WAY BACK IN THE WOODS, BEHIND A PATCH of briers that stretched almost a mile wide in each direction, the only lake in Briery Swamp glowed and flashed like lightning. Around it, not a single critter could be seen. The fireflies had swarmed off. The insects, the night birds, the snakes, and the lizards had crawled or flown or scurried to other safer parts. The only movement came from a skinny, hairless cat who was slowly creeping out from underneath the thorn bushes.
Keeping low to the ground, mewing softly and sadly, Somber Kitty squiggled himself like a snake, up to the edge of the water.
"Meay?" he asked softly in a whisper. Nothing came back from the water except for the eerie twinkling light. Somber Kitty gingerly touched one paw to the water, then snatched it back, shaking off the wetness. He looked behind him, back to the path that led out of the briers.
Somber Kitty appeared to be caught in an argument with himself. Finally he tilted his chin down stubbornly, raised his ears and tail so that they shook with warlike energy, bared his teeth, crouched, and—snapping like a rubber band Finny Elway would have shot at Claire Arneson—went splashing into the water. He came up once, paddling madly. And then he disappeared beneath the surface.
Behind Somber Kitty, Briery Swamp remained silent. The lights of the lake flickered out. An owl landed on a nearby tree and let out a hoot. Critters trickled back to the sound of nibbling leaves.
In the woods of the swamp, all appeared to be normal. There was no one to notice what had been lost.
YOU ARE READING
The Ever After
FantasyMeet May Bird: a very shy, very precocious young girl who wants nothing more than to live in a world where she’s accepted and loved. One day while walking in the woods she finds that world—or falls into it, really. Through a pond, May enters the Eve...
