The Voyage of the Caterpillar

Chapter 7: Snatched!

"Fletcher! Wake up! It's urgent!"

I opened my eyes. "Huh...?"

"Fletcher! Fletcher!"

Trixie was standing over me. She had a worried look on her face.

"Trixie? You do know that it's the middle of the night, right?" I said.

"I know, I know, but Kingsly and Patil told me to wake you. Hermy is already inside the house with them. They said it's urgent!"

"Fine, fine! Im coming!" I slowly stood up and yawned.

"Hurry!" Trixie called and rushed out the door.

"Butterflies and flowers, Trixie! Wait up!" I crawled after her.

By the time I got to the house, Trixie was already inside. Patil, Kinglsy, and Hermy were clustered around the table, exchanging worried glances.

"Guys? What's wrong?" I asked.

"Fletcher, this might seem a little extreme, but you and Trixie were followed here." Patil told me sadly.

"What?" Trixie asked. "Followed? By who?"

Hermy sighed. "You do not want to know. I'm an expert on monsters, but I've never seen such an odd looking monster before."

"A monster? We were followed here by a monster?" Trixie looked at me.

"Geez, why would I know?" I responded.

"What we do know is that we need to get out of here. It's the only way to stay safe. We don't know when the monster will attack." Kingsly announced.

"But... Will we ever come back?" Patil asked her brother.

"I'm not certain, Patil. We need to go." Kingsly sighed.

Suddenly, the ground began to shake. The tremors grew stronger and stronger until none of us were able to stand up straight without being thrown off balance.

"What.. What's going on?!" I heard Trixie call.

"I don't know!" I exclaimed.

"It's the monster! It's the monster!" Hermy yelled.

"Everyone outside! Now!" Kingsly ordered.

The ground continued to shake. Thee was a thundering sound.

"Everyone out! Now!" Kingsly yelled again.

All five of us rushed out the door. The ground was still shaking outside. I saw next to me that Trixie almost was knocked off her feet.

"Run! Run! Crawl as fast as you can!" Hermy called.

"If you can keep yourself upright," Trixie mumbled to herself.

Hermy was right. It was the monster. It wasn't just the monster, it was the monsters. Plural. There were about ten of them, and they were of one if the variety that Trixie had told me Hermy had seen before- the horse with the head and upper body of a human.

The horse-humans were running across the ground towards the caterpillars at an alarming speed. The beating of the hooves against the ground wa what was causing the tremors. In the hand of each horse-human was what appeared to be a net, a jar, or some other tool. I was scared out of my mind.

"Move! Move! Move!" Patil yelled. We all began to follow her as she took off across the clearing towards the barn.

"Why are we going that way?" Her brother called to her.

"The tools! We can use the tools for defense against the monsters!" She answered.

The monstrous horse-humans were gaining on us. Caterpillars are no march for a monster so big and agile. They were making strange noises like grunts a distorts like they were communicating with each other.

It turns out that the horse-humans were way faster than us. Er had only made it halfway to the barn before they were upon us. The caterpillars hasti dart left and right to avoided being trampled or squashed by the powerful hooves.

There was a swish. One of the momsters had brought it's net down on Patil.

"Aaaaaaaaaaahhhhhhh!!!!!" She screamed as she was scooped up from the floor.

There was another swish and the same happened to Kingsly. "PATIL!" He called to his sister.

Some more swishing noises. These were aimed for Hermy, but the caterpillar traveller was so fast, the nets kept missing him.

"Ha ha!" He teased, "Your old nets aren't enough to capture this lively adventurer!"

Swish! That was the end of Hermy.

"Ah! Help! Help!" He called as he was picked up.

"Fletcher! Run!" It was Trixie. She was moving alongside me. "Move as fast as you can! Don't let them capture you!"

"I'm moving Trix, I'm moving!" I called.

There was a final swish, and I felt myself being lifted off of the ground. Trixie was right beside me.

"Trixie! Were stuck!" I screamed.

"I realized!" Trixie squirmed, but the net only wrapped itself around her thin hairy body more.

"We've been captured! Snatched off the ground!" I yelled.

Then, I felt myself falling. I was falling, and Trixie was falling. Had we been dumped out of the net? It felt like the time I was thrown off Crystal's back. Was I going to die?

"FLETCHER!!!!!" Trixie screamed.

"TRIXIE!!!!" I called back.

The two of us tumbled through the air until I felt myself land woth a thud. The world went black......