The tiny creature on the floor tried to use its hands to push itself up, but its arm muscles were simply too weak. It fell back to the ground with a soft 'oomph'. It attempted this difficult procedure again, but to no avail. After the third try it gave up and instead settled to lie on its back and look around.

The forest was beautiful, endless (to the just-hatched sparkeling's eyes) and deserted. Apart from the trees, plants and flowers, there was no life in sight. Even the insects seemed to have fled.

The sparkeling didn't mind, however: it had never encountered another creature, and so had no capacity to miss them. It rolled back onto its yellow stomach and promptly fell asleep.

When it woke up, there was a strange, blurry shape in front of its eyes. It had a ginger, pointy face, and lively brown eyes which were full of curiosity. It lent forward and sniffed the creature, before leaping back in shock and squeaking loudly. If you could understand Squirrel, you'd know it had said something like this: "Aaaaah! What are you supposed to be? You don't smell familiar at all! I don't recognise you! Aaaaah somebody do something aaaaah!"

The sparkeling was equally shocked. It used its arms to pull itself along the dirt and grass to where the squirrel sat twitching nervously. It raised its head to look the squirrel in the eye, and its tiny face lit up in a smile. The squirrel was slightly taken aback. The silver-grey creature seemed friendly, but that meant nothing. It smiled back nervously, then turned and ran back up its tree.

The sparkeling didn't really mind, though. There were lots of other creatures in the clearing now: birds, bugs, badgers - it even thought it could make out the large eyes of a deer between the trees, not that it knew what a deer was.

It tried to stand up again. Slowly, slowly, it wobbled to its feet. It let out a little giggle of flee, and gingerly moved its right foot forward. Trembling slightly, it planted it on the floor firmly. It moved its left foot next, took two more steps forward - and then fell over its eggshell.

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