Character Development PART 3: The Toll Booth

The Toll Booth

The sun shone brightly through the prickly pine trees of the forest. It shone especially brightly on a cracked and worn asphalt road, where a small, somewhat decapitated, old toll booth stood silently and eerily as the forest slowly reclaims it.

Out from the low underbrush of the forest walks out a tiny root-like figure, about the size of a human thumb This tiny figure's name is Sproutling, so named for the tiny sprout on it's noggin.

After a long day of exploring the forests and climbing just about any tall thing he came across (and due to his size that meant just about everything) he was ready to re-join his brothers and sisters across the black sea of asphalt. Sproutling places h his tiny leg on to the pavement, when suddenly...YOWZA!! HOT HOT HOT!!

What was this?! The road wasn't this hot when he left in the early morning, but as the day went on and the sun shone brighter, the road was transformed into a boiling black desert of death that would fry him alive if he continued!

Hopping up and down frantically, Sproutling looks for anything that will relieve his blistering foot. Aha! A small mud puddle at the base of the booth, perfect!!

Sproutling does a small cannon ball into the shallow puddle, giving him instant relief from the burn. If he had a mouth from which to speak, a small audible sigh would be heard as he sat and relaxed into the muddy pool.

His relief was short lived, however, as worry began to set in. How could he return to his family if the road would fry him alive? He tilted his head up to the sky as he pondered a solution. As luck would have it, he found his answer towering above him!

A rain pipe mouted to the side of the toll booth, of course! If he could climb to the top and then use the toll gate as a bridge, he could make it to his family safe and sound!

Extending his tendril-like arms to form a stable loop around the pipe, Sproutling made quick work of scaling the pipe. One might akin the act to a tiny lumberjack using tiny ropes to scale a mighty pine.

Within a minutes he found himself on the white pebble roofing of the toll booth. Now came the tricky part: crossing the gate and sticking the landing on the other side.

Being the size of a thumb made it easier for him to cross the thin white gate than it would be for a much larger creature, but perfect balance and concentration were still of the utmost importance.

Luckily sproutling made fairly easy work crossing most of the gate, now all that was left was the jump. He spied a small shrub a foot or so away that should cushion his fall. However, there was about a 3 foot drop from the tip of the gate to the ground below. A potentially deadly fall should he miss.

He backs up, allowing himself a foot or so or runway space. He stakes of and...JUMPS!

If this were a movie, this jump would be in slow motion from various different angles in order to enhance tension and suspense.

But this is a written story, so he makes the jump and lands safely.

Once he gets his bearings from the landing, Sproutling makes his way out of the bush and makes it back to his brothers and sisters who are snoozing soundly in the dirt. He quietly buries himself up to his sprout and joins them in a well deserved nap.