Alex Wimbleton didn’t want to leave home. He stared out the window of his room door, across miles of grassy fields, and gritted his hands. The room smelled damp. The room where he was sleeping was Mrs. Hills’ son’s room and he was in France fighting in the war.  She didn’t like to be reminded about him. Mrs. Hill was very sad when he asked about her son. Alex know knew not to ask or say anything about him.

His first day of school had come and gone. The teacher was a nice man called Mr Sanders and he realized that Alex couldn’t read or write. Alex sat at the back of the classroom and had always had his head down plus he kept all his anger in a box, he shot out of the classroom door as soon as the school bell rang. The weeks flew by and Alex had made a routine, most of his hours bored at school, then helping Mrs Hill in the garden to help pull out the vegetables that he mostly didn’t know existed, he locked the chickens in at night and collected the eggs in the morning.

Last thing at night Alex would look at the window to see the stars and nothing exciting had happened but then he soon realised that every night Mrs Hill would sneak out the house with some food and a lantern and would make her way down into Spiney’s Acre. He watched her from his room’s window. What was she doing?  Why did she go there every night?

Alex didn’t have to wait all that long to find out. One night, at the start of May, she asked Alex to follow her. The beacon of light bounced ahead and Alex followed sulkily behind. He wasn’t ready for her to know that he was beginning to enjoy the new life he was living. The moon shone down a silver light and the stars lit the night sky but inside Spiney’s Acre, it was dark. He ran after Mrs Hill.

Mrs. Hill stopped, and Alex peered through the bushes. Then two amber eyes appeared behind the shrub. Alex gasped. He was looking at an enormous cat that he had never seen before. ”Meet Shadow,” Mrs Hill whispered,” She’s a black lion. I found her lost in the snow as a cub left to die.”Alex stood paralyzed with fear as soon as Shadow stared at him and padded forward towards him.