It was a sunny day in the village and Louis was sent to go foraging for his family back in the burrow.

He emerged from the entrance awake and ready to take on the day. He squinted and rubbed his eyes against the bright sun.

I guess I'll start with grubs. He thought to himself, and he knew the perfect place to get some. There was a log near The Falls that always was chock full of them, and there were some berry bushes nearby where he could get some blueberries.

The new Falls on the island were a lot like the old Falls on the continent, but since they needed a new place for the kids to hang out, on Louis and Peaches first expedition on the island when they were 19 they found a new frozen waterfall for them to hang out near and dubbed it The Falls after the old one that was now gone with the continent.

Louis dived into the ground and burrowed away towards The Falls.

He was about half way there when BANG!

"Ow!" Louis yelped when he felt a sharp pain on his head, must have been a rock.

I don't remember a rock being there. He thought.

Then again, he didn't remember a lot of rocks being where they were. When he was little he was convinced the rocks would run in his way at the last second, however his mother quickly convinced him otherwise.

He went around the rock and continued toward The Falls. Then, not ten seconds later, he hit something else that was hard, but this time it wasn't a rock.

"Ow!"

"Ouch!"

Wait a moment, that second voice wasn't his. He popped out of the ground to see what was up when he found another pair of eyes peering right back at him.

It was another Molehog! It wasn't just another molehog; it was a girl Molehog he didn't know!

Louis squeaked in surprise and then instinctively abandoned his hole and dove into the ground making another, trying to get away, though he hear her following him down his tunnel. He pushed on faster until his arms burned and his legs ached.

In a desperate attempt to get away, he shot out of the ground, intending to make another hole to slow her down. As soon as he emerged he felt a hand around his ankle. He landed on his stomach and was pulled backward. Louis clawed at the ground in a frantic attempt to get away, but it was in vain.

She pulled him backward and flipped him onto his back, put her forearm up to the throat and looked him in the eye angrily with her ears pulled back.

She was beautiful. Her eyes were gold with green at the rim. Her brown hair fell lightly over her eyes and ears, her nose was a bit smaller than his, and she had just about the same markings than him. She was smaller than him too but only by an inch or two.

"Why are you near our burrow?" She asked him sternly.

"Uh," Louis paused; he was so distracted he had barely heard the question.

"I-I didn't know your burrow was around here, I w-was just foraging, honest." He said nervously.

Wow, that was weird. He got the first sentence out with barely any stuttering or not being able to speak at all. Usually he couldn't talk at all to new people, especially girls. For some reason Louis felt oddly comfortable around her, like they had meet before and were friends already.

"Oh," Her look softened." Well do you live around here?"She asked him

Louis saw his chance and shoved her off, scrambling to his feet.

"It depends," Louis said, puffing out his chest and trying to sound tuff. "does your family live around here?" at the moment Louis asked the question he noticed how dumb it had been.

The girl crossed her arms, stuck out her hip, and smiled at him, amused.

"Ok…I'm Lori, and you are?" Lori gestured to Louis.

"Um, I'm Louis." He told her, trying to sound confident.

"Nice to meet you Louis." She said as she stuck out her hand, expecting a hand shake.

Louis inspected her hand then shoke it warily.

"So, Wiener, where do you live?" Lori asked.

"How do you know my nickname?" Louis covered his mouth as he felt his face get hot.

He looked down and heard Lori giggle.

Why did I say that? Louis asked himself.

He tried to hide his embarrassment and when he looked up Lori was also covering her mouth, but not out of embarrassment or surprise, it was because she was laughing.

"Down the path around the corner." Louis said gesturing behind himself, disappointed he made himself sound so stupid.

Now in control of her laughter, Lori said "We live at the end of that really, really long path near The Falls."

"Why have I never seen you around before?" Louis asked.

"We just moved in a month ago," Lori explained. "and my parents are really strict. I'm not even allowed to go this far from the burrow, I guess I was just feeling adventurous."

"And another Question," Louis said "Why did you chase me?"

"Yeah, sorry about that. In the last place we lived in, our neighbors were," She paused to think of the right word "strange. They tended to steal from our pantry when we weren't home, so my parents told me to chase them away. I have no Idea why they did it though."Lori stared off into space so to break the silence Louis tried to make small talk.

"So, do you have any siblings?"

Lori looked at him and her eyes filled with sadness.

"I used to have a brother, but when we were little…" her voice faded away.

"Oh, I'm so sorry I brought it up." Louis said, regretting saying anything about it.

"Don't worry about it, you didn't know." Lori said, blocking out the pain and smiling to hide it. Lori looked up at the sun and saw it was almost to the middle of the sky.

"Aww shoot. I have to go, my family will be wondering where I am, but we should hang out more, k?"She said starting to walk away.

"Ok, see you around!" Louis said, waving

Lori dived into the ground but popped back up and said "and remember, I was never here!" Then burrowed away, and Louis continued on his way to the falls.

so, there you go. the first chapter. most of the other chapters are already typed so I just have to upload them. did you like it? It's my first fanfic so please be nice. don't worry, the writing gets better and the story picks up as it moves along so just bear with me.