Oops! This image does not follow our content guidelines. To continue publishing, please remove it or upload a different image.
The family had been staying at the cottage in France for three days now. And the peace was welcomed with open arms. Sami had spent the days wandering the grounds, befriending the local critters and playing with Solvi, but never once ventured into the woods just beyond the house.
The trees loomed and an owl hooted from leering branches when the sun sank below the horizon. It gave her the shivers, watching the silhouetted leaves dance like fingers clawing at the latch, as she laid in bed with the duvet tucked under her chin. But the sound of her sister's gentle huffing and puffing, grounded her and put her unruly imagination back in line. The warmth slowly seeped into her skin and she drifted away to a land of dreams.
°°°°°°°°°°°°°°°°°°°°°°°°°°°°°°°°°°°°°°°°
Sami pushed back the lower branches of the trees lingering on the threshold of the wood, that guarded the secluded path round the back of the house. The sunlight pierced through the trees and illuminated their leaves, casting a greeny glow on the pathway; littered with fallen leaves and clumpy dirt.
Oops! This image does not follow our content guidelines. To continue publishing, please remove it or upload a different image.
Hesitantly she stepped out onto the path, her bare toes curling in the soft mud and she savoured the feeling. Standing on the isolated path, Sami stopped to listen to the morning birds sing their waking song. And it calmed her nerves a little, to hear such a cautious creature be so at home in this unfamiliar place. She kept walking, her feet silently padding on the ground and her nightgown flowing out behind her in the light breeze, until the cottage was almost out of sight. And just before she followed the path's gentle curve, Sami stopped and turned back to look at the cottage; all quaint and idyllic in the morning sun. But that's when she heard it, when she stopped to pause for just a moment. The faint trickle of a stream just beyond the path. In that moment all her fear of the unknown dropped away... And Sami's sense of adventure kicked in.
