03 Woomph - Woomph!

Woomph – Woomph! Little Billy was running with the speed of an arrow, but each time he glanced back over his shoulder the puffs of orange-red smoky-breath had got closer. They were so close now he could feel the wind of them on the back of his neck. And the noise! It was deafening in his ears, this fearsome swooshing whooshing whiffling panting noise. Woomph-woomph, it went. Woomph-woomph, woomph-woomph! Woomphwoomph! It was like the noise made by a steam locomotive pulling out from a station.

Then suddenly he heard another noise that was somehow more fearsome still. It was the pounding of gigantic galloping hooves on the floor of the forest. He glanced round again, but the Thing, the Beast, the Monster, or whatever it was, was hidden from his sight by the smoke it shot out as it galloped forward. The smoky-breath was billowing all around him now. He could feel its hotness. Worse still, he could smell its smell. The smell was disgusting. It was the stench that comes from deep inside the tummy of a meat-eating animal. 'Mummy!' he cried out. 'Save me!' Suddenly, directly in front of him, Little Billy saw the trunk of an enormous tree. This tree was

different from the others because it had branches hanging down very low. While still running, he made a frantic jump for its lowest branch. He caught it and pulled himself up.

Then he grabbed the next branch above his head and pulled himself up again. Then again and again, climbing higher and higher to get away from the terrible snorting, smoke-blowing, smellybreathed beast down below. He stopped climbing

only when he was too exhausted to climb any higher. He looked up, but even now he couldn't see the top of the giant tree. It seemed to go on forever. He looked down. He couldn't see the ground either. He was in a world of green leaves and thick, smooth branches with no earth or sky in sight. The snorting smelly smoke-blowing beast

was miles away down below somewhere. He couldn't even hear it any more. Little Billy found a comfortable place where two big branches came together and he sat down to rest. For the moment, at any rate, he was safe. Then something very peculiar happened. There was a huge smooth branch very close to where Little Billy was sitting and he suddenly noticed