A strange sort of love

Love is a very curious thing. Sometimes it can take months, if not years to fully bloom, even between people who have known each other their whole lives. On the other hand, sometimes a single moment is enough for your heart to be stolen, for you to realise that no matter how difficult a journey it would be you would still do anything to break down the barriers and be with that person. Sometimes a squirrel can even be in love with a human, and the red squirrel that on this day was frantically picking her way through the forest towards a small cottage in a clearing certainly fitted into this category.

When the little red squirrel had first witnessed the squirrel of her dreams (well he subsequent dreams at least, she wasn't claiming to be prophetic) transform into a human before her, she had felt utterly heartbroken. In that instant, the world had seemed to become a terribly dark and dreary place, in fact as she perched on the treetop watching him walk out of her life seemingly forever she had almost been tempted to find the wolf again and fling herself into its jaws. Fortunately however she had resisted this impulse, and after several days of utter gloom had decided that she would not rest until she had at least found him again. Granted, she wasn't exactly sure what she'd do after that, but even if he was human she still wanted to see him one last time.

Of course, finding a human based on appearance alone was no mean feat. Most animals chose to stay away from the human world as much as possible, and in spite of her best efforts simply asking for directions to the young blonde boy had not yielded any results. It was rather fortunate then that her mother had also fallen prey to the allure of a spurious squirrel, for her description of an 'ugly, horrible, grouchy old man' in a blue hat had proven to be far more memorable, and before long the little red squirrel had been provided with directions to his cottage in the forest.

The squirrel's heart pounded furiously as she finally reached the wall of the cottage and quickly scaled the rough wall. There was a hole in the thatching that she decided should provide a suitable vantage point for surveying the interior, so it was to this that she scurried. Taking on final deep breath, the squirrel leaned down and peered inside, hoping beyond hope that she would see the boy in question.

The room was completely empty, and by the look of it, had been for some time. The squirrel felt another twinge at her heart, and moved on. She would search elsewhere, even if it took forever and a day.