Woolly took off towards the woods, and in the golden evening light, he found them, fluttering around the trees and calling to each other.

“I’ve seen you! I’ve found you all!” laughed one moth in the middle.

“Ooh, who are you?” she asked as she caught sight of Woolly.

“Hello! My name’s Woolly. It’s my first day as a moth, and I’m not really sure what I’m supposed to do. What are you up to?”

“We’re just playing hide and seek here until it gets dark enough to go out. Do you want to play too?”

Of course, Woolly wanted to play. Maybe his troubles were over, now that he’d found this little group of moths.

“I’ll be the seeker this time,” he decided and closed his eyes to let the others hide.

They were all sorts of patterns, speckled or striped, in a multitude of shades of brown and grey and white. Once they landed on the trees and bushes, they just disappeared, and it took Woolly an awfully long time to find them again. Yet when it was his turn to hide, he was always the first to be spotted.

Copying the other moths, he hid on tree bark and in the long grass. He hid behind stones and under leaves, but still, they had no trouble finding him.

“You’re all so good at this,” he sighed. “I’m useless!”

“You’re quite hard to see from far away,” they tried to console him. “But close up, those little red patches on your face always give you away. Maybe this isn’t the right game for you.”

They were trying to be nice, but Woolly could tell they didn’t want to play with him anymore. It really was hard to make friends out here.

He fluttered away from the other moths and settled on a fallen leaf. What should he do next? Where should he go?

These are just a few pages from a longer story, which can be found at the following link https://issuu.com/universityofexeter/docs/woollybook_29thjune.compressed

To buy a hard copy, email: woollyswings@gmail.com