A Bush Mystery

• Liam Van Horen, Grade 4
• Short Story
• 2007

A Bush Mystery by Liam Van Horen

Liam, David, Aaron and Daniel were a group of mischievous young kids who loved the bush. They were best pals and had planned a grand bush adventure and so that’s how our story begins.

One day they all went to stay at a strange old camp site called Burruwang where they were going to go on tour for a couple of wonderful days. That night they all gathered around the campfire and met some mysterious tour guides. After all the tour guides had told the children their names Mitchell the tour leader told them a spooky story. “One day a long time ago a source of mysterious potions were hidden in the valley they were told to have powerful doings in which turned people into animals, some small boys were seen medalling with these and were turned into wolves. People say they still see four wolves round the park at night.”

The next day they went on a tour through the bush but no one noticed that one by one they were being picked off at the end of the line. Harry, the leader of the pack didn’t have any idea that anyone had gone or disappeared at all. But when he turned around only those four boys were left fighting to see who could go at the front of the line. ”Where’s the others?” said Harry suspiciously to Liam who was fighting with
Aaron.
”No idea”, replied Liam. Then out of the bushes jumped five strange creatures with wings, fangs, talons and breathing fire. Each had two heads and dog like bodies. They stood two metres tall. The boys, who were frightened out of their wits, ran as fast as they could into the surrounding bush. After about five minutes of running they came to a clearing about the size of a football field. They stopped and stood dead still listening for any sign of movement or noise. Then they heard some creepy rustling coming from the bush getting closer and closer. And all of a sudden a panting figure with a scared look on his face came out of the bush. It was Harry looking as though he was about to die of fright.
“What happened Harry?” said a frightened Aaron lying on the ground with his hands over his head.
“Yeah you look like you just met my vicious little dog.” David said sarcastically. ”David your dogs a cute puppy?” said a puzzled looking Daniel. Coming out of the bush they heard an ear-piercing howl. Almost immediately out bounded a wolf the size of a small tree and charged at the boys. They tried to run but they were too slow. It had already caught up and was snarling at them with teeth the size of knives. All five of them stood as still as the silent trees around them. They couldn’t move unless they wanted to be dogs’ dinner. About three minutes later David did the strangest thing they’d ever seen him do. He started doing the chicken dance and was telling the others to do the same.
“What are you doing?” said Daniel starting to join in.
”Improvising”, said David. The wolf looking very strange started running at them again. All of a sudden Harry had started running at the wolf. Suddenly, in the middle of the area a small figure came zooming back over to the boys. It was Harry with a bloody face and cuts and scratches all over. The wolf who didn’t seem hurt at all started running faster than before. On the other side of the field they heard a loud bang and the wolf dropped dead with a bleeding head. It was a dwarf like creature holding a gun.

The boys all began to run over to the creature smiling, but he just walked back into the bushy darkness and disappeared. In the end Harry went to hospital and recovered, but the other children were never found. The boys never saw any of the strange creatures again and never went back to that bush camp. It was a story they would carry with them always. What had they really seen on that night?

Liam Van Horen
Blackheath Public School
Leichhardt St
Blackheath 2785

Fax 4787 8320
Email liam.vanhoren@education.nsw.gov.au