Steve stood in the flower field just outside his village and waited for his best friend to arrive. They met here every morning right after breakfast. His blue eyes scanned the horizon. A wide grin spread on his face when he saw her approaching. "You ready for an adventure?" he asked her.
Her blonde ponytail bobbed up and down as she nodded in excitement.
He took her hand. "Great then, let's go!"
The village elders didn't like the children to stray too far from home because night always came far too soon, so they had never ventured farther than the flower fields to the North or the foot of the Eastern mountain range or the South lake. They had never been permitted to the Western forest.
"I was thinking today we could go into there," Steve suggested, pointing towards the trees to the West.
His friend's eyes got wide in fear. "You know we can't. Not by ourselves. There are spiders in there. Probably skeletons too."
"That's just why I want to go! I don't know if I believe those things even exist. I mean, have you ever seen one?"
She shook her head 'no.' "But that's just because we have to stay inside after dark. The wall around our village and all of our lights protect us. But you know they are out there. The evil wizard…"
"Yes, I have heard all the stories, the same as you," he exclaimed in frustration. "The evil wizard created an army of the undead. He also conducted experiments and when one finally went wrong, his secret lab exploded, killing him and any hope of how to reverse all the monstrosities he had created. Blah, blah, blah! Bedtime stories. What if that's all they really are? Told to keep little kids like us in our beds at night. Come on Ally, don't you want to know the truth?"
His friend's green eyes glinted with curiosity. "I guess so. But if we see a creeper or zombie or anything, we're running straight home!"
"Agreed."
Next Time...
Hand in hand they walked slowly from the light into the waiting darkness of the forest. Ally had started to wonder if they had made the right decision after all. They didn't even have a weapon to defend themselves if needed.