The Woods , the Well, and the White Rose

Part two

Jack and Jill were absolutely thrilled at the idea of going on a real adventure outside of the boundaries of their small and struggling town. While they had drive and were excited, they were quite naive and knew little to nothing of the woods beyond.

Before leaving, Mother packed a small bag of what little food they could spare and sent them on their way with a hug and a kiss. After saying their farewells, Jack and Jill and skipped joyfully to the edge of the town reading to begin a new chapter of their lives. The trees were towering above them and they were filled with a rainbow of the senses. The wind was calling out with a song flowing through the branches of a nearby maple tree. Each step forward into the forest greeted them with the crunching of leaves beneath their feet. And they resorted to following a trail of breadcrumbs heading from their neighbor's house. The colors suddenly became more vibrant the farther they walked into the forest.

"I can't believe my eyes! This is exactly like mother's stories!" Jill exclaimeds as they passed through the barrier of trees and entered into the enchanted forest.

"Wow, wow, wow you're right!" Jack agreeds. "Hey, Jilly, look it's the glowing mushroom patch from Father's childhood." He looked down to see that the trail had ended and hesitated before saying, "Um, Jilly, do you know where we're going?"

Jill faltered then, just like her brother, looked down and stopped. "Uh, I thought you knew where we were going."

Her little brother's voice suddenly took on the tone of a disappointed parent. "Jilly, Jilly, Jilly, you know that neither of us have ever been in the woods before. Even me, three years younger than you at the mature age of nine, know that."

Jill then sucked in a breath and tried to contain her frustration with no prevail. "Ugh! Well we've got to do something. Maybe we should just go back and ask for directions."

Her brother agreed and they turned to head back but all they saw behind them was a dense patch of dark and thorny brambles. They struggled to break down the branches but they kept growing back;, in the end they only succeeded in getting cut. As if the forest reflected their emotions, the sky grew dark and swirling clouds raged above. The siblings heard the harsh whipping of wind in the branches. They grasped onto each other for dear life, tears streaming down their faces as if they knew this was the end. Suddenly, the winds died down and they heard a crunching of the leaves behind them. 

A tall slender figure made its way towards them and bent down to wipe away their tears. Jill looked up and saw a handsome man with a face meant to have a smirk plastered on, but all she could do was stare as she was enthralled by his beauty. Deep, light blue eyes like oceans, tanned skin from hours of being in the sun and mussed black hair that seemed to be perfectly styled at the same time. It was an almost otherworldly, angelic sort of face. Just looking at it, compared to the darkness she had just been put through, made all of her worries drift away. Jack woke her from her daze by saying in his rapid fire manner, "What just happened? Who are you? How did you save us? Why are you so pretty? Where are..."

"Slow down there kid." Jack's next question was cut off by the man replying., "That," hHe gestured to the sky, "was what happens when you don't guard your emotions;, the forest senses them and reflects how you're feeling. It can be great at times, awful at others."

"Who are you?" Jill did want to know the answers to Jack's questions. Most of them, anyway."

"I am Sir Humphrey Dumphree of his majesty, King Red's, royal guard. And you are?"

Jack jumped up from the log he was sitting on and burst out, "I'm Jack and this is my sister Jilly! We're out to fetch supplies to prepare for winter! We don't know where we are and we need to get to the well soon. Right Jilly?"

"...Right" Jill spoke hesitantly. Jack shouldn't have told a stranger where we were going. Well, we did need directions. And he is a knight. While Jill was debating in her head whether they should trust him, Jack had already gone ahead with Humphrey, skipping circles around him. Jack called out for her to catch up and she went sprinting after.

Eventually they came to a fork in the road and Humphrey told them that he believed that they could make it on their own without him. When they asked why he had to leave he said, "This is your adventure, isn't it? Just walk until you reach the large oak tree surrounded by the singing roses, then turn left. You will see the white rabbit waiting for you, he will direct you to the well." They said farewell, thanked him for his help and made their way to the oak tree where their guide would be awaiting them.

So once again, this was for a suspense project so there will be several moments that are kinda like that.

thx for reading!

-xena