And So It Begins

Mock-Strawberry switched on their flashlight. It sure was dark in the Slumbering Woods. Beside them their pet dust bunny was nervously gripping the fur of the overgrown lima beanie it was riding on. “There’s no need to be scared,” Mock-Strawberry said nervously, “it’s just a forest. Trees aren’t scary.” The dust bunny looked up at Mock-Strawberry skeptically as if to say “Yeah right. If there’s no need to be scared then why do you sound so nervous?” Mock-Strawberry ignored the dust bunny’s judgemental gaze.

All of a sudden the group was interrupted by a loud crunch. Mock-Strawberry jumped, flinging the flashlight in the air. Mock-Strawberry’s catterfly leapt into the air and caught the flashlight, landing gracefully at their side. ~CRUNCH CRUNCH CRUNCH~ “What was that?” Mock-Strawberry whispered as they began nervously chewing on their claws. The catterfly, still holding the flashlight in its mouth, turned towards the overgrown lima beanie. As the light shined on the lima beanie, it revealed the stick that it was attempting to eat.

“Stop that!” Mock-Strawberry scolded, “how can you eat at a time like this? That isn’t even food!” The lima beanie quietly spit the stick out, trying its best to look ashamed. Mock-Strawberry turned towards the catterfly, “thanks for catching that, i’ll take it back now.” The catterfly snorted and took a step back as if to say “no way. You lost your flashlight privileges. I’m in charge of the flashlight now.” Mock-Strawberry frowned, “come on, i’m the one with thumbs, you can’t even operate the flashlight.” The catterfly snorted again, refusing to give in. “Fine,” Mock-Strawberry sighed, “but if you can’t hold it steady I'm taking it back.”

The group continued deeper into the Slumbering Woods as the sun began to set. It was now even darker than before, if that was even possible. “Maybe we should stop for the night,” Mock-Strawberry suggested, “it’s pointless to carry on when it’s this dark, for all we know we could just be walking in circles!”

Mock-Strawberry turned to face the overgrown lima beanie, “Go collect some sticks so we can make a campfire, but try not to drool on them too much, if they’re too wet they won’t burn.” The overgrown lima beanie nodded and started searching for some suitable sticks. Mock-Strawberry then turned to face the catterfly, “You start working on clearing the area so we can set up a tent. We don't want to be sleeping on rocks.” Finally Mock-Strawberry turned to face the dust bunny, “I need you to dig a pit for the campfire, we need to keep the campfire contained, we don’t accidentally start a forest fire. While you’re doing that I'll get started on setting up the tent.”

The dust bunny eagerly began digging in the soft dirt, kicking dirt everywhere in the process. Mock-Strawberry sidestepped to avoid getting a faceful of dirt before beginning to set up the tent. Meanwhile, the overgrown lima beanie was running around and trying to fit as many sticks in its mouth as it could. Once it could no longer carry any more sticks it walked over to the hole the dust bunny had dug and dropped the sticks in. The dust bunny had gotten a bit carried away, so the hole was much deeper and larger than it needed to be. The catterfly made quick work of clearing the area, flapping its large wings to blow the debris away from the area.

Finally the group finished setting up for the night. The campfire was burning strong, and Mock-Strawberry had managed to set up the tent with only a few extra pieces left over. Hopefully they weren’t important, because Mock-Strawberry had given up on trying to figure out where they were supposed to go. 

As the group got ready to go to sleep, they were interrupted by a loud crunch. Everyone turned to look at the overgrown lima beanie, who was fast asleep? “If that wasn’t the overgrown lima beanie, then what’s making that noise?” Mock-Strawberry nervously muttered. The dust bunny shot into the bottom of Mock-Strawberry’s sleeping bag, trying to hide from whatever was out there making that crunching noise. Even the catterfly seemed nervous, and it surrendered the flashlight to Mock-Strawberry, deciding that whatever was out there was too scary to investigate. The overgrown lima beanie continued to sleep through the whole ordeal, oblivious to everything going on around it.

Mock-Strawberry sighed and grabbed the flashlight. “You guys are a bunch of chickens.” They muttered as they unzipped the door to the tent, only to come face to face with a pair of large glowing eyes. Mock-Strawberry screamed and threw the flashlight at the mysterious and frightening creature.