Deep in Hollow Wood, where the brambles curl and the moon peeks through the leaves, our story begins...
By dusk the next evening, half the wood had heard Pip's story. Bramble felt eyes on him wherever he went.
"Taking the short way today, are we?" called a robin from the elderberry bush.
Bramble mumbled something about errands and hurried on.
He found Hazel at the edge of the hazel grove, sorting acorns into tidy piles.
"I'm going in," Bramble announced, rather too loudly.
Hazel looked up. "Into the Dark Hollow?"
"Yes. Tonight. Right now, actually."
"Right now? It's nearly dark."
"That's the point," said Bramble, though he wasn't entirely sure what the point was. "If I'm going to do it, I should just do it."
Hazel watched him for a moment, then disappeared into her tree hollow. She returned with something small and glowing cupped in her paws.
"Take Gilbert," she said, holding out a glow-worm lantern made from a twist of bark. The glow-worm inside pulsed gently, casting a soft green light.
"Gilbert?"
"He doesn't mind," said Hazel. "Do you, Gilbert?"
The glow-worm pulsed twice, which Bramble decided to take as agreement.
They walked together to the mouth of the Dark Hollow. The trees leaned close, their branches making complicated shadows. Everything looked different in the dusk.
"I'll wait here," said Hazel quietly.
Bramble held Gilbert's lantern up and stepped into the Dark Hollow.
One step. Two. Three — further than he'd gone with Old Oakley watching.
Four. Five. Six.
The light from Gilbert showed twisted roots and close-growing thorns. The path was narrower than he'd thought.
Seven. Eight. Nine. Ten.
Something rustled in the leaves above him.
Bramble's heart jumped. He turned round and walked very quickly back to where Hazel was waiting, trying not to look like he was hurrying.
"Ten steps," he said, slightly breathless. "That's not bad."
He waited for Hazel to laugh, or to remind him that she could run through the Dark Hollow in the time it took to sneeze.
But she didn't.
"I used to be terrified of the old mill pond," Hazel said instead. "The deep part, where the water goes dark. I thought something lived down there that would grab my tail."
Bramble stared at her. "You? But you're not frightened of anything."
"I'm frightened of lots of things," said Hazel. "I just don't mention them very often."
"What happened? With the pond?"
"I kept going back. Little bits at a time. One day I put my paw in. Another day I looked at my reflection. Eventually I stopped imagining what was down there and just saw water."
She took Gilbert's lantern back gently.
"Ten steps is good, Bramble," she said. "Really."
As they walked home together, Bramble realised something that made him feel rather small. He'd known Hazel his whole life, and he'd never once asked her what she was frightened of.
And as Hollow Wood grew quiet and the stars came out to watch, it was time to rest — until tomorrow's tale.