Leo and Howl
‘Don’t let him touch you, Faye!’ Isobel giggled. She darted round a gnarled and ancient tree, kicking up the fallen leaves and dove between the brambles, her blonde hair swishing.
Faye hopped backwards, her new trainers covered in mud. Leo’s hand swiped the air where his friend had been, he grunted, ‘No fair!’
‘You’re just slow, Leo!’ Faye stuck out her tongue, blue with lollypop juice, and sprinted after Isobel.
Leo chased the pair, thorns scratched his arms and the branches clawed at his eyes. He burst out into an opening. ‘You’re too slow, Leo. Give it up,’ Theodore said, sitting atop a tree branch a dozen feet in the air.
‘Yeah, and you can’t climb either,’ Vincent said. He sat upon a branch higher up than Theodore, a pinecone in hand.
Leo ignored them and set his sights on Faye. If he could catch her then she’d be the one chasing them. He could get away and they’d laugh at her instead. Faye fell. Her hands slipped from the branch and she landed on her back, legs in the air. Leo ran.
‘Quick, Faye!’ Isobel shouted, her hand stretched out for Faye to grab on to.
Leo felt the word bubble up inside him. Fingers splayed. I’ve tagged her, he thought. Just as he opened his mouth something struck his forehead. His vision spun to the left and he slipped and landed in the muddy leaves.
‘Nice shot, Vincent!’ Theodore clapped.
Leo hissed as he sat up and felt his forehead. His fingers came away red. Faye was up the tree with Isobel, the two giggling to themselves. ‘That’s not fair!’ Leo said, looking up at his friends.
‘What you gonna do? You can’t climb up here,’ Vincent laughed, kicking his legs back and forth in the air.
Leo found the pinecone and tossed it. He grunted as he watched it arc wide and land harmlessly in the leaves a hundred paces from him. ‘Fine then! Have fun up there,’ Leo kicked a pile of dead leaves and ran off into the forest. His forehead stung and the blood gathered under his fingernails.
Leo walked a path he hadn’t been on before, kicking a stone and whacking the nearby flora with his stick. ‘Stupid, Vince. Stupid, Theo. Stupid, Isobel. Stupid, Faye,’ the leaves he hit exploded into ribbons. His misery remained. He sighed and let his stick fall by his side. ‘Stupid, Leo.’ The silence of the forest swallowed his words.
A soft chirping sound cut through the quiet. The bushes shook and the autumn leaves rustled. Leo couldn’t see anything beyond the long pointed green leaves. They shook again. He knelt and spotted something white and grey within. Whatever it was quivered. Leo squinted and found a pair of dark blue eyes staring back. ‘Hey,’ he said. The animal cowered. ‘It’s alright. I didn’t mean to scare you,’ he held out his hand like he would for Joey, his neighbours dog.
The animal cowered further.
Leo sighed and his hand dropped to his side. Maybe, ‘You hungry? I think I have some lunch left,’ he reached into his jacket pocket and found a tinfoil parcel with half a sandwich inside. He took a bite, ham and cheese, and tore a piece off for the little white creature. ‘It’s my favourite, you’ll like it too.’ He tossed it just under the bush.
The animal shifted at the rustle of the sandwich hitting the leaves. The chirping turned to a quizzical purr and the small, four legged, beast leapt out into the open, nose twitching as it sniffed. It padded the ground until it found the sandwich and pecked at it with a wide flat beak. Two pointed ears stood upright.
‘Woah! What are you?’ Leo reached out with his hand to stroke the feathered mammal, no taller than his boot.
The animal skittered back, a piece of ham dangling from its beak. Two blue eyes grew dark. The down on its back bristled.
‘Friend,’ Leo said pressing his hand to his heart then reaching out again. He turned the back of his hand towards the animal. Maybe it’s like a cat.
The animal finished the chunk of sandwich and started sniffing at his hand. A few sniffs on one finger, a few on another, and then it butted itself under. Leo got the hint and scratched the creature around the neck, ruffling a few feathers and down. ‘You’re not a dog. You're not a cat. That’s an owls peak and feathers but you don’t have wings. What are you?’ He rifled through the memories of reading his father’s encyclopaedias. Not a single creature, mammal or bird, came to mind. ‘Well your ears are shaped like a hare’s but not as long,’ he ran a hand along one. The feathers felt like silk. ‘I’m going to call you Howl.’
Howl made a sound somewhere between chirruping and purring, pushing his head into Leo’s hand.
Leo laughed, ‘Alright, Howl. Are you alone?’
Howl’s ears stood up again and he chirrupurred up at Leo before hopping off deeper into the woods. The animal stopped and looked back. His wide eyes and beaked face asking, ‘Are you coming?’ Leo stood up and saw feathers in the leaves, longer white ones than what Howl had. ‘Huh, did you become separated?’ he said. Howl hopped back to Leo and pressed his head against his leg. Leo started towards the feathers. Howl struggled to keep up on his short legs. More feathers revealed themselves further on, nestled within the autumn leaves. ‘Come on, Howl. Let’s get you home.’
Howl chirrupurred.
‘Good thing I found you, I’m lost out here,’ Leo said pressing his stick into a patch of mud. A lone mucky feather was half submerged. Howl made a low growling coo. ‘You too? Well at least we have each other.’ Leo continued along the path, or what counted as one so deep in the forest. The trees crowded each other, many yet to drop their orange and brown leaves. Thorn bushes and stinging nettles grew in knots between the trees and ivy snaked across all of it. Leo didn’t think trees could grow so tall, he looked up and saw only a tiny patch of dark blue through the thousands of gangly branches. ‘I’d like to see Vince and Theo try and climb those. First branch is ten foot in the air.’
Howl chirped at his feet, clawing his trouser leg and looking up with big eyes.
‘You want something to eat?’ Leo said.
Howl sat down with a huff.
‘Oh you want me to carry you?’ Leo picked Howl up in both arms and held him against his chest, his short legs dangling. ‘You're heavier than you look,’ Leo’s arms vanished in a swirl of feather and down. He held his stick under his arm.
The trail of feathers continued into the forest. Rays of light were orange and red, piercing through the trees and casting long, eery, shadows to Leo’s right. ‘Hope you have a nice warm home round here,’ he hugged Howl harder. The animal chirrupurred. Together they emerged through thorns and branches into a glade of mud and feathers. Beads of blood stained the white and silver feathers. Howl wriggled and squirmed until Leo set him on the ground. The beast sniffed and pecked at the soft mud until he reached the feathers and blood. Howl stood bolt up right and hopped back to Leo slipping behind his legs.
‘What is it, Howl?’
The animal growled, eyes pointed straight ahead. Leo followed the gaze but found only thorn bushes and nettles entangling the trunks of a half-dozen ancient trees. Bulbous branches, gnarled and twisted with age, shuddered in the breeze. Yellowed leaves flitted on the air to land in the mud. ‘There’s nothing there, Howl.’
The squat feathered mammal growled louder.
A hissing drifted on the breeze from above. The leaves rustled. Goosebumps prickled Leo’s skin. A yellowish brown branch moved overhead, slithering down the trunk of an aged tree. Thick and scaled and long enough to swallow Leo whole. Leo gulped and raised his stick. A slim yellow head with two black beads for eyes popped up from the bushes, mouth wide and hissing, with two long fangs slick with venom emerging from a pink maw. Leo gasped and stepped back. He tripped over Howl and landed flat on his back. The yellow serpent rose up above Howl and hissed.
Howl growled and leapt at the slithering foe, pecking at its scales. Leo leapt to his feet, stick in hand. The serpent reared back, jaw dislocated. Leo whacked the yellow terror between the eyes. The serpent fell to the ground like a piece of string and lay dazed.
‘Howl! Come on!’ Leo yelled and ran across the muddy glade. He reached the bloodied feathers and Howl cooed off to one corner near a feather lodged between two thorns. The serpent hissed and began slithering towards Leo. Without a thought he ran to Howl and the pair barged through thorn and branch deeper into the wood.
Moonlight trickled in through the branches above. Gentle soft blue light flowed over autumn leaves and caught on black thorns. The trees seemed larger, the thorns sharper, and the leaves crunched louder. Leo buttoned his jacket and stuffed his hands in his pockets. A bite of sandwich remained in its foil wrapped. He unwrapped it and Howl’s eyes peered up, sad and wanting. Leo’s stomach rumbled at the smell of ham and cheese. ‘Here you go, Howl,’ Leo held the leftovers in his palm. Howl pecked and pecked and pecked until there was naught but crumbs. The feathered beast chirrupurred and brushed up against Leo’s hand. Leo stroked Howl between the ears. ‘I hope we’re close to your home. It’s cold, late, and my parents are going to be worried. I’ve missed dinner and my friends have left me. Well you haven’t.’
With that Howl snapped to attention, his eyes peering off into the gloom of the undergrowth, and sniffed. Leo stood up and held his stick out in front two-handed. ‘What is it? The serpent?’
Howl chirped.
Something chirped back.
Howl chirped and hopped towards the sound, his back legs launching him further than their length suggested. He vanished amidst the rustle of leaves and branches.
‘Howl!’ Leo said, his voice carrying far into the wood. ‘Not you too,’ Leo muttered, tapping his leg with the stick. ‘Wait for me,’ he shouted and sprinted after the little feathered fiend.
Leo burst out into a glade where moonlight pooled and the smothering dark forest recoiled. ‘Howl?’ A feathered mammal leapt from out of the ground ahead, a gush of down and twig in its wake. Two more followed. The smallest, Howl, was last. The trio chirrupurred and wrestled in the brittle leaves.
A louder, gruffer, purr sounded from the burrow. A grey feathered animal emerged, twice the size of Howl, with a mottled beak and cruel eyes. The larger one bounded at Leo. The boy dropped his stick, ‘Friend!’ he said touching his heart. But the mother charged regardless.
Howl chirrupurred and hopped between mother and Leo and rubbed his head against Leo’s leg. The mother halted and cocked her head to one side with a coo. Her ears lay flat against her head and her eyes softened. She waddled over to Leo, sniffed his hand and licked the ends of his fingers.
‘Leo! Leo!’ Vincent’s voice pierced the dark. Howl’s ears perked up and the four feathered creatures looked in the direction of the sound. The mother nudged each one in turn back to the burrow. Howl chirrupurred to Leo and dove into his home. His two siblings followed.
‘We’re sorry! Where are you?’ Isobel was close by. Howl’s mother purred and pecked at the down, pulling it over the burrow from inside, then vanished inside.
‘Leo!’ His four friends called at once.
Leo smiled and dove back into the wood shouting, ‘Coming!’
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