THE FOREST CHALLENGE

Chapter 1

The forest. It's a place where everyone and no one wants to be. It's so peacefully quiet that it sounds as though everything is drowned out by cricket chirps, bird tweets, and silence. The leaves rustle as a small breeze blows through the branches. A green glowing light surrounds the shadows.

In the center of the forest is a clearing. Blinding light shines through the open canopy. In the clearing is a small wooden chest. What is inside the chest, is up to your imagination. There is one difinitive answer, but few people can induer the twist and turns of the maze. It's dotted with monsters as well as the peaceful wildlife.

Beware adventurers, the forest is an almost impossible maze for a treasure unknown to anyone.

Near the entrance of the forest was a small village with no more than two hundred people. Each year in early june, three twelve year olds are sent into the forest. Everyone to take the forest challenge either chickens out or dies in the forest. It is also rumored that some people have gotten lost and built a life in the forest. No one who has come out has ever gotten deep enough to see these people. Where these peoplw dwell are in the point of no return, the place no one to come back has gotten to.

This year's chosen adventurers were Kat Zuli, a tall skinny blacksmith's daughter, Kyle Tomo, the hunter's son, and Aretemis Plete, an orphaned archer who had been into the forest multiple times.

The morning the challenge began, the adventurers woke up at the crack of dawn to gather extra supplies. Each challenger automatically gets a bow and a plether of arrows, two months worth of food and water, fire wood, a knife, and flint. Any extra supplies must be gathered before the sundial in the center of town strikes noon.

Kat woke up before dawn. She was intent on finding and retreiving the fabled treasure. True, no one had ever come out with the reward, but that didn't exactly mean someone was on their way out with it.

Kat assumed that she'd need extra clothing, so she started making leather cover ups and boots. She also grabbed a hatchet that her father created the past week for her.

"What are you doing, Kat?" Aretemis popped in.

"Art! What the frick are you doing here?!" Kat screamed.

"I was just checking on you. You are the first blacksmith to go into the forest, I was just making sure you could handle it, Kitty Kat." Aretemis teased.

Kat adjusted the position of the hatchet in her hand. "I can handle it, Art. I'll wipe that smug grin off that face when I get to the point of no return the first night." She pointed the hatchet at Aretemis before sticking it in her satchel.

Kyle was woken up three minutes before noon. "Good thing I assembled my bag last night." He thought when his dad frantically told him the time.

He got to the town center after everyone else. He scrambled to the podium when the trainer, the leader of the challenge, started the ceremony.

"Here today we have the eldest of all the twelve year olds in the village. They will be beginning their forest challenge today. The eldest is Katrina Zuli. Her family's profession is blacksmithing," Kat went onto the podium and retrieved her required equipment.

"Next we have Kyle Tomo. His family's profession is hunting." An uproar of cheering came through the crowd as Kyle cockily walked up to the podium.

"Gary Stu much?" Aretemis whispered to Kat, who giggled.

Kyle walked off the podium. "Finally, our youngest contender, Aretemis Plete. Her family's profession is unknown. Aretemis herself is skilled in archery." The crowd went completely silent.

Aretemis awkwardly walked to the podium and retrieved her equipment.

The trainer said finally, "It's time to begin the journey. Attempt to succeed and succeed to attempt."

It was time to start the biggest journey of their lives.