The Beast of Dartmoor

 by Liberty Mitchell-Brock

It was early Friday morning when five hopeful and excited young explorers ventured to Dartmoor for a weekend jaunt. They had heard rumours of the beast of Dartmoor and didn’t think anything of it. 

The group set up camp on the side of the moor surrounded by rare breed nesting sites. 

Let’s meet the team. Alan, the tallest one of the group, also known as the river crossing God. Penny, the girl with blisters the size of golf balls. Norman, the owner of new boots, not worn in. Freya, the one who always wanted to walk that extra mile and Lou, the definition of a tough woman. They headed out for a night navigation when the sun glowed an ominous red in the sky. Whilst Penny was looking up at the ridge line between Brat and Arms Tor she thought she saw something move on the horizon. Brushing it off quickly, as the mist rolled in, she forgot about it and turned back to the group. The next day the group woke up before dawn to head off. Ignorant of what might lie before them on this fateful day, they climbed their first Tor in high spirits. Halfway up the tor, a snarl echoed around the valley.

“Hmm, what was that?” exclaimed Alan whilst scratching his head. Suddenly a paw extended out of the fog, slashing Norman in the leg.

“What was that?” screamed Lou. Nobody had seen what was lurking in the fog and it now appeared to be gone. Norman, who was pretty shaken up, decided he was okay to continue. So with that the team continued on with their route. By the time evening came the majority of the members of the team were hobbling in one way or another. Both Alan and Lou were quietly suffering with the pain of past injuries coming up to haunt them. Norman was still powering on though, with his mashed up leg and Penny now realised no amount of blister plasters could save her now. Freya had developed extensive bruising on her hips but remained as happy as a lark. 

Feeling tired but happy, the group drifted off to sleep after eating their refreshing supper time meal of army ration packs. The memories of the day's disasters disappeared from the front of their brains. Everything was going swimmingly until the next morning. Freya woke to a missing Penny next to her and a great long tear down the side of their tent. The tent fabric had been ripped in a perfect line, Freya cried for help, waking the rest of the group. After an extensive search around the nearby area, they were unsure of what to do, the only clear thing was that they knew Penny was gone. All that remained was her red bandana caught on the side of the tent. 

Again, the team decided they needed to carry on. Lou was now using one of Penny’s poles, in hopes of finding her and giving them back to her. Morale was low to begin with, nobody knew quite what was going on. However, they plodded on anyway, into the maze of Dartmoor. About an hour into the hike, Normans was in too much pain to carry on, the blood had now dried from yesterday and revealed three distinct claw marks across his leg. Norman began to stagger his way back off the moor, the others watched his silhouette venture off into the distance. They thought at one point they saw another figure amongst him, slightly shorter but broader and darker. They decided to think nothing of it, once again, and continued with their journey. 

Now there were only three of them, alone, with only the moor for company. At this point the team's spirit was low and they were all struggling to continue. Panic started to seep into their minds, they started to question where they were and if they were heading the right way. Having not taken notice of the tales of the Beast of Dartmoor before, they now worried they could be wandering into its supposed habitat. The tension rose as the remnants of the team hurried north. Having fallen waist deep into a floating bog the day before, Lou couldn’t imagine a scarier feeling. Until she came face to face with a pair of emerald green eyes. Remembering what Freya and Alan had told her earlier about attacking scary animals by poking them in the eye, she jammed Penny’s pole into the strange creature's face and then took off in the other direction at the pace of a leopard, well that's what it felt like to her. The others, understanding the commotion started sprinting with her. They ran for what felt like hours before stumbling upon Dinger tor, one of the proposed checkpoints they never thought they would see. Once confirming their location with a friendly group of Sunday amblers the team of three could exhale the breath they hadn’t realised they’d been holding. 

Once off of the moor and safely back in civilization the three remaining team members looked back over their weekend adventure. Thoughts haunted them of where their other teammates were now. They thought it best to believe that they were safe someplace else. However, none of them wanted to rush back to Dartmoor anytime soon. Beast or no beast, they had been traumatised on Dartmoor.