HOW TO CATCH A HUMAN

CHAPTER 1



It was a normal day within the woods of Foxglove, where the animals are friendly, except for the spunky squirrel named Shorty.  We have Doe the moose, Emmykins the chipmunk, Hoss the raven, Munchkin the rabbit and Elmo the bear. These six watch over foxglove and try to keep the peace alive within the forest.  On this very normal day the animals were happily playing along, but little did they know something very troublesome was about to stir within the peaceful dwellings that they call their home.



As the birds take flight and the screeching tires break the silence within the distance, these six friends run to find what had made this sound, as they approach Elmwood way they noticed a large rusted white truck pulled off to the side of the tracks. Two men exited the vehicle and head towards the back. Elmo started to talk, when Shorty jumped on him and held her hand over his mouth and shushed him. They all watched as the men open the back doors and reached in to grab a dark brown barrel that did show its age upon it. They placed it down behind a couple of bushes and they went back rustling into the truck. A yellow folder and glasses fell from the truck as the passenger rustled his way back into his seat. When the truck made its way into the distance that is when the friends realized something wasn’t right about this barrel for the grass underneath it was starting to wilt.



Doe looked at Hoss and asked “What was that?”, and Hoss being the oldest of them all they figured he probably would have seen something similar to this before.



“Hmm, it looks like they left something behind maybe I should go on up and see what it is that fell out.” said Hoss.



As he approached the items he noticed a set of silver shiny glasses set for a curious raven such as Hoss.



“Oh! Pretty!! Shiny glasses just for me.” said Hoss proudly. 



“Awe man!” said Emmykins as she watched Hoss take the shiny silver glasses.



“It is ok Emmy, you didn’t want those silly man glasses.” said Shorty.



Munchkin picked up the folder and started to giggle as he bounced around Elmo waving the contents so no one could grab it.



“Munchkin!! Bring that here, now!” said Shorty.



Yeah Munchkin we may need that it could contain very important information we could use to figure out this barrel and who these men are.” said Elmo.



Munchkin continues to taunt and tease the other as Emmykins giggles and sticks a little branch out and trips Munchkin. Munchkin rolls over as the folder flops on the ground with only a few pages that slipped out.



Doe leans over the papers and begins to spell “W..a..r..n..i..n..g, warning” “What is warning?” said Doe.



Hoss tilts his newly acquired glasses and shakes his head. “This is bad, bad, bad, we should seek help and see what this warning is, but we need find a human that can help us with this.”



“But where do we find a human?” said Elmo.



“Wait!! How about we set a trap to catch a human?” said Shorty.



“Where do we set a trap and how will we catch them?” said Doe.



“Hey guys what if we go and talk to Jelly, she should know something about humans.” said Emmykins.



“Yeah let’s go see Jelly.” said Munchkin.



They all agreed to go see Jelly the duck, since she has spent some time away from the forest.  Doe gets to Stella lake before the others, and the rest follow behind her they notice a commotion between Nana the wolf and Jelly the duck.



“How can you justify it is OK that the book has gotten torn?” said Jelly.



“I didn’t justify anything. I merely said that the cub didn’t know it was important and just wanted to see if it tasted like wood.” said Nana.



“Well if paper is made from wood it should taste like wood. This isn’t rocket science, it isn’t that difficult to figure out wood is wood no matter what form it is in.” said Jelly.



“He is only a cub and I assure you he will not do it again Jelly.” said Nana as she glared down at the wolf cub.



“I promise never to eat your books again Miss Jelly.” Said the little wolf cub.



“Ok, but remember eat a stick next time please.” said Jelly. 



Shorty and the others approached Jelly. “Miss Jelly, we have a question to ask you.” said shorty.



“Hello to you all, what is this question you want to ask me?” said Jelly.



“Well we saw some humans leave an odd barrel behind a bush at Elmwood way, and they dropped this folder behind as they left.” said Elmo as he handed over the folder to Jelly.



“We’ll let see what is in the folder.” Jelly open up the folder as she gasped back her words quick.



“Oh no! This is not good, this folder contains papers that explain about the hazardous waste within the barrel!” said Jelly.



“What do we do?” said Doe.



“We need to find another human who can help the forest and us out with this.” said Jelly.



“But which human can we get to help?” said Hoss.



“At the edge of the forest there is a house next to Thimbleberry grove, the man and little girl there are very nice.” said Jelly.



“But how do we catch the human and bring it back here?” said Emmykins.



“You catch them by setting a trap.” said Jelly.



“You mean a trap like humans have set for other animals?” said Doe.



“Yes, a simple trap that will catch the human’s attention.” said Jelly.



“Ok we can go catch a human and show them the files and take them to the barrel.” said Hoss.



CHAPTER 2

“Who will go and warn the others to stay away from the barrel and who goes get the human?” asked Elmo.



Jelly puts her wing on the side of her head and tapped her feathery finger on her temple.



“I’ve got it! I will go warn the others and you six go and catch us a human.” Said Jelly.



“We will do it, we will go and catch a human and be back as soon as we have one.” Said Elmo as he smiled proudly as his mind starts to conduct a plan on a trap. 



They headed back through the woods as they passed an old tree that was hollowed out from age and passed the stage of petrified, Munchkin noticed a twisted branch that was shaped like a walking stick.



Munchkin rustle over to it fast grasping the stick up. “Look! Look! A Stick! Can We Hit! Hit!” said Munchkin.



“No, Munchkin. We Do Not Hit!” Shorty scolded Munchkin. The sound of laughter was coming from behind Shorty; she turns and glares at Emmykins.



Pulling the stick from his grasp Elmo shook his head. “Oh, No! No! No! We Must Not Hit!” Hoss stated.



“Bu...T buu...t” Munchkin stuttered as he spoke.



Letting a heavy sigh out Elmo sat next to Munchkin, “Hurting someone is never the answer” Elmo stated.



“We need to figure out the proper way of catching a human without causing harm.” Said Hoss.



“How about we look for some ideas as we make our way to the grove?” said Doe.



“I think that is a very good idea Doe.” Said Hoss.



“Munchkin how about looking for some berries or something nice that can be used to catch a human.” Said Shorty.



“Like berries and grass?” said Munchkin?



“That will do nicely, who wouldn’t like some berries and grass?” asked Emmykins. 



All six of them slowly started to browse the area to find something that could be as use to catch their human; Doe picked a variety of different plant leaves and some shrubbery. He used his hoof to rustle the leaves back from the forest ground, where it was damp and he placed his variety of goodies on the ground. He slowly kneaded his hoof over it as the damped dirty and vegetation rolled into a ball. He did this for a short time until he had five freshly rolled balls.



“Hey, look I have the perfect snack to use for our trap.” Said Doe.



“What do you have?” said Hoss.



“Just come and look at these are amazing!” stated Doe.



  Hoss worked his way over there and looked; he put his wing on his beak and shakes his head a little. He looked at Doe and looked over to the others and let out a soft chuckle.



“You need to come and see these amazing goodies.” The others make their way over to them.



“Wait! What is that?” said Emmykins, pointing at the five rolled balls.



“That is food, well it will be food after I find some loose bark to spice the flavors.” Said Doe.



“That doesn’t look very appetizing Doe.” Said Elmo. 



“I will eat it!” said Munchkin jumping up and down.



“Yeah, let Munchkin try It.” Giggled Shorty.



“No, not yet it isn’t completely perfect yet.” Said Doe.



“What are you going to call that hideous concoction?” question Hoss.



“I think I will call them Donuts.” Said Doe with pride.



Emmykins starts to laugh a big belly laugh, and rolls of the boulder she was sitting on and rolls to a stop at Munchkin’s feet. The others are also rolling on the woodland floor laughing.



Doe looks over at Elmo who was on his side holding his belly and laughing a great big belly laugh, with Shorty perched on his shoulder, lying on his back rocking back and forth laughing.



“Laugh all you want, but my Donuts will catch a human.”  Doe stomps his hoof and stands up straight with confidence.



“If you don’t believe me why don’t you try one” Doe was proudly showing his donuts off to his skeptic friends.

They all gave grim faces accept Munchkin who bravely bite’s into the donut as the other’s stare at Munchkin for his brave act.

Munchkin thumped his foot against the forest floor “Try it… try it…!” He bounces around in a delightful joy only to shove his face in the donuts.

As the others looked at the strange looking food, Shorty the all so spunky squirrel “It can’t be that bad” She acclaimed, pinching her nose she bravely took a bite of the strange donut. She ran around only to spit out the donuts “It’s that bad…” She shook her head as the others stared amazed as she changed from green to blue.

“Oh… My! What pretty colors!” Hoss  exclaimed, tinkering with his glasses, he gave a serious look.



Shorty ran sticking her head into a stream that happen nearby, as she sat up with a relieved sigh.

The others pointed and laughed, she looked at her extremely fluffy fur “Never again will I eat donuts…” She rubbed her tongue with a fresh fern leaf to cure the taste of the extremely bitter treat.

Munchkin showed little concern for what was going on, only to enjoy his fine snack with great persistence.



Hoss sat next to Munchkin “I do not think these so called ‘Donuts’ are for human consumption.”



“What is Consumption?” Emmykins asked with a bewildered look upon her face.



Hoss’ glasses tinkled in the sunlight as he gave a serious look as he tapped his head with his feathers “It means to eat or to use” He gave an explanation.

Emmykins giggled pointing at Munchkin “He’s consumptioning!” She giggled repeating herself as she bounced around Munchkin.



Doe gave a bewildered looked as he tried to figure out what was wrong with his donuts, “I don’t understand” He question his self.

“Oh… what is it this time Doe?” Hoss asked with extreme distraction.

“My Donuts turned Shorty into a rainbow!” He acclaimed.

Hoss shook his head “Tsk! Tsk! Humans cannot eat those contraptions” He shook his head with the flick of his feathers. “No…No! This simply won’t do!” Hoss agreed with his self.



“What are we going to do? We can’t feed these to a human.” Shorty was still rubbing her tongue with the fern leaf, trying to get the bad taste out of her mouth. “If they turned my fur colors, no telling what it would do to a human.”

“Yeah I could have really hurt someone feeding them this.” Doe replies with a sad face.

“If only we knew what humans eats?” Emmykins replies, while shrugging her shoulders and turning her palms up.

Elmo looks at everyone and replies, “Wouldn’t Jelly knows what they eat, or where we can get information on what they eat?”

Everyone looks at Elmo like he was the smartest animal in the forest. For at that moment he was.

“Yes, Yes Jelly would know exactly what to do.” Hoss replies hopping from foot to foot and flapping his wings.

“Yes, let’s all go to Jelly’s!!” Everyone shouts and runs to Jelly’s place.





 



CHAPTER 3



As they approach Jelly’s place they hear mumbling and the sound of things being thrown around. “I know I put it here…hmmm or did I put it over there?” They see Jelly standing in a sea of books all around her scratching her head with a puzzled look on her face.

“Jelly, Jelly, Jelly, and guess what guess what?” Munchkin hops up to Jelly in extreme excitement.

Jelly jumps up and quacks with fright. “Oh my, mother goose where the feathers did you come from?”

“From over there.” Munchkin replies as he points towards the way he came from.

“Why are all of you here?” Jelly scratches her head.

“Jelly we need your help.” Shorty walks up to her.

“What happened to your fur, Shorty?” Jelly looks at her with a puzzled look on her face.

“Doe did it with his doe-nuts he was making to try to use as bait to catch a human. They were nasty tasting and they turned my fur rainbow colors. That is why we need your help.” Shorty wraps her arms around her leg as she finishes telling Jelly her tale.

“Oh my, that is not good. You definitely cannot feed that to humans, no telling what it will do to them.”

“We need you to tell us what humans eat. So we don’t kills them.” Emmykins replies.

“Yes, Yes, You need to go to town and find a book that has some recipes that will show you how to make food for humans.” Jelly tells them.

“Who wills go?” Munchkin shrugs his shoulders and raises his palms up.

“I can’t go, they are still looking for me.”  Jelly replies in fear.

“I will go.” Hoss flies up on the limb above Jelly.

“Me and Emmykins will go too.” Shorty states with her shoulders thrown back.