Deadly Beasts

Chapter 1

I could feel light hitting my face through the window but I didn't want to acknowledge that it was time for me to get up. I opened my eyes slowly and raised my arm up toward the ceiling of my bedroom. I examined my arm and let my mind process how my day was going to go before pushing my warm covers aside and shuffling dramatically off my bed and onto the floor. Why couldn't I just stay in bed? Usually my day consisted of tending to the animals, cleaning clothes, and preparing dinner, but today was special because I was going to visit my grandfather. As far as I was concerned, Grandpa was the only person in the world who understood me. He was the only one who seemed to really accept who I am. My parents have always been really scared when I go into the forest because it can be extremely dangerous, but people rarely ever see animals in the forest unless they go two or three miles in, but I wasn't even allowed to go that far. Things could get really dull in Agrios because people were too afraid to go deep enough into the forest to come back with a good story. To be honest, the small village doesn't have very much to offer. So I was hoping that Grandpa could get me somewhere in my life so I wouldn't be stuck making clothes for the rest of my life. Hopefully he'd tell me to pursue my dreams because if I couldn't get him to then there would be pretty much no hope for me. If he told me to go, then there would be no stopping me, I mean, doesn't his word kinda sorta come before my parents'?

***

"Hi Grandpa!" I ran up the porch steps to greet my grandfather. "Hey Artemis!" He embraced me by wrapping his strong, welcoming arms around me. I always loved my grandfather's hugs, they reminded me of how much he cared for me.

"How have you been?" He asked.

"Bored as ever Grandpa," I stated, " my parents still won't let me explore the forest alone. I know they want to protect me, but Agrios is so dull, if they would just--" , I was cut off by Grandpa's calm voice. "You know, I never quite understood why people have been afraid of the forest for so long. What's the point of the gods putting the forest there if we refuse to use it's resources?"

"I don't know Grandpa, I'm about as confused as you are. But where are you going with this?"

He put his arms on my shoulders and looked into my eyes with his dark brown ones. "Artemis, every resource, every person, and every creature has been put on this planet for a reason. Every once in a blue moon, someone has to remind us of that, and it has been too long since that has happened. You are one of the only other people I know who has been as willing as I was to go into that forest without being forced to."

I watched for a moment and followed as he stood up and walked inside the house and downstairs into the basement. Wooden boxes and cloth bags laid around, piled messily on top of each other.
"My dear, every time you come here you tell me about how you're restrained from what you enjoy. The only reason I didn't do this a long times ago was because you weren't responsible enough for this..." He trailed off.

"Responsible enough for what?" I questioned as he grabbed a metal bar and plied through one of the boxes with it.

"You weren't responsible enough to know about the wonders of the forest and have my permission to go there, not when you were so young."

"But Grandpa, I already knew that the forest had amazing things in it, I wouldn't have gone unless you told me to", I said with a confused tone.

He finished prying the box open and pulled out a smaller bronze one with designs all over it. "The tales I told you when you were little were to entertain you, but those weren't the only ones. If I had told you about some of the other things in that forest, you would've gone whether I told you to or not, and that would not have been good."

Instead of replying I simply stared at the box, wondering what could be in it.

Going into the forest must be bigger than I thought.

Yeah, yeah, I know the prologue is in the wrong tense, ugh, I really need to step up my game don't I?