Below is an excerpt from my fantasy novel I’m working on – enjoy! I encourage you to give me feedback in the comments below 🙂

Back in Fiddlehead Forest, Dierde decides it is time to get going and gives Sammy a gentle, but rousing kick.

“How long was I out?” asks Sammy, still groggy.

“About four days. I am definitely getting antsy to get on the road again.” Dierdre continues, holding the red leather notebook. “I would have been bored, but I found this interesting book full of stories. I flipped to the ones I liked, so I don’t really need it anymore.”

Dierdre tosses it out the hole of the tree as Sammy’s eyes widen to as big as sand dollars. She lunges to try and catch it, but peers out and watches the memory of her father flutter down into a pile of leaves below. As she stares with shock for a few moments more, she notices the notebook has started moving. Very fast. It scurries across the forest floor like a mouse who just caught some cheese and needs to make it home before the cat finds him.

“Do you see that?” Sammy is halfway out the hole and motions to Dierdre to grab their things.

“I didn’t think it was a magic book! I would’ve kept it if I knew it had powers.”

“That book belongs to my father. And we need it back. Now.”

They speed walk while zigging and zagging. The movements are short and rapid. When they almost catch it, the book zooms in the other direction. They decide to split up since the motions are so erratic, but they end up both jumping to the ground “on top of the book” (which is actually each other). Dierdre tries to speed up like an antelope evading a predator as Sammy becomes a sly fox sneaking behind trees and bushes. 

There must be a way to catch this leather-bound beast. Then it hits them: DISTRACTION. Dierdre will lure it one way by chasing it really fast and Sammy will be there ready to creep out. 

One. 

Two. 

Three… 

Four…

they lock eyes.

And they’re off! Dierde comes running from the left, the book zooms to the right, Dierdre quickens her pace and cuts it off, the book is forced to the left, where Sammy is ready with her hands cupped, the book is grabbed and lifted in the air. What a play by the girls! Tough luck for the book. Tough luck for the legs underneath the book…?

“AH!” all three beings scream in unison.

“Who are you?” all three beings say.

“Sammy Stane. Dierdre Brown. Cheeky the chatty Chipmunk.” all three state excitedly.

“Man, have I got some stories for you!” Cheeky blurts out.

“Why did you take my father’s journal?”

“You mean, why did you throw it on my head?”

“I didn’t know you were down there,” Dierdre said while looking at her feet.

“It was very scary at first, but then I realized that it was the best protection I could ever have. I am perfectly concealed as I run across the leaves. It is great to have brown fur to blend in, but that book gave me a sense of security I had never felt. So I took off. And then I could tell I was being chased by what I thought were a pack of coyotes based on the splitting up and the speed attacks, so I ran for my life. I mean, what did you think a tiny creature would do? Sure, I have a big belly and round cheeks, but I am the size of a baby’s foot if I ever saw one.” Cheeky shoved an acorn in his already bulging right cheek and tried to fit one in his left, but almost choked.

Cheeky is your typical chipmunk in his looks. He is mostly brown with a white streak and a little fluffy tail. He has eaten more than his fill of acorns and has a big round belly as if he were pregnant and ready to pop. His eyes take up a large portion of his face – if his face is fistsized, the eyes would end a little more than halfway to the wrist. His ears are unusually small and mostly white. He listens to everyone and everything on his travels through the Fiddlehead Forest and has a hippocampus as large as his belly and cheeks combined. He loves to tell stories; they might not always be right, but they are always entertaining.