Quietly, Quiggly stepped into the darkness as he stealthily approached and steeled himself for the challenge before him. Quiggly was nervous. It's been years since he's been around live people, and that was a long time ago. "Don't be scared!" a young girl said from behind him. Quiggly felt a little warm liquid slide down his back, and realized it was sweat. "It's okay," she reassured him. Her voice comforted him. It spoke to a part of him that he had forgotten. "I've been waiting for you." "Really? You have?" He did his best to sound brave. The little girl ran her fingers through his curly gray fur. She ran them through his ears, and he felt her warm breath on his face as he looked into her sparkling brown eyes. She wore a purple sweater and had a gold bracelet on her wrist. Quiggly loved her so much. His heart raced and he wanted to give her all the love he had inside of him. She hugged him and he loved that too. "It's okay," she whispered. "Just be yourself, okay?" "Okay," Quiggly answered. He had never been so proud of who he was in all his life. After she released him, she smiled down at him. It was strange to Quiggly to be seen and heard. So many years he had spent hiding in the darkness and now all of a sudden he couldn't hide from those beautiful shining eyes. Quiggly stepped out of the shadows, and looked around him. He could see the city before him. The sun had risen on the distant horizon and the lights of a full moon were still glowing. He had been so tired and so weak when he had first appeared in this place. But he knew that one day he would have to go home. That's when he would have to see that little girl one last time. Quiggly didn't want to forget her. So he looked forward to walking beside her as they made their way through the city streets and down along the streets that would eventually take him home. Home. Home. Home was a place full of joy and comfort and love. He knew that one day he would go home to this little girl again and there would be so much love he could give her, a love that they could have, together. He was so happy. Quiggly looked around the city and he could not believe he was back home. How could he have forgotten? The same way he had forgotten about his friends: The squirrels. Chapter 1 - How Lucky You Are Quiggly remembered he was a squirrel, and that all he had to do to be happy was to smile. A part of him still longed for the days when he had been alone and nobody had known him. Back when he hadn't had to think of other people's happiness and needs. He had been content then. He had never before realized how happy he could be just being a part of the natural beauty of nature. His friends were gone. No more was left of their band of squirrel brothers and sisters. They had left the squirrel kingdom a long time ago. His brothers and sisters that hadn't left were no more. Now he found himself living at a sanctuary, an establishment devoted to caring for abandoned animals, birds, and squirrels. It was here that Quiggly had to be tough, and not just a gentle squirrel. Although, he was a soft little squirrel. Quiggly had a hard time being a strong animal, not when he wanted to be a fluffy little squirrel who loved his mommy. But Quiggly wanted to be a strong squirrel. Because he realized that he had to. He knew that one day he would go home, and that when he went home, there would be a big surprise waiting for him. The very biggest surprise of all time. The surprise he had to survive. This surprise. It's when he would remember his mommy, and the little girl he saw in a past life, and this past life will be his last. For Quiggly was going to find out if he was the chosen one. Quiggly was to be chosen to go back in time and help find another life. But how lucky can you be? You get to come back home from a place no one wants to be in. To return home and see a little girl who was the most beautiful and kind-hearted little girl he had ever seen. A little girl whose eyes were warm and comforting, who always had a smile on her face. It was the smile of a child who had been so happy, full of life, and a carefree spirit that made him want to be a squirrel, as happy as she was. This little girl made him realize that there was just one thing he wanted: to smile. And he could, if he chose to. Of course, he didn't want to be a squirrel, but he was happy that he was one. So, a little girl made him feel happy. If she was happy, he wanted to be happy, too. Now he knows what he would like in his future. Quiggly wanted to feel the softness of a little girl's skin, touch his hand to hers, and look up at her loving eyes. All this he wanted. He felt there was nothing else he would ever want to feel. When he had found this place in the city, a place he had never seen before, he had no clue where it was. It was a strange place. Quiggly remembered it well. It was a beautiful place, but it had seemed to him that it had had something horrifying in it. He could not have said what that something was, it was so long ago, but somehow it had affected him. He did not want to see or be near it. The place looked like a huge house with many rooms. And the more he looked at it, the more he started to remember how, long ago, he had been to the place. And the more scared he got. It felt like a curse. A curse that he could not shake. And as he was thinking and remembering, he suddenly found himself alone in a dark cell. The little squirrel whimpered as he remembered it. It had been all white and white walls that seemed to reach up to the ceiling. Quiggly remembered that he had been put there because he had been thought to be an evil spirit. He would never remember exactly how long he had been there, but he knew he was young and he was little. For a long time he didn't think he was going to survive. He remembers that when he thought of his mom, he used to think about the little girl and she always smiled at him. But her face no longer felt happy. Now his little squirrel heart started to feel fear. He did not want to see or be near the place that held the place he had been caught. How happy he would be to have the chance to smile again! Quiggly remembered how he had to smile to try and get out of the place he was in, that place with all the white walls. But he was in there for a long time before he could come up with a way to escape from this dangerous place. It was so long ago, and it was such a long time ago that he could not even say how long ago. "How long?" he wondered. And then suddenly he felt the same thing that happened when he had first opened his eyes when he was in the same white place. He was not alone in that place anymore. This was in a different room than he had been in before, one with white walls. This was the room he had been placed in by all those white beings that never smiled. There was this large white light on the ceiling. He remembered that there was a light in the other room, but it was dim and never lit up anything. Now he remembered how dim the light was, and how dim it always made his little squirrel eyes. Then he heard voices. As he stood in the middle of the room, the voices seemed to be coming from the other side of the white walls that surrounded the place. Quiggly watched as the light shone on the white walls. When the light would flicker in a strange, almost hypnotizing pattern, it became almost like a person he could see. The light always made the room seem like it was getting brighter and lighter, but he did not like how light the walls would get. They felt so cold. When this started happening, he started to feel scared and very small. Sometimes the floor and walls would seem to melt and the floor was like a cloud.