darkness rising ( complete )

The Forest of Shadows

"My feet hurt," whined Gil.

"Shut up," said Uma.

"But my feet hurt," Gil complained. "We've been walking all day! The forest just isn't my thing, I always hated hunting with my dad. And that was on the Isle."

"I just don't understand why we got this sick armor from a bunch of swords," said Evie. "It breaks all the laws of physics."

"Cause it's magic," said Jay.

The VKs had been walking for hours. Nothing exciting had happened since they left the school. It was just dense forest as far as the eye could see. Birds sung in the trees and flapped around without a care in the world. The VKs fit right in with their golden armor as it glittered in the sun. The wind whistled through the branches of the tall oaks. The forest was full of life. The VKs however weren't.

"I'm thirsty, my feet hurt, and I am out of breath," Gil whined. "Can we please rest?"

"I am tired," said Harry. Mal was far ahead. "Make her stop."

"Hey!" hollered Uma. "Dragon Breath! We're resting K?"

Mal turned and noticed her gang was beat up. "Fine," she said. "It is getting late. We should start to make camp. Jay, Carlos, Gil, Harry, you go look for big sticks and build a frame. Evie, Uma, and I will build the roof an gather food, K?"

"No need for that," said Carlos. "These bags have the supplies already for them."

"And they have food too," said Evie.

"I ate all mine before we even started," said Gil. He turned to Harry. "Can I have an apple?"

"I'll go get food," said Uma heading off.

The boys set up the tents. One for the guys and one for the girls. By the time the sun was setting, they had completed the tents. Evie, Uma, and Mal were off looking for extra food.

"Can we kill something?" asked Uma. "I'm dying for some meat."

Evie shook her head. "Let's not. I don't want to see a deer's intestines."

"I would," mumbled Uma under her breath.

Mal chuckled and turned to the berry bush she was picking berries off of. She was putting them in a small brown leather bag. She pushed aside some branches to get more form the inside of the bush. She reached down to pick berries from the bottom of the bush and felt a rivet in the dirt. Puzzled, she pushed aside more branches and examined the rivet. It was in the shape of a wolf footprint. She sucked in her breath.

"Wolf tracks," she whispered to herself. Mal walked around the side of the bush and saw more tracks. They were spread apart, which meant the wolves were running. But to where? She needed to know. She began to follow them, slowly at first and then at a quickened pace. They were soon joined by others and soon it was hard to tell one wolf track from the other. Mal was sprinting now. She noticed the forest floor was getting hard to see. It was covered in a dark mist. The wolf tracks were clumped together and made the ground all lumpy and Mal tripped a few times. Mal was so hyper focused on the tracks that she ran straight into a tall gate.

"Ow!" said Mal. She looked up. "Whoa."

The gate was covered from top to bottom in vines. It was attached to a stone wall. The wall went off into two directions and Mal couldn't see the end of either of the ends. Mal peered in between the bars of the gate and saw through the mist a tall, looming castle. Each spiral and tower stretched high and tall. It was covered in gargoyles. Mal grasped her pendant. She looked back through the dark forest and then at the castle and finally at the floor where the wolf tracks were. They continued on past the gate, and up to the front doors of the castle.