We are sharing the next story in our series, Featured Short Stories, written by students in the Creative Writing Club.
Every week, the students in the club work on writing short stories, sometimes from their own ideas, and sometimes from story prompts.
This week’s story was written by Nuria, aged 10. Enjoy!
The Lost Boy
The light of the full moon lit up the gloomy forest, causing shadows to cast among the ground.
Suddenly the sound of a voice echoed through the vast forest.
A wolf howled somewhere between the endless hilltops of trees, and a pair of bulging yellow eyes revealed the outline of an owl, hooting ominously.
It was a small boy talking with a fox.
“I’m so lost. My home is east, but there is no way I’ll ever find out which way that is, because there are so many trees and they’re so tall.
Besides, I’m way too weak to climb to the very top of the trees to see which direction to go, because I haven’t eaten anything since morning.”
“You know what, I’ll catch you something, and then you can make a fire to cook it. Stay here. “
And without further word, the fox padded away into the trees.
The boy started to collect twigs around the clearing to make a fire.
After that he arranged them into the pile, then poked a small hole in the earth, put the stick in it and started spinning it fast.
There was a spark and a heartbeat later the twig was on fire.
The boy laid the twig carefully on the pile of twigs he had made.
Just then, something slipped out of the undergrowth and stalked toward the boy.
As it came into the clearing, moonlight shone onto its pelt, and the boy realised it was the fox he had met earlier.
“Oh, it’s you. I thought you were some kind of wolf that wanted to eat me.”, the boy stroked the fox briefly, and then sat down.
“Nice fire”, the fox praised him, “Here, I brought you a nice fat sparrow. It was sleeping in its nest, so it didn’t spot me. You might not like it since you don’t have any spices here in the wild, but it’s still something. And you can always eat wild plants if you can find any.”
The boy picked up the dead sparrow, poked a stick through it, and held it over the fire, ever so slightly turning it.
Once the sparrow was cooked, the boy started plucking it, and when he was done with that, he ripped it in half.
Then he started tearing pieces of flesh out and eagerly stuffing them into his mouth.
The fox watched him all the time, every now and then changing its position.
“That was a good meal! Oh, I forgot to ask, what’s your name?”
The fox hesitated.
“Well, I haven’t heard anyone call me by my real name in a long time, but when I was little, I think my parents named me Ella.”
The boy smiled.
“All right, thank you Ella. I think it’s time we go back to sleep. I’m really tired.”
The boy lay down, and closed his eyes, while Ella curled up beside him, laying her tail onto her muzzle.
Within minutes they were both asleep.
It was early afternoon when Eddy’s family were preparing for their camping trip.
“Sleeping bags.”
“Check!”
“Tents.”
“Check!”
“Snacks.”
“Check!”
“Fishing rods, swimsuits, hats, books, tablets…”
“No, we are not bringing any tablets on this trip, Emilia! The only ones who are bringing their phones are Harry and I because we have to navigate.”
“But it’s a five-hour drive to the forest! How are we going to entertain ourselves, Mom?” asked Emilia.
“Just get on with the list, we don’t have all day!” Mom ordered.
“All right, all right! Fishing rods, swimsuits, hats, books.”
“You said all those already, Emilia!”
“Yes, I know, Eddy. But you didn’t say if we have those things packed yet!”, Emilia groaned, “Now can you please just check if we have them?”
Ok, don’t get all grumpy! Check, check, check, check! Are you satisfied?”, Eddy said.
Emilia ignored him.
“I think we’re all done!”
“You mean halfway done.”, Eddy put in.
“Yeah, right.”, Emilia murmured.
“Guys, stop arguing!” Mom snapped. “If it goes on like this, I’m going to have to separate you two.”
“Please do. Dr. Smarty-pants wants to intervene with everything! And even though he’s younger than me, he thinks he’s the boss. It’s annoying, Mom!” Emilia complained.
“Well, you make me do all the work and then you say that you did it! You’re always bossing me around and taking my things without asking. And whenever I tell you to give them back, you say “You’re still a baby. And babies don’t have a say in what’s theirs and what’s not”, and you say I’m annoying?”
“That’s not what I said…”, Emilia stammered.
Eddy ignored her.
“Have you ever thought about that, hm? Ever? I’m seven, and you’re fourteen, but that means that you should be nicer to me! You treat your phone better than you treat me! And don’t say that’s not true, because it is!”.
And without another word, Eddy stomped off to his room.
Emilia ran after him.
“Wait!” Mom called after her, “Leave him. He needs some alone time.”
“Let’s go, guys!” Dad said, as he carried some of the bags out.
Emilia and Eddy stalk out of the front door, not looking at each other.
“Come on, you two. Forgive yourselves!”
Mom went out and locked the front door. Together they climb into their car.
Once they started driving, Emilia silently pulled her phone out of her pocket.
Eddy frowned.
“Was Emilia allowed to take her phone with her?”
“What? I explicitly said no, Emilia! Give me that!” Mom stretched out her hand and grabbed the phone from Emilia.
Emilia gave Eddy a hard stare.
“What are you looking at me like that for? At least you have a phone! I’ll only get one in two years, when I’m 9!”
Emilia rolled her eyes and turned to look out the window for the next five hours.
“We’re here, Emilia! Now stop looking out that window and come out here to stretch your legs!” Mom shouts from outside the car.
Emilia clambered stiff-legged out of the car.
She took a deep breath and yawned.
“The last time I was here was ten years ago. I barely remember anything about this place. “All I remember is that it was absolutely lovely!”
Emilia starts running around excitedly, “Let’s go swimming!”
“All right. But we need to set up our tents first.” Mom said. “And prepare for the night.”
About an hour later, Eddy collapsed onto the mattress in his tent.
“First you have to brush your teeth and floss! Unless you are already asleep.” Dad says.
Emilia, Eddy and Mom pretended to fall asleep.
“I guess we’ll all have to go to the dentist when we get back.”
At those words Emilia, Eddy and Mom stood up, pulled out their toothbrushes and started brushing their teeth, then they flossed.
“I knew that would work.” Dad said, amused, “After all, no one likes the dentist. I really don’t understand people who want to become one.”
The next day, dad was the first one up.
“Come on everybody, it’s time to get up! Our first activity for the day is going to be a walk!”
“No! I hate walks!” Eddy complained.
“You’re going to like this one my boy! Esther, get out the swimsuits!”
“Why swimsuits?” Emilia was confused.
“You’ll see.” Mom grinned.
Dad jumped into the river with a big splash.
“Now it’s your turn, Emilia!”
Emilia followed him in.
“It’s cold!” Emilia confessed.
“Get used to it, kitty!”
Then Eddy dived into the water.
After that Mom came in too, and they splashed around for two hours.
When they had dried off and gotten dressed again, they continued with the walk.
The path led into a small valley.
There was a stream trickling on the right side, and there was a huge sycamore in front of them, perfect for climbing on.
The mountain on the left was covered in red and yellow trees, with a sparkling waterfall right in the middle.
The left mountain was the same but without a waterfall.
There was a herd of wild horses drinking from the stream. Sunlight shone onto their pelt, making them golden.
The grass beneath them was soft and green.
They heard birdsong all around them.
“Can we please move our camp here? Please?” Emilia begged.
“All right, then. It’s absolutely gorgeous!” Dad added.
“Okay. So we can pitch the tents under the sycamore, and also hang the cooking pot there, so that when it’s raining it won’t put out the fire,” Mom said, “The grill can go next to the sycamore, and the picnic blanket we will lay next to the waterfall.”
“It’s going to be so awesome camping here, Emilia!” Eddy told his sister.
“Yeah! We’re going to go swimming every single day! And we can climb up the sycamore! It’s so big we could play a round of hide and seek there!”
“I’m glad you like it here, kids! It’s going to be really cool,” Dad added.
Eddy and Emilia splashed around in the water until dinnertime.
“Come on, everyone! It’s time to eat! I made sausages, sweet potatoes and of course, salad.” Mom called her family.
“But we have to dry off and get dressed first!” Eddy complained.
“Can’t you just take a towel and come to sit down? I mean, if you really want to, you can dry off first, but by then your meal will have become cold.” Mom told Eddy.
“Come on, Eddy! You don’t want a cold dinner! Nobody does! And besides, we’re all hungry because we didn’t have any breakfast this morning.” Emilia intervened.
“Okay fine.” Eddy walked out of the river and took a towel.” I’m coming.”
“Good.”
After they ate, they walked to a comfortable spot on the field to watch the sunset until the stars came out.
The next morning, by the time Eddy woke up, Mom had already made breakfast.
Emilia bit into her toast.
“How did you toast the bread, Mom?”
“I brought the toaster. How else could I have made toast?” Mom answered.
“You brought the toaster? Who brings their toaster on a camping trip?” She asked.
“I do.” Mom replied.
Dad grinned. “It seems you don’t know your mother at all.”
Eddy rolled his eyes.
“I’ve decided that from now on we will go on a walk every morning,” Dad announced.
“And from now on I love walks!” Eddy added.
All was quiet for a while as Eddy trekked happily along beside Emilia through the forest.
After a long time of silence, Eddy said: “I need to go to the toilet!”
“There is no toilet here.” Emilia said.
“I know. I’ll just go behind that bus, so just wait for me here.”
“Okay, just make it quick.” Mom called after Eddy.
“I will.” He replied.
And with that, Eddy disappeared behind a massive bush.
“Okay, I’m coming!” Eddy called when he was done.
But when he looked out from behind the bush, no one was there.
“Mom? Dad? Emilia? Where are you?”
There was no reply.
“Hello? Is anybody there?”
Still, no one answered.
Eddy sat down on a tree stump nearby.
“If you’re trying to prank me, it won’t work.”
He called through the forest. “I’m going to sit here for as long as I need to.”
He sat there for a long time, until he started getting worried, so he decided to look for his family.
He looked behind every tree that he could see, but there was no trace of them.
Not knowing what to do, Eddy sat down again and waited once more.
Once the sky started darkening, Eddy desperately tried to retrace his steps back to the campsite.
He walked around for a long time, until he could barely see anything.
Eddy started looking for a good place to sleep, until he found a small clearing, where the moon gave some light.
He lay down hoping that when he woke up in the morning, he would find it was all a dream.
Eddy woke up.
He looked around wildly. It took him a while to remember where he was. He was cold to the bone with no blanket to keep him warm in the night. Suddenly, something slipped out of the undergrowth on the other side of the clearing.
As the moonlight shone onto the animal’s pelt, Eddy saw it was a fox, and to his great surprise, it started talking to him.
“Are you lost? I haven’t seen you here before.”
Eddy started edging away from the fox. “How do you speak?”
“It’s not me that can speak your language, It’s you that can speak my language. “
Eddy was stunned.
“Just answer my question!” The fox demanded.
“Yes, I am. How did you know I was here?” Eddy asked.
The fox hesitated.
“Well, I was about to go back to my fox-burrow, when I saw you running past, so I decided to follow you. But how did you get lost?”
“My family and I were going on a walk when I had to go to the toilet, so I went behind a big bush, but when I came back, they weren’t there anymore. We camped in the east side of the forest, but I’ll never find out which way that is because there are so many trees and they’re so tall. Besides, I’m too weak to climb to the top to see which direction to go, because I haven’t eaten anything since morning.”
“Oh, that’s not good. You know what? I’ll catch you something, and then you can make a fire to cook it. Stay here.”
And without a further word, the fox padded away into the trees.
Eddy started collecting twigs around the clearing to make a fire.
After that he arranged them into a pile, to then poke a small hole in the earth, put the stick in it and start spinning it fast.
There was a spark and a heartbeat later the twig was on fire.
Eddy laid the stick carefully on the pile of twigs he had made.
Just then, something slipped out of the undergrowth and stalked toward him.
As it came into the clearing, moonlight shone onto its pelt and Eddy realised it was the fox he had met earlier.
“Oh, it’s you. I thought you were a wolf that wanted to eat me.” He stroked the fox briefly, and then sat down.
Then the fox spoke.
“Nice fire. Here, I brought you a nice fat sparrow. It was sleeping in its nest so it didn’t spot me. You might not like it since you don’t have any spices here in the wild, but it’s still something. And you can always eat wild plants if you can find any.”
Eddy picked up the dead sparrow, poked a stick through it and held it over the fire, ever so slightly turning it.
Once the sparrow was cooked, he started plucking it, and when he was done with that, he ripped it in half.
Then he started tearing pieces of flesh out and eagerly stuffing them into his mouth.
The fox watched him the whole time, every now and then changing its position.
“That was a good meal, thank you! Oh, I forgot to ask, what’s your name?
The fox hesitated.
“Well, I haven’t heard anyone call me by my real name in a long time, but I think when I was little, my parents used to call me Ella.
Eddy smiled.
“Okay, thank you Ella. I’m Eddy. Anyway, I think it’s time we go back to sleep. I’m really tired.”
He lay down, and closed his eyes, while Ella curled up beside him, laying her tail onto her muzzle.
Within minutes they were both asleep.
The next morning, Ella woke Eddy up.
“We should look for your family.”
“Yes, but how will we find our way back to where my family disappeared? We’re quite far from there.”
“Simple! I’ll retrace your steps back to the bush where you last saw them. And from there we can follow their footprints!”
“But what if there are no footprints?” Eddy asked.
“Then I’ll follow their scent!”
“Okay. That’s not a bad idea!”
For about half an hour, Ella’s nose was on the ground, following the scent, while he walked behind her. They finally got to the place where Eddy’s family had disappeared.
“Do you see any footprints?” Ella asked.
“Yes, over here! But those are definitely not human footprints. They look like big paws.” Eddy replied.
“So those are pawprints? Your parents don’t have paws, right?” Ella asked.
“No, they don’t. That’s weird. I wonder why.”
“Wait. Maybe your family was taken by something, like, they were kidnapped.” Ella thought out loud.
“You mean adultnapped .”
“Anyway, let’s follow the pawprints!”
So Eddy and Ella started to track the pawprints, until they came to a deep pit, and on the bottom there was another hole on the side.
“That hole on the bottom probably leads to some kind of cave or something. Do you think that we should go down there and check it out?” Eddy asked her.
According to the smell where your family disappeared, they’ve been here a day or two ago.”
“Great! Let’s go then!”
Eddy carefully climbed his way down, using some gaps and holes as grip, and then, when he got to the bottom, Ella jumped, and Eddy had to catch her.
They both made it down safely.
Once they were on firm ground, they crept silently into the cave.
Ella went first, using her sense of smell to navigate where they were going, since they didn’t have any flashlights.
They walked in darkness for about ten minutes, until they saw torches on the walls ahead.
Then they arrived at a huge bronze door that had something written on it. It was a language that neither Ella nor Eddy understood.
“Creepy,” Eddy said.
“I agree.”
On the door there was a big round handle made from what looked like Iron.
Eddy glanced at Ella.
“Do you think we should open it?”
“If that’s fine by you.”, Ella looked back at him.
“All right then.”, Eddy reached for the door handle, grabbed it in his hand, and knocked three times.
The sound echoed through the cave.
Shortly after, the door slowly creaked open, and they stood facing a group of five creatures that looked like they were half dog, half monster.
Their bodies were the bodies of a wolf, and they had two extra arms on the non-wolf parts. Their faces were sky blue, and they had big black horns sticking out of their heads. They kind of looked like centaurs, except they were half dog, not half horse.
Eddy took two steps back, and Ella hid behind him.
“Who are you?”, the biggest creature of them all asked.
“I er… I.. we are looking for my family.”, Eddy said.
“Let’s capture them, like we did the other ones that we found outside.”, a different dog-centaur told the bigger one who had spoken first.
As soon as he spoke, Eddy was surrounded by the dog-centaurs. One of them took a long rope from their shoulder, tied Eddy’s hands and feet together, and then all of them picked him up and carried him through the doors.
“Ella!” He cried.
Unnoticed, Ella slipped through the door just as it was about to close and followed the dog centaurs.
The last thing Eddy knew was being thrown onto the floor and hearing the click of a door being locked.
Eddy awoke.
He was in a dark room, lying on a hard stone bed, with a small blanket to keep him warm. He felt around the walls, because he couldn’t see anything.
“Hello?” He whispered. “Is anybody there?”
“Yes. Me, Ella. I had to sneak myself in when you were carried into this room.”
The voice came from beside him.
“Here, I brought you a flashlight, since it’s dark here. I can sense that we are not alone. Do you know who else is here?”
“I don’t know. I just woke up.”
Eddy reached out to stroke her briefly, then he took the flashlight and switched it on. It was better than nothing, but still quite dim.
The first thing Eddy saw was a fireplace.
“Look! There’s a fireplace and a pile of wood!” Eddy pointed to a big stock of wood beside a small fireplace made out of steel, and a chimney leading to a vent.
He got off the stone bed and was about to approach the fireplace, when he realised that there was another stone bed in the space. Then Eddy looked to his right, and there were two more beds.
There were people on each of the beds. Since it was quite dark, it took a while for Eddy to see who they were. He tiptoed towards the beds and shone the flashlight on the sleeping people.
“Mom! Dad!” Eddy shouted as he recognised them. He shook them awake and gave them both a long hug
“Eddy!” Mom hugged him back, almost in tears. “We have been so worried about you!”
“I have been worried about you too. I spent a long time looking for you.” Eddy said.
“What about me?” Emilia asked. “I’m also part of the family.”
“I don’t care about you. You’re my big sister. And besides, you’re really mean to me, so why would I ever hug you? And also I thought you don’t like hugs.”
Emilia grumbled something to herself, then lay back down on to her stone bed.
“How did you find us?” Dad asked. “We must have been here for a few days.”
“I was found by this fox, her name is Ella. And she helped me track you down to the doors on this place.”
“So you can talk to animals?” Dad asked.
Eddy shook his head.
“No, it’s the opposite.” Eddy said. “Ella can talk to humans. It’s kind of obvious, because you heard her talking when we first got here, and if only I could talk to animals, then you wouldn’t have understood her.”
“No, we didn’t hear her talking. You woke us up when you shone the flashlight on us.”
“Oh, so we don’t know If I can talk to animals or if Ella can talk to humans.”
Dad nodded.
“Then let’s test it. Hey Ella. say something.”
“Um…hello? Can you understand me?”
“I didn’t understand anything,” Mom told Eddy.
“Nor did I.” Dad said.
“Well, I did.” Emilia came forward.
“What did she say?” Dad asked.
“Hello, can you understand me?” Emilia answered.
“Yeah, that’s what I said.” Ella smiled.
“Correct. So Mom and dad can’t understand you, but can you understand them, Ella?”
She nodded.
“Yep. I can understand every word of it.” She said.
“Right. Now we have to find a way out of here so that we can go home.” Emilia interrupted.
“Well, we can’t leave this room. There are no windows, and no other way apart from that door.” Eddy said.
“We need to wait till a guard comes and I can scare it away and everyone else can escape.” Ella thought out loud.
“What’d she say?” Mom asked.
Eddy translated.
“There’s a small problem there, Eddy.” Mom warned.
“What?”
“We have no idea how we got into this place, so we don’t know how to get out, either.”
Eddy frowned.
“I never thought of that.”
“Ha. See, Eddy? You’re not always right!” Emilia grinned.
“But Ella does.” Eddy realised.
Emilia groaned.
“But it was a long way. It would be hard to remember” Ella looked concerned.
“It’s worth a try.” Dad said.
“Ok, now we just have to wait.” Eddy sat down.
Eddy was woken by a loud click.
He looked up.
There was a dog-centaur opening the huge door to the cave. Behind him were two more of them, holding trays with plates of spinach, bread and glasses of water.
Just as they set the trays down, Ella raced toward them. She jumped on the one holding the key.
It fell over, startled.
The other ones tried to grab her, but she was too fast for them.
She raked her claws down the shoulder of the dog-centaur she had pinned down, and snatched the keys from his hand.
Then dad came running and punched one of them in the face.
It fell unconscious to the ground.
The last one started running away as fast as its dog-like legs could carry it.
“Come on, let’s go!” Eddy said.
They sprinted after Ella.
“Right! Now left! Keep going straight!” Ella ordered.
Mom, Dad and Emilia just followed Eddy, since they couldn’t understand Ella.
Eddy was out of breath when he finally saw the big bronze door.
He took the keys from Ella’s mouth and slipped the biggest one into the lock.
He turned it as fast as he could.
The door creaked open.
When everyone was through, Eddy started pushing it inwards.
When it was closed, he locked it again, to give them some more time.
They ran through the corridor for five minutes, until they saw the hole.
Ella leaped out.
Eddy was next. He jumped, and his hands reached the ledge.
He pulled with all his strength, until he was at the top. Then he helped the others get out.
“We made it!” Emilia shouted.
“Phew! That was stressful.”
“But it was also amazing to escape!” Dad said.
“Thank you Ella, for making it possible. We could have been stuck there for God knows how long.” Mom said.
They all squinted their eyes at the brightness of the sun. It was glaring after they had spent days locked in a dark cave.
“It sure is good to see the sun again,” Mom said.
“And to breathe fresh air,” Emilia said, taking a deep breath.
“Well, I’m glad to be out of that cave, and back to our camping trip.” Eddy said.
Once they were all standing on the edge, Ella said: “I might be able to track your scent, so that you can find your way back to your camping place.”
Eddy translated what she said to his parents, and they agreed to follow her.
Ella lowered her nose to the ground and started sniffing. They followed her for a while until they came back to the path they had gone on in the morning two days before.
“Here we are!” Dad said, overjoyed to be back at their camping spot. “Say thank you to Ella for all her help.”
“Ella?”
Eddy sounded uncertain.
“Yes?”
“Can I adopt you?”
“No! Absolutely not!”
Eddy winced.
“Don’t be fooled so easily! Of course you can adopt me!” Ella laughed.
A grin spread over Eddy’s face.
“Awesome! You can come home with us after our camping trip.”
“Great!” Emilia groaned. “Another creature in the house I don’t understand!”
“Hey! That’s not nice, Emilia!” Dad said.
“Okay, sorry Eddy. I take It back.”
“It would be nice to have a pet that can help us around the house.” Mom said.
They walked in silence, until they came to the beautiful valley where they had pitched their tents.
“Home sweet home.” Emilia sighed.
“This isn’t home!” Eddy intervened.
“Whatever.”
“I’m afraid to tell you that we are going to leave now.” Dad said.
“Oh, come on! Why?” Eddy complained.
“Eddy, do you really want to stay here and be kidnapped again by those…whatever they are?” Emilia said.
“I guess you’re right.” Eddy sighed. “Let’s start packing.”
Everyone went to their tents and started packing up. When they were done, about an hour later, they put all their stuff into the car, including Ella, and started driving back to the city.
“Hey, guys. Should we say any of this to the police?” Mom asked.
“I doubt anyone will believe us. It would be like listening to a fairy tale.”
“All right then, we’ll pretend nothing ever happened.” Mom said.
They drove for a long time in silence, and then Eddy asked:” Can we really keep Ella?”
“We’ll see. We’re going to do tests on her to find out if she’s a good fox or not. If she Is, then we can keep her. If not, then we can’t keep her.” Mom answered.
“Okay.”
When they got home, they tested Ella to see if she could live with them, she wouldn’t steal food secretly, wouldn’t bite any of them and behaved well. She passed all of them, so they decided to keep her.
Eddy was really glad to have a friend in Ella, it was the best thing that came out of being lost in the forest, and the family lived happily ever after.
THE END
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