by Dulcie » Sun Jun 10, 2012 2:58 pm
Joseph Green was a good little boy. Only about 8 years old, but the single child of a farming family meant that he had been working since about the day he was able to walk by himself. He never seemed to mind it however, he was full of life and vitality and he had survived all of the blights that had taken the children of the neighboring farm families. The Green family felt endlessly blessed.
With times being as they were Joseph was busier than ever, helping his family with the fields and making sure that they had the food and supplies they needed. He was supposed to be on his way to the market this afternoon, to trade for some butter. They had lost their last cow in the winter after all and it would take his father sometime to replace it with another. But little Joseph couldn't resist the urge to stop by the lake. He knew he wasn't supposed to be there of course, his Ma rambling on something fierce about how the water wasn't safe and something about poison and death, but since when did those sorts of things scare off little boys?
When he arrived at the lake he was surprised to see so many fish and he was disappointed that he hadn't brought anything to fish with. Still, it was a pleasant distraction to watch for a moment or two. He'd still get to the market in time. He went over to one of the banks above the lake and he'd peer down into it, when up from the water snaked a giant tentacle. The thing crashed down onto the earth just inches from the young boy, curling about trying to reach an ankle or a wrist that it could use to drag the boy back into the water. Poor Joseph cried out with a shriek that would have had him teased for months if anyone had heard, but he escaped the tentacle, hurriedly pushing away from the bank, forgetting the items he was supposed to be trading, running as fast as his little legs could carry him away from the Lake. Oh he was going to be in such trouble when he got home, but before he'd get there he had to find Cat. Cat would know exactly what to do about this sort of thing.