It was dark. It was raining. I ran through the forest. I was scared, they were chasing me. It was late at night, must be nearly midnight by now. Mum and dad had always said to not go into the forest, it was dangerous and scary but I had no other choice. I hid behind a clump of bushes and trees sat on the muddy ground hugging my knees covering my ears with my hands. I heard someone step on a twig near me. I looked up with a start and the person hugged me. They felt warm and fluffy for some reason. The stranger whispered to me
"I'm not here to hurt you… lets go, you must be very scared." He took my hand and he led me quickly through the forest. Despite his high voice he was quite tall, just a hair shorter than me. As we ran the rain stopped and the shouting voices eventually faded away and we ended up the other side of the forest. The moonlight streamed down on a quaint little village below. There was a small shanty shop, a wishing well, a town hall and another small shop all nestled in amongst some small cute houses. We stood on a sheer cliff-side above a train station. I could see now the person holding my hand was actually a blue cat wearing a red and brown argyle jumper. He slowly led me down a pathway so I didn't fall and then took me to the shanty shop. He knocked on the door in a rhythmic pattern and an old tanuki opened the door for us.
"Another one?" he said with a hint of annoyance
"Yeah, sorry Nook" the blue cat said. The Tanuki sighed and opened the door wide saying
"These things must be done to help others, and so I shall help"
"Thank you..." The cat walked me into the warm shop. I hadn't realised how cold it was. The cold wouldn't have been helped by the fact I was soaked from the rain earlier and my clothes were covered in wet sticky mud.
"I only have a work uniform left over. Does she have a house yet?" Nook (I think that's what the cat called him) went over to a box behind a till on a counter and started rummaging around, looking for something.
"I just found her out in the woods Nook of course she doesn't"
"Then she'll have to work for me tomorrow" Nook said standing up and throwing a green dress at us. The blue cat caught it easily. "Now what's your name?" He demanded as he brought me a towel to dry myself off with "spit it out!"
"I- I'm Emily" I stammered
"Ah! A hard worker!" Nook replied
"P-pardon?"
"Emily means hard worker in many languages" Nook went behind the till and started scrabbling around looking for something again.
"O-oh… I didn't know"
"Well you are only young! Now let's get you signed up with the village hall" he walked back to me and handed me a pen and a form
"What?"
"So you can get mail and other services while you stay in this town!" I scanned the form quickly. It all seemed simple enough… I wrote down my name (Emilly Zabek), age (14), ticked my gender (girl) and handed it back to Nook. "… Really?" he said in disbelief
"What?"
"You're last name is Zabek?" He gave me a strange, unsure look "You do know what that means don't you?"
"N- no s- sir" he paused for a minute and then looked from me to the cat and then back to me…
"It means little tooth… your name literally means 'Hard working little tooth'…" I giggled a little and then said
"That's just the name mum makes me use! My dad lest us when I was little so she went back to having her old name which is Zabek but my first last name was Roamer!"
"Aaaaaaaaah! A hard working traveller! Makes more sense than Zabek!" Nook laughed as he put my form on top of a pile of letters. "I shall deliver this in the morning."
"Thanks for your help Nook... got any spare houses?" The cat spoke up
"Of course I do. Can't sell the things since all the others who have come through town leave a week after they've settled in!"
"Well this one needs a home. Can you point us in the right direction?" Nook gave a heavy sigh and pulled out a map from his apron pocket.
"Follow the river down past Muffy's house and then up past Able sisters- you might want to stop in and see if they have anything spare to lend you Emily, at least until you can make your own money. From there it's a simple walk past the three peach trees and you're there. Any questions or should I just walk you there?"
"We can make our way Nook. Thanks again."
"Anytime Rover. Now off you go I need to get some-" Nook yawned covering his mouth with a paw "I need to get some sleep"
"Ok, we'll leave you to it." We said goodbye and Rover led me down the rout Nook had said. We eventually ended up in front of a small white house with a green roof. It was next to the river and had a few pansies growing around it. I shivered clutching hold of the dress Nook had given me. I didn't want to change in case I got it dirty on the way over.
"There should be a set of night wear inside. I'll let you settle in for the night." Rover said before turning to leave"
"Wait!" I grabbed his sleeve "I've no idea where I am, who you are or what's going on and you're just going to leave me here?!" The cat pause looking at me and then said
"There's only one bed in that house. Even if I was going to look after you we would either have to share a bed or one of us would sleep on the floor."
"That isn't what I asked-"
"Then wait until tomorrow" he released himself from my grip and left… I was grateful he saved me… but I have so little information about what's going on that really, I just want someone to tell me what's going on…
I went inside and as Rover had said there was a set of pink and white striped bed clothes on top of a bed with blue bed sheets, a chair by the window and a lava lamp. A note was on top of the bedclothes. It read:
"Leave any dirty clothes by the front door.
Any clean clothes are to be kept in your pockets until you get a wardrobe/chest of draws.
You break it, you pay for us to repair it!
-Timmy and Tomy-"
I left my muddy dress by the front door and changed into the nightwear. Out of the corner of my eye I saw something shine. But as soon as I looked around it was gone… strange… I lay in the bed and closed my eyes… It was warm and soft, unlike the one I had at home. At home I had thin blankets that didn't keep me warm enough unless it was a very hot summer night but I would be too hot on nights like that. Mum said she couldn't afford to get me a new mattress so I was stuck with an old one which creaked and had springs sticking through the material…
Day zero: ended.
Day one: right, now where am I?