Out in the Woods
Present Day
It was morning, and the sun could be seen rising over the mountains. A small village was just starting to wake up with the ringing of church bells that could be heard for miles. everywhere in town people were opening their front doors and letting out yawns to greet the new day. Soon as they were all awake, they set out to start putting up monster-themed decorations all over town. The reason why was because in a couple of days, the town would be celebrating their annual Monster Festival. You see, this town is found in Transylvania, which is known to be full of monster legends, and these legends have become a major tourist attraction for the town. One particular legend is of the haunted forest just outside of it, which no human has ever dared to go into.
The town wasn't the only place the church bells were waking. Outside of town was a medium-sized inn, not far from the edge of the haunted forest. It was designed to have a medieval theme to it and was surrounded by a stone wall that encircled it. This place was known as the Sleeping Werewolf Inn, by the sign next to the door with a picture of a werewolf sleeping on a cloud. The place was run by a couple named Jasmine and Richard Helena. Jasmine had dirt-blonde hair tied in a bun and green eyes. She was also quite tall and well slimmed. Richard had brown hair and eyes and had a muscular build.
Jasmine was seen in the kitchen preparing a meal for some of their guests when she noticed something was missing. Putting the breakfast pie in the oven to bake, she walked upstairs to the first door on the left and gave it a gentle knock. "Mina, it's time to get up."
Inside the room, soft moaning was heard, and a young woman pulled back the covers and sat up and rubbed her eyes to help wake herself up. She had jet black hair and green eyes. This is Mina, Jasmine and Richard's niece and helping hand at the inn.
"Okay, Aunt Jasmine." Mina called out before yawning and getting up out of bed. After getting dressed, she left the room and went to the bathroom to brush her teeth. Then she went downstairs and put on an apron before helping her aunt and uncle manage the inn.
As Mina was wiping a table with a wet cloth, she noticed a poster hanging on the wall that told of the upcoming Monster Festival. This put a small smile on Mina's face as she walked over to get a closer look at it.
"Can you believe the Monster Festival is in two days from now?" she asked her guardians with a cheerful expression. "I can hardly wait."
"You sure seem happy about the Monster Festival." Richard said to her, remembering that she acted this excited last year after coming to live with them.
"Why would I not be. I never got to partake in any festivals in Salem involving monsters because of my dad." Mina said with a grump at the mention of her dad. "Ugh, he is so controlling."
"That reminds me." Jasmine said coming out of the kitchen with the breakfast pie in hand. "Your father called earlier. He was demanding you return home."
"Why does that not surprise me." Mina rolled her eyes, having heard that for over a year since she came here. She paid it no mind and picked up the pie to serve one of the inn's guests.
"I'm still surprised you decided to run away." Richard then pointed out. "Why did you? Weren't you happy in Salem?"
"Oh, I was, Uncle Richard." Mina replied. "I had good friends, was a straight A student, and had a happy childhood. But there was one thing that upset my pleasant life there... my dad." she said with an angry tone. "You see, guys, Dad has a deep hatred of monsters due to coming from a complicated bloodline. And he wants me to follow in his footsteps and have that same hatred."
"And you don't?" one of the visitors asked.
"No. In fact I seem to share Mom's more positive view of monsters." Mina explained. "Unlike my dad, Mom doesn't believe all the old tales of monsters are true. Heck, she even sees that novel that Kitty Cartwright wrote as pure nonsense."
"Monsters are Not your Friends." Jasmine said with disgust. "I've heard of it. There's hardy anything in that book that's actually true about monsters. It's all exaggerations." Both Mina and Richard nodded in agreement, having the same opinion on the book.
"And how did your mom take your decision to run away?" the guest then asked curious.
"Well actually, she was pretty fine with it." Mina answered. "She knew I never wanted to be like Dad and thought it would be better if I was as far away from him as possible." Everyone in the inn let out a chuckle as Mina continued. "And when Dad found out and started chewing Mom out, she put her foot down and grabbed him by the ear so she could bring him down to her face and tell him, 'Our daughter is a grown woman now. She can live whatever life she wants.'"
The whole inn was filled with laughter from all the guests, finding Mina's story of what happened in the aftermath of her departure from home funny. Aunt Jasmine and Uncle Richard gave smiles as well. Both of them didn't really like their brother-in-law from the moment Jasmine's sister met and married him, and were glad their niece decided to get away from him.
Jasmine decided to then give her some relief and called out to her. "Mina, how about you take a break for now. Maybe take a stroll around the wood for some fresh air."
"Really? Cool." Mina smiled.
"Just remember our golden rule." Richard reminded his niece.
"Never go into the dark forest. I know." Mina rolled her eyes, having been told that ever since she moved here. She then went out the front door before they could change her mind.
The sky was clear and the air was nice and clean, a perfect day to go for a walk. Mina took a big breath of air to soak in all the fresh forest air as she took her free stroll. As far as she feels, her life has been happy since she left her father behind. Sure she had a nice life back in Salem, but her dad wanting to control her life and want her following in his footsteps was the only thing she wanted to get away from.
She found her way into town and saw the townsfolk setting up for the Monster Festival. Some put up the decorations, others set up buffet tables, and others got ready to open gift shops. This is one of the very things she loves about being in Transylvania, there are huge festivals that picture monsters in a more positive view instead of her father's hate-filled opinion. When all felt right here, Mina decided to take her stroll back outside town.
For a while, Mina skipped along the dirt road through the woods, happily humming a song. Her humming soon came to an end however, when she spotted something from the corner of her eye. It was the edge of the dark forest, the one place her uncle told her to never go into and she's been familiar with since she moved here over a year ago. Mina just stood there and stared into the blackness between the trees, with many questions running through her mind, one being the most important: What exactly is in there? For a second she felt like disobeying her uncle's warning and taking a look inside, but eventually decided not to. She then left before she could change her mind.
Eventually Mina found herself standing near the edge of a cliff, from which she could view the whole landscape in the distance. This sight made it official, Mina was happy with her life in Transylvania. Though what her aunt and uncle don't know is sometimes Mina longs for a little adventure in her life. But what Mina didn't know was that her adventure was just about to begin, which started with a voice calling out in the distance.
"Hello? Hey, where are you guys?" someone could be heard from afar. Curious and concerned, Mina went to investigate and walked along the edge of the cliff to find the voice. She soon spotted a rock with a rope tied to it and looked over the cliff to see it was attached to a boy with fair skin and shaggy ginger hair. On his back was a ridiculously large backpack.
"Oh my gosh!" Mina gasped in shock. "Are you okay?"
"Yeah, I'm cool." the boy replied. Hey, have you seen two folks around here? I was mountain climbing with them but they got ahead of me and disappeared for some weird reason."
Mina took the moment to look around for anyone but found none. "No, I don't see anyone else here. I think they might've ditched you."
"Oh, well I was kinda starting to suspect that. Bummer." the boy said disappointed. "Listen. Could you help me get up there? It's not really easy to do alone and I think the rock I tied my rope to is starting to slip."
Mina looked at the rock and saw he was right, which made her worry and agree to help. "Okay. You try walking up while I hold onto the rope." she said. The boy giving a thumbs-up to agree.
Mina quickly took hold of the rope between the rock and the edge of the cliff and with all her might tried to pull hard to help the boy up. The boy grabbed his part of the rope and put his feet firmly on the ground, in order to start climbing up to safety. The process was hard for both of them. Mina strained against the weight and the boy barely had the strength to pull himself up. But he was finally able to haul over the edge and back onto solid ground. Mina breathed a sigh of relief and collapsed on the ground.
"Man, that took a whole lot out of me." she said out of breath. "What's even in that backpack of yours?"
"Nothing much, just some stuff I brought from home and some souvenirs I got from my travels around the world." the boy told her before deciding to introduce himself. "I'm Johnathon by the way, or Johnny for short."
Mina soon got up and introduced herself back. "I'm Mina." she said putting out a hand to Johnny and the to shaking. "I haven't seen you around before. Are you new here?"
"Yeah, I like to travel the world a lot." Johnny said. "There's a whole lot out there to see when you wanna finally be independent from your parents."
"I hear you on that." Mina crossed her arms, seeing her issues with her father as no different.
Johnny then took off his backpack and put it on the ground. He then started rummaging through it to find something, only to find it was gone. "Hey, my lunch is gone. It must've fallen out when I was hanging down there."
The two of them looked over the cliff to see that Johnny was right. His lunch had fallen out and was seen at the bottom of the cliff, with a pack of raccoons laying claim to it.
"Ah, mega bummer." Johnny said disappointed.
"Well, if you want some grub, you can come to the inn I live at for some lunch." Mina offered. Johnny saw that as a good idea and went with her back to the Sleeping Werewolf Inn.
It had just become sunset back at the inn. Mina and Johnny were calmly sitting at one of the tables inside, with Johnny eating a sandwich that she made for him in the kitchen and he paid for.
"So, the Sleeping Werewolf Inn, eh?" Johnny said to Mina, intrigued by the inn's name.
"Yeah. The guys that built it wanted it to be cozy enough for even a werewolf to sleep in." Mina replied.
"Cool."
"So Johnny, you've been around Europe?" Jasmine came over sounding impressed. "Where have you been so far?"
"Well, I saw the Eiffel Tower in Paris, got a look at Big Ben in England." Johnny listed down all the places he saw. "Oh, and I recently just explored the ruins of Castle Lubov."
"Castle Lubov?" Mina said surprised. "I heard about that place. It tells a story of a beautiful woman who met a lonely count and had a family with him, before they all perished in a mysterious fire." she said sorrowful.
"Yeah. And no one even knows how that fire started." Johnny said just as sad.
"Well, there's a few theories about how it happened." Jasmine told them. "But the most believed is that it was caused by a rioting mob of villagers. But they never figured out why."
"The only ones that may know the answer to that would be the villagers themselves and the couple they turned lit torches on." Richard said while recording today's balance in the cash register.
The front door suddenly opened, and everyone looked to see two people entering the inn, most likely tourists. One was a large man with a black beard and a bald head dressed in a black leather jacket. The other was a blond woman who wore a light-blue bandana on her head. The two of them looked like they had a scary encounter with something. Kate quickly set a table for them so they could calm down a little.
"Are you folks okay?" Richard asked with concern. "What happened?"
"We came to enjoy all that Transylvania had to offer." the woman told him. "And then we heard about this spooky forest just outside town."
"Wait." Mina said, suspecting which one they were talking about. "Do you mean the one not too far from here that my uncle always tells me never to go anywhere near?"
"Yes, yes. That's the one." the man exclaimed. "And we wanted to explore it. So we ignored the warnings and went right in. But when we did, things started happening and we got so terrified." he started bawling and cried in his hands while his friend tried to comfort him on the shoulders. Johnny, who continued to eat his sandwich while enjoying this conversation like it was a fun movie, just smiled and took a photo of the two with his phone, something that Mina felt annoyed about with how he's treating this.
Jasmine decided to escort the two upstairs to the bedrooms. "Maybe you should stay the night here so you can calm down." she told them. "A calm night at our inn usually helps." The two softly complied and followed her upstairs, both Mina and Richard feeling concerned with what they went through.
Johnny however, felt intrigued by the idea of a spooky forest. "I think I should check this place out."
"What?!" Mina exclaimed, not believing what she heard. "Did you not hear what they said?"
"Yeah, I heard it." Johnny replied as he picked up his backpack and put it on his back. "But come on, how scary could it be?" Pretty soon he was out the door.
Mina only gave a reluctant sigh. "I should probably go with him to make sure he doesn't get hurt." she muttered.
"Absolutely not, young lady!" Ricard was quick to protest. "You've been told to stay away from that place and never go in there under any circumstances. And this is not gonna be an exception."
"Uncle, I can't just stand idly by while someone goes there and gets hurt by some unknown danger in that forest. Or worse, killed." Mina tried to convince him. "Besides, I remember everything you taught me about surviving in the outdoors. I know how to handle myself."
Richard wanted to stay to his opinion, but his niece did have a point; He did take her out camping and teach her everything there is to know about surviving in the wilderness, especially here in Transylvania. Finally, he gave in.
"Oh, all right. But if you're not back here by morning, your aunt and I will worry." he warned her.
"I understand, Uncle." Mina replied. She then quickly put together her handbag with many things that could be of help to her, such as a case of make-up and her cellphone, and headed out the door after Johnny.
