The forest was dark and gloomy with trees stretching out for miles beyond expectations. The catch was that the forest was created into sections that we had to pass before getting to the next zone. If we failed an area, the forest itself would take us back to the beginning again. We followed a narrow dirt trail which took us to a tree stump. Looking down at it, words started appearing onto the wood reading ‘You should not be here!’ Natsuki starts to turn around to get out of here; I start to see fear in her face. I grab her shoulder and bring her back to reality, “We are going to do this! Don't give up now-- the adventure had just begun.”
She glances at me, looks down, looks back up and cries, “Alright. Fine, let’s get going then!” We ignore the stump and move along to the next closed off area of the Lost Woods through an open tree trunk.
In the next place, there were two paths-- one to the left and one on the right of the path we came through. “Which one should we take?” Natsuki asks.
“I’m not really sure to be honest,” I respond.
“We should try going with our instincts. How about… we go left?”
“Fine with me,” I finished. While we’re on our way to the next zone, Natsuki steps on a twig and I jump about five feet into the air, “Oh my goodness,” I take a deep breath to recover myself, “That nearly made me wet my pants!”
“Well, good thing you brought an extra change of clothes,” she chuckles trying to lighten up the mood. We smiled at each other and then went on through the next trunk. The next place looked just like the first one so we followed the same route.
It became silent when we walked through the following giant hollowed out tree. We heard a marvelous crow squawk above our heads and off to the next section we go.
This section was nothing like I’ve ever seen before. The other parts were a bit frightening but not at all like how much it escalated here. Looking around, it was dark. It was hard to breathe. My head started to get dizzy, so I flopped to the ground. Natsuki started to get light headed too, but she stayed up and searched a bit. A few minutes later, I got used to the dizziness and stood up too. It had been about two minutes I believe since I last heard from her. “NATSUKI?”, I call out.
-No response-
I wonder where she went off to… I start looking around for any signs of her. Lots of trees, trees, more trees… but only on the edges by the cliffs cutting off the next zones. I approach a small pond and see a shadow of a human figure.
Attempting to run to it, I lose balance and tumble onto my face. My hand lands on a rock as well. “OW!” I cry. I pick myself back up and march over the rest of the way to that body of water despite the throbbing pain in my palm. To be honest, I completely ignore the humanly figure over to the right of me. My hand felt like it had been ripped off! Gazing at the sparkling water, I could easily see the bottom. I lay my hand in the water to rinse off the blood emanating out. All the blood washed away, and I gently wrapped a pair of underwear around the wound. I stood up slowly and headed over to the shady figure east of me.
Getting closer, I realize that IT’s hunched over another thing… or what I think is just a thing… I get a meticulous look at IT and identified IT had been Natsuki all along. I kneel down beside her, and her eyes are just as wet as the pond next to us. She’s not taking her eyes off of these silhouettes, which I can now tell are people, in front of her. I can’t quite identify who these people are… or were.
“MOM! DAD!” Natsuki bawled louder than you can imagine. Well that answers my question… She was nearly pulling her hair out and hyperventilating. “It’s all my fault,” She whines, “ITS ALL MY FAULT!”
I didn’t know what to do. All I could think of was to hug her, so that’s exactly what I did. “It’s not your fault, Natsuki. You had no control over this.”
“No,” she calms down a bit to start to vent, “I was there with them when they planned to venture out into the Lost Woods, and I did nothing to stop them because I was really mad with them. It IS all my fault! I guess you should be more considerate of the ones you love and not hold grudges despite anger or else—” She went from an angry state back to depressed. Just like the five stages of grief, I suppose. She reaches down to both her parent’s hands and becomes peaceful. About 3 minutes of silence later, she releases her grasp and slowly stands up. “We gotta go, or the darkness will take over,” she commanded.
I stand up with her, “Alright. Well, do you have any idea on where to next? It’s so dark in here, I can’t find any of the passageways nor the path.”
“Wait a second,” Natsuki gasped, “Didn't you pack a box of matches before we left?” Thats right! I had nearly forgotten about them. I took off my backpack, unzipped the front pocket where I had placed the box, and grabbed it. I opened the small box, picked up a match, and struck it across the edge of the box, creating a giant flame which lit up the whole area. It was a beautiful thing—light in the darkest of places.
“We better get a move on before the match burns out,” I suggested.
“You’re right. Let’s go,” Natsuki took one last glimpse of her parents, held my hand, and we left to get to the only exit we could find.
