Return To The Forest
A Favor in Return Part 2

A small space that ended on every side, overhead and underfoot. Darkness as thick as blindness, stifling and restricted. Fear replaced freedom and terror descended like a heavy, suffocating smoke.
Bravo and Paddington fought and scrabbled in blind fright. Chittered and growled, leapt and tumbled, unseeing. They slid helplessly to the bottom of the bucket, and […]

Continue reading “Abducted” »

Someone was shaking him. Bruce’s hands and feet were stiff, and he couldn’t think why, until his eyes opened. Andrew stood beside the bed, face shadowed in the light of dawn coming through the window behind him. He motioned towards the adjoining bathroom.
“Get up. Your feet are free.”
“Leave the door open,” said the stranger in […]

Continue reading “The trap” »

There was a commotion in the office at the end of the hall the other day. It’s not really an office… but anyone who calls it a large closet is likely to get their files chewed up, or worse. Anyway, the gopher who lives there poked his head out the door, and said something.
Nobody heard it clearly, and […]

Continue reading “The Title. Almost.” »

 Bruce wasn’t comatose for long, and his eyes flickered open. Only one focused properly, enough to see that his hands and feet were bound securely with thin strips of locking plastic. Surprise, confusion and anger overwhelmed his thoughts. His head ached, and the first thing that occurred to him was how much the duct tape […]

Continue reading “Stay calm, and everything will be fine” »

 The weathered, critical face that frowned out of the mirror at Bruce had two working eyes again. That was the good news. The vision on one side was occasionally blurred, and slow to focus on nearby objects. Bruce sighed. Three days after his visit to the hospital, and he couldn’t be sure that the eye […]

Continue reading “Hunters” »

 Riffraff’s appetite might have disappeared, but he was as thirsty as ever, perhaps more so for his fits of sneezing. He shuffled across the rocks and pebbles to the shallow edge of the river. It was wider here, and though the sound of the rushing water was loud, several groups of rocks and boulders broke […]

Continue reading “What are you doing here?” »

It seemed more dark than light when Riffraff opened his eyes and wearily shook off the accumulated rain and dew from his fur. A troubled half-sleep found him sitting up, and as he lurched forward down to his front paws, he remembered why he was sitting, and hesitated. The thick, sheltering tree branches hid him […]

Continue reading “More dark than light” »

The lone squirrel opened his eyes, and sneezed, a small, squirrel-sized noise with a smaller echo. Riffraff shook his head- and sneezed. Another faint, empty echo crept back through the trees to his ears. Water was in his nostrils, and he held his fuzzy head in his front paws as the familiar feeling welled up, […]

Continue reading “No place like home” »

Paddington anxiously looked up at the bihgwun.
“We dihn knoh he wahs wahjn uhs,” he explained, scampering alongside their tall friend.
The others kept pace, little tummies so full of good food that none felt like running ahead. Afternoon naps were waiting for them at home.
Aubry agreed, sitting so close to Paul’s head that her whiskers tickled […]

Continue reading “A summer storm” »

Paul hung up the phone and stood, hand resting upon the receiver. He let go of it slowly, half expecting the phone to ring again. When it didn’t, he turned and paced outside, blinking in the midmorning sunshine. The squirrels were at the front, in the wide open area between the house and the forest, […]

Continue reading “A change of heart” »