Dingos Surrounded the Baby, but Something Older Watched From the Ridge

The Burnt Circle Appears

Tom was the first one to spot it, right past the water tanks where the gully levels off. A beautiful circle of scorched soil had formed overnight. There was no fire, and the grass around it was fine. The dirt in the middle fell apart into dry, fine pieces, as if it had been burned days before.

They checked it for chemicals, but the burn was clear. Tom tried to make fun of it. He replied it might be lightning. But who did he think he was fooling? They hadn't had any storms in a long time. Clara didn't say anything. She stood at the edge of the circle that night, keeping Elsie close. There was a subtle fragrance of ash and eucalyptus in the air.

A Revealing Trail Cam

Deaks, the ranger, came back in the middle of the week with a trail camera they had left up near the ridge months earlier. The lens was broken, the batteries were almost dead, and it was half-buried in dust. He said Tom could pull the footage. The three of them sat close together in the kitchen around the laptop. The lens revealed the outcrop where Clara had left the pouch on the last recording, which was made four nights earlier. The brush moved in the breeze, and then the picture froze. One figure, hunched low and not moving, was caught in picture after frame right beyond the stone ring. Bare feet made features look blurry. There was something hanging from its neck.