Spirit of Hope

Chapter two-back to the village

I walked back into the village, and headed to the bakery. The bakery is where my best freind, Paul Goldspanner works. Paul is a great friend. He's a good listener, and he never makes fun of me any worse than teasing, which he does quite a bit. Paul has dark, curly brown hair and serious green eyes. He's the type of guy who watches out for you, but not to the level where it's creepy.

I walked into the bakery and spotted Paul helping a man with a loaf of bread. He finished and looked up at me. I waved. "Hey, Jayda," he called. "Hey," I said. Paul leaned across the counter and looked at me. "So what's up? You look like you found something important." "I think that you should come see for yourself," I said. Paul looked at his watch. "I've got 5 minutes, then I'm off for the day," he told me. "How about I met you in front of the statue?" "Okay," I replied. I walked slowly out of the bakery and into the town square. The statue Paul had mentioned was in the center of town. It was a big, marble statue of a fish leaping out of the sea. It's kinda cool, I guess, but I honestly have no idea what it represents. Fishing was never a huge industry here, so why a fish?

I was ripped from my thoughts by the sound of crunching leaves behind me. I turned around and saw Paul attempting to sneak up on me. "Nice try," I said, grinning. Paul grinned, too. "And here I was thinking that today would be the day that I finally got you," he said, laughing.

I led him into the woods, retracing the path that I had taken earlier that day. Paul had never liked the woods much, but he kept following me. Soon we came to the place where the trees got thicker and Paul stopped. "Wait a minute," he said. "The one place we were warned to never go, and you want me to follow you where?" I turned around and looked him straight in the eyes. "You're not scared, are you?" I asked. "Because I thought that you wanted to see what this was all about." Paul sighed. "Lead on, then", he said. I led him to the portal. His mouth opened, and he quickly shut it again. " It's a portal," he said. "Yup," I agreed. "And I'm going through it." "No, you're not," said Paul. "Yes, I am," I countered, before diving into the rippling green surface.