Chapter 10-The Forest Lies

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I loved the fact that everything was back to normal however, I think I could've lived without the stupidity of my classmates. Luckily for me I had Mr.Norberts class in a few minutes.

It was probably one of the only classes that I could stand. Granted I like math however my classmates have a lot of opinions on me and won't come within a meter of me so they won't get wet. It was one time and yet still they still won't even breath near me.

I made my way through the hallway weaving my way through the crowd as I looked through the wave of people. When I made it to Mr.Norberts classroom I was shocked to see more people than usual. I could still see that Melora was here, however I noticed Evelyn and Orion by her. However everyone else was unfamiliar, all of them held unique figures some having extra accessories, others just naturally standing out.

"Ah, Lucille it's wonderful to see you."

"Hello Mr.Norbert,"

"Sit wherever you want we're having a combined class with class 2"

"Alright!" I smiled back at him making my way towards Orion. "Hey,"

"Hey Luci," Orion gave me a mellow gaze.

I felt a slap on my back, "Your back, I thought you were dead-"

"Evelyn," Melora grabbed her hand, Evelyn groaned in response.

Clapping came from the front of the classroom, "Alright everyone, we will be taking a little trip to a forest just outside of the kingdoms walls." Mr.Norbert paused as he passed out tiny books, once he was halfway through the class he started to speak again. "Now I want all, and I mean all of you to be cautious, this forest is one of the more dangerous ones. Nothing harmful is really in there unless you are 5 years old, however it's easy to get lost I want you guys to stay in your groups the entire times."

I noticed a hand shoot up, I looked over to an unfamiliar person they had short red hair that was just above their shoulders. Although the first thing that caught my eye was a wrapped up object laying across their back. "What should we do if we are lost?"

"Ah Tarian what a wonderful question, if you are lost please send out a beam of your mana. This is because the forest will twist itself to trick people."

After Mr.Norbert answering questions everyone had finished reading through the small guide book. "Alright everyone I want none of you to stray off, there is no need to worry about time because the headmaster organized an assembly for the other students delaying every other class."

We all rode in 3 carriages 4 in each. The ride took about 40 minutes in all. Orion sketched while I played with his hair as Evelyn and Melora talked the entire time. There was a few bumps and you could hear the people behind and infront of us yell as we went over them.

I stood there looking at the forest, it looked like there was no way to get in as all the trees were next to each other creating a wall. However unlike every other tree that I have seen in this world they had purple leaves decorated with glowing buds and white trunks. Mr.Norbert handed everybody bags soon shouting "Alright everybody I want you guys to go inside and come out within the next few hours. You can see that I have given all of you clipboards. I want you to find the things listed on the paper."

Everyone stood there in silence as if he was a crazy person, I mean how would we get past the first line of trees they are literally blocking us! Mr.Norbert sighed, "Just walk and see what happens."

Everyone had decided to go along and just go against the trees to my surprise they opened up. I looked over to Tarian the person who had asked Me.Norbert a question earlier however what the forest lead into on their side with their group was very different than what was infront of me. I stared off wondering as I switched my head back and forth between the two openings. There was a hand grabbing my wrist "Come on Lucille let's go." It was Orion, he then started to pull me along with him following after Evelyn and Melora.

We decided to take a break after walking for what felt like half an hour. However we had no real way to tell time because in our area of the forest was in a night like phase. We all held lanterns we had found by the entrance that had closed up quickly as soon as we were all in.

"Turn around," I felt a chill run up my spine as I leaped forward picking up my pace. It felt as if the path was warping around us. There was finally an opening in the forest. I gasped at the sky, it looked unrealistic there was an insane amount of shooting stars across the sky's. The thing about the stars was that they had what looked like what I would assume was star dust that held colors of all sorts.

"Hey Lucille don't you have the paper?" Orion asked unpacking his bag, Evelyn and Melora were collecting plants and some of the surrounding objects.

"Oh here!" I opened my bag pulling out the sheet it read,

𝐻𝑒𝑦, 𝑠𝑜 𝐼 𝑗𝑢𝑠𝑡 𝑟𝑒𝑎𝑙𝑙𝑦 𝑤𝑎𝑛𝑡 𝑦𝑜𝑢 𝑔𝑢𝑦𝑠 𝑡𝑜 𝑐𝑜𝑙𝑙𝑒𝑐𝑡 𝑤ℎ𝑎𝑡𝑒𝑣𝑒𝑟 𝑦𝑜𝑢 𝑔𝑢𝑦𝑠 𝑓𝑖𝑛𝑑 𝑖𝑛𝑡𝑒𝑟𝑒𝑠𝑡𝑖𝑛𝑔, 𝑏𝑒𝑐𝑎𝑢𝑠𝑒 𝑡ℎ𝑖𝑠 𝑓𝑜𝑟𝑒𝑠𝑡 𝑐ℎ𝑎𝑛𝑔𝑒𝑠 𝑦𝑜𝑢 𝑛𝑒𝑣𝑒𝑟 𝑘𝑛𝑜𝑤 𝑤ℎ𝑎𝑡 𝑦𝑜𝑢 𝑤𝑖𝑙𝑙 𝑓𝑖𝑛𝑑!

We opened up our bags all the way. It was filled with capsules and jars along with snacks. "Well come on let's start," Orion smiled at me. As we started to walk around the perimeter of the trees surrounding us snow like things started to fall from the sky. I looked up as it was sparkly when I did I noticed that it was what seemed to be the star dust. "Let's collect it Luci."

"Oh yeah!" I snapped out of the daze I was in as I looked at the sky, the stars countinued to shoot across the sky as the clouds surrounded the moon. I then realized next to the full moon was a slight smaller crescent moon.

Both me and Orion sat on the ground as we put a jar of the ground the dust started to fall at a much faster rate. I layed on Orion's legs closing my eyes The star dust started to fall around me creating a fluffy blanket on the ground. I tried to open my eyes but quickly closed my eyes again. I felt a hand wipe away the dust from my face.

"I can finally see your face again." I saw a soft smile from above after I opened my eyes. The dust landed in Orion's hair it sparkled as the light from the moon shined off of it.

I looked over to the jar to notice that it was overflowing. I stretched moving from Orion's lap and sealed off the lid to the jar walking over to place it in the bag. As I did I noticed bunny's jumping through the star dust each with a different pattern on it. My eyes following one of the bunny's hopping as I crouched on the ground. Melora picked up the bunny as it made it's way towards her.

"I can't believe the forest changed itself to be like this it's all so unreal, even with magic such a vast area it's just so amazing."

"Yeah it's almost hard to believe."

"Come on you two it's time to start moving some more!" Evelyn shouted as both her and Orion started moving on the trail that we hadn't gone down yet. Both me and Melora rushed to get our bags, the bunny jumping down as we did, they were now had blue petals with light pink trunks.

As we walked down more of the trail it started to become brick pavement. The further we went the more uneasy everything felt, the same voice that had said to turn around kept on repeating itself as the chills became more intense. I noticed Orion was grabbing his one ear too, I then turned over to Melora who looked uneasy and Evelyn who seemed to be darting her eyes looking ahead.

"Does anyone else hear that voice the more we go?" Everyone stopped dead in their tracks as I spoke.

Melora was the first to speak up, "Yes, whenever it says turn around I keep on getting the feeling not to... It doesn't feel right in the slightest."

"I thought I was going crazy for a second, but now that I believe that everyone is hearing the same thing it must be some sort of physical thing saying it." Evelyn stated looking at all of us.

Orion's voice rang through the silence as he spoke, "I think we should try and get out of here as soon as possible I mean this forest had a reputation for a reason. Everything seems too fluffy sweet and nice to be completely innocent."

We stood in the middle of the now brick road, continuously hearing sorrowful whispers around us. Wind started to gather around us as our lanterns blew out. The whispers turning into murmurs as they got more intense. My eyes darted from place to place as we waited longer in a dreadful anticipation. I reached in my pocket to find something, anything! In that second I felt my phone in my grasp. Ever sense Sorin had found my phone I've been keeping it in my pocket despite there being no connection. 'Crap what should I say, I mean I can't just be like hey guys I have some other worldly object from my past life let's use it... I know!'

"Hey, I have a light we can use..." Everyone just remained quiet, however I could hear their breathing, "Guys?" I turned on my phone's flashlight, as I did I waved it around me to see our surroundings. I froze, 'What the hell are those?' There were 3 slimy looking monsters with huge grins. I bolted without thinking I went to where I believe the entrance was. Suddenly the brick pavement ended however the trail we had gone down was missing. I stood there in shock for a moment, once again there was a wall of trees however they wouldn't open up like they had before when we entered.

I gasped as I heard breathing behind me. Before I knew it I was running again but this time against the wall of trees. I saw an opening with light, I was met with disbelief when I saw that it was still more forest. This time it was a wooden plank path. There were lights string across the trees. I looked behind me again only to see the trees had closed up behind me. I sighed in relief, my only problem now was getting out.

As I walked along the path there was an intense ticking, as I went further it became more intense just like the whispers had. It was starting to rain, I took out another jar just in case and watched as it filled up I mean this was still an assignment. There was faint sound of music that was starting to play, it sounded just like one of those ballerina music boxes for jewelry. I sighed as the jar finally filled up to the top, sealing the lid and putting it in my bag.

The longer I walked the thicker the trees got, and the rain got heavier everything got so much more intense. It seemed as if the originally faint music was screaming in my ears as the ticking got louder matching my every step. Even when I turned around to go back it became louder and louder. I clutched my knees to my chest sitting on the ground.

There was a voice that broke through the noise it was unfamiliar, "Oh what do we have hear? A new guest?"

Word Count-2024

(A/N)-Hey Sorry about this being right on the two week mark I've literally had so many ideas for this chapter, however they disrupted each other so it was hard to make certain ones fit, anyways have a wonderful day and days to come my lovelies