Olive the Hedgehog

My eyes flutter open for the first time; I was born not that long ago yet it has been constantly dark. It was confusing as I could feel things around me yet I couldn’t see. As I look around my surroundings, two creatures watch me.

“Olive, you opened your eyes,” one of the animals whistles out.

“Woah! Where am I? Who are you?” I scream out, confused and scared about what is happening.

“Calm down sweetie,” the same animal responds. “I’m your mom and we are all hedgehogs. I know you’re confused but we’ll teach you what you need to know before you are on your own.”

“What? I have to be by myself?” I question with a puff.

“Now that your eyes are open, your father and I don’t have to care for you. The rules in the Hedgehog book state that we have to warn you of two things and then you must leave immediately for your own adventure,” my mother explains.

“Let’s get started so you can leave us and have your own fun,” my father whistles out as he starts to ramble. “First off, you need to watch out for certain enemies. They are called Foxes. They are orange and have a medium sized body with long shape things on top of their head. The other enemies are Hawks which can be found way up in the sky. Sometimes, they will zoom down super fast and just snatch you right up. It happened to another child we had. There are also long, skinny animals that are very sneaky. They are called Snakes and they will try to bite you but we are immune to their venom!”

“Well.. that’s uh a lot to take in,” I state, trying to consume all of the information.

“The last thing you need to know before we send you on your way is very important. Don’t make friends with anyone that does not look like us.” My mother tells me the last rule before her and my dad push me out of the area we are in, “Goodbye, Olive! It was nice having you while we did!”

“Wait, no! Please!” I scream out but it’s too late, they are already gone.

Having no idea where to go, I take in my new surroundings and notice that I am standing on a green, itchy colored surface. I begin to walk the way I am facing in hopes of finding another creature that looks like me.

Everything stays green for what seems to be a long time until the ground shifts to a new color that looks much darker. Large moving things are zooming past me and I don’t know what they are. The colors are all different and some are smaller than others; I am so confused. They don’t look like the animals my parents told me about. I continue to make my way straight, still unknown to where I am going, and find myself going under the constant moving things that have weird looking sphere legs. Luckily, I don’t get hit by any of them as I make my way across.

My short, stubby legs step up onto a new type of pavement and I hear a loud screech as two big feet nearly step on me, making me bounce up and lose some of my quills. I look up to see what made that noise only to find a giant. My parents never told me about these things. More giants come towards me, scaring the living daylights out of me and I start to walk away fast hoping they won’t follow me. As I run away, I feel myself getting picked up, making me roll into a ball in hopes that the giant will think I am just a rock; they don’t seem to believe me as they continue to hold me in their hands. Realizing what I need to do to survive, I jump out of the opened hands and land onto the ground with a stumble and begin to scurry off. It doesn’t last long until I am picked up again. They are very comfy and my eyes slowly start to close as I find myself tired from all of the movement I have had today.

When I wake up after having a nap, I am somewhere new. I look around to see that I am trapped in something but it feels like home. There is an area of the green, prickly ground that I walked on when my parents first left me and I can smell some yummy food. I think I like this place and I think I am going to be okay.