The Quest To Destroy Olivine

Chapter 2

I wake up to the sound of my alarm beeping madly at me. My hand slams the snooze button, silencing it. I look out of my window. The sun has already risen above the horizon, lighting up the Earth's surface beautifully. I lazily continue laying in bed until I remember it's firewood collecting day. I get up and change into denim jeans with a belt holding them up, boots and a light blue singlet top. Grabbing my back pack, I start packing some things to take into the woods today. I shove a jumper, water bottle, band aids, bandages, pocket knife, torch and camera into it. I take my phone and put it in the pocket of my jeans. I exit my room with my bag in my hand and go to the kitchen, where I find Emily packing her bag too. I go to the pantry and put an apple for Belle in the front pocket of my bag, along with two muesli bars and a Vegemite sandwich. By the way I'm packing, it seems like I'm going to camp overnight in the woods! I figure Emily is no better, we always seem to over pack. I return to Emily.
"I'm all done now." I say softly, making sure I'm not loud so I don't wake up Mum.
"Same here." She replies. We walk quietly towards the front door. Suddenly I stop and drop my back on the floor.
"I forgot something, wait one second." I run back to my room and reach under my bed. I pull out a sword, the one my Dad made me before he divorced my Mum. Emily also has one, but it's a little smaller than mine. We take them everywhere, although Emily keeps hers outside. I slide it into my belt, then run back to the door. Slinging my bag over my shoulder, I sprint outside to the stables with Emily. Ginger is being harnessed up by Emily, so I do the same with Belle. Once we finish harnessing the horses we haul our carts out of the shed and connect them to the harnesses.
"Well, I think we're ready." I announce.
Emily nods, adding "All we need are our axes.".  We walk back into the shed and grab our axes. I throw my axe into the cart, along with my bag, then I swing up into the drivers seat. Emily also gets into her cart. We pick up our reins and start trotting off towards the woods.

The path from our property to the woods is still intact, so it is quite easy to follow.  There is a chilly breeze, which is canceling any warmth from the early morning sun. My attention is suddenly drawn to a band of dark clouds along the horizon. It looks like they are a few hours away, but one of my fears is being caught in a storm in the woods. We are only an hour into our trek to the woods, meaning it is still possible to turn back and go home. I turn around to face Emily in her cart bedside me.
"Em! There's a storm coming, we should go back while we can!" I yell out.
"Don't be silly! We'll be back home before it hits." She replies confidently. I give her a doubtful look, then turn around to face the front.  The woods are not to far away. We continue trotting along until we come to the edge of the heavily wooded land. I look at the ground in front of us and realize that my other fear is real. Our usual track through the woods, that takes us to the place where we chop firewood, has  completely faded away.
"Great, just great." I say to myself. Emily is now behind me.
"What?" She asks.
"Our track has been washed away." I answer back grimly.
"Well, we have been through these woods so much that we shouldn't need a path." She replies. She's right with that optimistic statement, we have been through the woods a lot, but I'm not so sure. Do we really know where we are going? I shake off that thought and continue, at a walk, into the woods.

The sun shines brightly through the thick foliage, making easier to pick our way through the woods. I've been following where I remember the track should be. I look up ahead and see a huge pine tree laying across our chosen path. I bring Belle to a halt, forcing Emily and Ginger to stop behind me.  I slide off the cart and walk to the fallen tree to investigate. Emily is quickly by my side. There is no way we can lift the tree, so we must find a safe way to take the carts around it.
"We have to find a way around." I say, walking along besides the tree.
"We can just go through here." Emily states, pointing to a gap in the trees. It looks like a pretty good solution, so we get back into the carts and carefully drive the horses around the uprooted pine. I smile as we continue back on coarse. I don't really know why I'm so uptight today. We have done this so often. Ever since Dad and Mum divorced four years ago, my twin and I have done the wood collecting and I've never been nervous about the journey. But today something is making me uneasy, maybe it's those storm clouds I saw earlier, I don't know. Up ahead I see a clearing with a old, rotted tree stump, which we use as our chopping block, in the middle. I let out a sigh, we are finally safe.