Idreel's Courageous Journey

The grass rustled as I walked through it. The buzzing of the bees was drowned out by my footsteps, but every now and then it seemed like someone would be saying something to me. "Idreel," they would say. "Idreel," their voices would creep into my ears and make my fur stand on end.

I stopped for a moment, trying to return the voices that had been calling out my name. But no matter where I stood, in that field of yellow flowers or in the shade of the small oak tree, I could still hear them calling.

"Idreel," they said again, this time louder than before.

I started walking again, but faster this time. My mother had told me not to take long walks in the park when she left that morning, but I didn't listen to her. I knew she was only worried because there were so many people around. She was always worried when there were lots of people around.

But what if she was right? What if there were people here who wanted to hurt me? My stomach twisted at the thought of it; I felt sick to my stomach about it. But why would anyone want to hurt me? I haven't done anything wrong!

I walked faster still; this time I ran through the grassy field without stopping for a breath until I reached my favorite place in the whole park: under a large oak tree with thick roots that spread far out from the trunk into the soil beneath and around them stood tall white flowers like stars whose petals fell gently onto my head as I sat down underneath them and watched the wind move through them as if it were dancing along with them.

The sun shone brightly above me and tickled my back with its warmth while birds sang in harmony all around me, filling up every corner of space with their melodies and filling my heart with joy until my stomach wasn't sick anymore; instead it was full of butterflies and happiness and everything felt right in the world once more even though the voices still called out my name over and over again, but with less insistence than before until finally they faded away into nothingness just as the sun slipped behind a cloud.

I didn't want to leave. It felt like home here under these trees where everything was peaceful and calm and no one ever got hurt or died or anything terrible like that, but looking at the sky above I realized that night would fall soon enough and then everyone would be sleeping in their beds where nobody could hurt them.

Perhaps my mother wouldn't be worried after all then? Perhaps everything really was fine after all...but somehow deep inside me something told me that everything wasn't fine at all; something told me that something bad was going to happen soon...something very bad indeed...and so reluctantly I began to walk back towards home, uneasiness building within me with each step closer to home until finally I stopped walking altogether in order to try and shake off whatever was creeping around inside of me before setting out again only this time much more slowly than before until finally I heard them...the voices...calling out for help. "Idreel!" they called out, weakly at first then growing louder until finally they were shouting for help through tears and sobs as if their lives depended upon it just as I looked up towards home where darkened figures swarmed around our door and windows like large black bats ready to devour us all whenever they decided we were ripe enough for consumption.