed her eyes the trees would creep closer and do her in. As it was, she catnapped, her lids falling wearily at intervals and just as quickly she would rub at them with her grimy fists to grind the sleepiness away.
It was during one of these bouts where she fought hard against her tiredness that she thought she saw something drifting from one tree to another. She was rubbing her eyes hard, and there in what pale moonlight could pierce the leaves, she was sure she saw a sort of shadow flit from behind one tree to another. Not just a shadow, though it was dark about its outline . . . it was sort of lighter colored . . . dull light.
‘Like a dirty, drab ghost,’ she thought to herself. Tall and moving with some purpose toward the ravine wasn’t it? She inched forward just a bit to get a better view. Her leg scraping against some loose pebbles made a small noise in the night . . . the figure disappeared. ‘Sassy, you’re just imagining it,’ she told herself, her eyes straining to catch some movement again. ‘Or maybe you weren’t,’ she argued with herself. ‘Maybe some old evil tree spirit is just looking for some fat little Hobbit to fill his woody belly . . .’ She drew back and bunched herself against the rock again. ‘If I just keep still and quiet and shut my eyes maybe it won’t see me.’
~*~
What passed for morning came too suddenly. Sassy had fallen into some semblance of exhausted sleep and it was the sound of the boys talking in the ravine and Sondo’s loud question that snapped her head up and forced her bleary eyes open. He’d found a jar, it seemed. One he’d not seen before in their packs. And just a few moments earlier, she could swear she’d heard Bingo’s voice saying something about a ghost.
Sassy shivered and stood up. She walked toward the treeline where she had seen her own phantom making for the edge of the ravine. There were no tracks she could see as she studied the ground nor was there any sign of a misty stranger lurking at the back of the trees or in the low underbrush. She shivered again imagining a pair of unseen eyes somewhere watching her. She turned back to make her way to where Reggie and Falco were, when something stirring in the breeze caught her eye.
It wasn’t a leaf, she thought, not even a weird leaf from this most odd forest. Its was a thin strip, dirty grey, uneven at its edges as if the branch it was on had reached out and torn it from something . . . something made of rough cloth, she murmured to herself, taking the scrap between her fingers and pulling it from the branch’s grip. Neither of the boys up here with her were wearing something that matched it . . . so it hadn’t been either of them.
Sassy ran back to the part of the ravine where Sondo was and crept near the edge, laying finally on her belly to call down to him and to Bingo, whom she could see still clutching his ribs where they hurt. She waved the scrap in her hand at her brother, saying Bingo hadn’t been wrong. There was something that had crept about last night; she’d seen it last night herself making for the ravine . . . but it wasn’t a ghost . . . not unless ghosts had taken to wearing clothes of some sort. Nonetheless she thought whatever it was it was bad and out to hurt them just like the trees were.
She let the little piece of material float down to where Sondo stood. ‘Don’t open that bottle,’ she cried down to him. ‘Whoever left it means us no good!’ As if to punctuate her statement, one of the trees above the ravine let fall a dead and twisted limb. It went skittering down the incline sending a shower of pebbles and dirt flying out towards those below.
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