A vision of the present, or was it the past?

Bella curled up next to Ange, her dearest and first friend. He appeared to be an enormous St. Bernard dog easily twice the size of an adult man with large, angelic dove wings sprouting from his back, which was why she called him Ange, for angel.

She hugged into his great, bushy cream white and brown fur, finding warmth against the rapidly approaching cold of the night. Ange huffed as he craned his tawny head to her, giving her face one big, sloppy lick.

"Oh, stop it, you big oaf," said Bella with a giggle.

Ange smiled at her, his tongue hanging out the side of his mouth, and she pet him, her pale, bony white hand sifting through the fur on his head. Her eyes traced the length of her skinny arm, finding distorted patches all around her ivory white skin from the bad times, when the priests and village headman got so mad at her and then got everyone else so very mad at her too, even her parents.

Though, when she thought about it, mother and father had never really liked her much. They liked her two older brothers more because they were taller and stronger and older and they could help with the farm work and chores where she was so tiny and skinny and got tired all the time.

It didn't help that when the headsman said the famine came, mother and father started to give her less and less food while her brothers got the same. She got hungrier and hungrier and skinnier and skinnier, but she was always so scared to speak up because she knew she would get scolded.

Bella sighed.

It was better here. In the Chirping Woods where there were no bad times and bad people anymore. Only Ange and her friends and mister Bale, the kind old man that lived in the woods. The man who made Bella her clothes and who was kind enough to have given her food the first time she ran into these woods, when she did not have enough friends to find her the berries and fruits and roots and nuts she loved to eat.

But now, Bella had made so many friends, and they all lived happily in this forest with her.

There was Simon, the furry crocodile who never liked to stay in the sun too long. There was Ames, the big, clumsy bear with fins who always showed her where to find honey and offered her fish, though she did not like eating meat because it felt so sad eating something that had died.

Sometimes, Sheila, the sleek rhino panther, would come by at night for a few pets before slinking away, because she was always so shy.

Every so often, Sheila and Ames would get in a fight, and Bella would always have to break it up and scold them and then heal their wounds, because they had big teeth and big claws that were scary and painful.

There were many, many more friends, and Bella loved them all, though because there were so many, she did not see them all the time. The only one she saw constantly was Ange who never left her side.

Bella smiled at Ange as the big dog laid his head down and looked at her with big, dopey brown eyes. She remembered when Ange was so tiny. Well, he was always a big dog, but back in the village, he was just like the other dogs.

When the headsman started to talk about famine and war and other complicated things and when Bella's house started to never have enough food, she was so very sad because Ange never got to eat anything, not even the little bit that Bella got.

So, she would sneak out at night to give him a few scraps from her own plate, and he would always thank her with his big, sloppy licks.

But one day at the dinner table, father said it was time for Ange to go. He said there was no more food, and that Ange could help them one more time by going to Mr. Cheney, the fat and scary old butcher.

That night, Bella stayed up to hear father leave the house with his firewood axe. She saw him sneak up to Ange and raise that horrid thing, and she remembered how scared Ange was, how his tail was tucked in, how his dopey eyes knew that something horrible was going to happen.

Bella couldn't stand it, but what could she do? She screamed at father, telling him to stop, trying to pry the axe from his big, strong arms, but all he did was shove her down and tell her to go inside.

So, she prayed. Like what mother and father and the priest said, she prayed to the Light, and she saw it. She saw the Light. It was shaped like a round door. Like a gate. Bright and orange like the sun.

Then, Ange got big. Very big. Big enough that father got so scared he shrieked about monsters. He ran into the house and took mother and her brothers and ran to the village square.

Bella did not know why father was so scared. Ange was still the same happy and friendly dog. She stayed with him and played with him that night, but soon, father came back angry and fearful.

So many people were behind him. The headsman, the priest, the scary butcher, almost everyone. They all pointed at her and Ange, and she felt so scared. She saw fear in their eyes. And, worst of all, anger. She could never deal with anger, and their eyes flashed so terribly under the light of their torches.

They grabbed her, then, and from there, it was all a blur, and she did not want to remember it either. They took Ange and tied him up and they tied her up too, at the village square.

To a big, rough wooden stick with rope so tight that it tore her skin, and even though she cried so much, she was too scared to tell them to stop, because she knew nothing had ever gone right in her life when she talked back or voiced herself.

The priest put fire under her, and it hurt so much feeling it hurt her feet and her arms. The air got so hot, it got so hard to even open her eyes, but she held back from screaming because she hoped that if she did not make so much noise, they might stop this punishment and let her go.

But it was Ange that saved her. He got even bigger and got wings and he got mad for the first time, and when he barked, fire of his own came out, and the priest and the headsman both screamed so loudly when they got hit by it.

Ange took her from the wooden post and flew her to the Chirping Woods, and ever since then, she had stayed here. She figured out she could make friends just like Ange, and she did just that.

Sometimes, when she found an injured animal, she made it into her friend too, healing it and making it bigger and healthier than before.

The first few weeks in the woods were scary because she was so alone, but Ange being there helped her so much. Sometimes, scary men would come into the forest. Some of them in big armor with big swords, but Ange always got them to leave, and once she had more friends, nobody bothered her anymore.

She did not mind that she saw no more people. After all, people had only ever hurt her. She had her friends, and that was all she needed. And Mr. Bale, too. The old man was the only kind person to her.

He lived in a tiny little hut in the center of the forest, by a lake, and he had a wrinkly but big smile, the same her grandpa had when he was still alive, and he always told her about the forest and how to find berries and roots and nuts and fruits.

Bella rubbed her eyes. She was getting sleepy, because it was bedtime now.

"Goodnight, dearest Ange," said Bella as she sunk into his fur, entering into a deep sleep.

Bella woke up to Ange growling. She could feel his broad chest rattling, and she sat up, rubbing her eyes.

"Nightmares, Ange?" said Bella quietly. She smelled smoke, and immediately she grew alert. She stood up in a panic and looked around her.

It was a terrible sight. All around her, between the dark spaces of the trees, there were eyes staring at her. Not the friendly eyes of her friends or the animals of the forest, but sharp, evil eyes that she knew wanted to hurt her. In the distance, she could hear fire crackling.

"Ange, what's happening?" said Bella as she hopped onto Ange's back, hugging tightly onto tufts of fur to stop herself from falling.

Ange growled more menacingly, his huge teeth showing, fire flickering between them. Some of the eyes stepped forwards, revealing ugly creatures. They looked like little men with pot bellies and big arms and legs like the scary butcher, but they were not human. They had long, pointy ears and big, sharp teeth, and dark blades and fire flickering from their backs.

Ange roared, loosing a huge breath of fire that lit up the night, revealing that there were many, many, many more evil creatures of all different shapes and sizes around them.

The fire breath reduced several of the little men into blackened clumps, but there were so many more that Bella tugged at Ange's fur and said urgently, "Fly. Let's fly, Ange, and get away from here."

Ange spread out his wings and flew, and they rose above the trees. Bella widened her eyes as she looked down. There was fire everywhere. Horrible crackling and heat and smoke that came up from them, making her cough.

She looked up and saw that there was something dark all around her. A dome covering the forest, stopping anything from leaving.

Not that Bella would leave. She would never, ever leave her friends behind.

"Ange, let's find the others!" shouted Bella, and Ange flew downwards, his big eyes tracking the forest.

===========

They came to the wide creek where Simon lived.

Simon, massive as he was that he was larger even than Ange, was sprawled out in the middle of the raging water, blood pouring out from big holes at his side. Around him, there were dozens of bodies of evil monsters all dead, massive chunks ripped out from them through Simon's jaws.

Ange landed beside Simon and whined, licking the crocodile's face, but Simon was dead.

Bella balled up her fists and held back tears, even if she knew she could never see Simon again, that once something was dead, she could never bring it back, because she knew it was dangerous to stay here.

She got back onto Ange and tugged his fur. She knew the dog was sad, so she had to be strong for him. For the others, too.

"Come on, Ange, we have to find the others. They may still live."

=======

It did not take long for Ange to track the familiar scents of Ames and Sheila. They were in a clearing closer to the forest center, by a stream where they usually fought over fish. They were crumpled on the forest floor, lying side by side together with blood pouring form their still bodies.

Ames's big hide had been pierced with a giant sword, and Sheila's sleek form had been punctured with flaming arrows to her neck. In front of them, there was the body of a knight, though not any Bella had seen before.

It was a knight far bigger than any man she had known, and his armor was black and there were still hints of fire flickering from the gaps between it, but the fire was waning down – the knight was dead.

Sheila and Ames had set aside their differences to work together and kill this knight.

Bella stepped down from Ange and knelt by Ames and Sheila, hoping desperately that there was still some life in them so that she could heal them and then take them somewhere far away, where nothing could hurt them, but there was no breath in them, no life.

She began to cry, unable to control herself. Why were evil things hunting her again? Hadn't everyone hunted her and her friends enough? She'd had so little for herself that she thought that maybe, just maybe, she could have a few friends of her own and live happy, but why?

Why did she seem to lose everything she wanted to call her own?

Bella jolted up as she heard Ange whimper in pain. She saw a big, flaming arrow sticking out from Ange's back. She wiped down her tears and leaped back onto Ange, tugging at his fur to get him to fly.

Ange whimpered, limping, but his wings worked, and he took to the air again. Another arrow sailed past them, but it missed, and Bella hugged Ange and cried again.

"I'm so sorry, Ange, I let you get hit. I got you hurt. Here, I'll make it all better."

Bella focused, remembering the image of the Light, of the sunny gate, and power flowed from her hands and healed Ange. Flesh grew back and pushed the arrow out.

Ange whimpered, but this time, to comfort Bella, to tell her that it was fine, that it was okay, that he would take her to safety. She waited for a minute, Ange panting heavily as he flew, and she realized he was taking her to the forest center where mister Bale lived.

"That's a good idea, Ange," said Bella. "Mister Bale can do anything. He knows where the berries and fruits are and he knows how to make them all grow. He'll know how to get us out, too."