Free The Bone Forest by Robert Holdstock Page B

humans into the forest where they invariably get crushed under the hooves of the Hunter who's following the fox. It's quite murderous stuff. The boys lapped it up."
    "And how is it resolved? Is it resolved?"
    Jennifer had to think for a moment, then she remembered. "Drummer Fox gets cornered in a deep, wooded valley. The Hunter is almost on him. So the fox makes a mask and puts it on and goes up to greet the giant warrior."
    "What mask?"
    "That's the clever part. For a child, at least. He puts on
a fox
mask. He tells the Hunter that he's a local man who has tricked Drummer Fox by pretending to be a renegade fox as well. Drummer Fox has revealed his weakness to him. To destroy the fox all the Hunter needs to do is to disguise himself on horseback with dry rushes and reeds."
    "Aha. The ending loometh."
    "The Hunter duly ties reeds all over his body and—"
    "Drummer Fox sets light to him!"
    "And away he gallops, trailing flame and cursing the Fox. The nice or nasty little coda is that one day Drummer Fox and Boy Ralph are making their way back through a dark wood when they hear a hunting horn and the smell of burning."
    "The stuff of nightmares," Huxley said, pacing about the room, thinking hard. "No wonder the boy is afraid of horses. Good God, we've probably traumatized him for life."
    "It's only a story. The stories the boys tell each other are far more gruesome. But then they've leafed extensively through the copy of
Gray's Anatomy
on your shelf."
    "Have they! Have they indeed! Then at least their stories will be colorful."
    "Does it help? Drummer Fox, I mean?"
    Huxley swung round and walked up to Jennifer, gathering her into his arms and hugging her. "Yes. Oh yes. Very much indeed." She seemed startled, then drew back, smiling.
    "Thank you for letting me know about your madness," she said quietly. "Whatever I can do…"
    "I know. I don't know
what
you can do for the moment. But I feel deeply relieved to have told you what is happening. The gray-green figure frightens me, even though I know it is an aspect of
me. "
    Jennifer went pale and looked away. "I don't wish to think about that anymore. I just want you to be safe. And to be near me more often…" The look in her eye as she glanced at him made Huxley smile. They touched hands, and then went downstairs.

FIFTEEN
A wonderful example of convergence, or perhaps
merging
: Steven's imagination is inculcated with the legend and image of the fox: but
Drummer Fox
is just a corruption of a more powerful mythological cycle concerning Ash. Ash
herself
is a "story" reflecting an ancient event, perhaps an incident from the first migrations and movements of a warrior elite of Indo-Europeans, from central Europe.
    Ash, the inherited memory, is present in Steven's mind, and the corrupted form of the folk-tale/ fable is also strongly present. So Ash—
created by Steven
—emerges from the wood with associations of Drummer Fox: hence the killing of chickens, the necklace of hen heads.
    But this Ash has no child!
    Drummer Fox: shaman? The drum, the classic instrument of shamanic trance. And Fox's bag of tricks. The same as Ash's bone and wood bag, her magic.
    And Ash carries a tiny wrist-drum!
    The story of Ash, then, has been shaped by a time nearer to her own origination as a
legendary tale
. Later, as the tale corrupts further into Drummer Fox and other tales of that ilk, so certain shaman trappings return.
    Steven summoned Ash. Ash came, half myth, half folklore, and called to Steven. Her gift at the gate—the bone and wood pieces—is part attraction to Steven, part the price she pays for her night's stay on the carcasses of the hens.
    She wants Steven, then. But why? To replace the lost child? Drummer Fox protects Infant Ralph. In one story—the Ash story—has she, I wonder,
lost
the child? Does she then seek to replace the lost child with another, perhaps so that she can pretend that the true "prince" is still alive?
    How I wish I knew more of the Ash legend.
    Wynne-Jones and