They were both in total agreement. Neither of them knew just how long they had been in the forest, but they knew it had been a long time. There wasn’t any time to waste either, as they had been approaching this clearing for hours and the forest had turned into a very dark and dangerous place to be. Even Notso knew they had to move fast. He whimpered and circled nervously at the edge of the forest before the clearing. They could see the meadow that lay before them clearly now. It was beautiful! The bright green, tall grass was waving gently in the wind and the sky was a deep blue without a cloud in sight. Lucky knew though that what they saw now wasn’t what was really beyond the forest edge. He has no idea what to expect, but if he didn’t move fast, he was liable to be snake food.
“Come on, Notso!” he called and took a running leap out of the forest.
As he crossed the line, just as he expected, everything changed! The meadow wasn’t a meadow at all. It was a desert! Lucky landed from his leap right into a cactus.
“Ouch! Owww! That was stupid! Why did I jump right over the line? Owww!!” cried Lucky as he began picking thorns out of his hands and arms.
Notso, being a bit more cautious, walked slowly over the line and over to Lucky. He started licking Lucky’s hands and whimpering.
“Did you see what happened, Notso? Did you see what that cactus did to me? Stupid cactus!”
Notso gave an exuberant bark in agreement and then growled at the cactus.
“Come on, Notso, let’s see if we can find any clues around here.”
The desert was almost totally bare, aside from a few scattered cacti and rocks. Other than that, it was sand, as fas as the eye could see…
– Written by Mr. T on December 18, 2011
