• The little girl slowly opened her eyes that quiet morning. She stretched her arms and let out a yawn. Immediately she knew something was wrong. She held her breath and listened for any noise. A haunting silence flooded the room.
    Little Midori usually woke up every morning to the sound of her family talking, and laughing. She curiously looked around the room to see if anyone was hiding from her, but the room was completely empty. Midori crawled under her blanket and hugged her knees. This was the first time she had ever been completely alone.

    Now, Midori was far from being a normal little girl. She had elegant pink hair, red eyes, two black and red wolf like ears and a long black and red tail. I'm sorry, but I don't know the proper term for her kind, myself, but it was a normal thing for her species to have red and black wolf like traits. I have noticed that the only thing that separated her away from the others was that her, her parents and her parent's siblings had red eyes and slightly sharper teeth and nails. Everyone else, even her grandparents, had green eyes with human like teeth and nails.
    Midori had never noticed it herself, but she did sometimes notice something a little different about the others. To us, Midori would be considered six to seven years old but to her kind Midori was still considered a toddler. Other than a few words, she could only speak in strange noises known as baby talk. She usually tried to imitate the speech of anything she heard, and she was a very quick learner.

    Still under the blanket, she crawled around the house looking if anyone was there. Sadly, she discovered she was the only person in the house. Tears began to form in her eyes.
    "Bonj?" She called out, hoping someone would hear her. Silence.
    Suddenly she remembered! Her family must be outside! They had always went in and out of the house, all though out the day! Maybe, they're still out there! Midori sighed with relief and walked to the big sliding door in the main room.
    The only problem was, that her mother and father had always told her never to go outside. So, under her covers, she waited by the door, excitedly waiting for her family to return. The first minutes seemed to pass by very quickly but after a while Midori began to become impatient. At least someone should have been there by now. But still she obeyed her parents and waited.
    As minutes slowly turned into hours Midori became more and more impatient. She held her blanket tightly around her and remembered looking out the windows of the house. Seeing the beautiful trees outside each morning, blooming with shimmering pink flowers. Surly being outside wasn't such a bad thing. Besides, it's her parent's fault for leaving her alone in the first place.
    After waiting by the door for nearly three hours, she couldn't stand to wait any longer. She placed her hand on the door and took a deep breath. She let go of the blanket, and slowly slid the door open. Midori expected to see the paradise she had always remembered, but instead the sight quickly overcame her with shock and sadness. The trees she had remembered to be blooming and beautiful, were now dry and bare.
    The once lush green grass was singed and the flowers she had seen every morning were withered and dead on the ground. She could see smoke rising into the air off in the distance. But the worse part was, nothing was around to comfort her as she cried.

    Midori walked around the forest like area calling out, hoping someone would answer back, but no one was there to hear. She had never gone out of the house before, so soon enough she had gotten lost. Midori had never been more scared in her life. Now not only was she alone but she was lost and hungry. Her little feet were hurting from walking around in the wilderness.
    She began to remember those frightening tales her cousins used to tell her. Rain clouds began to form, and Midori became even more terrified as the thunder crashed in the sky. She ran around in any direction shouting for help as best as she could, but still no one came. The wind started to blow and Midori ran deeper into the forest, hoping that the trees would give her some shelter. Little did she know, someone was watching her every move.

    The storm began to calm down, but not by much. Midori wandered through the forest, muttering to herself, as babies sometimes do. As she walked by one of the trees a branch had caught in a lock of her beautiful hair. She tried to free herself as best as she could, but her efforts only made her hair even more tangled into the branch. After a few minutes of struggling, Midori had finally given up.
    After all that had happened in that dreadful day, Midori was sure that it was her time to join the others. Admitting she had lost, Midori stood for hours not making any kind of resistance. The rain made her cold and wet, but Midori didn't bother to try and warm herself. The branch was low enough for her to crouch down a bit, but she silently stood there, wanting to face death standing.

    After a few hours the rain finally cleared up. Tears rolled down her cheeks, and her legs began to feel like jell-o from standing so long. Suddenly, Midori felt something p***k her head. At first she ignored it, but then she felt it again, and again until finally she tried her best to look up.
    Birds were pecking at her head! She shouted and waved her arms, trying to get the birds to fly away (or at least wait until she was dead). But on that day, in that tragic moment, she had heard a voice.

    "Don't be afraid." It said. She looked all around hoping to see her grandfather's smiling face, but instead, she saw a little bird sitting in front of her. "Me and my companions will help you." He said. Midori had heard of birds talking to people in the stories that her parents told her, but she had never imagined one would talk to her! She looked down at the bird and tried to respond as best as she could. "Pou-k?" The bird studied her face for a minute that finally responded.
    "Why?" Midori's eye's widened. Not only could she understand the bird, but it could understand her as well!
    That made Midori smile a bit. It was the only time that anyone, other than kids her own age could understand her. "Because! Your just as important to the garden as I am! Maybe even more!" The bird's friendly appearance slowly saddened. "I heard news this morning, that you are the only survivor among your people."
    Midori's smile faded. She knew it was true, but she just didn't want to believe it, let alone hear it from anyone else (A bird for that matter). Her legs had finally gave in. She fell on her knees and cried, loudly. The tiny bird fluttered it's wings.
    "Don't cry, little one! Don't cry! Remember, I had only heard this now! There's still a chance that they're around!" Midori shook her head and rubbed her eyes.
    "Your mother just might be alive! And your father, and maybe even some of your siblings! Have you ever seen the gate in the garden?" Midori nodded, sniffling. "Visitors from the outside always come through there!
    If they ever were to come back, they'll be coming through those gates! So make sure you don't miss 'um, okay?" Finally the other birds had clipped away the last tangled strand of hair caught on the tree. A lock of hair on one side of Midori's head was elegant, and ran past her shoulder. While on the other side was unevenly cut and stuck out of her head like branches on a tree.
    "Check the gate often!" The bird chirped, flying away. "Never loose hope!" Midori smiled and waved goodbye.
    "Mery, Cuicui!"