The Woods

Slowly, my horse and I trot into the woods. The same sights greet me, the trees, the bushes, the flowers. I stare into the distance and see no movement. Then I call out to the animals of the woods.

One shrill, high whistle. Then the ground vibrates and Angnes, my horse, whinnies: throwing his legs up in the air. All the animals come: the bunnies, the birds, foxes and raccoons, chipmunks and squirrels, birds, porcupines, opossums, and whatever other animals there were in the crowd that stood before me.

"Hi, Aina!" one bird chirps. Those two words cause the animals to lose it.

"Aina!"

"You have to help me!"

"Did you hear the news?"

"I can't find my sister!"

"I need help!"

The pleas of help and latest news updates overcome me. How long had I been away? One day.

"AINA, THERE'S A MONSTER!" one animal says. Everyone freezes and turns around to look at one chubby, fat raccoon. The forest is quiet for a moment, then everyone bursts into laughter.

"Monster?!"

"You're crazy,"

"I told you that Timothy needs to go to a lunatic asylum!"

The raccoon: Timothy, is clearly offended and refuses to be ignored or laughed at.

"I swear! I'm telling the truth!" Timothy cries. I stare at him. All I know is that monsters aren't real.

"Timothy, how about you show us where the monster is?" I ask kindly. Panting, he points to the right. Everyone turns around to face the right.

"Idiot, there's nothing there," someone mutters.

"Robbie! Check what's over there!" I scream at the woodpecker which is perched upon one of the branches in the trees.

"No, you do it yourself you lazy grandma!" he scowls. I stare at him.

"I'm twelve!" I scream.

"Who cares?!" he replies. How rude! I scowl at him, then trudge over to the right of the trees. Then I see who Timothy believes to be monsters: hunters.

"Guys!" I pant. "Timothy's not wrong, hunters came to the forest!" As you could expect, everyone starts to panic. Then a twig cracks. Everyone runs to bushes or scurries up trees. A hunter walks over and picks up Timothy, pokes him, and carries him over to their truck. I clamp my hand over to mouth to hold back a scream.

I hear Timothy helplessly screaming 'let me out! let me out!' to the hunters, but they don't understand woodland animals: it's useless. Slowly, another raccoon and I walk over to the truck, the hunters are nowhere to be seen. the other raccoon: Alice, does whatever raccoons do with locks, and it pops open. Timothy walks out.

"Don't ever put me in a wooden cage again," he says, kicking the wooden cage.

"Personally, I would've used a metal one," Alice says. I nod in agreement.

"WHERE'S THE RACCOON?!" one hunter roars, obviously infuriated that Alice and I took Timothy.

"I say we teach those hunters a lesson for trying to take Timmy,"one small raccoon says, beating his fists together.

"And how do you expect a twelve-year old and a whole bunch of woodland animals to do that?" I ask. The raccoon shrugs and walks back into the crowd.

"Oh! Oh! We could take their guns and shoot them!" Robbie yells. Everyone stares at him.

"You know, maybe we should take Robbie to a lunatic asylum." a rabbit says.

Murmurs of agreement spread through the crowd.

"Hey! I'm perfectly stable!" Robbie says. He stands on his legs and walks off the branch. Everyone stares as Robbie falls to the ground.

"Uh... Robbie?" I ask and touch him with my finger. He doesn't move. "ROBBIE!"

Robbie chokes and sits up.

"Totally stable," he coughs. Everyone in the crowd of woodland creatures sigh.

"Okay, so what's the plan to get the hunters to leave?" I ask. The woods are silent.

"Ooh! We could fly around and annoy them!" one raccoon screams.

"No!" I smile.

"They would shoot us all, dummy," one animal says.

"Plus- not all of us can fly," another fox says.

"We'll scare them." one fox says firmly.

"Great idea, let's put on a circus and put on some clown makeup!" I say sarcastically.

"Yeah! the fox grins.

"No!" I smile.

"Aw!" the fox groans.

"Or we could go around biting them and-" one animal starts.

"No!" I smile.

"ALRIGHT WE'RE GOING WITH THE CLOWN IDEA!" one animal screeches.

"Oh yes, great idea," I say sarcastically. "Just two little problems that obviously don't occur to you: one, we don't have any clown makeup. Two: you aren't the boss here,"

"YEAH I AM!" the possum screams.

"Sorry dear Ally, but, obviously I: Stephan the fox and respected above all." a fox says.

"No Stephan, I am more respected for I am your mother." another fox scowls.

"Well, we live in the water, we have a territory of our very own. I, Felicia the fish, am obviously the ruler of the jungle." Felicia says.

"Dear Felicia, the only reason that your species have their own territory is because no one would like to bear looking at your beady eyes, smelling your foul scent, or meeting you whatsoever!" a bear says. "I, since I have the full right gifted to me from Mother Nature herself,can eat you all: I, Betty the bear am the most powerful one in the jungle!"

"What?!" I scream. "Guys, we're trying to get rid of the-"

"No Betty, I'm your older sister. I am obviously the more powerful one." another bear scowls.

"I'm the brother older than all of you! I, Bennedick the bear, declare myself king of the jungle!" another bear argues.

"I'm a horse! As I being the only horse here, I declare myself Queen Angnes!" Angnes says.

"I'm obviously smarter and more gifted than all of you, so I am the most respected," an owl says.

"Who made you king, old grandpa?!" Robbie snaps.

"If we're choosing leaders, I'm the most capable and the only female human. The only human to generalize, I should be the most powerful leader." I say.

A powerful rumbling shakes the forest and panicked, forgetting the quarrel about who was the best forest animal, everyone scurries to the bushes. The hunters' green truck drives off into the distance, leaving a cloud of dust behind.

"That went well," I shrug.