"Run," Chloe mouthed, and the girls ran as fast as their little legs could take them. Almost immediately, the footsteps followed. "Faster!" Chloe screamed, sensing that Ichimi couldn't keep up.
Not for any lack of trying, of course. Ichimi was running for her life, the life fluttering before her eyes, the life about to be so tragically cut short in the mouth of the giant, brown beast that even Chloe (the bravest person she knew) was terribly afraid of.
And then--snap! It came from behind them. A sudden snap, and with it, the footsteps stopped. Just in time, too; in that very second, Ichimi had tripped over a hidden stone and gone tumbling hopelessly along the ground. She lay on her back, wondering why she had not died a horrible death yet.
"Get up, you idiot," huffed Chloe, who was breathing heavily.
"We're alive," said Ichimi, with tears in her eyes.
Chloe sighed, then grinned stupidly.
They weren't dead! But what had happened to the beast? Had it encountered an unhelpful hazard like Ichimi? Or was it distracted by a sneaky shrub of pink berries? No matter the answer, both girls were feeling the incomparable joy of being alive, filling the woods with their grins, gasps and giggles.
YOU ARE READING
Footprints
Spirituala small story of two young girls, chloe and ichimi, alone, somewhere cold, footprints litter the snow behind them
