Fern had just finished dinner and was going upstairs to read books – this is how she usually falls asleep. She said goodnight to Bella, Mama Leopard and Tsunami, and made herself comfortable in her bed.
Then she wondered to herself, I wonder if there are other things that are not animals. I mean, I’ve heard of robots, but nothing else. Why is that?
Well, thought Fern, it’s probably nothing.
She snuggled down under the blankets and let whatever dream was going to happen, come…
Fern was in her bed when she heard a scuttling sound. Then out from the shadows rose a gigantic creature, with fangs like an anaconda, a black cloak just like the wizard, and blood dripping down from its mouth. It looked like a human, but it couldn’t be!
The thing quietly slid over to her bed and looked at her. She leapt up and scratched at its face. It felt as cold as a glass of milk! It snarled and showed its fangs to her.
Slowly, it lowered its head and opened its mouth. Fern dodged the bite and cannonballed into it, ramming her shoulder into its side! At the same time, she scratched her claws on the vampire’s back. Something spurted out of it. It could have been its blood!
She pinned it down, and growled.
“I wonder what type of animal this is,” thought Fern. “Hmm, it kind of looks like a bat, but has the fangs of a snake, and the body and shape and clothing of a human. I think I’ll name it a ‘Vampire”
“No sucking my blood,” she thought furiously! She grabbed one of its hands and started making it hit itself on the head. “Hah! You’re hitting yourself!”
The vampire glared at her. It twisted so that Fern rolled off it. It leapt at her, but she dodged out of the way again.
She ran to the wall and opened the secret passageway. She started running as fast as she could. She burst outside and ran toward Marsh’s Swamp. She jumped into the swamp and swam to his secret hideout, underneath where the sticky mud was. She grabbed a handful and shot out of the cave and came up on the other side of the swamp.
She raced back to the castle and then heard a quiet growling sound. She quickly hid in one of the trees and looked down. The vampire was there – growling, muttering, and looking for her, she realized.
She scampered across the branches til she got to the castle. She climbed up the highest tree and jumped from it to the tower. She went down the tower and scrambled into her room. She climbed onto the ceiling using the vines to help. She waited for the vampire to come back – and it did!
First she saw a light mist hanging in the air. It moved until it was right under her and then shape-shifted into the vampire! The vampire looked all around for her, it did not notice her on the ceiling.
She got into the perfect position, got out the sticky mud, aimed, and dropped it right on the vampire! The vampire roared and flung itself at the wall. It stuck to the wall like glue! It struggled and groaned and shrieked and eventually turned into mist again.
Fern looked at the mist. The mist slowly turned into a bat! It stayed like a bat for a long while and Fern noticed it was looking for her. Quick as a flash, she scampered down from her hiding place, opened the door, threw herself outside, and closed the door. She ran down the steps to the living room and ran through the archway into the kitchen!
She looked around. There were three hiding spots she could use: underneath the kitchen sink, the pantry, or she could hide behind the window shades.
She ran to the sink, opened the cabinet door, dove inside, and closed it. She stayed there for a super, super-duper long time just to make sure the vampire wasn’t following her anymore.
She peeked out of her hiding spot seeing nobody was there, opened the door, and crept out of the kitchen into the living room – no one was there either.
“Hmm,” thought Fern. “Why isn’t there anyone else in the house? I mean, I ran almost everywhere but there’s no one. That’s strange…”
She scampered upstairs to her room and looked at the door. The vampire wasn’t making any sounds anymore, and very weirdly seemed like nothing was there. She peeked through the keyhole and looked into her room. The bat was still stuck there, waiting, but it seemed like it had slid down a little bit.
“Maybe it’s just faking and it’s not actually stuck,” thought Fern. “I have an idea!”
She ran back down to the kitchen and looked in the pantry. Her idea was to put out five plates around the vampire of food and wait for it to see which one it liked best. Then, when she knew which one it liked best, she’d poison the food and bring some more of it (poisoned) to her bedroom. Then the vampire would choke on it and die.
These are the five foods she chose:
- Strawberries
- Peanut butter
- Avocado
- Mango
- Garlic
She got out some paper plates and put the food on them. She scampered back upstairs and opened her door. The vampire bat was still in the same position. She carefully and quickly set down the first food, strawberries and quickly darted away. She did that with all of the food. Then she climbed back onto the vines on the ceiling and watched as the vampire bat slowly shapeshifted back into the human form and got up and looked at all the food. It went to the first one and tried it. It seemed like it didn’t really like the taste of the strawberry, so it went to the next one. For some reason, it didn’t like the peanut butter either. Then it went to the avocado – it kind of liked it. Next, to mango (it was okay for it), then it went to the garlic, licked it, and simply turned into thin air.
Fern sat up and rubbed her eyes.
Was it a dream? I mean, it had felt so real, Fern thought. She laid in her bed for a while and then got up and did a little jig because she was so happy to be alive and that it was all a dream.
Soon, she stopped dancing as she noticed the sunlight shining cheerfully down on her bed and reflecting off the many sparkles on the walls. She noticed Bella and Tsunami were sleeping on the rug beneath her and could hear the quiet snores of Mama Leopard in the next room over.
“Bella, Tsunami,” Fern whispered. “Did you have any strange dreams last night?”
Bella woke up and rubbed her eyes. “Nope, my dream was full of cheese and happiness and cheerfulness!”
Behind her, Tsunami yawned and looked at Fern. “No, my dream wasn’t that scary and wasn’t strange. I think it was very realistic.”
“What was it about?” Fern asked Tsunami.
“Oh, kinda cool – there’s these robots and they were trying to get you, me and Bella and then we escaped and hid, and then the robots found us, and then we ran some more, and then I woke up.”
“Oh,” said Fern. So it had to be a dream, Fern thought. But, oh, nevermind.
“Well, I guess I know a thing or two about creatures that aren’t animals or robots. And maybe that’s just a start, maybe I’ll have more dreams next time.”
The end.