PKU (English)

9.

Skilfully she pulled herself up by the bear's fur and a few seconds later sat on his back. As soon as she reached the top, Bruce ran, faster than Nita had ever expected from such a big bear. She had to hold on to keep from falling off the animal's back.

Suddenly the giggles turned to hysterical screeches and countless little shadows fled from the bear. Now Nita understood why she couldn't locate the noise; it came from everywhere at once! All shadows gathered and a black figure with eerie, glowing green eyes rose. Nita felt as if she had seen that figure before, but she didn't know where! All she knew was that she wanted to get away as soon as possible!

Bruce put the turbo on, and they reached the campsite in no time at all. Although Nita had not run but only ridden, she collapsed on the grass out of breath. Luckily the strange monster hadn't followed them.

"Bruce?! What are you doing here? How did you get here?" Nita wanted to ask, but her brain couldn't relay everything, so only the words "Bruce?" and "Here!" came out of her mouth.

Bruce nuzzled her and shrank back to dog size. Or he would turn back into a dog, Nita still wasn't sure. Once again, she only knew one thing: that thing in the forest hadn't seemed harmless at all. If only she could remember where she'd seen it before...

Pondering where he was going now, how he had made the long journey to her and whether dad had noticed that Bruce was missing, Nita watched as her dog bear or bear dog disappeared into the forest again.

By now darkness had fully set in. Unlike in the city, it got so dark here that Nita wouldn't even have seen her hand in front of her eyes if the moon and stars hadn't lit up the night. The girl silently crept across the porch of the green hut, through the room with the table and the two closets, into the room with the double beds. As she climbed the ladder, one of the rungs creaked! Nita got a huge fright! Why was that thing creaking suddenly?! Luckily nobody seemed to have woken up, but upstairs in bed Nita met the next unpleasant surprise: the many cans and packaging that made up her mock-up.

Now there was no way she could put them away without making a hell noise, so Nita pushed the surprisingly heavy, wrapped bundle aside and tugged gently at her duvet, clenching her teeth to keep the cans from rattling. They didn't, but Nita didn't want to take any chances and therefore only pulled off as much of the duvet as she needed to be able to cover herself halfway. Then she snuggled up and closed her eyes. It smelled good around her. Nita couldn't tell what it was. Maybe the smell of Penny's candy wafted over to her, or it was something else, but whatever it was, it was a pleasant scent that accompanied Nita into her dreams.