Chapter Three- Something in the Silence
Welsh country people
Alice stepped cautiously one foot in front of the other the pine needles crunching under her feet the sound echoed as Katya and Clara followed close behind her into the wood. The air was musky and dry forming lumps in their throats, in the background the rain kept falling outside the shelter of the forest. The air was stagnant and the children had to wade through it with arms inter-linked with each other. They marched simultaneously down the line of tall trees in time to the call of the birds. Looking from left to right all that could be seen for miles was brown sad trees.
Their branches stuck out sorely, numb and naked without leaves to protect them. The sun battled to reach the bottom of the trees and therefore the branches struggled to grow green leaves. Only at the top of the trees did they compete for sunlight and they were topped green. This made the towering pine trees look sad and strange. Glancing up the girls noticed how out of place the trees looked their green topped hats on their thin auburn bodies. Glaring up at the torn sky a bulbous drop fell heavily into Alice's eyes and spilled down her face but she wiped it away immediately and she continued to stride on in the steps of Clara and Katya. There was a clear path dividing two clusters of trees which mirrored each other. The route continued straight and narrow or so Alice thought; the line began to slow down as Clara reached an obstacle barring her way through the maze of trees. A rotten tree had fallen across the path like a solider out of line it caused an irregular pattern, its corpse lay angular and uncomfortable, caught frozen in an image of pain and distortion. Clara paused for a moment and then gingerly jumped over the corpse. Katya followed by stepping on the trunk with one foot and the other stepped over, Alice did the same.
It was this distraction that led Alice to notice the deadened silence of the forest was due to the fact that the floor was layered with a blanket of dead pine needles and broken pine cones. Her vision altered as her eyes were distracted by something dark moving in amongst the trees to the left side of the forest. The creature scuttled with hast, it fumbled along the floor of the forest dashing in and out of the clearings and therefore slipping in and out of visibility. As the girls remained frozen they searched cautiously with their eyes to make out the dark mysterious creature. Their rasping breath was no longer penetrating the air but their hearts continued to beat rapidly. Otherwise it was only the short outbursts of sound as the creature waddled hastily towards them, playing with the silence.
Suddenly the warmth the girls had once felt as they had entered the forest vanished, instead the surroundings grew colder and colder as the creature edged nearer towards them. However the girls remained steady glued in absorption of fear. But as the darkness came Katya had had enough. Suddenly everything went black as the clouds gathered up more above them. As a result all the sun's rays were extinguished, the lack of light meant panic rose rapidly to extreme levels and Katya could no longer hold back.
Her voice shattered the silence eerily "I have had enough of this, I'm getting outta here now!" her whisper trembled with fear, but it was enough to alert the creature, which had now stopped shuffling. Two yellow beady eyes were visible in the dark matter and stared with malice. A hissing sound was heard and the girls fled before they knew where the sound was coming from. A clamour of sound rose as Katya, Clara and Alice scurried with large feet, weaving in and out of the trees swiftly. No one gave a second thought if the creature was following them; they just ran instinctively for somewhere safer. Once again their feet pounding the floor heavily and their infrequent sharp breaths accompanied their thumping hearts and heaving chests. They covered the majority of the forest floor within a matter of minutes and escaped out the other side into the blinding light. Clara and Alice strained to look back over their shoulders to confirm the rodent had not followed them.
"What do you think that was?" enquired Katya. "I don't know looked like some kind of large rodent to me, or maybe a wild cat?" suggested Clara. Meanwhile Alice who was still staring into the forest had other thoughts about the mysterious creature. "It was a badger, I'm pretty sure about that, I read in the newspaper once that a man was mauled to death by a badger, vicious creatures they are!" Clara placed a trembling hand on Alice's shoulder in reassurance and they all turned on their heel and continued down an over grown path of nettles. As they walked on the shock left them in silence. But as they came to a clearing there was a new energy in them. They trampled up to a farm and a large farm gate lay hanging from its hinges, battered and rusting there was a broken sign on it explaining this was Smutts Farm, the sign also clearly indicated no trespassing. However oblivious to this the girls trod cautiously through the gate and separated in different directions to investigate what looked like and abandon farm.