The Wizard of Paws chapter 8

Chapter 8
The Forest


"How long is this forest, anyway?" Checkers asked, skipping alongside Dorothy, whose feet were beginning to hurt. "Oh, somewhere along the vicinity of three more miles," Destiny said carelessly, seeming entirely unaffected by walking for very long distances. "ACK! Stop! Stop!" Dorothy suddenly shrieked, stopping immediately, causing Destiny, who was walking behind her, to bump into Dorothy's legs. This caused Dorothy to fall over, and Checkers jumped out of the way and into the bushes. There was a lot of rustling, and then Loco rolled out of the bushes and somersaulted onto the pathway, flopping onto the ground. "Turn left to your final destination," he said. There was a long, awkward silence as Dorothy picked herself up. Then Loco suddenly focused on one of the sticks in the path and said, "we meet again." Dorothy blinked. Destiny backed away slowly. Checkers said, "meet who again?" "Oh, this pathway," Loco explained, standing up. "It's been following me everywhere and it won't leave me be." "I see," Checkers said. To Destiny, he said, "don't worry, he's a friend." Destiny looked Loco up and down. "Odd fur color." "Thank you. Mind if I walk with you for a while? You see, I'm lost." "Does this explain why you keep following us everywhere?" Dorothy asked. Loco nodded. "Okay, then. How long do you need to follow us for, and how long is your attention span?" Dorothy glanced at Checkers, who was counting the leaves on a tree for a few seconds before switching to counting the checkers on his fur. "Only to the Emerald City. And don't worry about me, I don't get distracted e--oh, look, a werewolf!" Loco pointed to a moving shadow in the trees. Everybody except Checkers turned to look at it. Suddenly, the shadow burst out of the trees, growling.  It ran straight into Checkers, knocking him clean off his paws and into the air. He did a backwards flip and landed perfectly on his paws. Loco even applauded. "He deserves a round of a-paws," he said, chuckling to himself at his own joke. Dorothy rolled her eyes. The shadow was no shadow at all anymore, but instead was now a little black furred Scottish terrier that was growling at Checkers. "Toto? Toto!" Dorothy cried, running towards the dog.