by
Bailey
All the animals were doing their daily work. In each and every one of them, there was a strong thought struggling to the surface of the ocean of ideas in their minds. There was a large emptiness circling in the air above them. At mid-day, someone finally figured it out. They asked the shocking question:
“Where is Lily?”
Lily the leopard.
A pretty face.
Married.
Several kids.
However, all that was in vain now. For Lily was missing without a trace.
“SHE DISAPPEARED, I TELL YA!” shouted Lily’s husband, Fenway, through tears. “SHE WOULDN’T RUN AWAY, SHE JUST WOULDN’T!”
A large meeting was being held about the whereabouts of Miss Lily Park. Some thought she had been captured, or ran away because of Fenway’s need for margaritas. However, the only other option that buzzed among the crowd was that she had vanished entirely.
“I say we hold a search!” said Lily’s brother, Brownie. “Mama Bunny, as jury of this session, do you agree?”
“Yes I do, and all those in favor, please say ‘I’.”
A roar went up in agreement.
“It’s settled then. We will start the search tomorrow at dawn!”
Then they all scurried back to their homes before their parents woke up for school.
Chapter 2
‘BEEP! BEEP! BEEP!’ sang the children’s alarm clocks. They greeted their beloved stuffed animals, and explained how they were painting that day, and couldn’t risk bringing their animals to school, or they might get dirty. They kissed their animals, and headed off to school. As soon as all the humans were gone, every animal headed down to the meeting place: Brownie’s, (and formerly Lily’s) house. At half past noon, no success. They’d searched the whole house, and not a single trace of Lily was found.
Then, all at once, they suddenly remembered the one place they had not searched.
Chapter 3
“No! Not the attic!” cried the youngest of the crew, as they were dragged to the large oak door that hid the feared attic always filled with strange findings. During the chaos, the large wooden door swung open untouched, into a dark, dusty stairway, leading forever upwards into the darkness. With every step, there was sharp creak that sent out shivers, like bullets. Climbing up the gloomy flight, there was a thud, as one of the animals crashed into yet another door. With some force, the door slowly creaked open, unveiling a dimly lit room with dusty old boxes and antiques. Several times, they were fooled into thinking that the old leopard print clothing was Lily.
“Ooh! Ooh! I see Mommy! I see Mommy!” squealed Lily’s children, as they spotted a Leopard’s tail slithering down from on top of a box.
“Let’s go help her!” shouted another, as the tension rose, and all held their breath. Brownie excitedly yanked on the spotted tail, sending blankets tumbling down on top of him, along with a fake tail, but no Lily. The children then pouted, and began a nerve wrecking conversation.
“A monster ate Mama!”
“Then it probably spit out her tail!”
“Then it’ll probably like her kids too! Let’s get out of here!”
“Monsters gonna eat us! Monsters gonna eat us!”
All at once, more then half of the searching crew launched themselves tumbling down the stairs, in fear, panting as loud as a steamer. The rescue team was growing smaller and smaller, as the rumors buzzed throughout the group, until Wolfie finally flicked on the flashlight that he had dropped through all the commotion, revealing only Brownie, Fenway, Wolfie, Katy, and Kindy still stood there. Everything now seemed more than ten times as scary as before. Then suddenly, they heard a low, rumbling noise, followed by an echoing groan. They were huddled closely together, when they heard a loud burp behind them, as Quiggle strolled casually up.
“You know, they have some pretty good snacks downstairs! Boy, that cookie
was good!”
“Quiggle, you had us scared! Don’t do that again! (We’ll discuss your dietary habits later.)” scolded his mother, Kindy.
“What? You’re scared of snacks?”
“Well... um... er...no! No! No! No! No!”
“Then go downstairs and prove it!”
And so they followed Quiggle downstairs for complimentary junk food.
Unfortunately, Lily is still lost, so keep your eyes open!
Find out if Lily returns next time.
Will there be success?
This was not the first time the world would change, and it was not the last.