The Woodland Mansion (scraped)

Chapter 9: From Medusa's Cave to the Castle

Maddie snuck in first to go for the mirror. It was a round circle panel. It almost looked like a shield. Oliver, Noah, and Tori followed. They split apart to distract Medusa.

Oliver was the first to grab the attention of the snake haired monster. Medusa's eyes glowed red as she turned towards him. Her snakes hissed firecly. Oliver quickly turned away to avoid eye contact, otherwise he'd become a new piece of decoration for Medusa's cave.

He swiftly hid behind another statue of a centaur. That's when Noah pulled her attention towards him. Unfortunately, it wasn't for long, Maddie accidentally dropped the mirror, grabbing the attention of Medusa.

She  glided over, snakes hissing and eyes glowing. Before I could think I am running in the cave, pulling Medusa's attention towards me.

I  froze. I hadn't planned this out very well. What brought me back was Medusa's snakes violently hissing. Maddie grabbed the mirror and put it over her face.

"Hey! Over here!" She yelled. Medusa turned around and the mirror caught her reflection. Medusa's snakes suddenly stopped hissing as they turned to rock. In seconds, Medusa was nothing but a pile of dust. 

Maddie put the dust in the brown leather pouch.

"Well, I guess now it's time we find our friends." Tori said. We met everyone else outside the cave.

"You did it!" Said Payton.

Tommy just gave a slight and tired sigh. "Let's just go before her sisters come home."

"Sisters?" Tori asked. "There's more?"

"Yes, now let's go before they come back." Tommy said, taking the pouch from Maddie and putting it in his pocket.

We all exit the cave and and head far away from it before the other gorgans come back. I had a feeling that this was going to be one wild adventure.

"Look, clearly you girls know nothing about surviving in these woods and you'll just slow us down." Tommy said. "I mean, we already had to waste our last gorgan dust on her," he said pointing to Payton. "Causing us to waste time to get more. I'm not helping you guys anymore."

"Tommy, don't be like that." Kevin said. "They're just trying to look for their friends. We should help them because you're right, they know nothing about the woods. They'll die out there without our help."

"Then let them die." Tommy said walking off.

"I'm sorry about him." Oliver said. "He just doesn't like new people."

"Yeah, I kinda got that." Said Maddie. "Are you guys still gonna help us?"

"Of course." Said Noah. "I'd want help if I were in your position."

"I'm in." Said Kevin. "I am always up for an adventure." He smiled at me.

"And I'm in too." Oliver said.

"Great!" Maddie exclaimed. "So, where do we even start?"

"I don't really know." Kevin said. "Tommy's really good at tracking, but he's not willing to help."

"Well how about suggesting something that would help." Tori said.

"Maybe they went to the castle." Noah suggested. "If you said that's were you guys came in, maybe they also came in near there and took refuge there."

I hoped Noah was right, because something told me these woods were a lot more sinister than they seemed, at it wasn't just the MEDs and gorgans talking.

**
As we get closer to the castle, the dark trees turn into bright and colorful trees with pink, purple, and yellow flowers. There is a dirt path that leads right to the castle now.

I can already see the cracked stone walls peaking above the trees.

"Wow, it's so beautiful in the part." Payton said looking up at the trees. 

"Yeah." Said Oliver. "But it won't be for long."

"What do you mean?" Maddie asked.

"He means, ever since the royal family fell apart....the woods have been losing its...well it's color I guess." Kevin said. "The whole place used to look like this but slowly, it just keeps turning darker and darker. The only person who can fix it is the princesses, but she disapeared right before the oager wars."

"How do you even know so much about the woods?" Maddie asked.

"You learn slot after being here for a while." Noah said. "And we've been here for more than a while."

"How long have you been here?" I asked.

Kevin sighed and looked at Noah and Oliver. "We all have different answers." He says. "I've been here for three years."

Three years!? What if there is no way out and we'll all be trapped here for eternity.

"I've been here for two." Noah said. "Tommy has too."

"I've been here for fifteen years." Oliver said.

What!? Fifteen years!? I wasn't even fifteen years old yet, I was only twelve. And Oliver didn't look like fifteen years old, he looked my age, younger even.

"Oh please, you're not even fifteen." Max said. "I'm sixteen, you're like ten."

"Elven actually." Oliver says. "But time doesn't exactly pass here."

"So we could actually be here for an eternity?" Tori asked.

"Well if you don't get killed by centuars or griffons." Kevin said.

"An eternity in some magical forest doesn't sound too bad." Max said. "I mean, I get to stay sixteen forever."

"But what about your life back at home?" Maddie asked.

"Don't have one." Max said. "My life ended when we moved."

"Let's just continue." Tori said. "And let's not get all deep into each other's backstories."

"Well... we're already here." Noah said. I looked up and we were standing in front of a towering stone castle. I looked to the left and couldn't see the end of the wall. I looked to my right, same thing.  This place was huge.

"Woah." Said Payton, gazing wide eyed at it. "It's -"

"Huge." Said Max. "Like humoungoues."

"How are we going to find our friends in this place?" I thought out loud.

"Omygosh guys, what is that!?" Maddie asked pointing to something from behind tree.

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