A Short Story Collection

A Winter Walk

Genre: Adventure

Prompts: One word prompt - Fireplace

Sentence prompt - "Want to go randomly explore the woods and get lost?"

Bonus Prompt - Your story has to include a snowy forest in it.

Word Count: 1451

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The flames flicker, the wood crackles and the blaze lights up the room. I'm mesmerised by the beauty of it all. There's just something lovely about sitting at an open fireplace whilst sipping on some tea and devouring a whole packet of cookies. Especially after a long day of travelling.

"Olivia, are you eating without me?!" Rowan shouts from the other room. "You aren't here though, are you?" I reply, "I'm not waiting for my tea to get cold!" "You better leave some for me!" "Leave some of what?!" Harper asks, running out of our shared room.

She plops down beside me and finishes the last few cookies as quickly as she can. Rowan finally comes over. "It was her! She had the last ones!" I exclaim. "Hey, but you had the most..."

"You're all just greedy." "Like you're any better," his sister says, squinting her eyes at him. "Guys, what should we do this evening?" I ask, "Do you wanna watch a movie or something?" "We didn't come all the way here just to watch a movie!" Harper remarks. "But I'm not up for doing anything crazy. We just arrived. Can't we just relax?"

"But crazy sounds fun," Rowan interjects. I let out a sigh and try to think of something that's fun yet doesn't require much effort. The other two are also pondering to themselves. "I know! I know what we can do!" Harper jumps up with a grin, turning around to face us, "Want to go randomly explore the woods and get lost?"

Rowan and I burst out laughing. "Why are you making fun of me? That's what we came here for!" "For risking our lives?" her brother remarks. "For having an adventure!" "Have fun convincing us to tag along with you."

Harper huffs, putting her hands on her hips. What is she thinking? "C'mon, Olivia, please come with me! If you come, Rowan will come along too." Rowan furrows his brows once again. I simply look at her with a raised eyebrow. "Best friends stick together, no?" she lets out a laugh, "It'll be fun!"

"Harper, look outside, it's dark and it's snowing! What if some wild animals come out and hurt us?" "We'll be fine!" Rowan and I glance at each other. What do we do? Suddenly Harper grabs the mug out of my hands and spills the remaining liquid over the fire. "What are you doing?!" I exclaim. "We can't leave the fire going once we're gone." And with that, she leaves to the hallway, where all of our boots and coats are.

"So are we going?" Rowan questions. "I suppose so, we can't let her do anything stupid." "Yeah, I suppose you're right." And with that we follow Harper outside.

I lock the cabin and put the key away in my pocket. Even though we're staying in the middle of nowhere, you never know what can happen.

The landscape is incredible. Rowan and I stare at it for a while, whilst Harper's already running off towards the forest. The tall pine trees are decked with the snow that's floating around, finding a place to settle, and the stars and moon above illuminate everything so perfectly.

"Let's go." Rowan snaps me out of my thoughts as he grabs my hand, trying to catch up with his sister. The snow crunches under our feet until we reach sanctuary under the trees. "Harper!" we call, at which she halts and turns around.