Find the Way Home | Chapter 10: Deep in the Scary Woodland

Jake became the leader and led them in the woodland. They all followed him and stayed really close to each other.

“Stay close and stick together.”

Jake jumped slowly and quietly so they would not be found by their predators. They were not scared of Mr. Conlon anymore. Instead, they were cautious about the creatures in the woodland.

There were snakes hissing, lizards singing in high pitch, birds screaming, owls cooing…

These all scared the little rabbits.

Why would a lizard sing and a bird scream? That was because the dark, dark place of the woodland scared them. They sang loudly to try to be less scared.

What was wrong with the place? Was there a scary creature living in there? No one knew anything.

Parents told their children not to go there, ever.

All of the animals in the woodland were staring at the brave rabbits walking in the open.

A hedgehog jumped from a brush.

“Don’t go to the darkest part of the woodland,” The hedgehog warned, “We have lost too many animals already. We don’t want any more.”

Mary, Jake, Carol and Coral were shocked.

Soon they knew what was happening there and lived with the kind hedgehog inside the bushes.

The kind hedgehog is called ‘Argena’. She lived on her own. She is kind and friendly and soon became friends with the rabbits. The rabbits thought that they were finally safe and protected.

One day, Carol woke up and jumped happily from the bush to forage for food, only using her sleepy eyes to see things. She was not careful about where she was heading and started jumping towards the darkest part of the woodland.

Coral woke up afterwards and looked for Carol. She soon noticed Carol wasn’t around, so she went out looking for her. She looked everywhere and found her going straight to the darkest part of the woodland.

She was getting so close!

Coral was really scared and screamed as loud as she could.

Coral woke everyone up, including the creature in the darkest part of the woodland. The creature slowly growled and every single animal in the woodland knew that it was coming.

No one ever saw it before, except for the animals who went in and never came back.

Carol began to notice she was walking in the wrong direction and started to turn around. All the animals were up in the tree shaking.

The creature started to come out.

This might be the first time anyone saw the creature without paying their lives.

The creature was far too angry about Coral disturbing its happy dreams that it forgot to hide itself. The creature ran out with an angry face and everyone was shocked.

The creature they talked about for so long was only an alligator!!! Maybe not just one, there were several of them following.

They were all angry and stared at Carol. They thought she was the one who screamed and woke them up from their slumber.

Carol was scared so she shook and started to sweat. She was filled with fright.

Everyone knew then it was only an alligator and not some mysterious, scary creature. But they were still frightened. The alligator’s eyes were filled with anger and the desire to kill.

They were staring at their next prey, the rabbit, Carol.

Suddenly, Argena ran in front of Carol and spiked up her back towards the alligators. The alligators frowned. One of them moved close and tried to eat her, just as he felt the sharpness of her spikes.

The alligator whimpered.

Carol and Argena ran back into the bushes and disappeared. The alligators were shocked and angry. With their meal nowhere to be seen, they went back into the darkest part of the woodland and vanished.

Carol was safe but they were still stunned by the whole event. They planned to go somewhere else. They asked Argena for an opinion.

“The Anchantic Forest would be good. It is not too far from here. I am thinking of moving there too! We can move together!” Argena suggested.

“Good idea!! Let’s go there tomorrow!!!” Mary said happily.

---------------------------------------------------------------------------------
©Yolanda Yip (Wintsarye)