End of Chapter 1.

“Just hide me!” the boy says and I do so. I open up one of our largest cupboards and I beckon the boy in. He nods and grins.

“Thanks, it won’t find me here.”

Chapter 2

The boy begins to close the cupboard but I snap at the handle and ask:

“Who won’t find you here?” I cross my fingers, hoping it’s not what I think.

He takes a deep breath and sighs, “You probably won’t believe me.”

I try to give him a sincere smile, “I will, I promise.”

I hold my breath, still crossing my fingers that it’s not what I think.

“I s-saw…The Lepoardamander.” I flinch and take a step back.

“I saw it,” he frowns and takes a step out of the cupboard, “it’s coming for me.” 

I gasp and stop myself from running away and flailing my arms around in horror. 

“Please help me, help me catch this beast,” he pleads and tears trickle down his cheeks like rain droplets on a rose petal.

“Okay,” I nod, “But first, what’s your name?”

“Spencer,” he smiles and pushes his round glasses up his nose.

“I’m Clover,” I grin and we pick ourselves up off the floor.

Ten minutes later, we are strolling down a woodland forest path and there is no sign of the lepoardamander.

“Are you sure you saw it?” I ponder as we take a turn into some patchy mud.

“I swear,” Spencer nods and we trudge on the crisp autumnal leaves.

I glance around; everything seems normal, the trees are becoming bare, preparing for winter and there are small puddles of murky rain water. I sigh.

“We should just-” but I stop mid sentence as I see deep dark eyes, as dark as the depths of the ocean. I see plump golden paws with little specks of brown and soft ears. 

“Sp-spencer…” I stutter.

Spencer turns around and smiles, “yeah?” 

“Look…” 

He turns around and his eyes widen like fried eggs.

“Don’t move,” he whispers and edges closer.

The lepoardamander hasn’t noticed us yet as we stare at it, gobsmacked.

“SPENCER!” I whisper loudly as he gets closer and closer, he can almost touch its tail.

However, the Lepoardamander spots me and I am about to scream in terror when it sees Spencer. It lets out a low and tiresome growl and crawls away, into the depths of the woods. Me and Spencer look at each other, in awe and horror.