This is fun!
Here is the first installment from me. As I have time to add to it, I will.
Once upon a time there was a little mouse named Harriet. She had lovely long whiskers, coal-black eyes that shone like diamonds and a long tail that curled like a question mark. The apartment where she lived was warm and cozy, and situated in a wall inside a baker's shop. She had two good friends, Cayde, a large white raven and Bonnet, the doberman that lived with the Butcher next door.
One day, Harriet was waking up slowly, enjoying the muffin crumb (orange spice!) she had scavenged from the bakery floor, when she heard a strange noise. At first, Harriet only pricked up her ears, and when she didn't hear anything for a moment, she settled back into her warm little blanket and her muffin crumb. But then when she heard the strange noise a second time, she crawled to the mouth of her apartment in the bakery wall and poked her nose out to have a sniff.
Harriet's long whiskers wiggled about, and her tiny black nose jiggled and wiggled as she sniffed the air. Her ears stood straight up and rotated around, like tiny antennae, and her black black eyes looked everywhere. Harriet smelled the muffins and the scones, the breads and the pastries, the cakes and the cookies that filled the bakery. Harriet heard the faint roar of the fires deep in the ovens. She heard the water running in the sink where the baker cleaned up. Harriet saw the huge metal racks where the baker put the hot breads to cool. She saw the red brick walls of the bakery kitchen. She saw the crumbs on the floor that she would gather later. But where had that strange noise come from? And what had made it?
Harriet thought about the noise she had heard. It was a loud noise, but it seemed that it had been far away. Or at least it had been on the other side of the thick bakery walls. It was a low rumbly noise - like a truck or a train. But it wasn't a truck or train, Harriet thought, at least not any kind of truck or train that she had ever heard. Oh! There it was again, the noise! It did seem to be coming from the other side of the brick wall at the back of the bakery. And it was low and rumbly. But this time, Harriet could tell that the noise was not a truck or a train. It was a living noise! An animal noise! But what kind of animal could make a noise that big and that low? Harriet darted back inside the safety of her little mouse apartment and hid her head under the tiny blanket on her tiny sofa. She shivered and shook while she thought about the noise.
"If only Bonnet were here I wouldn't be so scared," thought Harriet. "Bonnet is big and strong." Harriet took her head out from underneath the blanket. She was feeling a little bit braver just thinking about Bonnet. "But Bonnet is next door at the butcher's, and he sleeps later than I do. He won't be awake for an hour or more."
Harriet heard the noise again. This time, since she had figured out it was an animal, she wasn't quite so scared. It was much scarier not knowing anything at all about the noise. But now she knew where it was coming from, and she had some idea what it was. It was an animal--probably a big animal!--and it was out in the alley behind the bakery, on the other side of that brick wall.
"If Cayde were here, he could fly up above the alley and tell me what he sees!" This idea made Harriet even more excited. She got all the way out from under her blanket, and she went to the little doorway of her mouse hole and she poked her nose out.
"Usually, when Cayde comes to visit me, he comes in through a hole in the eaves at the very tip top of the room," thought Harriet. "And he looks carefully to see if the baker is here. And if he is not, then Cayde comes fluttering down next to my mouse hole." Harriet peeked up at the top of the room and looked for Cayde's black feathers and his shiny beak.
End of Part One
As you can see, the story is getting away from me. I will not have time to add to it further before the deadline. But I will probably finish it on my own later on.
I would still like to be considered for the prizes, but I will leave it up to you to determine how my story's unfinished status affects my chances.
Thanks for a great creative giveaway!
Post edited October 02, 2015 by misteryo