Chapter 2

The fiery eyes of Gem scanned Leyla and Leyla scanned Gem.Her eyes the shape of a stone which glow a sunset orange as she glances at the bubbly blue sky. Its hazel paws held interesting secrets of the past, as interesting as the mysteries of the milkyway.She had hazel brown rippled fur.Her pupils as black as coal staring into heartless souls.Her eyes looked around at her surroundings, her ears twitched and and her claws sunk back down,sensing every movement and every sound at the exact time.Her tongue was lumpy and dry. 

“ By the looks of it, it seems that she likes you.” Says Miss Carson in surprise as the bear turns around and pauses its enormous eyes at her face. She gently picked the bear up and let it climb up into the bush of a tree.Leyla didn’t have a choice of what she should do so she just smiled and let out a polite laugh.They trudged along the path,the cold  breezy wind of Sungers jungle hit their faces.The stars illuminated the way.Leyla felt that they were being watched and turned around, for a moment she thought that she had just saw the amber eyes of Gem the bear. “ She will be watching, afterall she is ours.” Said Miss Carson glancing at Gem. “ I found her just about 3 years ago in the autumn covered in leaves… oh the good old days. She was just a cub back then starving and hunting in bushes for the tiniest scraps of food. It was not healthy for her. Maybe she escaped from a zoo and got lost. I took her to the vet to get her fixed up and she was right as rain after that. All her strength came back!” Leyla listened in amazement . “ She is our secret nobody must know of this… goodness knows what they would do to her if they saw or even heard the news.

That first night Leyla had a dream of Gem going  missing. So it was that second night Leyla had gone out to pay a visit to Gem,  looking for the tiny pieces of bread at home and the tiniest scraps of food on the hollow roads.She learned from all the board games that she played on how to set traps for all types of little animals. Sshe had caught a mole so she emptied it into the cage and padded along the path.When she got there, Gem sat there moodily.Suddenly, she snatched the dead mole and left it in her mouth and ran back into the mist.Of course Leyla knew Gem could hunt herself but she got injured every time and she was very shy.Leyla knew something was up with Gem but instead of trying to figure it out she just talked to Gem in a low , soft , calm and soothing voice. Even one night Gem was in such a good mood that she let Leyla stroke her back (she doesn’t like getting stroked usually.) The weeks passed and they both became more confident with each other.As soon as Leyla enters the Jungle, Gem runs up to her pocket and grabs the scraps of food and nuzzles her face on her legs.This effected the change of  Leyla’s behavior both at school and home.She would make special breakfast for her and Miss Carson  without being asked.She would no longer scream when she got angry or sad and she would tidy her bedroom and the rest of the house when Miss Carson sleeps late or is sick.She would not be failing all her tests, she would never get any detentions, she walked to school and she turned very popular.Even sometimes she would just wander about the village making new friends. One day in the evening Miss Carson heard her singing and even listening to songs or hymns they learned at school which never usually happened.Over the weeks Miss Carson and Leyla were very good friends and they even started to do jobs together not only at home but jobs at places too….