Little Lost Lamb
Neko: This chapter is short. SO VERY SHORT. But it's a starting point! And Lithi's not online to inspire me with her excessive knowledge of Labyrinth stuff. :P Even if this is pre-movie. She helps me write by nagging. XD
This totally counts, Jubi! 2/2
Little Sarah Williams – a very mature child of six, thank you very much – was playing on the jungle gym at the local park when she saw something fluffy dart into the trees. She blinked, and glanced over at her mom – who was busy doing some grown up boring thing that required her to be quiet – before clambering down and jumping the last few feet into the sand with an oomph. There were no other kids at the park today, and Sarah was bored. So she did what any reasonable child of six would do; she chased the fuzzy thing into the trees to see if she could catch it.
Five feet, ten feet, fifteen… she lost track as she crossed the stone bridge and followed the enticing creature into the woods on the other side. Deciding that it looked like a cat, she started calling 'here kitty kitty' as she ran, hoping it would slow down so that she could catch and pet it. It did slow, actually, and she beamed as she gtew closer and closer. The fuzzy thing that was probably a cat darted up the tree it had stopped beside when she was within arm's reach and she frowned. "Kitty?" Standing there, she craned her head up to look for it, "Come down, kitty! I won't hurt you, I just want to pet you." She cajoled, but nothing moved.
Starting to doubt that it was still there, and quite winded, little Sarah sat down and leaned her back against the trunk. Maybe it would come down if she waited long enough?
That was when she heard it; a wet squelching noise, like when her shoes got wet from the rain. But it hadn't rained in days! Curious, she got to her knees and peered around the trunk of the 'cat tree' to see what was making that noise.
She couldn't see it very clearly, which was odd, but it looked like somebody in a fish costume, she giggled until she saw the eyes. Something about the eyes made her freeze, and she whimpered. Those eyes scared her.
The cat came down from the tree in a flash, and she saw with quite a bit of surprise that it wasn't a cat, not really, it was like a tiny person that was covered in fur. She grinned, and reached out to pet it, but had her hand grabbed in its instead, and she was tugged to her feet, "Hurry, hurry!" The not-a-cat told her and she stumbled along behind it as they ran from the fish monster.
"Are we playing a game?" Sarah asked breathlessly as she ran with the not-a-cat, little chest heaving as she struggled to keep up.
"Yes, yes, a game, of tag. Don't let it catch you, or you're it!" The not-a-cat agreed in a high pitched voice, looking over its shoulder behind them.
"Wh-what about that one then?" Sarah asked, pointing forwards to the one they were running towards.
The not-a-cat screeched and yanked Sarah to the left, who cried out and came within a hairs breadth of tripping and possibly breaking her ankle. Maybe the screech was some sort of summons, because suddenly there were five more of the not-a-cats running with them, one of them grabbing Sarah's other hand.
"W-wh-ere are w-eee going?" Sarah wheezed, steps beginning to slow as she got tired. This game wasn't so fun anymore.
The not-a-cats looked at each other, a few looked back, one looked ahead, and then they turned to her. "Underground." They chorused, and ushered her over to a hollow tree, "Come, come, we're playing hide and go seek now!" They chorused.
"But I'm tired…" Sarah whined, "My feet hurt."
"You can rest in there!" The first one told her, tugging her harder. She did trip this time, and started to cry as her knee scraped a root and began to bleed.
The not-a-cats exclaimed and chattered in some strange language before picking her up between them and running for the hollow tree full tilt. Rather than being crammed into a tight space like she thought, they passed right through. 'Like Alice in Wonderland!' She thought excitedly. That was her favorite movie.
But something went wrong, because quite suddenly she was alone in even darker and spookier woods than the ones she was in a minute ago. Her crying increased as she looked around and saw nothing.
Hoo!
Startled, she looked up, and up, and up into the tawny eyes of a white owl. Shocked out of her crying, she sniffled, and wiped her nose with her sleeve. "Hello, Mister Owl. I'm lost. Can you help me?"