Deep in Hollow Wood, where the brambles curl and the moon peeks through the leaves, our story begins...
Bramble stood at the edge of the Dark Hollow with Hazel's acorn tucked safely in his pocket.
The shadows waited.
He took a breath, and stepped in.
One. Two. Three. The numbers helped. Four. Five. Six. His paws knew the path now from all his practising. Seven. Eight. Nine. Ten — this was where he'd stopped with the glow-worm lantern.
He kept going.
The sounds weren't so frightening when he named them. That rustle was wind through ivy. That creak was an old branch settling. That tiny chirp was a cricket, nothing more.
Fifteen steps. Twenty. His heart was thumping but his paws kept moving.
There — the mossy stone, cool and familiar under his paw. He'd made it this far in daylight. Now he had to go further.
The darkness pressed closer. Bramble thought of Pip's mum, poorly at home. He thought of the elderflower that would help her feel better. He thought of Hazel's acorn in his pocket and how she'd believed he could do this.
Thirty steps. Thirty-five.
And then he saw it — that strange glow he'd glimpsed from the mossy stone, brighter now, silvery and soft ahead of him.
His paws wanted to stop. His paws wanted to turn round. But he was so close now, and Pip needed him to be brave.
Forty steps. Forty-one. Forty-two.
The path curved and suddenly Bramble stumbled out into moonlight.
He blinked.
He wasn't in darkness at all anymore. He was standing in a small clearing, and it was full of elderflower — white blooms glowing in the moon like tiny stars brought down to earth. The air smelled sweet and safe.
And there, on the far side of the clearing, was the gentlest sound of snoring.
Bramble crept closer.
An elderly hedgehog lay curled beside a basket of elderflower, fast asleep. Her spines were grey with age and she had a very peaceful smile.
"Oh!" she said, waking with a start. "Oh my goodness. I must have nodded off."
"I'm sorry," Bramble whispered. "I didn't mean to wake you."
"Not at all, dear. I'm Mrs Thistledown. I live on the other side of the wood." She sat up slowly. "I was picking elderflower for my tea and the moonlight was so lovely I quite forgot the time."
"I was picking some too," said Bramble shyly. "For Pip's mum. She's poorly."
"Then you'd better take some," said Mrs Thistledown kindly, and helped him fill his little satchel with the sweetest blooms.
When they'd finished, she looked at the path leading away through the trees — the long dark way back to her side of Hollow Wood.
"I don't suppose," she said gently, "you'd mind walking an old hedgehog home? Only my eyes aren't what they were, and the Dark Hollow is such a long way in the night."
Bramble looked at the dark path.
Then he looked at Mrs Thistledown.
And as Hollow Wood grew quiet and the stars came out to watch, it was time to rest — until tomorrow's tale.