02 - Forest of trees
This happened last week: Little Red went to the toilet four times a day, except on Thursday when she had to go five times. On Friday she ate some food that made her fart a lot. Her newest hobby is picking her nose.
She entered the forest and although it was quite dark, it wasn't as dark as she had feared. It made her heart lighter and her mood slightly better. Perhaps, she thought, perhaps it's not dangerous at all. She walked on more confidently.
Presently she heard a noise at some distance in front of her, not far from where her path would take her. It was a high-pitched noise, rising and dropping and every now and then stopping for a while. It had strange, clicking noise. Her fear increased again, and she walked on cautiously, trying not to make a sound herself.
As she came closer to the sound, she was surprised to find she actually understood it. The noise was a voice, and though it was very strange and nearly unintelligible, she found that if she concentrated she could understand it.
"I don't believe it!" it said. "I don't bloody believe it! Taking off like that, forgetting me, leaving me on this desolate planet!" Then it made low thudding sounds as if hands were hitting a tree. Little Red sneaked forward and peeked through some bushes to get a glimpse of whatever it was speaking.
What she saw made her loose her footing in surprise. With a yelp she fell through the bush and onto the grass, straight in front of something very bizarre.
The thing whirled around to face her and shrilled. "Huurrrh!" it said. It swallowed a few times (or at least that's what Little Red assumed it was doing), then said, "What are you?"
Little Red recovered from her shock and said, "I- I'm.. Little Red." The thing stared at her in silence then chuckled lowly. "Yes," it murmured, "you're little. But you're not red. Even I - from the planet Mars, we only see the colour green - even I can see that." It started to laugh. Little Red shivered and hugged herself.
"But come," it said gently, "I have forgotten my manners. Stand up. Do not fear. I am nothing to fear." She stood slowly, eyeing him suspiciously. Then it asked, "You haven't happened to see a greenish flying dinner plate, have you?" There was hope in his voice, though his tone said he was telling himself not to have hope.
"I'm a-afraid not," Little Red stammered weakly. "Nothing to be afraid of," the strange thing said. She saw now it was very tall - probably four metres, had five and a halv feet, three arms, a long, thin neck and, on top of that, a round thing she assumed was its head. It was were the sound came from, it had something that reminded her of eyes, nose and mouth. "In fact," it said, "you should probably be afraid if you had seen it." It paused, then cried out, "Damn traitors!" then slammed all his hands on his head, making the thud she had heard.
It regained its composure and asked in a soft voice, "How come a little girl like you are out in the forest all alone, by the way?" "I'm going -" she stopped and thought how much she should tell it. "- to my grandmother to help her."
"Well," it said, "you should get on your way then. Unless you can build me a spaceship there's nothing you can do to help me anyway." 2 of its hands suddenly started to fight, one claiming the other was stupid. The third hand tried to intervene but was promptly smacked from both sides and fainted.
Little Red started to walk. The thing said after her, "Be careful, Little Red, there are dangers in the forest." It paused for a while, then shouted after her, "Use the coffee machine, Little Red! Use the coffee machine!" That was the last Little Red saw of the big green Martian.