The Forest Of Wonders

• Ericka Dean, Grade 4
• Short Story
• 2015

They were all in the forest when suddenly there was a flash of lightning in the sky. It started to rain, with hail the size of golf balls! They were all mortified. A flash of lightning hit a nearby tree, sparking up a fire on a
neighbouring house. “Run, run, run!” screamed Izzy so loud the ground rumbled. They immediately all ran, you could hear the squelching sounds as their feet landed in puddles of mud, but no matter how fast they ran all the trees kept crashing down! They were all so terrified that they didn’t notice that Izzy’s house was engulfed in flames. They were safe, but the house and the forest weren’t.
As they headed back to Izzy’s two storey tree house, held up by four gigantic trees, they noticed a huge pile of ash right were Izzy’s house used to be. Izzy fell to the ground in devastation, luckily Izzy’s baby brother,
Alexzander had survived the horrific blaze. Alexzander waddled towards Izzy and fell into her loving arms.
Out of nowhere, from the pile of ash came a beautiful white and lilac purple unicorn named Sparkle. On the unicorn’s back they found Izzy's friend
Jasper. “Come on, jump on I’ll take you to a safer place.” As they headed into the smoky grey sky, they coughed and splattered, gasping for breath.
They were getting higher and higher, when suddenly they saw a house floating on a crisp white cloud. They were headed towards it as if it was Jasper’s house. Suddenly they landed with a huge thud. They quickly jumped off trying not to wake Alexzander. “You can stay here as long as you need.” Jasper exclaimed.
Izzy carried Alexzander to a room with a cot, placed him down and covered him up, then exited the room. Meanwhile Jasper was putting Sparkle into her barn. As Izzy walked into the kitchen she stumbled upon Jasper, so they grabbed some milk and cookies and headed towards the fireplace. When Izzy looked into the fire she thought she saw her house before it was destroyed, she gasped and fainted in disbelief, Jasper saw her and caught her before she fell and hit her head. Jasper lifted her up onto the couch, turned off the fireplace and rushed to grab some ice and place it onto her forehead, after a while she slowly opened her eyes. Jasper decided to take her upstairs and put her to bed, she fell asleep immediately.
In Izzy’s dream she finds herself in her house, she hears a storm brewing, she looks outside to find a strike of lightning slicing the cold, smoky grey sky into two. She jolts back landing on her stuffed teddy bear. She rushes to the nursery and sees Alexzander sleeping in his cot.
She realises this wasn’t a dream.