In the innocence of my own yesteryear youth I spent many hours imagining having parties with the hysterical hatter of wonderland, meeting the wild things of Max's manic imaginings, playing with the curious cat in the hat and finding the wonderful wardrobe world of Narnia. It was a time of blissful ignorance and wondrous ponderous play times in the school yard but alas as i stare onto the young children of this very new and not so very old century all i see is computer games and horribly horrendous animated kids shows. Writing has always been a personal dream of mine and a few months ago it struck me. 'Why not write the next children's classic'. On my own this would be a mistake of many unimaginable proportions as I have always known to be a disaster with a brush and paper. So in readiness of this adventure I have written a short 40 page story but this is where the wonderful world of HitReCord comes into play. I am looking for writers, artists, and animation fanatics to throw themselves into this tremendously gigantic undertaking. Below this plea I will put a short exert of the story to dip your toes into and hopefully makes ripples in the inspiration ponds of your minds. So please come what may to the land of Faraway. 

     An oak tree stood in the middle of the clearing as Lilly stepped down the path. It seemed immensely tall as if it was about to touch the clouds overhead but to Lilly that wasn’t the most peculiar thing. From the many thick branches that shot from its trunk, like twisted and deformed arms, hung thin silver pieces of thread. They all swayed gently in unison in the breeze and on the ends were tied pieces of cracked yellow paper. Lilly approached one and read it aloud.

  “My shoe, my lunch and my favourite twig… what a silly thing to hang on a tree”

     Lilly walked slowly round the tree reading the notes as they dangled dangerously in front of her. Each with stranger and stranger lists. Some had written about objects, some about shoes and some wrote about things that Lilly didn’t know you could loose like a smile or happiness. But as she rounded the tree she was startled by another curious creature.

     It was slumped up against the tree with a hat resting across its face. It was snoring loudly and grunting occasionally. The roots wrapped around it like a prison of wood. 

  “Lost!” it exclaimed.

  “What is?” asked Lilly.

     At this question the thing awoke and jumped nearly a foot in the air. It was a red squirrel with rags wrapped around it, a large black walking stick and a shabby top hat. Lilly decided she would try to ask him again.

  “What is lost sir?”

  “Everything!”

  “Everything? What ever do you mean sir?”

  “I mean exactly what I say. Everything here is lost, it has not been found so it is still lost”

  “What is this tree?”

  “It is the tree of lost things and I am the bookkeeper. When something is lost it is written down, tied to the tree and if it is found it comes here. Do you understand?”

  “I think so… but what if it isn’t found?”

  “Then it is lost.”

     Lilly once again stared blankly up at the tree thinking how strange this whole place was and how a tree was used for lost things; at school it was just a box in the nurses office with ‘lost and found’ written on it.

  “Well?” asked the squirrel.

  “Well what?” replied Lilly.

  “What have you lost?”

  “I’m not really sure sir…”

  “Possibly your mind?”

  “No sir. I have lost my way though”

  “Which way?”

  “Does it matter?”

  “Why most certainly! Imagine losing your right you would be walking left forever. This is a serious loss. It must be entered on the tree.”

  “But sir I think I’ve also lost the beginning? At least that’s where the king told me to go”

   “This is also very serious. If you’ve lost the beginning you shall have to go to the end and retrace your steps to find the beginning.”

  “Do you know the way?”

  “If I knew the way then you would no longer be lost now would you little girl?”

  “Well if I’m ever to find the beginning I must be off, goodbye sir”

  “Wait! Follow the path and find the end! Then walk backwards!”

  “I’ll try sir! Goodbye!”