THEY SPOKE OF INCONSEQUENTIAL things as they walked, most of the conversation taking place between Eldred and Cal, who walked behind May. They ran and jumped, laughing and joking around. May, to begin with, stayed mostly quiet, marching forward at a steady pace and trying her very best to ignore them so that she could continue to be annoyed. At one point, when she had moved far enough ahead that they could safely whisper to each other without her hearing, Cal had told Eldred that she’d had an argument with her father- he had not wanted her to go out with them that morning, insisting that she had too much work that she needed to do. She had, of course, refused and insisted that her important work was done, and that she could finish any extra tasks he had for her that evening. It was only after he’d left the room and her mother had given her permission that they’d been able to walk away and leave the house.

Eldred had nodded in understanding- this was not an uncommon occurrence- and the two had run to catch up, walking alongside her for a time.

As they got closer to their destination, climbing over the gate to the field, May had started to participate in the conversations, unable to stop herself from giggling at some of the stories or jokes Cal would tell. They were all grinning by the time they reached their pile of fort-building materials, any reservations or lingering grievances forgotten in the anticipation of having a fort to build.

Thus followed a morning of frustratingly close attempts to make a standing structure. At first they tried a conical shape, trying to balance the logs and branches together around a central post, but every attempt eventually toppled over as they could not drive the middle post deep enough into the ground, and it would work its way out as they added more weight. It took them four attempts at this shape before they changed tactics, aiming for a leaning structure instead. These next three attempts inevitably collapsed as they couldn’t get the balance of the initial structural pieces.

Discouraged after their seventh consecutive failure, the three sat on their pile of logs and ate lunch while they tried to think of a different approach.

“We could use one of the trees,” May said in between bites of her pastry.

Both Cal and Eldred gave her a look, “’S not a very impressive fort if we can’t make it stand on its own,” Cal said reproachfully, and Eldred nodded in agreement. She rolled her eyes- she’d been trying to get the other two to see reason, but so far all of her attempts had fallen of deaf ears.

“Maybe we need to find a different branch to build around,” Eldred said after a moment’s pause. “Maybe if we had a forked branch in the front, it could hold it up or something?”

Neither of his friends seemed very convinced, and none of the three were keen to venture into the forest in search of more branches again. One of the first things Eldred had done upon entering the clearing once more, as construction had begun, was return to the spot where they had first seen the dog from yesterday. Etched into the mud were the shapes of its huge paws, long claws casting deep impressions at the end of each toe. He’d attempted to scuff them, to erase the forms as though that would remove the events themselves. He’d only succeeded in making the prints softer, and their shadows remained buried under a pile of new leaves.

“The problem is,” Cal started, looking pensive, “the logs keep sliding off one’n’other, so the whole thing just collapses. Maybe if we tied ‘em together…?”

May wrinkled her nose, “With what?”

“We had some old rope at home,” Cal said hesitantly, “I don’t think dad’d mind if we took it- he said it was too frayed to use for the animals anymore.”

She raised an eyebrow, thinking this new suggestion over, “That could work, I think…” she said.

“Could you get it, Cal?” Eldred asked.

The smaller boy nodded with enthusiasm, starting to wrap up his half-eaten sandwich. “I can, and I even know how we can knot it too,” he said, standing. “If I run all the way there and back, I can be back in 20 minutes,” he added, looking off in the direction of the town.

So he went, leaving Eldred and May to pick out the best branches to create their new foundation. They carefully sorted through, deliberating heavily on how straight or thick the perfect branch would be.

By the time Cal returned, short length of old fraying rope looped around his shoulder, they had chosen a set of four that they had decided would do. The smaller boy was bent near double as he regained his breath- he really had run the entire way- but gave them a thumbs up when they asked for his approval of their choice.

With new tools in hand they set about building the eighth version of their fort- combining a mixture of their previous tactics and using the rope to their best ability to hold their central supports together. After a while, they had what could be considered a shelter- the structure leaned on the four initial branches and an extra two that the trio had decided on mid-way through construction, forming a tent-shape that was then filled out with all of the other branches they had found. Their smaller sticks and twigs were interspersed through the structure, leaning horizontally and vertically against the walls wherever they decided reinforcement was necessary.

When their pile of sticks dwindled, and their fort, although much smaller than any of the three had pictured, had most of its structure, they set about collecting leaves with which to cover it with. This, they were sure, would help keep rain off- a feature all three were starting to consider very necessary as the sky continued to darken with storm clouds.

It was mid afternoon, and the fort was half-covered. The three had gathered within, Cal just able to stand at the apex of its roof, the other two crouching in the packed dirt, and were debating how exactly to go about keeping the leaves on the taller parts of the structure. There was a moment of quiet where their conversation died into silence, and the three were left listening to the ambient sounds of the forest around them- or lack thereof, as they realised with some growing horror.

Eldred was the first to notice, the wind swelling in a gust that carried more than a few leaves from the roof above them, and then calming mere moments later. As the sound of leaves rustling quieted he waited, hoping that he would hear something- a bird’s call, a squirrel darting to another branch- he hoped he would hear anything than what he found himself waiting for.

Cal and May weren’t far behind, first taking note of their friend’s sudden apprehension, and then feeling the nerves start to set in themselves as they realised he was looking out between the gaps of their hide, scanning the trees before them.

It was May who broke the silence, her voice a wavering whisper that the other two almost missed in the once-more rising wind. “It’s not back, is it?”

Eldred glanced at her, worry clear on his face, and he shook his head hesitantly before looking back out. Was that shadow he saw just a particularly gnarled tree, or was that the hulking form of the hound, stalking closer to them?

Already he was starting to regret not mentioning the dog to his mother, a thought he was certain the three of them shared- maybe it wouldn’t have been so bad to not visit the forest. Maybe it would have been better for the three of them to stay away and find a new place to play. Or maybe, he thought suddenly, maybe the dog would have found them again wherever they went. What confined the dog to just the forest? Eldred was certain it could jump over the fences and hedges that bordered the neighbouring fields with ease.

He heard a whimper behind him and turned to see Cal staring in horror at something off to the side of them. May had already moved to see, and had frozen in place, eyes wide with fear.

Eldred felt the dread rise within him, and he found himself wanting to just stop and sit down, to curl up into a ball and not even look at what he already knew was there. In some childish way he hoped that by not seeing it, the dog would not be there.

Despite this desperate need, he peered out beside his friends, looking around the half-closed side to see the shape moving beyond, and he felt his heart skip a beat.

Beyond the wooden walls around them moved the hound, emerging from the tree line with caution and starting to circle their meagre fort. It seemed wary, pausing every few steps to look into the trees, its ears swivelling on its head to capture any and all sounds. Eldred knew with certainty that it could smell them- the beast snuffed at the ground, looking toward their hiding place- but he did not think it had seen them, quite yet. He looked toward his friends, who had joined him to watch the creature as it moved around to the side Eldred had been looking out of and wondered desperately if they could escape it again.

The dog lifted its head, giving a low huff, and from behind Eldred heard an answering call. The panic rose within him- there were more?

Somehow this had not even occurred to the boy as a possibility, and he cringed at his own stupidity.

May had gone white, blood draining from her face, and Cal stared hollowly as the beast before them continued its slow circuit. Behind, the sound of leaves crinkling beneath the second dog’s great paws became apparent as it moved in time with its companion.

Eldred’s mind raced- what could they do? Where could they go? How could they get out of this place? All of the feelings from the day before returned- the cramped burrow beneath the tree, the nauseating fear that was even now rising within him, the pure bestial terror he had felt as he ran. But Cal and May had been safe- the dog had ignored them to chase him. A terrible sense of foreboding started to rise through the fear, and following it a feeling of clarity.

He took a deep breath, trying very hard to calm himself, to still his shaking hands, to slow his quickening breathing. He looked to Cal and May again, both transfixed in the horror of the performance the two hounds were putting on for them. The first was coming up to the other side of their shelter, the side that was almost completely open. It would see them soon anyway, and what would happen then? The second hound was about half-way across the longer side, opposite the first hound. It was only getting closer to the mostly obscured entrance, and they were only running out of time.

He reached out, waving a hand to catch their attention, and the two glanced over to see the source of movement. He pointed toward the open side without the dogs and saw how their faces changed to react. May’s eyes widened in fear and uncertainty, and she shook her head a little. Cal, with a clearer view of the first dog was more on board, his face setting into a look of cold determination.

Eldred nodded his head at May with urgency, and her features screwed up as though she would cry. She shut her eyes and nodded her agreement.

The three of them moved then, springing from their shelter and sprinting out into the open. Eldred heard both dogs stop as they practically flew across the clearing, slipping into the trees on the other side. There was a sudden burst of sound as both dogs sprang into chase, and he heard the rushing as they leaped into the trees to pick up the chase.

He didn’t know where they would run, he didn’t know where they could go that would be safe from the hounds. They were gaining distance right now, having chosen the path with the most densely packed trees, running off at an angle from the direction Eldred had fled the day before. Where the children weaved between tree trunks and jumped over the dips and curves of the land, the dogs swerved in frustration as they had to take a detour to pass the packed trees.

There was a moment, barely a minute into their flight, where Eldred wondered if they’d even managed to outrun the dogs- the sound of their thundering steps had quieted to silence, and over the sound of his own panicked foot falls he couldn’t figure out if it’d moved somewhere else.

This illusion was quickly broken as May’s skirts caught on something- a thorn bush, a rogue branch- the catalyst of the event mattered little given the import of the consequences- and she dropped, her ankle twisting out from beneath her. She gasped in pain, tears welling in her eyes. Cal and Eldred both staggered to a stop, Cal going to help May, his face a mask of fear, while Eldred watched for the dogs.

Their approach quickly became obvious- they had circled around to their left, and he could make out the huge shapes growing steadily closer, loping across the uneven terrain with ease, fixated on the three of them. Eldred’s heart sank, and he looked down at May and Cal with concern. Cal was pulling her to her feet, shoulder under her arm in support. He and Eldred exchanged terrified looks, and they started to limp along again, at a greatly reduced pace.

The dogs were gaining faster than ever, eating up the space between them in seconds. They would be caught- this was it.

He had to do something. “Cal!” He called breathlessly, still staring behind them in fear, “Go behind… tree!” he panted, gesturing toward a particularly large tree that was coming up ahead of them. “I’ll-” he pointed ahead, “take them.”

His friend looked horrified, and May shook her head incredulously. Eldred could hear the crashing sounds of the dogs approaching.

It was now or never.

He broke into a run again, kicking forward and putting on a burst of speed he was surprised he had in him, Cal and May shouting in surprise at his sudden movement. He took a deep breath and started to call out, trying as hard as he could to draw the attention of the dogs. He glanced behind him, lungs screaming, to see Cal and May hobble behind the tree, staring after him with anticipatory horror.

 They seemed to hesitate at first, still set on their previous course, and for a moment Eldred was terrified that his plan would fail, that they wouldn’t take the bait and that he had instead caused his friends’ deaths.

Then, with the final yell he could muster, their snouts angled toward him, and they turned to chase only him. Fresh panic blossomed in his chest as he watched them bound past the tree his friends were hiding behind, firmly set on their target: Him.