© Ariana Veelagrace and Clara Maplewood, year 2000-2001
The Lily Series
Chapter 2
Lily flattened herself against a pillar-like tree, gasping for breath, and slid down between the moss-covered roots with her head in her hands. Her legs were numb from running so long in the cold night air and her body shook with terror as she tried to talk herself out of the fear of the creature she had just encountered. It had looked like a horned, green-spotted monkey with a giant red spot in the middle of its forehead and sinisterly sharp teeth bared in a ferocious grin, and now Lily held her breath and sat motionless while a band of them swung screeching through the branches above, hoping against hope that she would remain unnoticed. She got shakily to her feet and looked around. Had she been walking in circles? How long had she been walking? Would anybody be looking for her by now? There was only one thing to do: Pick a direction and walk in it until she got out of these woods.
If she ever got out of these woods.
She tried not to think like that, disentangling her hair from a branch. Sharp roots reached out to grab at the hems of her robes like the hands of the undead, and she stumbled and fell into the smothering dark night.
Suddenly, Lily heard a rustling sound coming from just up ahead. She froze and scanned the area intently. Nothing. Just my imagination…A strange birdcall trilled from somewhere behind her. She jumped and waited for talons to sink into her shoulder. No talons came. Maybe just a swallow or something…Nevertheless, she stood stock-still for a good three minutes, her heart pummeling her ribcage mercilessly and her ears bent on silence. Silence…that was laced with the sound of water slapping softly against land!
Following the sound, she finally broke out of the forest and to the edge of the lake, which reflected a full moon, riding low on the horizon and almost set. She looked around to get her bearings, noticing three main things: The mirrored lake in front of her, Hogwarts Castle not too far in the distance, and a large, tranquil willow tree nearby. Lily walked towards the tree, intending to make her way to the castle (where she would certainly have a lot of explaining to do). She put out a hand to rest against the trunk for a moment.
BIG MISTAKE.
She suddenly felt herself being pummeled all over by what felt like baseball bats. Knotted-up branches beat her down until she was sitting on the ground, trying desperately to get away. Her flailing hand slammed against a knot and she...dropped....
"Oomph!" She slid down a dirt slope and found herself in a small tunnel. It was low and dark, with just enough space for Lily to fit comfortably inside. She kept going down the tunnel, left with no other apparent option (except for getting brutally beaten by a tree), until she came to a small, musty room. There were footprints in the thick carpet of dust on the floor, slowly tapering to paw prints. The scratch marks on the bed told of some animal being recently there. A gnawed, splintered, wooden chair leg lay on the bed. Trembling, she proceeded through the house.
As she turned a corner, scratching and growling sounds came from the next room. A faint whimper, as of an animal, accompanied them. Lily had no idea what to expect, but she took out her wand and held it awkwardly in front of her before investigating the sounds.
She flattened herself against the wall outside like she'd seen people do in movies, and peered into the dark (and hopefully empty) room. The sight across the room took the breath from her lungs as if she had just been hit in the stomach. There, in the corner, was a wolf. But not like any wolf she had ever seen; it was bigger and had a flatter snout. Its fur was sticking straight up and its lips were curled back as it laid waste to the room, pulling books off the shelf, knocking over chairs, and chewing frantically on everything, as though it was in some kind of unbelievable pain and rage.
Lily let out a tiny sob of fear, immediately clamping a hand to her mouth to silence any further sound. But that had been enough for the wolf – it stopped in the middle of tearing a sheet to pieces and whirled around, its eyes locked with Lily's.
Slowly, ever so slowly, Lily backed away, praying that she was just having a nightmare. The wolf, just as slowly, advanced on her. Step by step...inch by inch...eye contact never wavering for a second…they wended a fearful way backwards. Suddenly, she found herself at a dead end, her only exit blocked by a pile of rubble. This strange, deadly-looking wolf let out a resounding bark and charged.