It wasn’t as easy as just strolling down the hill to check on the koalas. Ex-tropical Cyclone Jasper hadn’t quite finished with them, so it was windy and still raining. The thick carpet of fallen leaves made every step slippery. Micky had to pick her way carefully along, using two walking sticks so she didn’t skid. Ashley trudged behind, carrying a big, heavy cage. Within minutes her arms were aching from the load.
‘Down here,’ Micky said, indicating where the path branched off from the road and went into the bush. ‘The colony lives on the side of this hill.’
They climbed slowly down the narrow path. Ashley emerged from the group of trees into open grassland. She heard Micky groan.
‘What’s wrong?’
Her aunt was shaking her head. ‘Look how many trees are down. It’s terrible.’
The hillside had taken the full force of the storm and Ashley could see trees of all sizes knocked askew. Some were snapped off, and a few of the larger ones lower down on the hillside had fallen over and were lying with their roots exposed.
‘How long will they take to grow back?’ she asked.
‘Too long for the koalas,’ Micky said. ‘They only live in such a small area anyway.’
Ashley was surprised to see that her aunt had tears in her eyes. Micky joked about everything, but the damage to the koalas’ home had really upset her.
‘What are we going to do?’ she asked.
Micky lowered herself to sit on a fallen trunk. ‘I need to rest for a bit, and then we’ll look for koalas. They’re not that easy to spot, especially up in the trees. You can walk right past them without knowing. Of course we’ll mainly be looking for any on the ground.’
Ashley felt sorry for her aunt. As well as being upset, Micky had gone very pale again, which probably meant her foot was hurting. ‘I’ll start, while you have a rest,’ she said.
Micky shrugged. ‘I doubt you’ll find anything if you don’t know what to look for, but give it a go. If you do find a koala, don’t touch it for heaven’s sake. Come back and get me.’
Ashley set off, trudging through the thick grass, weaving around the fallen trees and branches. The rain had settled to a drizzle and she could hear the roar of the ocean in the distance.
Looking for koalas was much harder than it sounded. The trees were tossing in the wind and it was nearly impossible to see if there were any grey furry creatures hiding in the forks. The rain got in her eyes and made her blink, and if she concentrated too hard on looking up, then she couldn’t watch where she was putting her feet. It would be hopeless if she twisted her ankle too.
The trees on the ground weren’t much easier. The two large ones that had fallen right over were enormous, and the jumble of leaves and branches were impenetrable. Ashley walked around the edges and tried clambering through the branches, but it was very hard to see anything. Micky was right, she thought. There could have been a hundred koalas hidden in there and she wouldn’t have seen any of them.
She heard a ‘Cooee!’ and backed out of the tree. Micky was standing at the foot of a tall, straight gum, pointing up into the branches. Ashley stumbled and slipped across the grass to join her.
‘There’s one,’ Micky said.
Ashley craned her neck and followed the line of Micky’s finger. Eventually she made out a speckled, furry bottom high up in a fork of the tree.
‘That’s one of the males, the boss of the colony,’ Micky said. ‘There’s a female over there in the tallowwood, and another female and a joey in the forest red gum. That’s good. I was worried the whole group might have been wiped out. But there should be a few more.’
Ashley was amazed. She hadn’t seen a single one of the koalas that Micky was pointing out to her. She looked at her aunt with renewed respect.
Micky indicated another one of the fallen trees. ‘You take that one, kid. Just concentrate on one tree and look as hard as you can. I’ll do the other big one. It will be easier to see any that are on the ground. Don’t worry, it’s always hard to spot them in the trees.’
Ashley decided to be methodical in her search of the fallen tree, walking a few steps, peering into the mass of foliage, walking another few steps and doing the same. She worked her way around the whole tree, peering, lifting the smaller branches, trying to see right through the maze of green.
‘No luck?’ Micky walked up behind her. ‘I haven’t found anything either. Perhaps the storm has driven the rest of the group out of their range.’ She shrugged and blinked her eyes. ‘I hate not knowing, but I don’t think there’s much more we can do here. Can you cut some leaf from the top branches that haven’t touched the ground? We may as well take advantage of it, given it’s only fallen a few hours ago. I’ll just sit down for a few minutes while you’re busy, and then we’ll head home.’
Ashley took the secateurs and skirted around the branches to the very top of the tree, which was a mass of leaves. It only took a few moments to cut a bundle of leaf and she tied it together with rope.
‘Come on, kid!’ she heard her aunt call. ‘There’s more rain coming.’
Ashley hung the rope over her shoulder and turned away from the tree. Micky was at the foot of the track already, waiting.
Afterwards, she didn’t know what it was that made her turn around. She remembered a funny cold feeling between her shoulder blades, as if a raindrop had worked its way inside her collar and run down her back. She swivelled her head and looked back at the tree one last time.
Youngster hears the crunch of feet on the leaves and shivers. It’s not the same creature that attacked his mother, but it is huge and heavy, and its footsteps make the earth shake and the leaves rattle. He hunches lower, hoping that it won’t smell him.
He’s on the ground, in the Bright, and his mother has told him so many times how dangerous that is. He rolls himself more tightly, makes himself smaller, hoping not to be seen.
The footsteps fall silent and he waits, hardly daring to breathe. The rain comes down harder again and he can’t tell if the creature has gone away or not.
He doesn’t know where his mother is. He’s been alone since the tree fell, huddling in the shelter of its branches, not knowing what to do. He’s called her, over and over, with soft yips, but she hasn’t answered him. He’s wet and cold, and cannot stop shivering.
The creature must have gone, he thinks. He yips once, twice, for his mother.
The branches in front of him part and the light streams in, dazzling him. A face pushes into the gap and two big eyes stare straight at him.
He would run, but there is nowhere to run. He stares back, frozen.