Scratched on a Brace

A later hand — some scavenger who came for the abandoned timber — scrawled a warning on a support brace: something has denned in the flooded branch.

Came for the good timber. Leaving it.

Something dens in the wet part now. Grey, lean, moves in a pack and does not bark until it is already on you — ash-hounds, off the hills, drawn to the still water and the dark. Found a man's boots at the flooded turn and no man in them.

Whoever reads this: the dry workings past the water might be worth stripping, but you do not get to them without crossing the den, and you do not cross the den quiet. Take the outer face only. Or take nothing, like me, and count your fingers on the way out.