CHAPTER 2

First there was a smell, and not a good one either. It was pungent and harsh – the unmistakeable stench of decaying garbage – only here it was stronger than ever before. This smell hit Danny fast and hard and before she knew it her eyes were open, staring up directly into darkness. Her abdomen kicked and she grinded her teeth together to supress her stomach. It wasn't a complete failure – several deep coughs escaped, jerking her chest forward, but it wasn't enough to spare her the pain.

She instinctively hunched over, her forehead and cheeks burning as her body prepared to bring undigested food up. But all that followed were several dry heaves that slowly diminished as her senses got accustomed to her new surroundings. Her mind still had a bit of catching up to do. What had happened? Where were her mom and dad? And why was she here in the horrible, horrible darkness where some nasty creature could get her?

Everything struck her all at once. Going out with her brother, the streets, the cold gust of air, the voice…

And tumbling down the disposal unit.

Danny shakily covered her mouth, muttering 'Oh no,' in a trembling voice. She had fallen and now she was stuck in a scary place that stank worse than anything she'd smelled before. And what was going to happen when someone finally found her? She was sure that she'd get punished – Matt was definitely in for it at least for taking her to that horrible junkyard. Tears stung and clouded her vision even more so than the surrounding inky blackness. She was definitely lost, in deep trouble and probably never ever going to be found by anybody ever again!

Bawling didn't help – nobody came running to see what the matter was, there were no cries from people or guards asking her what was wrong – and Danny realised this once her tear ducts stopped producing water. She began to shiver and drew her knees close to her chest. What would the adults do in a situation like this?

Well, wasn't it obvious? Go get some help! There had to be at least one person working down here, right?

She pushed a leg and tried to stand, only to falter and topple back to the ground. Something rustled and Danny sank, whatever she'd hit moulding to her form. She pressed her hands against the surface and at last understood why she hadn't been hurt from either falls: she had landed on top of a pile of bags filled with garbage. Ugh, how icky. Still, it was better than falling to her death, she supposed.

Second time getting up was the charm and Danny spread out her arms to stop herself from falling this time. She slowly and shakily hobbled down the mountain of bags until her feet met smooth concrete. Never had the feeling of a flat surface felt so good against her shoes. Now she actually had a better chance of figuring out where to go.

Danny narrowed her eyes. What were her options here? She was on safer ground – perhaps it would be a good idea to take in her location? Mounds of trash surrounded her, boxing her in like the walls of a maze. She held her arms and rubbed them. Why did everything have to look so much worse when there was no light to chase the shadows away?

Now that she was getting used to the dark, Danny could just make out the gaping maw of another tunnel. Her shoulders fell back almost at once. At least she wouldn't be stuck here forever. She glanced back to the mound of garbage bags that had saved her from a very nasty landing. She was missing, wasn't she? So that made this an emergency, right?

A lump formed in Danny's throat. She needed to find a grown-up, and standing around doing nothing wasn't going to help.

. . .

The first shaky step was hard, but the hours that followed afterwards were considerably worse. Most of the tunnels only led to more tunnels, and those that didn't were cut off by walls of garbage that were packed so tightly together that moving them was impossible for a six year old girl. One thing became obviously apparent to Danny as she stumbled about in the catacomb-esque tunnels, something that all of them shared in common: that there were no adults to be found anywhere.

But she kept going, only stopping when she absolutely couldn't walk another mile, which turned out to be more frequent than she'd expected. Her heels began burning with pain, grinding her once steady pace to a straggling limp. Each step was accompanied by a squeak or a whimper, as well as a growing, crushing feeling of homesickness that mocked her at every opportunity it got.

And then at last her luck started to change. Danny staggered around another dark corner to discover something in the distance: a pinprick of light, orange and mellow, but it shone brilliantly like a tiny flame. Her pulse and pace quickened. 'Oh thank goodness,' she whispered. It was over. She was finally safe! Now all she needed to do was find a helpful adult so that she could get back home safely.

Sweet, fresh air filled her lungs as she drew closer and closer to the light. Her steps quickened even more and when she got close enough she spied the familiar green shade of grass. Her heart skipped a beat – she must've ended up back at the park somehow. She flinched and shielded her face as she emerged outside, the sun glared sharply against her delicate pupils. She had been stuck in the pipes for much longer than she'd originally thought.

Her smile drew back into a frown and her breath faltered when she finally adjusted to the changes. Her arms fell to her sides and a single thought rushed through her weary head:

Something was off.

There were nowhere near as many trees in the park, and they had all been planted in a way that complimented the paths. These ones were tight-knit, and covered in pointy needles that made Danny's skin crawl. Getting pricked by one of those things would probably hurt a lot. The grass looked like it hadn't been cut properly in ages, almost coming up to Danny's knees and completely hiding her shoes. There were sounds too – twittering, tweeting noises that surrounded her like fog. But there was no sign of people. No footfalls striking the pavement, no constant babble of any kind. Danny tugged her bangs, breaths shuddering.

Yes, something was definitely off about this place.

She glanced towards the sewage pipe she'd come out from and then back to the trees. Was it worth going back into the dark to wait for help?

She cringed after recalling how long it had taken her to get to this point. No, it wasn't worth it at all. At least she'd be visible to the eye out here in the open. Danny turned to the left, then right before mustering up her voice. 'Hello?' she called as loud as she possibly could. 'Is anyone there?'

Nothing responded (not counting the tweeting noises, of course).

Danny opted to sit down at the base if a particularly large tree just a few feet away from the sewage pipe. She didn't want to stray too far – there was a good chance a patrol of guards would show up on one of their rounds if she was still in Band B. All she had to do was wait for them to find her.

Her stomach growled. That was right – she hadn't eaten in a while. Danny began to chew at the wall of her mouth. What was she going to do?

And then as she slid her hands into the pockets of her dress, she knew exactly what. Her fingers suddenly came into contact with something greasy and crinkly. A weak smile grew on Danny's face. She'd completely forgotten about the bag of croissants.

It took roughly five seconds for her to fork one out and tear a sizeable chunk off of it with her teeth. Buttery flavours washed over her taste buds and her howling stomach grew calm. If heaven could be described as a feeling, then Danny was definitely feeling it right then and there.

And then there was a noise – a sound unlike any other she'd heard so far. It didn't register at first, because she was too focussed on not starving to death.

Once she'd swallowed her second bite Danny paused, lowering the hand holding the croissant, and this time she heard it clearly: 'Mr-ow.'

Danny looked around, following the weaving and winding roots to the grass. Where was that noise coming from? She glanced over her shoulder and there was only the sewer pipe behind her, still as dark and as cold-looking as it had been when she'd exited it.

'Mr-ow.'

There it was again, only much louder this time. Danny scanned her surroundings again and still she was alone as she could be. And then her ears picked something else up – the unmistakeable rustle of foliage as someone – or something – brushed past them. Danny's lips parted as she slowly tilted her head up, only to find herself looking directly into the hugest pair of green eyes she'd ever seen in her life.

Danny had always thought that if she were ever to meet a monster from her nightmares she would immediately scream and run for it. She hadn't banked on that dream ever becoming a reality. There, perched on a branch fairly high up above the root Danny was sitting on, was a cat. It was standing on its hind legs, its pelt a deep shade of eggplant flecked with cream spots, and peered down at her, unblinking, as still and as haunting as a statue.

It was only for a moment, but to Danny it already felt like she had been staring up at the cat for hours. The cat's mouth eventually twitched and opened, baring its tiny pink tongue and said: 'Mr-ow.'

Danny's lip grew dry. She had found the source of the noise.

The two of them were locked in each other's gaze for quite a while, and it was only when her eyes began to sting did Danny realise that she needed to blink. The monster licked its lips, showing the little tongue again, and brought its front paws down so that it was walking on all fours. Then it sprung from the branch and landed on another, this one much closer to where Danny was sitting.

Danny squeaked and drew the bag close to her chest. What should she do? She could try running away, but she wasn't sure if her aching feet could go for very much longer. The monster was still staring at her – did it even have eyelids? If only her parents were here – they'd know what to do. They could scare this thing away and make it disappear, like they did whenever she had a nightmare.

'Mr-ow,' the monster was talking again (or at least Danny assumed that it was talking). It took a step towards her and tensed its legs, jumping into the air. It landed on the root beside her, causing the root to tremble slightly from the sudden additional weight. 'Mr-ow.'

'No!' Danny squealed and dragged herself away, edging towards the grass so that she could make a break for it if she needed to. 'Go away! Leave me alone!'

This didn't faze the monster at all. It just kept watching her, now so close that Danny could see herself reflected in its eyeballs twice over. Its nose was twitching furiously and she could hear faint sniffing noises in her ears. She tilted her head. Was it hungry, maybe? She slowly brought the bag away from her chest and the monster suddenly froze, now watching it intensely.

Danny dug a hand into the bag, tore off a piece of the other croissant and placed it on the root. There was no way she was going to risk having her hand bitten off just to find out if this weird monster was hungry or not. She barely managed to move away before the monster pounced on the piece of croissant, immediately clamping it with pointed teeth and scoffing it heartily.

Admittedly, the creature did look cute while it was eating. Danny tilted her head. It probably didn't eat people if it liked croissants (and now that she thought about it, she was fairly sure the monster was too small to devour her whole anyway), and the pink tongue that was now being used to lick the monster's lips was adorable. Maybe if she fed it another bit of croissant it would like her more –

And then, quick as a flash, the monster lunged forward and she found that her fingers were grabbing at thin air. Her head turned, darting in different directions. Where had her food gone? Where was the little monster? What had just happened?

A high-pitched chortle came from the branches and Danny looked up to find the monster standing on its hind legs again, the paper bag in its paws. It sneered at her and drew its head back, producing another laugh that reminded her of a school bully.

Danny stared, slack-jawed and unable to move.

It was laughing.

The monster was actually making fun of her.

It clamped the bag in its mouth and broke out into a run on all fours, jumping from the branch and landing on the grass without even flinching. 'Hey!' Danny shot up, momentarily ignoring the pain stabbing her heels, and broke into a sprint. It didn't last long through, the monster was already a few meters ahead of her, and had no trouble weaving its way through the woods. Danny, on the other hand, kept tripping and stumbling over roots and rocks, struggling to keep up with the lithe thief.

The monster was nowhere in sight when the last of Danny's adrenaline ebbed away, though its mocking chortles were still ringing out in the distance. She puffed and propped her upper body by placing her hands on her knees. Sweat coated her forehead. Danny shuddered. Sweat felt gross and slimy – she had to go back to the root and cool down for a while.

But where was the tree again? Most of the trees in the area looked much smaller when compared to the one she'd been resting at. And why did every path through the woods look the same to her?

Danny groaned. Great, just great. Now she was lost, cold, her feet were aching and her only source of food was gone forever. And what was even worse was that the sun was setting. Danny glanced at the bruising, purple sky and started rubbing her arms. She had to find some shelter and the sooner she did that, the better. That weird monster that stole her food was bad enough – but what if there were more out there who were more than capable of feasting on little girls like her?

She gulped. That question had never felts so real before up until now.

There was no point in trying to find her way back to the sewage pipe – Danny could tell which way she'd run in her attempt to save the croissant– and she didn't want to stay out in the open for much longer if night was on the way.

She slid her hands into her now empty pockets again and started walking, her sore soles stinging with every step. On the odd occasion she'd cup her hands around her mouth and call out: 'Hello?' several times. Of course, nobody came, just like in the sewers.

But after another fifteen minutes of wandering something did respond to her voice. By then Danny's search for humanity had practically fallen apart. Even more sweat drenched her forehead and every second felt endless. Questions raced through her mind: Where was everyone? Why was nobody answering her cries for help?

Her legs finally gave out and she landed against the ground with a reasonable amount of force, almost accidentally biting her tongue in the process. Her feet ached – they were hurting so bad that she couldn't move any more. Danny's eyes squeezed shut and she supressed a shameful croak. She was going to die here and nobody was going to be able to find her body – if anyone lived in this area at all!

Then there was a rustle, and the light tap of feet. Danny looked up, bruise-like shadows under her eyelids, to find something looking down at her – something huge and pink. A pair of circular eyes were fixed on her – but not in the same way that the cat creature had been watching her, waiting for her to lower her guard. These ones were deep and intense, scanning her from top to bottom. It stretched one of its stubby hands (at least Danny assumed it was a hand) to its mouth and furrowed its brow for a moment. 'Yoom-tah,' it murmured. 'Yoom-tah, yoom.'

Danny had no idea what "yoom", "tah" or both words together meant. Her head was swimming from too much exhaustion to even care. She didn't care if this strange, pink balloon thing could speak a hundred languages she didn't understand. She just wanted it to help her.

The pink blob turned its back on her and hurriedly waddled back in the direction from whence it came, being swallowed up by bushes. So that explained the rustling sounds. Danny reached out, her fingers stretching as far as they could go without hurting. 'Don't go!' she cried. 'Please – I don't want to be stuck here forever!'

There was more rustling and the pink blob emerged once again, blatant against the dark greens and browns of the forest foliage. Danny's abdomen fluttered. Oh thank goodness the blob hadn't completely abandoned her!

But this time it wasn't alone. The rustling continued even though there was no way that the blob could brush up against any of the leaves or branches, and a figure emerged from behind – this one a shape Danny definitely recognised. Trailing behind the blob was a man with the largest backpack she'd ever seen in her life slung on his broad shoulders. His clothes were frayed at the ends and to Danny it looked like he hadn't bathed in weeks. 'What is it, Wigglytuff?' he asked in a gruff voice, the corner of his mouth dragging into a frown.

The blob – a Wigglytuff, the man had called it – pointed one of the stubby paws in Danny's direction. 'Yoom-TAH!'

'Hm?' the man looked over and finally met Danny's line of sight. His mouth twitched for a brief second before he cast his gaze down, his scruffy fringe covering his line of sight, masking his reaction so that Danny couldn't guess what he was thinking. 'Oh dear,' he murmured, his hands tightening into fists before sprawling his fingers out again. 'What do we do here?'

Danny opened her mouth to say something, but it felt like the back of her throat had been completely coated in peanut butter.

The man with the backpack overtook the Wigglytuff and knelt down in front of Danny, looming over here like a giant. 'Can you hear me?' he asked before following up with another question. 'Can you speak?'

Danny nodded as best she could. 'Y-Yes.'

The man's eyes darted left to right, as the Wigglytuff's had done as he looked her over. 'Are you hurt?'

That was a dumb question – everything ached and Danny's feet were probably so raw now that she was sure that she was bleeding. But, to be polite, she simply nodded once more.

'Is that so?' the man carefully leant forward to get a closer look at her. 'Where's the pain?'

'My feet,' Danny mumbled. She could practically feel the stranger's gaze burning into the back of her neck. 'T-They're sore.'

The man didn't respond verbally. Instead, he replied by wiggling Danny's shoes. Danny flinched and squeaked quietly. She was letting a stranger who wasn't a guard remove her shoes. She was immobile – it wasn't like she could run away if the man did anything bad to her, but it still felt really weird. The bouncing rhythm of steps drew close. It was the Wigglytuff, staring down at her once again. But there was a smile on its face this time, not a sneer or a devious grin, but a kindly smile. It was almost the sort of sympathetic smile her mother would give her after a bad day at school.

'You can trust us,' the man said, still prying her foot from the first shoe. 'We wouldn't be here helping if we had any intention of hurting you.'

And then at last the tightness around Danny's foot faded. She tried to suppress a sigh of relief and failed. The other shoe came off shortly after.

'Right,' the man then said, beckoning to his pink companion. 'Wigglytuff, would you get the first aid kit for me?'

The Wigglytuff's long ears perked up and the blob bounded over. It fiddled with one of the many zippers on the backpack and got to work, eventually pulling out a small leather sack. It handed the bag to its owner with an eager 'Yoom-tah!'

'Thank you,' the man said and reached over to Danny's sweat-soaked socks. 'All right, let's have a little look.' Mild, refreshing air hit Danny's heels as the man pulled both socks down. There was a moment of silence before she heard him gasp, 'Oh Jesus.'

Danny's back stiffened. 'Is it bad?'

'Well,' the man said as he reached into the bag. 'You're going to need to rest for a while, young lady, let's put it like that.'

Danny whimpered. To her, it was like the man had just told her that he needed to cut her legs off.

'I'll clean the blisters so that you won't get infections,' the man continued. 'And then I'll put some bandages on them so that you've got that extra bit of protection.' He brought out a bottle filled with clear liquid from the bag. 'And just so you know, this is going to sting a bit.'

Danny didn't get time to object. One moment her wounds were completely cool, the next, they were coated in hot, lashing pain. 'It hurts!'

Her hands instinctively clenched and her legs kicked against the grass as the liquid did its work. It hissed and foamed as the dirt and bacteria were eaten away and after a few moments of grinding her teeth and crying the pain finally began to dull, fading away like the glowing embers in a dying fire.

'All right,' the man said after a few seconds. He dug a hand into the sack and pulled out a bundle of white cloth. 'We're almost done – just keep still until I've secured the bandages properly.'

The Wigglytuff returned to Danny's side and occasionally glanced around, a bit like the guards back in New Castelia would if they were keeping watch for any suspicious activity. Was it looking out for danger? Danny's stomach wrapped into knots – if there was at least one monster here, then there had to be more, right? She frowned as the grip of the bandages on her heels tightened. Perhaps it was best not to think about things like that right now.

The man made short work of the other heel, eventually pulling back and placing everything back into the bag. 'That should do it,' he said as he cleaned up. 'Think you can stand up?'

Danny rolled over and pushed herself so that she was now on her knees. 'I don't know,' she said, slowly bringing her foot forward. She flinched and hissed through her teeth as pressure was applied to the back of her sole. It lingered as she slowly attempted to stand on her own. 'It still hurts.'

The man nodded. 'It will for a few more hours,' he said. 'You'll probably feel better once you've gotten some time to heal.'

The Wigglytuff tilted a little bit so that Danny could use its body for support. The surface of its fur was quite silky, and yet the skin felt quite tight – as if it had been filled to the brim with hot air like a balloon. It took Danny a moment to realise what the pink blob was doing for her and she mustered up a curt nod. It might not be human but she still had to remember her manners. 'T-Thank you.'

The Wigglytuff waved and responded with a friendly 'Yoom-tah!', then leaned back so that Danny could gain her bearings properly.

'Hold on,' the man said. He had equipped the backpack again and was searching for something at the base of a tree. Danny narrowed her eyes as he fingered his way across grass. 'Here's one she could use,' he murmured under his breath and plucked a reasonably thick branch that was scabbed with bark. 'Take this to support your weight,' he told Danny as he gave the stick to her. 'It'll make walking much easier.'

She'd seen what people did with sticks before. Old men and ladies were often seen in Band B hobbling around with a walking stick by their side, like a faithful companion. She staggered a bit as she attempted to walk, lurching like a baby taking its first steps. But at least she was stable again.

'We were just about to set up camp beyond the bushes,' the man said once Danny was able to keep a steady pace. 'You're more than welcome to join us.'

The Wigglytuff nodded. 'Yoom.'

That wasn't really what Danny wanted – she needed to find a guard to take her home. But her aching legs screamed, practically begging for the chance to sit down and recover properly. She could just stay long enough until she felt better and then she could ask the man to take her to the nearest guard, who would then be able to return her to her family. It was that simple.

'Okay then,' she said, attempting to smile. Only the corners of her mouth made any attempt to curve upwards. The man pushed a path through the bushes so that she could avoid getting scratched by twigs and branches. 'My name is Danny,' she added. 'What's yours?'

The man released the branches once the Wigglytuff had passed through. 'Talbot,' he replied. 'Let's hurry – it'll be dark soon, and the sooner I start a campfire, the better off we'll all be.'