The Ominous Eye. Tracey Hecht

Dawn called out. The nimble fox was already several ledges above on the slope.

      “Si, si, cautious comrade! Come along, now! It’s really quite easy!” Bismark cheered.

      Tobin squinted up at him. Bismark was perched comfortably on the arch of Dawn’s back. The pangolin sighed and slowly, carefully, started to climb.

      By the time he reached the halfway point, he was huffing and puffing. For as the height increased so, too, did the number of loose rocks sliding down from the top. And with every step he took, a thick, suffocating cloud rose around him. He was exhausted, and breathing in all this ash made his lungs feel weak.

      “I don’t know…if this…is such a good…idea,” Tobin uttered between coughs. He stopped to catch his breath.

      “Just a little farther,” Dawn insisted.

      Tobin wiped his watery eyes and inspected his tired paws. They were rubbed raw. “Just follow the white of Dawn’s tail,” he said to himself.

      But this proved quite difficult. As Tobin climbed higher and higher, the wind grew stronger, whipping across his scales and stinging his face. Spirals of gray sand and dirt swirled through the air, blinding him. At times, his friends disappeared from view, completely lost in the shadowy wind, and the pangolin had to pause and wait for the flicker of Dawn’s white tail to re-emerge.

      Finally, the climbers stopped.

      “Over here,” called the fox. She was perched on a pointed ledge that stuck out over the slope.

      “Oh, thank goodness,” gasped Tobin. With a series of grunts, the pangolin clambered up the last stretch of stone and heaved himself up on the ledge, tumbling over its rim in a clumsy heap.

      “See?” said the fox. “From this height, we have a good view.”

      “Absolutamente,” agreed Bismark, batting his eyes at the fox.

      Tobin peered over the edge and grew dizzy. Quickly, he rose to all fours and scuttled as far back as possible. “I didn’t realize we’d climbed so high,” he gasped. The pangolin pressed his body against the stony gray wall of the mountain and attempted to steady his breath. His heart was pounding.

      “Don’t worry,” Dawn said. The fox was fearlessly perched at the rim of the ledge, and she squinted toward the horizon. “Just keep your eyes peeled for anything unusual or for a sign of the beast.”

      But Tobin’s chest remained tight. He had been concentrating so hard on walking up the steep mountain and keeping his balance that he had nearly forgotten why they were there. Yes, he had survived the treacherous climb, and he was beginning to feel steady on the ledge, but what was next? Would they spot this strange, evil creature? And what would happen if they did? A shiver ran down his spine. Perhaps the worst was yet to come.