The Hidden World

Chapter Thirteen

The first hour went okay. The trail Frigg was leading them on was mostly flat. That is, if you could call what they were following a trail. It looked like it'd had all the trees and rocks pulled and cut out of it's way once-upon-a time ago. Now it looked like a slightly worn part of the forest. There were tree saplings and ferns competing for sunlight with the taller grasses that they had to wade through on their way.

After about fifteen minutes in, they stopped at a large meadow. Even though they had only been plodding along for a while, the beginning of the trail had disappeared in the trees. The meadow they stopped at was filled with nothing but deep prairie grass, up to at least Kendra's stomach. They stood on a ledge made of dirt that separated them from the grass.

"Why did we stop?" Brendan asked. Frigg didn't answer, instead his brown eyes panned the grass.

"Let's go that way," he said, gesturing towards the left.

"Why can't we just walk straight through this grass? Or is this some strange phobia people have here?" Brendan asked.

"We can't go through it because of the Hillyhoptothomasas," he said.

"The what?" Brendan asked.

"Watch," Frigg said. He picked up a stick and threw it as hard as he could into the middle of the meadow. Instantly a roaring filled the forest. Kendra clapped her hands over her ears. A gigantic hippo thrashed out of the sea of grass. It looked like a hippo, just three times the size, covered in dirt, with grass growing out of it's back. The roaring went on for half a second before the Hillyhoptothomas fell back down into the grass.

"Let's go around the meadow," Brendan said, his voice an octave higher than usual.

The forest held more dangers than just the Hillyhoptothomasas. There were little Hilly Hogs, who darted around the smaller patches of grass on the trail and grabbed ankles, bit, or scratched you to try and make you fall down. They had skinny little brown bodies and oversized heads that matched their equally oversized evil eyes. There were the tiny little Wood Vessels that were born from the knots in trees and slunk around, trying to steal your luggage while protected by their camouflage. They looked like fat little sticks with bark cylinder heads and skinny twigs for legs and arms. There were certain trees that would reach out and try to kill you by strangiling you. One made a grab for Kendra but her quick gymnastic reflexes kicked into action and she avoided it, leaving the tree grasping her hair. Frigg beat it into submission with a stick.

As they ventured farther into the forest, the twins became more aware of their surroundings. No only were they looking for signs of some of the more dangerous creatures Frigg had told them about, but they were suddenly feeling a cold chill trickling down their backs. The forest's trees were getting darker the farther they went into the forest. Apparently, Frigg felt it too. He scanned from side to side until he found them a good camping spot, a small clearing.

"Is this clear of...things?" Brendan asked, having found no other way to describe the strange inhabitants of the forest.

"Pretty sure, but I'd better put these all around," Frigg said. He reached into his bag and pulled out a plastic bag of little black orbs. He then proceeded to walk around the clearing, sticking them to trees. All at once, after he had placed one on the last tree, Brendan felt safe.

"What are those?" Kendra asked.

"I don't know the name. There some magical thing my sister made. She makes a lot of things. But she made them because she thinks I spend to much time in this forest. Basically, these repel the dangerous monsters and some of the other ones too. She said she's trying to make them repel all types of people and creatures that are unwanted but she hasn't gotten that to work yet," Frigg replied. Then he opened his pack up and pulled out a tent, already constructed from it's depths.