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Laughter echoed in the forest as a girl ran along the edge of the stream, her nimble steps barely leaving imprints on the wet and mossy grass.
It was raining, just like any other day, but the residents of the Hidden Forest had long grown used to the constant downpour. Especially the girl. She had played outside during far worse storms. The rain drops landing on her bare arms did nothing in the way of damage, instead making her feel just a little more awake.
"Ready or not, here I come!"
She held back the urge to giggle as her friend left his spot to search for her and the rest of the children playing the game. No one would find her where she was going to hide. She crouched under the bridge, listening for footsteps, and then crawled into the small hole in the side of the rock. The grown-ups always told her that she shouldn't go into caves on her own. "There are crabs in them" they would say. What were a few crabs going to do to her? Besides, she had a few candles in her pocket, more than enough to ward off the light-fearing crabs. She crawled further into the small cave, water soaking into her skirt. Her mother would make a fuss about that when she got home. Once the girl reached the back of the cave, the light from the small opening was no longer enough to see, so she took out a few of the candles. How was it that the grown-ups started fires again? She raked her memory for any sliver of information on the topic of starting fires, growing increasingly worried as the hissing of the crabs grew louder and louder. Was it by scratching rocks together? Or were matches the only way? Suddenly a crab lunged forward, leaving a nasty wound on her leg. She had never seen a crab bite up close before, so, despite her situation, curiosity got the best of her. The bite was already beginning to swell, and the blood leaking out was mixed with a sickly dark-green fluid. Surprisingly, the bite didn't hurt that much. It only felt a little numb. Despite knowing next to nothing about treating crab bites, the girl at least knew that a wound oozing dark green pus probably wasn't a good thing. So she tore off a piece of the ribbon on her shoes, and tied it around her leg, slightly above where the bite was in an attempt to stop whatever venom might be in the bite from spreading to the rest of her body.
The wound began to feel like it was burning. The pus leaking from the bite felt like acid burning her skin, glistening in the little light that made it throught the cave opening. And then she noticed. The cave opening looked like it was getting smaller, being eclipsed by something. The girl crawled toward where the opening was, her injured leg giving her a stab of pain with every movement. She found that the enterance to the cave had been blocked off by a dark plant. Its rough and thorny surface covered the only way for her to reach freedom. She tried to push on it, but her efforts did nothing except agitate the crabs again. She tried to crawl away, but the crab reached her first. Another bite. Her arm felt numb like the wound on her leg had felt at first. She submerged the wounded arm in the shallow water in an attempt to clean the fresh crab bite, but the pus continued to ooze out of the opening in her skin, the water seeming to have only sped up the swelling.
She curled up in the back of the cave, a wave of shivers racking her body. The water felt like ice to her burning skin. Her friends called out for her from outside of the small cave. They didn't know that she was in here. And they would never know. To them, the dark plant had always been there, and the only sounds that could be heard from inside the cave was the hissing of crabs. The girl tried to call out, but her voice was too weak to be heard.
Slowly, her eyes drooped shut, as she sat curled up in the back of a cave, surrounded by crabs, her friends so close yet so far, and she slowly drifted off, the darkness gently embracing her.