Outside, the weather was cold and gloomy with a little bit of rain. Inside,there weren’t a lot of hiding spots but Alfie needed to find one quickly. The place looked abandoned; unstable and dark. Alfie started to cry since he knew there was no escape. There wasn’t a single escape.

Behind him, the soldier stood strangely in the alley way, Alfie wondered” What is the soldier doing there?”…

…But at that moment, something growled in a deep voice. In the corner of the alley way, not one but two brown eyes appeared, a shadow came closer and yellow started to pop up as it walked closer to Alfie.

It was enormous. Enormous and yellow. Alfie looked carefully and saw a cheetah laying down in front of him and it growled, Alfie fell on to the floor in fear paralyised for his life.

The sprinter got up and sat trying to show Alfie it was wounded. A gash of red ran across its side. He had never been so close to such a big creature before. He could smell an earthy, musty scent and watched as the pelt of yellow fur ripple across its back.

They stared closely at each other and Alfie felt that the creature was sizing him up, seeing lower and lower into his very being. But, his fear began to fade and he held out his hand. The big cat leaned its head forwards and sniffed. Then it licked Alfie’s hand with its wet, pink tongue. Its eyes sizzled as if heated by fire. Alfie could see joyfulness but also a well of sadness.

It was then that it spoke. A low, deep voice that seemed to spring from the ground itself. It was a voice of rock, wind and mud. “I need your help now,” it slowly said, “ We must find the gateway.”

Alfie stared back his head nodding as if he understood. He knew at that moment that he would do anything to protect this huge, beautiful creature. Anything! “They will be back,” said the cheetah,” So I must hide.”