Special Prize winner - Youth Writers Short Story Prize 2026

The Diary Book by Lucia Gray

31/5/2025
“Good boy Titan.” I unclip his halter and pull it off his head, for a brief moment, he stands there with me, then he turns and strolls away down the pasture, snorts and puts his head down to graze. Back at the stable I get to work mucking Titan's stall, when Mum comes bursting in.
"The Neighbor just came over, they said there is a grassfire down the road, and it’s out of control, his family are leaving, and your father's not answering his phone, and...”
I told her to calm down, and go pack anything we needed and I'd ride down with Titan and find Dad.
“But he’s right down the back of the bush and you need to pack too,  I better just call him again.”
“No, I’ll go find him.” I dropped my shovel and pushed past Mum, grabbing my helmet from the tack room and running out the door before Mum could stop me.
***
I slow as I reach Titan's paddock. I unclip his halter from the gate, he looks up, I call his name and duck under the fence. He trots over and parks himself by my side, hastily I fasten his halter, fumbling with the rope to make reins, I clip my helmet on and walk him to the fence, hoisting myself up onto the rail, and slide onto his back. I push the gate open and we’re off. I kick Titan into a canter beneath me, we stick to the track ducking and weaving around branches, the wind blowing strongly. We turn onto the path leading to the dam.
Dad had driven out that morning to seed a new paddock for Titan, but he’d be anywhere by now. Suddenly Titan hears something, he pricks his ears and quickens his pace. I can hear Brumby’s (the old ute’s) engine chugging along, and within seconds I see her face pop up over the hill. I pull up, the Brumby rolls to a stop and Dad jumps out.
By now Titan's sides are heaving and so are mine.
"What's wrong?” Dad asks.
"There's a bushfire up the road and we need to go now!”
“Oh great, you ride back up and help Mum, I’ll be right behind you.” Dad jumps back in the Brumby, I turn Titan off the track, clucking him back into a canter we take a shortcut through the trees. Behind us I hear the Brumby roaring into the distance.
***
Back at the house Mum is frantically loading up her tiny car with junk. When she sees us, she drops it all to the floor and runs over. “Oh finally, I was getting worried. Did you find Dad?” she bursts out but before I can answer the Brumby revs up into the yard and Mum dashes over.
I slide off Titan and throw him in his stall, I hastily untie his lead rope, I run to the feed room and pull out Titan's travel bags chucking in his saddle, bridle, the first aid kits, a spare halter and rope, my helmet and boots and grab a bale of hay, a bag of feed and Titan's buckets, I then stuff a hay net for the float and fill his water canister. Titan's watching me the whole time, I give him a reassuring pat.
I sprint as fast as I can to the house where I pack a few essentials into a small bag. Dad has repacked and sorted Mum's disarray of bags, hitched up the float and packed all of Titan's stuff.
I throw my bag in and jog back over to Titan's stable. He whinnies at me anxiously, he can feel everyone is stressed, I clip his lead back on, talking to him softly. I lead him back out into the breeze and walk him straight up and onto the float, luckily, he loads well despite the atmosphere. Dad closes the ramp, and I jump in the car. We pull out the gate and steadily trundle along 'til we reach the highway.
***
After what feels like forever, we pull off the dirt road and onto a well-maintained driveway that stretches for about a kilometer. I can hear Titan stomping in the back – he can see where we are through the float window. We pull up in front of an old farm house. A Pitbull barks out the front, his name is Jupiter. We all jump out of the car just as the front door opens and out comes Mika, she jumps onto me and clings like a leech. I laugh and squeeze her back, she hops down and lets Jupiter have a turn at jumping on me, then she helps me unload Titan who is eager to get out of the float now he knows where he is.
We walk him over to the old cow barn where luckily there are still some shavings from last time. The poor guy is a bit frazzled. I lead him in and leave Mika to fuss while I grab his things from the car. By the time I've heaved everything into the shed Titan's had a good roll, a sponge and a drink and is looking at me eagerly for food. Mika and I giggle and I heave a hay net over the stall wall.
***
It's now night time and I'm curled up on the floor next to Mika’s bed, I begged Mum to let me sleep in the shed with Titan but she said, “After the day's events, you’re dreaming.”
I gave him his dinner at 7pm and did a 'final check' but I still crept out with a carrot before I hopped into bed to make sure he was settled. He was dozing with his head over the door, eyes closed and lip drooping!
​***
Mum had called around, and apparently the CFS have the fire under control but no one knows how close it is to our property; she says hopefully there will be more news in the morning.