Seasons Pickings
Chapter 1
Chapter 1
There once was a 15 year old girl named Jane. Jane lived in a cozy blue house, near the edge of the woods.
Jane loved everything about her home like how the floor creaked whenever you stepped on that certain floorboard in the kitchen, or how you could curl up near the fire place, feeling all nice and toasty. Or maybe it was because you could wake up to the fresh air of pine every morning.
Jane didn’t know why she just loved it. She lived there with just her mother. Her father had gotten into a car crash 5 years ago.
Both her and her mother missed him, but they didn’t let the event effect their lives.
Every morning her mother would go off into town to work in her Textile and Flower shop, to make some money.
Her mother smiled as she waved back to Jane. “Remember to lock the house if you go out” she said.
“Don’t worry mama I’ll make sure” Jane replied cheerfully, as she waved back.
After her mother left Jane walked back inside, and closed the door.
“Hmm....what should I do today?” She pondered to herself as she walked towards the living room. She paused for a moment in her thinking as she noticed one of the pictures on the wall were hanging crooked.
She quickly went to go fix it.
“There” she said as she straightened it and stood back to admire her work.
It was a picture of the whole family, her father looked very proud in the picture as he stood by her mother and a younger version of herself.
That’s when Jane got an idea.
“I bet the apples in the forest are ripe right now” she chirped. Smiling she went to go het a basket from the cupboard, and the keys to the house.
Running by a full length body mirror Jane paused to get a good look at herself.
She had warm orange locks that reached down to the end of her skull, and a pair of green eyes. She wore a pink flower dress that came down to her knees, wearing a white sweater along with it.
Fixing her hair a little, she nodded to herself to confirm that she was ready. Slipping into her shoes, she left the house, making sure to lock the house as she did.
Jane hummed a little tune as she went down the dirt path.
“Oh good morning Jane what are you up to this morning?”
Curious Jane turned to see an old woman, working in her flower garden. Jane immediately smiled.
“Morning Ms Patches, I’m just going off to pick some apples” she said.
The old woman smiled warmly. “Well it does seem like the right time for apple picking” she said, “just be careful out there”.
Jane nodded and gave Ms Patches a light pat on the shoulder for reinsurance. “Don’t worry I’ll be fine” she said, with a final good bye Jane went off towards the woods.
Carefully brushing part some thick bushes Jane came across a river. She remembered she had to go this way in order to get to the apples.
“Hmm...How should I get across?” she asked herself, looking about and spotted a dead log that laid across the river.
She went over and carefully made her way across it. She stumble a little but quickly regained her balance.
Making it to the other side Jane rested for a moment.
But it didn’t last for too long for her excitement for the apples grew.
She went her way towards the apple patch.
Jane hummed a small tune as she reached up and grabbed the red fruit and easily plucked it off its branch. She quickly placed it into her basket and went to repeat the process.
Soon she would have a basket full of apples to return home with.
Getting another one, she went to go place it in the basket when she noticed something.
“I could have sworn I had more than that” Jane said looking at the apples in the basket, which seemed to have lessened.
“Hm must of been dreaming” she said as she went to pick more, but then returned to see the same thing happen again.
Jane started to pout as she went to gather even more but to have it happen again.
This went on for a while till Jane had enough.
“What is going on around here?!” She questioned loudly.
What she didn’t expect was to hear a small chattering.
Jane looked around trying to figure who or what was making that sound. Jane then realised the sound was coming from up above.
Looking up she saw a movement in the branches or the trees. Squinting her green eyes she saw that it was...a raccoon.
Yes! A small grey, ring tailed raccoon. And it had an apple in its little hands.
“I see you, you little thief!”Jane yelled at it.
The raccoon seemed to jump at her voice. Quickly looking down staring at her it quickly realized it was caught. It quickly took off going as fast as its little raccoon legs can go.
“Yeah you better run” Jane called out and looked down at her basket, she gave a sigh, “besides I think you had enough snacking for one day....”
With the raccoon gone Jane went to refill her basket with new apples. Not noticing the grey clouds that rolled in the sky.
Chapter 2
‘Plop’ went a raindrop as it dropped on Jane’s head.
“Huh?” Jane questioned as she looked up from her apple picking. She felt another drop as she saw the grey clouds high above here.
Within seconds, the rain started to pick up pace.
Jane quickly stood up with her basket full of apples and said, “I didn’t know it was going to rain today!”
Not wanting to get wet she ran for cover. She found that going under a tree was too leaky, so she went to find somewhere different to hide from the rain.
She soon came across a small cave. Not caring about the size she went in.
Jane carefully sat down on the dirt floor and brought her knees close to her body to keep warm.
“Boom!”
Jane nearly jumped out of her skin at the sound. She looked over at the entrance of the cave, to see the rain pouring down like buckets. There was then a flash of light then seconds later.
“Boom!”
Jane jumped again but not as shaken again.
“It’s just thunder” she breathed trying to calm herself down. “And a thousand bolts of electricity!” she yelled.
Jane as you could tell had a slight phobia of thunderstorms. She didn’t know why or when she got the fear. She just didn’t like the sounds or the flashes.
It was a perfect day for someone who was astraphobia.
So for the next hour or so Jane just sat there shivering and shaking at every ‘boom’ or flash.
Soon Jane began to get hungry. She turned to look at her basket, which laid a couple of feet away from her. She gave a shaky smile; “well at least I don’t have to starve” she said and slowly reached for one of the big juicy apples. Having to lean forward a bit she finally grasped it.
With a smile she brought the red fruit up to her mouth a began to eat.
Hours later after her juicy snack, throughout the whole ‘booming’ and ‘flashing’, Jane had managed to tired herself out and fell asleep, curled up in a tight little ball to maintain her warmth.
The rain had started to lessen by now, and the clouds started to clear revealing the beautiful sight of the moon and the stars.
Too bad Jane was fast asleep and missed the whole thing.
Jane groggily woke up the next morning as the sun came and started beaming down on her face. Letting out a moan Jane rolled over, and slowly started to open her eyes. She blinked as she noticed she was staring at a rock wall.
“Where am I?” she asked as she sat up, her back was sore and stiff from lying on the hard dirt floor.
She turned and saw her basket full of apples. The apples seemed to jump start her memory.
“Oh yeah!” she exclaimed, “I was picking apples when it started...” She paused to look outside. And saw that it was no longer raining.
Jane’s eyes suddenly widened, “Mama must be so worried about me!” She got up on her feet ignoring the sore pain that shot up her back.
She grabbed the apples in a tight fist and walked out of the cave.
“I didn’t even leave her a note!” She said her voice getting rather loud. Her steps were heavy as she took the path towards home.
She was quickly nearing the river, and soon got to the log that she crossed before. She didn’t think much about the now wet moss that covered the log, and hopped on.
“I hope Mom isn’t too worri--Ahhhhhhhh!” She screamed as she lost her footing on the log and came down plunging down into the river. Apples scattered as they came down with her.
Jane’s eyes were wide with terror as she tried to kick to keep herself up, through the fast moving river.
Jane could see her own breath as she continued to fight the current.
But she was slowly starting to lose the battle as she became more aware of the waters cold temperature. Her body becoming numb, her body was shutting down and giving up on her.
She tried to call out for help but she knew it was no use. There was no one out here for miles.
She then found herself getting sleepy, her eyelids becoming heavy. “N-no c-can’t sleep m-must stay awak--“
Jane nodded off and fell into a deep sleep, and let the river carry her downstream.
The sun shined brightly as it hung midday in the big blue sky.
Jane groaned and opened her eyes only to shut them tight as the sun’s light blinded her.
“Am I alive?” She asked herself, remembering herself falling in the river. She opened her eyes again and turned her head to look at her surroundings. She appeared to be lying on the forest floor.
“Wah? How am I—how did I get here?” She asked herself.
She coughed, there was probably still water in her lungs from being in the water...
But still how did she get out of the water and end up here?
She coughed again painfully, man she didn’t feel so good.
“Are you alright?” A voice suddenly asked, it appeared to be coming from the sky. Jane blinked she must be sick cause voices aren’t supposed to come from the sky.
“Umm...I’m ok” Jane said answering the voice, not expecting an answer.
There was a chuckle, “that’s good you had me worried” it replied.
Jane sat up, freaked out and looked around. Where was that voice coming from?
“Up here” the voice seemed the answer her unvoiced question.
She looked up and widened her eyes.
Staring right her with two large green eyes was a giant.
