The Enchanted Forest
*Note*
This story has no sign of a crossover yet, but it will once you get to about chapter eight. Read and review when you're done please, and see if you can figure out the secret of the story!~Kristen Riddle (with a little help writing and a lot of help playing from M. Skywalker)~
Chapter 1: Orphanage Life
The Jolly Kids Orphanage was a small building in the city. There were 30 inhabitants: 25 kids, a headmaster, a cook, and three guards. While the guards, cook and headmaster slept in comfortable rooms with heat, the kids slept in small 10-by-6 foot "stalls". The stalls were made up of wood paneling, and were so cold, that they might as well have been outside in winter. They were lined up side by side, in 6-by-2 rows. There were 12 stalls, with two kids in each, three in one, because one was little.
That little boy, three-year-old Ryan, woke up and looked around. His brother, Tim, age twelve, was asleep next to him, and their sister, Sarah, also twelve was on the other side of him. They were not twins, as many people would assume. Though they looked somewhat alike Tim was actually ten or eleven months older than his sister. They were both brown haired, except Tim's hair was short, and Sarah's was longer, shoulder length.
Ryan got up and stretched, careful not to hit his sister or brother. He could hear his other blonde and bratty, sister, Alice, age fourteen, and her bratty best friend, Sonya, (who had long, dark brown hair) who was the same age, snoring up near his head.
He stood up and pulled his hat off his head, showing his fine, brown hair. It was cold in the orphanage, so he quickly put it back on.
"Have a good night's sleep, Ryan?" asked Sarah's friend and Sonya's sister, Catherine (or Cathy, if you valued your life), from the stall next door. She was just waking up herself, and her brown hair was hanging all over the place.
"Yeah, wight!" said Ryan, walking carefully over Sarah to the wall where Cathy was standing. "If thewe is such a thing as good in this place!" He stepped backwards and fell on top of his sister, waking her with a scream. "Sowwy," said Ryan, as everyone in the orphanage woke and glared angrily at him.
Tim woke up and began to converse with Turtle, Cathy's "twin" brother. Turtle was not really Cathy's brother. He was an Indian whose parents were killed about a year before Cathy's parents were killed. He had been drowning in the ocean when Cathy found him. She brought him back to her house and took care of him. When he was drowning, he was unconscious (that's why he couldn't swim), and he could not remember how he was knocked out or how his parents had died. That will remain a mystery. The reason he was a "twin" is because he was the same age as Cathy.
Turtle and Tim talked and were soon joined by Mike, their next-door (other side) neighbor. They had met Mike at the orphanage. He had come a few days after they did, and now, Tim announced, was the anniversary of his sixth month there.
"Come on," said Sarah, interrupting the boys' conversation, "It's time to get ready for breakfast." They went to a corner of their 10-by-6 foot stall and got out their eating utensils, a bowl and a mug. The head of the orphanage appeared carrying two large vats of milk and two of rotten fish.
The head of the orphanage (named Jerry Roman, but called, Mr. Whip, by the kids) was spooning out fish and milk for the kids. He spilled a lot on the floor, and later, you could see the rats coming out from under the floorboards to eat it. Tim, Ryan, Sarah, Cathy, Mike, Alice, Sonya and Turtle stood in line for their food. They were sure that their dogs at home had eaten much better then they were now.
After breakfast, there was not much to be done except sit, talk, and be bored. But Tim was busy thinking. Thinking about escape.