The Midnight Footprints

In a snug village at the edge of a whispering wood, enormous footprints as wide as cartwheels appear on the cobblestones overnight. No one has seen the visitor, and whispers spread before sunrise. Eight-year-old Ben, small and curious with his notebook always at hand, kneels down to study the prints instead of gasping at them. He notices something the others miss: these are not claw marks but neat, padded feet. His friend Milla has heard her brother's monster stories, and even she shivers, but Ben decides the only way to end the fear is to follow the tracks.

That night, with his red boots on and his satchel over his shoulder, Ben follows the faintly glowing footprints past the bakery and the fountain to the old oak tree. What he finds is not a monster but Moss, a gentle, moss-green creature with floppy ears and a woven satchel, quietly collecting fallen branches so nobody trips. Moss comes at night because it is shy, and it only wants to help. Ben sketches the creature in his notebook and offers to gather twigs alongside it. This tale by Yavuz DEMİRKIRAN can be read on Online Masal.