The Trials (The First Book in the Life Button Series)

-3-

I looked at the sky and kept on walking, following the compass. It's been about a day and nothing has come up, no surprises. Just wilderness. Just the wild green lush forest.

"Have you ever heard the saying lions, tigers, and bears, oh my? Well, you may be saying oh my soon." The voice in the wristband cackles.

I know that book. It's a book that was burned but my mother saved one copy. One single copy that was hidden away. It's called the Wizard of Oz. I loved that book. But those Governments took it! They killed off my dreams after they took everything from me, took my mother from me, and took me away from the rest of my family who are all blondes.

Lemme think, lions and tigers aren't good at climbing high trees, right? And neither are bears unless there is honey. Find a tree without honey and I'll be good.

There's a soft growl and I see the flash of a tiger tail. I stop in my tracks, staring at the bush it came from. A snout pokes out, a bear snout. And it disappears again. Then there is a lion's roar.

They can't all be behind that bush together can they? Oh I am sorely wrong!

A creature crawls out of the bush. Part lion, part bear, and part tiger. It's got the snout of a bear with teeth that snap, the eyes and front legs of a lion, and the tail and back legs of a tiger. It also has a lion mane and black stripes of a tiger all around its body. This is what I can tell by the pictures I've seen.

The Governments must have mutated it. Changed its DNA into something monstrous. They must've breeded many animals to get something of this extraordinary beast.

It lets out another terrifying, hair standing on end roar and crouches into a deadly beforehand leaping position. "Oh my." I breath as I walk slowly backwards.

It snaps its terrifying snout at me, humming a low tone growl. The teeth are sharp, big, and ready to tear.

I bump my back into a tree and jump. The bear/tiger/lion creeps forward. I think I'll call it a bigion. That suits its killer ancestor nature.

I grip the bark of the tree with my hands, put one foot up against the bark, and wait a little longer. The bigion creeps forward still, baring its ferocious teeth. I take a deep breath. It charges forward and I jump. It's head hits the tree as my feet land on its back. I spring off and grab the branch above me, quickly swinging my leg over.

The bigion growls and looks up at me. I growl back, letting my teeth show. The bigion blinks, staring up at me with this bored expression on its face.

Then it lumbers down onto the ground, laying its head in its paws, and falling asleep.
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I'm going to starve to death. I've been up in this tree for over a day now and the bigion still hasn't left me alone. It either sleeps under the tree or walks in circles around the tree, staring up at me with big oval eyes.

"Why can't you just leave me alone?" I ask it, looking down.

Either I'm so hungry I'm hallucinating or that bigion just shrugged at me. "I know you are hungry but I want out of the tree! I'll get you food."

It licks its lips, giving me a hungry gaze. "But I'm not on the menu!" I whine at it, shaking my head.

"If I throw a sharp stick down there, it could puncture your head and you'd be on the menu easily." I yell at it. It seems to know what I said and takes a reasonably large step away from the tree.

I sigh and dangle upside down on the branch. I don't care if it eats me anymore. I'm delusional from hunger. My head is quite close to the ground so I'm surprised it hasn't tried to eat me yet. It's just looking me in the face.