Author's Note:

Pre-movie.

I picture the Overland cottage to look like this: a great room, two bedrooms and a wash room (bathroom w/o a shower because they didn't have running water back then). All ground level.

Jack is 17.

Summary: Jackson and Emma Overland's hike makes a turn for the worst.


"Hey, Emma, is everything packed?"

The small girl looked up from her knapsack and nodded excitedly. "Yeah, Jack! We have everything we need!"

Jack kneeled beside his sitting sister and studied the contents of her bag: a water gourd with the cap tightly fastened, a pair of white socks, two red apples, and a small blanket neatly folded.

"Great. We have everything we need. You ready to go on an adventure!?"

The small girl yelped with joy. "Yes!"

"Okay, but first, you need to go tell Mother that we are going on a hike, okay? I'll hold on to our stuff."

Emma Overland jumped up and ran out of sight, leaving Jack alone in their bedroom. Once he was certain she was gone, he jumped up from the floor and quickly fled the room. He peeked into his mother's bedroom and saw that it was vacant. Rushing in, he yanked opened the woven basket sitting at the foot of her bed and pulled out a hunting knife, a piece of flint, and a small lump of coal.

"Better get ready, Em. We're gonna have some fun," he mumbled.

Jack barely made it back into his bedroom and sat on the floor when Emma came rushing in, hollering that they could go on their highly anticipated hike. The siblings promptly left their cottage and started into the woods.

"Now," Jack said in his best tour-guide voice, "to your left we have the woods, and to your right we have the woods. Only the best of explorers journey into the woods, like myself."

Emma giggled, trying to keep pace with her brother. "So which are we going to be journeying into today?"

"We, little lady, are going into the woods."

Emma tensed. The woods is where the older men - like Jack and the other men of their village - went to hunt. But Emma didn't see Jack's bow or his quiver with him - just his staff and her knapsack on his back. She actually couldn't see the bag because it was covered by his cloak, but she knew it was there.

"But isn't that dangerous?" she asked, eyes wandering everywhere but her brother. Suddenly it seemed as if the forest grew dark. "Did... did Father used to come in the bad woods?"

Jack's heart wrenched. He bit his lower lip and squeezed his eyes shut. He would not cry. "Yeah," he said after a long moment of silence, "he did. With me and some of the other men in the village, too. We would hunt together."

Emma did not notice Jack's sudden change in mood. She was too busy feeling guilty for bringing up their father. But Emma looked forward and kept walking, confident that Jack would protect her.

The Overland siblings wandered through the woods for almost an hour before Emma stopped their walking. "Do you hear that?"

Jackson did not hear anything save the birds chirping. He strained and listened for a moment - then he heard it: the faint, distant sound of rushing water.

"Yeah, I hear it."

"Can we search for it? Please, please, please? I have never seen a waterfall and this is the perfect chance!"

Jack didn't like the idea. These parts of the woods had bears and wolves. Dangerous creatures that would not hesitate to rip their frail bodies to shreds in an instant. Sure, Jack had a knife, but that couldn't - wouldn't - protect them. But Emma was so persistent, and seeing the plea in her eyes made Jackson Overland cave and say yes.

Emma squealed and ran ahead of him, screaming out how excited she was. After being reprimanded by her brother, she stayed by his side, in awe of her surroundings.

The Overland siblings wandered in the forest for two more hours before Emma began complaining that her feet were aching. Jack picked her up and carried her on his back; the weight of a bag, a child, and the previous hours of walking left him exhausted. He was also hungry, but that wasn't a major issue at the moment. It was for Emma, however. She would constantly complain about an aching stomach due to being hungry.

Jack finally set down the small girl and opened the backpack; Emma had packed merely two apples. Jack pulled one out and sliced it in half with the knife. Emma gave him the Third Degree about it, but after voicing his argument, she silenced.

They ate their apple slices in silence.

The sun had almost completely set behind the trees now, and Emma was jittery and on-edge. She was always either holding her older brother's hand or being carried by him.

"Jack... Where are we?"

Jack stopped walking and took in his surroundings. There wasn't much to see - trees, grass, dirt - but none of looked familiar. Wait...

None of it looked familiar.

Jack panicked inwardly. He had been so occupied with finding the waterfall (it did seem as if they were getting closer because the sound of running water was much louder now) that he wasn't paying attention to where they were actually going! When he and his father would hunt in these woods, his father would always tell him that if you got lost in the woods, you were likely never going to find your way out.

"We're in the woods," he answered simply. It was easier to state the obvious than to admit that he did not know.

"But where?"

"Emma, look at me. Do I look like I know what I'm doing?"

The youngest Overland stared into her brother's tawny eyes. "No."

Jack snickered and kneeled down to her eye level. "Well, I do. And I know it's dark and I know you're cold and scared, but as long as I'm here, you'll be okay, alright? I won't let anything bad happen to you. I promise. You're gonna be fine."

Emma nodded slowly. She wrapped her thin arms around her brother's neck and he picked her up, holding her as a mother would a sleeping child.

Several minutes later, Emma was walking again, holding Jackson's hand. The sun was completely gone now; their only source of light was the moon.

Just when Jack was certain that he had found a clearing in the trees, he heard a twig snap. He abruptly stopped walking and shushed Emma when she attempted to speak.

Jack strained to see in the darkness. That twig snapping was not his nor his sister's doing - he was sure of that. It was a third party, someone or something in the darkness.

That was when he saw them: small, beady, luminescent eyes staring at him from afar.

It was a pack of wolves.


A/N:

Whoops cliffhanger. Sorry.

I also apologize for taking such a long while. Life sucks, you know? I'm not proud of this either. I have next-to-no muse anymore so it is difficult for me to type anything. But I will not stop... Not this time.

Thanks for reading and reviewing. You do not know how much I appreciate it.

Sorry for errors.