Ashley blinked. Looking up at her from behind the foliage she’d just pulled aside was a baby koala. It sat still, its eyes fixed on her, and she hardly dared to breathe in case she scared it off.
Oh wow! She hadn’t realised how sweet a young koala would be. It was far cuter than Jemima. It was far more alert too: frozen, but staring at her fixedly.
She didn’t want to frighten it by calling for Micky, so she slowly moved back and let the branch fall into place again. She backed away from the tree, turned around and started running after her aunt. When she was far enough away from the baby, she began to yell. ‘Wait! I’ve found one!’
Micky halted and turned around. ‘What?’
‘There’s a baby. In the fallen tree.’
‘A joey,’ Micky said. ‘Well done. Grab the cage and let’s go check him out. Did he look hurt?’
‘I couldn’t tell,’ Ashley panted. She snatched up the cage and started to run back towards the tree.
‘Slowly!’ Micky called. ‘He’s not going anywhere. Move slowly and quietly around koalas, kid. Especially wild ones in trouble.’
Ashley forced herself to walk at Micky’s limping pace, though it was frustrating. But at last they were back at the tree. She tiptoed to the same place and raised the branch.
The joey was still there, staring out at them with wide eyes from his hiding place deep in the fallen branches.
‘Why hello, little one,’ Micky murmured. She scanned the site. ‘Where’s your mother, then?’
‘I didn’t see another one,’ Ashley said.
Micky thought for a moment. ‘Let’s get this one first, and then we’ll look for the mother. She might still be around nearby.’
‘How do we get him?’ Ashley asked.
Micky was silent for a few moments, looking into the tangled mass of branches and leaves. ‘I don’t think I can get in there, not with this stupid ankle. You’ll have to climb through the branches with the cage and one of the towels. When you get close to the joey, you gently put the towel over him and scoop him up. Don’t pick him up under the arms or by the ribs. You sort of tease him off the branch and bundle him into the cage, very softly. Joeys are usually easy to catch like that. What do you think? Are you up to it?’
Ashley stood up straighter and nodded. ‘Sure.’
‘Good. It’s very rare for joeys to turn vicious. I’m sure you’ll be fine.’
Vicious? Ashley looked in at the joey again. It was true his claws looked sharp enough to give a nasty scratch. Well, there wasn’t much she could do about it now. She picked up the cage and the towel, ducked her head under the branch and began manoeuvring her way towards the baby koala.
The creature is coming for him. Youngster shrinks backwards.
He thinks of his mother and what she did to the last creature that chased them. She used her claws to scare it off and give them time to get up the tree. But there is nowhere for him to go now, and no mother to protect him. He’s stayed unseen in The Hidden until now, but another creature has found him and there’s nothing he can do to escape.
He wills himself to stay silent as it comes close. Where is his mother? If she was here, she would use her claws on the creature and protect him, but she’s gone.
The creature raises an enormous hand and then blackness engulfs him.
Ashley tugged gently at the bundle and felt the joey release its grip on the branches. So far, so good. Balancing him carefully, she angled herself around, which was hard in the muddle of criss-crossed branches and leaves. Finally she was able to place the bundle into the cage.
‘Make sure he can breathe,’ Micky called in to her. ‘Pull the towel back until you can see his nose.’
Ashley moved the towel and again found herself looking down into the joey’s eyes. For a moment, in the half-light of the fallen tree, it was a bit like looking at a puppy’s eyes. Then the joey’s big black nose twitched as he stared at her.
Dexter! she thought. And then wondered where the name had come from. She’d never even met anyone called Dexter. She shut the cage and began backing out between the branches. She knocked her head, but didn’t want Micky to notice her being clumsy, so she ignored it.
‘Just leave the cage under the leaves at the edge of the tree,’ Micky said. ‘We need to keep the joey as quiet as possible until we find the mother. If we do. You go that way, I’ll go the other.’
They searched for about twenty minutes and Ashley was ready to give up when she heard a soft call from her aunt. She scrambled around the edge of the fallen tree and found Micky kneeling on the ground, holding up a branch. She wasn’t prepared for what was lying beneath it.
The adult koala was lying on her side, not moving, and where her eyes should have been were two pink, swollen bulges of skin. There was barely even a slit to show where the eyes were.
Ashley gulped. ‘Is she alive?’
Micky nodded. ‘Unfortunately, yes.’
‘Why unfortunately?’
‘She probably won’t survive. See that blood on her fur? It looks like she’s been injured; and she has advanced conjunctivitis. The storm was the last straw for her.’
Ashley felt a lump in her throat as she looked down at the motionless koala. ‘What are we going to do?’
Micky looked grim. ‘Get her in the cage and get them both back home. Then I’ll have to make some phone calls. They need to see the vet urgently, but the road will still be flooded. I don’t know how we’ll deal with that yet.’
‘What about the baby?’
Micky shook her head. ‘It’ll be tough without his mother, but he’s well grown. He might make it. Bring me the cage.’
Ashley set off at a run to grab the cage. Her elation at finding the joey and getting him into the cage had been replaced by a heavy, sad feeling in her chest. The little joey was probably going to lose his mother, and it looked like there was nothing she could do about it.