The lost children of Darvakan

Chapter 1: Witch of the woods

A hunched woman and her black cat were walking through a forest at night. The tree branches had symbols and words of an unrecognisable language carved into the wood. There were no animals nearby, the forest itself was silent. A little girl was jumping and dancing in a glade, completely unaware of any danger.

"Little girl, what are you doing here? Are you lost?" the woman spotted her. "Come with me, this place is dangerous! It is said that a witch lives here."

The girl looked at her frightened.
"A witch?" she said, now a little concerned.

"Come, little girl. I will lead you to my house, which is not far from here."
The girl went close to her, and the woman smiled. The marked branches moved silently, closing the path behind them with each step they took. The moon was rising, and the cat looked at the girl with curiosity and fear, as if trying to alert something. Suddenly, roots emerged from the ground entangling the woman, and the cat ran scared.

The girl made a macabre grin, looked at her and said "Yes, a witch lives here".

Maetda looked at the other children in her class after she finished reading her story. Most were snoring loudly, half of them seemed not to understand the story and were dedicated to doing something else like drawing on the walls or even counting how much hair they had. A few were distracted looking out the windows, although they could only see trees from the orphanage since It was surrounded by a thick forest. Sir Hoggs, the famous little pig and mascot of the place, was nowhere to be found, so the regulars who played with him were this time imitating the animal, which she found quite comical and exaggeratedly strange.

However, this time, one seemed intrigued.

"That was a nice tale, Maetda!" Balow said. "I liked the final twist."

She smiled. At last, after months in the orphanage, someone showed interest in her tales, in her stories.

"I'm glad you liked it. I can exactly show you where I found those marked trees that inspired me for the story."

"No way! Do they exist? Is the witch real too?" said the boy, very excited.

"I wouldn't discard it." Maetda was packing her pages, pencil and some apples in the bag. "Just follow me and don't get close to any stranger little girl if you see one!"

"Sure! Let's go! This is gonna be so cool!" Balow was packing his bag very fast with some food as well, plus various tools and his small violin which was broken and out of tune, but he always carried it with him.
The two children jumped from the window to a nearby tree, sliding with extreme caution. The last time the orphanage owners caught them escaping, they had to apologise like a hundred times and clean the toilets during a week, so they made sure to be extra stealthy.

Outside the cosy atmosphere of the building, it was cold and dark, a dense fog tricked the eye into making the trees appear to be floating. The ground and their feet were also almost invisible due to said phenomenon.

Maetda, the brown-haired girl, wore humble attire still trying to have some style: comically oversized glasses, a thick long-sleeved shirt, a mini skirt, long socks that covered her entire legs, and a pair of heavy boots. Balow, the blond boy, was wearing what he found in his rush to get out: a rough shirt, a warm and comfortable jacket, baggy pants and different shoes on each foot.

The two children went further into the forest, excited and scared at the same time, imagining that a witch was waiting for them hidden among the trees.

She paid close attention to her surroundings, looking for anything that might inspire her to write another story. The boy carefully looked at each root and trunk, trying to see if there was something tangled in it or some mysterious symbol.