♥ Snookie's Writing School ♥

“Skipping, skipping, dance around! Then we will all fall down! Yippee!” 5 year old Karla sang, as she skipped along, her dark brown hair bouncing up and down. She was wearing a nice, pink sweater with jeans. Today, it was foggy, winter morning, and everywhere you looked, there was a white blanket covering the village. In her safe neighborhood, she was free to roam around the small village. She saw an old lady, dressed in her bright yellow clothes, strolling around. “Hi, Mrs. Peper (Pepper)!” she said to Mrs. Peper, pronouncing it as peeper. “Hello, dear!” she said, as Karla skipped by.

Karla skipped to her usual playing spot, the playground where stray animals wander. The playground was often called the Rainbow Park, because the slides, swings, benches, etc. were all colorful. She loved to play here, by herself or with the animals. Lately, she hadn’t seen any animals though. She wondered what happened to the animals that used to roam around this fun place. Today, the playground was sprinkled with water from the earlier rain that came. She walked up the steps and slid down the slide, being careful not to get her butt wet. Then she walked carefully through the muddy, wet grass to go home, when suddenly she heard a stomping noise that didn’t come from her own feet. She turned to look behind her, her hair getting in the way. She brushed it off her face and behind her ears to look at what had come.

A dark figure appeared in the fog, but it was hard to make out what it was. The fog made it harder to see. It stood a few feet away from her face. It started walking toward her. “Hmm, who is it today?” Karla said joyfully. “Grrrr.” The creature replied. “Um, hello?” Karla said, being cautious. Suddenly, the figure jumped from the fog and made Karla scream. She backed away from where she was standing, scared by the creature. She heard it say a soft “meow” and realized it was just a poor, black cat. The cat licked its paws and meowed again, and Karla seemed to understand it wanted food. Karla walked closer to the cat, watching it roll in the dirty mud. It meowed joyfully, rolling in the fresh, brown, wet mud. Karla fished into her jean pocket to look for a biscuit she had got from her mother a few minutes earlier.

But then, it turned aggressive again and the purr turned into a growl. It shook the mud off like how a dog might shake off water. Its tail rose straight up as it progressed towards Karla. Karla backed up again, and tripped over a rock, falling to the cold, hard ground with her back. She screamed as she started falling to the floor. The fog started clearing. She had seen her life flash before her eyes before she felt something soft and warm on her back. It hoisted her back up, making her stand up. “Huh?” she asked, not specifically to anyone. The cat was gone and the fog had disappeared. Muddy, but clear footsteps were left in the mud, the cat’s and another creature’s feet on top of another. The wind blew some black cat fur away, proving that this was no dream.