Barmah Brumbies

by Soraya Nicholas

Poppy crawled into the tent, pulling the bag and Milly with her. Katie scooted in behind and quickly zipped it up. Katie turned on a torch, and Milly made funny faces, the light and shadows playing across her features as she started munching her way through the packet of chocolate biscuits.

  ‘Did you hear that?’ said Katie, suddenly.

  Poppy paused, her hand resting on the almost empty biscuit packet. She stifled a sigh. ‘No, Katie. I didn’t hear anything.’

  Katie’s eyes were so wide they reminded Poppy of a balloon about to pop! ‘I heard something. A rustling.’

  Milly licked her chocolatey fingers as she made a face at Poppy then turned to Katie. ‘You’re probably right. It could be a possum or a kangaroo or a lizard or . . .’

  ‘Not helping!’ Katie muttered.

  ‘Yeah, shut up, Mils,’ Poppy said, nudging Milly affectionately. She swiped a biscuit. ‘There was no noise, okay?’

  She was about to take a bite when . . .

  Rustle. Rustle.

  ‘Who’s hearing things now?’ Katie hissed.

  Poppy froze. Her mouth was suddenly dry as she dropped her biscuit and held out her hand to Katie.

  Rustle. Rustle.

  Something was out there!

  It was Milly who reached for the torch, holding it between them. No one said anything. Silence stretched endlessly and Poppy strained her ears, wondering if she’d imagined it, wondering if . . .

  ‘Ugggghhhhhhh!’ Katie screamed.

  A huge shadow loomed outside the tent. Poppy’s heart was beating so hard she thought it was going to leap straight out of her chest. A scream locked in her throat as the shadow swiped at the tent.

  We’re going to die. Something is hunting us. Poppy’s mind was screaming out words that never came out of her mouth.

  ‘Arghhhh!’ Milly shrieked.

  Woof!

  ‘What on earth?’ Poppy exclaimed.

  Woof! Woof! Woof!

  ‘Casper?’ Milly unzipped the tent.

  Even though she’d heard the bark, Poppy’s heart was still racing, and Katie held her hand so tight she thought it was going to break.

  ‘It could be a dingo come to eat us!’ Katie wailed. ‘Don’t open it!’

  But even as she spoke a ball of fur came hurtling into the tent, muddy paws flying over their sleeping-bags, long wet tongue slathering them as Casper leapt around in circles, not seeming to know whom he was most excited about finding.

  ‘Casper!’ Poppy scolded, trying to grab his collar and hold him down. ‘Naughty boy! You frightened the life out of us!’

  ‘I’m going to kill that dog!’ Katie bellowed. ‘This is not a game, Casper!’

  Milly was laughing, bear hugging Casper and wrangling him to the ground. ‘Yuk, he stinks!’ she squealed. ‘You’re so gross, Casper!’

  Poppy’s heart had finally slowed and she looked over at Katie, her face still pale as a ghost’s, and offered a smile. ‘I’m sorry he scared you like that,’ she said. ‘He must have been out looking for us. He’s a mess.’

  Casper’s usually beautiful coat was covered in leaves and grass, and his legs were filthy. He must have stopped for a drink in the creek before surprising them.

  ‘Grab the phone,’ Katie said, her voice still shaky but starting to sound more like her normal practical self. ‘I wonder how long he’s been missing?’

  Poppy fumbled for her bag and found her phone, grimacing when she noticed a missed call and two text messages. She’d had it on silent during the ride and totally forgotten all about checking in again with her aunt and uncle. She scanned the first text.

  Casper has disappeared. Let us know if you see or hear him.

  Poppy swiped down to the next message.

  Any sign of Casper? We’re getting worried. Please check in before bed.

  ‘Looks like he’s been missing a while,’ Poppy told the others, elbowing Casper away when he tried to lick her face again. ‘Can you give him something to eat? Anyone have some leftover sandwich?’

  Poppy replied to Aunt Sophie.

  Casper here. He scared us to death scratching outside the tent! We’ll keep him zipped in with us for the night.

  She put her phone down and reached over to stroke Casper. Better him than a wild fox!

  ‘Come on,’ she said. ‘Let’s snuggle down and go to sleep.’ It had been a long day and her eyelids were starting to droop, although Casper was panting so loudly from his adventure that she doubted any of them would be able to sleep for a while yet. ‘You’re crazy, you know that? Crazy but clever,’ she told the dog.

  ‘No way we’re sleeping yet!’ Milly argued. ‘We still have snacks to eat, and besides, there’s no one here telling us to go to sleep. We can stay awake all night if we want.’

  A slow grin spread across Poppy’s face. ‘True.’ She rubbed at her eyes and reached for a bottle of Sprite she’d tucked into her bag when she’d been packing the food. Maybe the sugar would help her to stay awake. She unscrewed the top and took a big gulp, before passing it to Katie.

  ‘I’m never going to be able to sleep now anyway,’ Katie moaned after taking a swig and passing the bottle over to Milly.

  ‘You definitely won’t be able to sleep once I’m finished telling my first scary story,’ Milly said in a low voice. ‘So, one night around a campfire two friends were sitting, listening to the silence . . . when they heard a noise. Drip, drip, drip, it went.’

  ‘Noooo.’ Katie put her fingers in her ears. ‘La-la-la-la, can’t hear you.’

  Poppy laughed.

  ‘Come on, it’s just a story!’ Milly protested, holding the torch to her chin and making a ghoulish face.

  ‘La-la-la-la-la-la,’ Katie kept on singing. ‘La-la-la-la-la.’

  Milly had her mouth open wide, eyes crossed, like she was pretending to be a zombie.

  ‘Milly, stop!’ Katie demanded.

  Poppy sipped more Sprite and snuggled up to Casper. ‘Hey, if we don’t get eaten alive by anything tonight, we should do this more often next holidays. We could camp at lots of different spots around the farm.’

  ‘Not helping, Pops,’ Katie groaned. ‘I’m trying to think of us not being eaten alive!’

  Just then a screeching noise made Poppy’s heart stop. She shivered.

  ‘Poppy?’ Katie whimpered.

  Casper let out a loud woof and wagged his tail.

  Poppy took a deep breath, knowing she was just unnerved because of Katie. ‘It’ll just be a bat,’ she said. ‘Look, give me the torch.’

  Her hand was shaking as she took the torch from Milly and bravely unzipped the tent, poking her head out and shining the torch around. She scanned the trees, going from branch to branch, but she couldn’t see anything.

  ‘Where is it?’ Katie asked.

  Poppy gulped, wishing she’d been able to see something to put them all at ease. Just then the noise sounded out again and she shone her torch around wildly.

  ‘There.’ Katie’s voice sounded as soft as a breath of air. ‘There are two bats hanging there. When you see them like that, they’re actually really sweet-looking.’

  Poppy leaned into her, their heads pressed together. ‘Yeah, they are pretty cute little guys,’ she said, as if she’d been so sure all along. ‘Let’s just put on some music so we can’t hear anything else.’

  Poppy zipped the tent back, glancing up at the trees one last time.

  ‘Don’t tell me you’re spooked out now too?’ Milly asked. ‘I can’t babysit both of you.’

  Poppy laughed. ‘No way. Not me.’

  It was only half a lie. Up until a few minutes ago she hadn’t been scared of anything!

  Casper was snoring loudly now, and Poppy slipped into her sleeping-bag to stay warm, struggling to stretch out her legs with the heavy dog in the way. It was going to be a very, very long night.

  Poppy opened her eyes and stretched her arms out before clambering out of her sleeping-bag and quietly unzipping the tent. The others were snoring still and she left them
to sleep; they’d talked and eaten way too much until late into the night. She rubbed her eyes when she poked her head out, the sunlight bright. Spring was her favourite time of year, especially the lovely mornings when it was so close to being summer and the sun shone high from early in the day.

  She climbed out and Casper pushed past her eagerly and ran over to the ponies. Crystal was standing with Cody, patiently waiting behind the tape. She grinned and gave her pony a little wave. It was so cool waking up and having Crystal right there.

  Six more sleeps until we’ll be doing this every day!

  She turned to go back into the tent then quickly spun back around. Wait a minute: there were only two horses standing on the other side of the temporary fence.

  She rubbed at her eyes again and stared, her heart pounding as she frantically scanned for another horse.

  ‘Milly, wake up!’ she yelled, frozen like a statue as she kept her eyes locked on the horses. ‘We’ve lost Joe!’

  How could they have lost a horse? Where could he have gone between them falling asleep and waking up?

  ‘Milly!’

  ‘What?’ Milly burst out of the tent, her hair a halo of wild curls around her. ‘What do you meant we’ve lost him?’

  Katie emerged behind her, a hair tie between her teeth as she scooped her long hair back into a ponytail.

  ‘I mean that he’s gone,’ Poppy said. ‘He must’ve escaped during the night.’

  Milly was immobile for a second, clearly in shock, before tearing off in just her socks towards the creek.

  ‘Milly, come back. We’ll all go looking for him.’

  ‘Nooooo!’ Milly wailed. ‘Joe! Joe!’ she yelled. ‘Joe, where are you?’

  Poppy traded looks with Katie, trying to stay calm. ‘Do you think we should pack up first, or just go looking for him?’

  Katie shrugged. ‘I don’t know. But we might start looking for him and find out he’s made his way home, so maybe packing up here properly first would be best?’

  Poppy agreed. ‘Come on, let’s do it quickly before she freaks out even more.’

  Casper appeared, wagging his tail. He shook and sprayed Poppy with water. ‘Ew!’ she squealed. ‘Get away!’ Casper woofed and danced on the spot, tail whipping back and forth behind him. ‘Casper!’

  ‘We need to go!’ Milly announced as she ran back toward them, pushing past the dog, hands on her hips. ‘He could be anywhere by now!’

  ‘Milly, calm down,’ Poppy said, planting her hands on her friend’s shoulders. ‘He escaped, he wasn’t stolen, so it’s just a matter of finding him and catching him. He’s on the property somewhere. Everything’s going to be okay.’ Or at least, she hoped it was.

  Milly’s eyes were wild. ‘I hadn’t even thought about him being stolen! What if someone took him? Ohmygod, what if he’s gone forever?’

  She began dancing around on the spot, pulling her boots on.

  ‘Milly, we’re going to pack up so we can look for him properly,’ Poppy said soothingly. She ducked into the tent and rolled up the sleeping-bags with Katie, stuffing them into their bags and packing up all the chip and biscuit wrappers.

  ‘He’s probably grazing nearby,’ she said loudly. ‘He’s so sneaky getting out like that.’

  Katie laughed. ‘It’s weird the other two didn’t try to follow him.’

  ‘Come on, you two! Hurry up!’ Milly shoved the side of the tent impatiently and it collapsed on them. Poppy overbalanced and landed on Katie.

  ‘Milly!’ she screamed out.

  ‘Did she seriously just do that to us?’ Katie muttered. ‘I say we let her go find her own stinking horse.’

  Poppy giggled and crawled out of the deflated tent. ‘You do realise you’ve just slowed us down, right?’ she said to Milly. It’s kind of impossible to get everything out of here now! Help us!’

  Milly grumbled and bent in to help haul Katie out.

  Just as Katie was about to scold Milly, Crystal let out an ear-piercing whinny and Poppy looked up.

  ‘He’s there!’ she cried, shielding her eyes from the bright morning sun. ‘Joe’s just over there!’

  Joe was grazing on some long grass near the edge of the trees, but when he looked up and saw Milly coming towards him, he lifted his tail high and pranced off, quickly disappearing.

  ‘He’s so naughty,’ Katie said, passing Poppy the bag for the tent. Poppy held it open as Katie put some things in and then folded the tent up. She was seriously fast at dismantling it, almost quicker than when she’d put it up. ‘We’ll be chasing him all day.’

  Just then Milly came back, panting and doubled over. ‘Can you remind me how much I hate that little rat when we catch up with him?’

  Poppy sighed. So much for hanging out a bit longer and having breakfast like they’d planned. ‘Come on, let’s go,’ she said. ‘Mils, you can ride double with me. And you owe us. Big time.’

  ‘Yeah, I know,’ Milly grumbled. ‘Can we just get going?’

  Poppy hefted up her saddle and passed it to Milly. ‘Here. You get Crystal ready and I’ll finish up with this stuff. But I think we should leave it all here now we know he’s close by, don’t you? We have to leave Milly’s saddle anyway as there’s no way we can carry everything between two horses.’

  ‘Do you think we have any chance of catching him?’ Katie asked Poppy in a low voice as Milly rushed over to wrap the fence tape up.

  Poppy shrugged. ‘No idea. I’d say we have more chance of running him back home than actually grabbing hold of him, but I guess we’ll see.’

  Finally they were ready, with Milly on Crystal’s back behind Poppy. Milly shuffled close to her, arms looped around her waist, and when Katie signalled she was ready, they walked off in search of the elusive pony.

  ‘There he is!’ Katie exclaimed after five minutes. ‘Look, he’s right behind those trees, I can see his bum sticking out.’

  Poppy squinted at where Katie was pointing. Joe was grazing happily on his own, completely unaware that he’d caused such a commotion.

  ‘Let’s walk over really quietly,’ whispered Poppy.

  But she’d totally forgotten about Casper.

  With a loud bark he ran off ahead of them, ruining their element of surprise.

  Joe watched them coming nearer, and as Milly squeezed Poppy tighter around the waist, just when they were almost close enough to him, he snorted and trotted off.

  ‘I’m going to kill him!’ Milly grumbled. ‘Why is he so naughty?!’

  Poppy sighed and nudged Crystal on with her heels. It was going to be a very, very long morning.

  They followed Joe for what felt like forever until he eventually dipped his head to graze again.

  ‘Let’s just keep walking. Ignore him completely,’ Poppy suggested. ‘Kind of like when I was trying to train Storm.’

  When she’d started out with her brumby, she’d ignored him until he’d finally come to her on his own terms. Maybe the same would work with Joe.

  Milly nodded and Poppy led the way, giving Joe a wide berth and then walking around him. They kept going, and she grinned when she glanced back and saw that he was watching them.

  He hesitated, and then he began following them.

  ‘You’re a genius,’ Milly declared. ‘An absolute horse-whispering genius.’

  ‘Do we keep going or stop?’ Katie whispered, moving Cody next to them.

  ‘Let’s stop,’ Poppy suggested. ‘Milly, if he comes close, why don’t you slide your leg over so you’re sitting side saddle on Crystal’s bottom facing him. Then you can slip down and grab him when the time is right. We’re lucky he still has his halter on.’

  ‘Okay,’ said Milly.

  They waited, not turning to look at Joe. Poppy let her reins slide through her fingers so Crystal could snack at some grass. From the corner of her eye, she watched Joe move closer and closer. Finally she elbowed Milly.

  ‘Now,’ she murmured.

  Milly wriggled around behind her and Poppy held her breath, hopi
ng, waiting . . .

  Oomph!

  Crystal let rip a whopping great buck, and Poppy madly scrambled to keep her balance and pick up the reins.

  ‘Help!’ Milly hollered, flying off Crystal and landing with a thud.

  ‘Crystal!’ Poppy scolded, trying to steady herself with her stupidly big pack pulling her off-balance. She pulled Crystal up sharply to stop the pony from trampling her friend.

  ‘Got him!’ Katie announced.

  Milly and Poppy looked up, disorientated. Katie was hanging off Cody, clutching Joe’s halter.

  ‘Amazing,’ Poppy giggled. ‘I thought we’d lost him for sure that time!’

  Milly stomped off and quickly clipped her lead rope to Joe’s halter, and Poppy watched as she glared at Joe and gave him a telling off.

  ‘We are so not friends now,’ Milly scolded Joe, tying the rope to the other side of his halter to make reins and then throwing it over his head.

  Her chestnut pony had his ears pricked, nostrils flared, looking very happy with himself for escaping and then playing such a fun game.

  ‘Now I have to ride you back to get your saddle and bridle.’

  ‘Hey, at least we found him and he wasn’t injured or anything,’ Poppy said, trying to make Milly feel better.

  ‘Yeah, I guess,’ Milly said, frowning as she rode up beside Poppy and Katie. ‘I’m really sorry he ruined our morning.’

  Poppy shrugged. ‘You’d do the same for us. I’m sorry Crystal bucked you off like that.’

  Milly grimaced and rubbed her sore backside and they all laughed.

  They rode back toward their campsite. Poppy hated that the weekend was almost over now – by the time they got back and did their chores, it would be time to head home. Then again, the sooner they got home, the closer it would be to their five days away at Barmah National Park, and she couldn’t wait for that.

  As long as none of their ponies escaped when they were at Barmah, because finding them in that forest would be a disaster!

  Poppy stood up to do her speech. She couldn’t believe that her mum was coming to pick her up from school in less than an hour. She glanced at the clock on the wall. Again. It had only been five days since their camping night, but it felt like forever ago.