the door is loose. lift it, don't push.

footprint.bar

a low-ceilinged lodge for those who follow what walked here last night.

FB · LODGE · 0001 — bring mud, leave dry

the plank.

twelve specimens currently being studied. some have names. most do not.

Cervus elaphus
red deer · 12mm
FB-0214-c

Vulpes vulpes
red fox · 7mm
FB-0118-v

Ardea cinerea
grey heron · 4mm
FB-0307-a

Rana temporaria
common frog · 2mm
FB-0422-r

unknown
six-toed · 19mm
FB-0501-?newly catalogued

Meles meles
badger · 9mm
FB-0066-m

Lepus europaeus
brown hare · 6mm
FB-0192-l

Lutra lutra
otter · 8mm · webbed
FB-0260-l

Martes martes
pine marten · 4mm
FB-0335-m

Sus scrofa
wild boar · 18mm
FB-0040-s

Corvus corax
raven · 3mm
FB-0411-c

Canis lupus
grey wolf · 14mm
FB-0009-c

the ledger.

scroll, and a page turns. the latest is wet enough to smudge.

19th of mud-month

cloven, two prints, north bank · doe likely · 12mm depth · soft after rain.

canine, four-toed, single · vulpes confirmed by claw-mark spacing · 7mm.

avian, three-toed, register pattern · ardea · 4mm · the old willow stump.

21st of mud-month

six-toed. six. six. not a dog, not a cat, not anything in the manuals. holding off on a name until it dries.

moss reeked of iron near the print. the dog refused to come closer.

— c.r.

23rd · the unknown

third sighting. same depth. same six toes. the gap between the third and fourth toe is wider than I have a name for.

b. says it's a print of two animals overlapped. I do not think b. has seen it close enough.

FB-0501-? · RECEIVED 23 MUD

24th · the moth-caller

three moths arrived together, attracted to the cast plaster while still wet. unusual. tradition says they are reading the print.

left a small dish of milk on the threshold tonight. a small kindness costs nothing.

FB-0501-? · REVISITED 24 MUD

26th · still wet

never name a print until it has dried. the wax of the seal is still tacky. I am writing this on the bench beside it, candle nearly out.

if it walks again tonight I will follow only as far as the willow.

FB-0501-? · PENDING 26 MUD

— end of current ledger —

scroll on. there is more under the bench, in older books.

scroll · the page turns

field notes.

scattered, half-finished, overheard. these never asked to be a section.

the register

when a hind print falls exactly atop a fore print, the animal is unhurried. an unhurried animal is rarely the one being followed. file accordingly.

— c.r.

overheard at the bar

"i swear on the moss it had six toes." — b., on the unknown print of the 21st. b. swears on the moss approximately twice a week.

— overheard

half-finished sketch

— sketched left-handed

a small superstition

never name a print until it has dried. the wet ones change shape under your eye and slip into the wrong column.

— old saying, unattributed

coordinates

52° 19' n / 03° 47' w

willow stump · north bank · approach from the lichen-side.

— do not share

overheard, again

"i would not follow it past the willow." — m., on the unknown. m. is otherwise fearless. m. has stopped sleeping with the window open.

— overheard

on plaster

ratio of plaster to water is forgiving until it isn't. pour from one side only. let the bubbles rise. the print remembers everything you do wrong.

— c.r., method

pressed sphagnum

Sphagnum palustre · holds twenty times its weight in rain.

the glossary.

terms a tracker uses, and a few only the regulars do.

register: when a hind print falls exactly atop a fore print. the animal is unhurried, balanced, almost certainly not pursued.
straddle: the perpendicular distance between the outer edges of the left and right prints. a wide straddle suggests heaviness, fatigue, or pregnancy.
pace: the distance from one print to the next print of the opposite foot. for a roe deer at a walk, ~70cm; at a bound, the pace dissolves into the leap.
quartering: the zig-zag pattern of an animal hunting by scent. the prints sweep left and right of a notional centre line, never straying far from it.
drag-mark: a faint linear scrape between two prints, indicating a tail, a wounded limb, or carried prey.
print-aging: the decay of a print's edge. fresh prints have crisp rims; an hour later, frost or wind has rounded them. older still and only the bowl remains.
cast-tone: the colour the dried plaster takes from the soil it was poured into. iron-rich mud yields a faint orange; peat yields almost-black.
twine-tag: the hand-lettered label tied to a finished cast. all twine-tags are written wet, while the cast is still cool, so the ink bleeds slightly into the paper as a mark of authenticity.
the willow rule: do not follow a print past the willow stump on the north bank. nobody alive remembers why this rule was made; we keep it anyway.
moth-witness: a moth that lands on a wet plaster cast. tradition says the moth is reading the print. the older regulars do not laugh at this.

the pact.

this is the only way in. it is slow on purpose. nothing here was hurried.

membership pact

i, _____________________________, hereby promise to leave each print better than i found it. to walk with quiet feet on soft ground. to never name a wet cast. to keep the willow rule. to bring mud, and to leave dry.

signed under candle, witnessed by moth.

your name, in your own hand: — ink will dry slowly —

hold & drag aside →

closing time.

the candle gutters down. the moth lands. the lamp dims.

the door is loose. lift it, don't push.

the print on table 3 is still wet. do not name it.

we are open again at dusk.

— the regulars