Our story begins late one autumn evening in the woods of West Virginia. The sun hung low turning the sky a bright vivid reddish orange, with low wispy clouds. The sight was very scenic and appeared to be an image from an oil painting. The fresh air was cold and crisp, with a slight breeze blowing, as it was the first day of November. The leaves on the trees were vibrant orange, red brown and yellow.
Leaning against the trunk of a large old oak tree was a young teen girl. She had medium length dark wavy brown hair, with a slight blond streak by her right temple, dark brown eyes, and rosy porcelain skin. Her roundish heart shaped face made her look almost doll-like. Her lips had brown lipstick which matched her eyeshadow. This girl was about average height, though a bit on the plus size. But she held her weight well. She wore a crimson three quarters sleeve shirt, black yoga pants, and black slip-on shoes that looked more like slippers then shoes. This young teen's name was Elyse Thompson, and she was sixteen years old.
Elyse was alone in these woods this particular evening because she had run away from home. It's not that her parents were all that bad or abusive. But they did barely seem to notice she even existed. Often ignoring her or forgetting she is in the same room with them. She was like the black sheep of her overly religious family and no one seemed to understand her. True, running away wasn't the smartest thing to do, even she understood that. But Elyse was never one to think through her plans carefully. She was more impulsive which got her in trouble at times. And of course, because of this she had one major problem with her plan. She had not one single clue as to where to go from there.
Though Elyse did have a sister that lived in another state. Her sister would surely let her stay with her, since she too had left home at a young age because of familial differences. But there was no cell signal in the woods so her cheap phone was not working. Because of this she could not call her sister for help at this moment. "Stupid crappy phone. No cell signals. Guess I will try again once I reach town." Elyse said to herself, putting her phone in her bra. She began to wonder if she even had enough money for a trip to Tulsa, or if she would have to borrow money from her sister.
Laying on the damp ground next to her was a large red and black duffle bag, attached to which was a hand-crafted wooden walking stick with snakes carved into the handle. There was also a tattered green cloth purse. The purse was very old and was held together by patches of random cloth clothes pins and duct tape. Sticking halfway out of the purse was a white wallet with a black floral print on it.
Feeling tired Elyse sat down on the grass, her back leaning against the bark of the tree. The confused teen sighed and looked down wondering if she should just go home and hope her parents won't ground her for life. After a while she closed her eyes to get some rest. She had decided to just rest some then go to town and call her sister for help, even if the help was just advice. As she sat there the air around her was filled with the sweet scent of honey. The scent relaxed her slowly, putting her to sleep.
Soon though she was awoken by a strange wet sticky sensation brush against her face. It felt much like wet sandpaper, or even a cat's tongue. She quickly opened her eyes wide in shock to be greeted by a very peculiar sight. Staring back at her were the deep honey brown eyes of a very curious creature. It was a short chubby donkey-like creature that was a pale tan with white spots. Its mane was long and tangled and silver in color.
Sticking out of each side of its large forehead was two crooked golden horns. But not golden as in just the color but as in they appeared to be made of solid gold. Its almost comically large hooves appeared to be silver much like the horns were gold. As the strange little animal stood mere inches from her face, she realized the honey scent from earlier was coming from the creature.
The creature stared blankly at Elyse as she stared back. Both were silent, neither moved an inch. In fact, Elyse was pretty sure she wasn't even breathing. As she looked at the strange animal, she couldn't help but think of an old myth about a creature that looked just like it. The Abada, which was basically the African version of the unicorn. At last, the creature made the first move. It flung its head backwards and neighed loudly. It then licked her face with its wet sticky tongue, then grabbed her wallet from her purse and ran off.
As it ran away, she noticed it had a boar's tail. Much like the Abada of legends supposedly had. Elyse sat there in shock for a while until she finally came to her senses and realized it had just stolen her wallet. Quickly she got to her feet, grabbed her duffle bag and purse then ran after the strange animal. "Wait, stop, I need that!" She cried out at it as she ran after the creature. The more she ran and screamed though, the faster the creature would run. (How can something so short and fat run so fast?) She wondered as she continued chasing it.
Every now and then the strange animal would look backwards at her and snort loudly. It seemed as if it were laughing at her. Well at least it seemed that way to Elyse.
This only made her madder and made her run even faster. She may have been overweight but she could run fast when she wanted to. At last, the strange creature stopped running and turned around to face her. It stood on the edge of a tall rocky hill staring silently at her. "There, you, are." She gasped trying to catch her breath. The running had really taken its toll on her. Slowly she approached the creature as carefully as she could so as not to scare it away.
Once close enough Elyse quickly reached out and grabbed her wallet from its mouth. But the stubborn creature would not let go. She kept pulling at the wallet, as did the animal. As they both kept pulling, it almost seemed as if the creature thought they were playing tug of war.
"Damn you, you freak! This is not a game. Let go!" She screamed at it. The creature looked at her puzzled with its large honey brown eyes. The creature then sat down, still holding tightly onto the wallet. This made her furious and feel as if the creature was somehow mocking her.
Elyse was dangerously close to the edge of the hill though she did not notice this. She finally gave one last hard pull on the wallet, making the creature let go of it. Unfortunately, this was not a good thing, for it also made her lose her footing on the wet grass and fall backwards down the hill. "You damned freak!" She shouted as she fell, reaching for something, anything to help stop her from falling. But it was too late.