Into the Woods (Book 1 of the Nu Arkvine Guild)

Chapter 5: Our saviour is a little girl

"Did you hear something?" asked Chloe, "I think I heard footsteps."

"Nah," said Clara, "Its just your mind playing tricks on you."

"But I swear I did," she mumbled. Shrugging, she quickly caught up with her cabin, Cabin 3. Sophie, Clara, Maxim, and Ellen were with her.

It's been about an hour and 30 minutes since they last saw the rest of the cabins. They wrote down a list of things that they think is worth remembering.

Currently, they're at an old well. "Let's see," said Ellen, "one old well west of the rendezvous point. Check."

"This well smells," said Maxim. His nose was wrinkled in disgust, "It reminds me of moldy cheese and fish with some spices."

"Oh," gaged Clara, "you're right. It does smell like fish and spice but I'm not so sure about the cheese. It smells more like rotten tomatoes."

"No it doesn't," argued Maxim, "moldy cheese."

"Rotten tomato."

"Moldy cheese."

"Rotten tomato."

"Cheese."

"Tomato."

"Cheese."

"Tomato."

"CHEESE."

"TOMATO."

"Can we keep it quiet down there?" complained Sophie, "I don't think that it matters. What matters is listing things down. We've only got 5."

"Yeah," agreed Chloe, "it's not that important."

"Yes, it is," glared Maxim. Clara nodded, "And I'm not letting Maxim win this round."

"Round?"

"Yeah. On the bus ride, we made a bet that whoever wins the most amount of arguments wins free movie tickets to the movie Voldemort: Origins of the Heir."

"I will win this," said Maxim, a look of determination on his face.

"Yeah, right. If you lost at our debate assignment then you'll lose this bet."

"That was an accident! I bought the wrong sheet of paper!"

"Oh, the horror!"

"I'm surrounded by idiots," sighed Ellen. She looked up at the sky. The sun seemed to mock her.

"Should we ask the others how many they have?" asked Sophie.

"No, we'll most likely compare them when we meet up. And that's in...an hour and a half."

"More searching?"

"More searching."

"Wait," said Clara, "before we go. I want to do something."

She walked up to the old well and pulled out a coin. Then she dropped the coin down the well. It made a decent splash as it hit the water.

"Now we can go- Ahhh!"

A slimy hand grabbed her arm in a death grip. Nobody moved as a figure emerged from the well.

"How dare you litter my well," snarled the beast. It looked like some sort of fish-monster as it had fins and blue scales. Two bulging eyes stared into their souls.

"The price you must pay," went on the fish-monster, "is your life!" With that, he began to drag Clara into the well.

"Help!" she cried. Chloe was pulling her remaining arm back. Then Sophie, Maxim, and Ellen rushed to her side.