The first thing I noticed was wrong was when I couldn't see the trampled grass, which would tell me my group had come through here. And then it all went downhill from there. We came from America, so it wasn't like I knew where I was going. We came over, a bunch of students at the beginning of the school year, to study abroad the English people. A group of us decided to take a hike for a few days in a large valley, and the teachers told it was okay, so we went.
"Nice view, isn't it, Danielle?" My friend Alex asked me as we were walking.
"Yeah, it's so pretty." I whisper. The mountains sloped down into the valleys and when we came to a lake, the water was perfect and beautiful.
"I'm so glad we got permission to come. I love it here."
"You've been here before?" I ask, confused.
"Yeah, I lived here for a few years before I moved to Boston."
"That's so cool!" I exclaim. "Do you miss it?"
"Yeah, it's a lot better here." He trailed off and we kept walking.
We were hiking for a couple of hours before we stopped to have dinner. It was a nice grassy area, which was perfect for our tents. We slept late and kept going in the morning. Days passed before we reached a large mountainous area. Then it all went wrong. I camped in a good lookout position, to get a nice view.
I woke up early the next morning and ran down to meet with my friends to keep going.
No one was down at the campsite we had last night. Everything was gone- food, tents, people. There was absolutely no sign of the group, or even worse, that anyone was even there.
"Guys!" I call into the valley. "Are you there?" I yell. No reply, and then I begin to get worried. If there's no response then I really have an issue. If no one's here, then I have no idea how to get back. I could probably find their feet indents in the grass hopefully. That gives me some hope, so I run up to my tent and pack it up quickly. I return to the campsite and take one last glance back, then begin walking forward. My head throbs and my legs buckle under the weight of my backpack as I walk. I flash pictures frequently along the walk, and push forward. After all, if the group was ahead of me, then I would need to be fast to catch up with them. And if I didn't… I didn't want to think about that. The result would be awful. Most likely, I would miss my plane back and have to get another ticket back to America, which would be pretty expensive.
At the end of the day, I reach a large, calm lake with a large mountain in the center, with a castle resting upon the top of it. I take a picture of it and settle down for the night, and decide to go and explore the castle in the morning. Little did I know that finding that castle would change my life.