The Castle that Changed my life

Chapter 18: Exploring

It was early in the morning, the sun was barely up. Still, its light was already bringing warmth and awakening all those who lived in that forest. A sign of hope. The morning air made the trees slowly sway from side to side, creating an oscillation. The air was fresh but not cold enough to make someone tremble. Just a soft breeze to make everything feel easier, to make life not seem that hard. To make everything feel easier.

In the farms, the roosters started singing as soon as they saw the sun. Waking up all the other animals on the farm, and scaring away any foxes left around to hunt for the chickens on the farm.

A castle stood tall and strong. It was colored a light brown. The oldest part, the sectors of the castle that the royal family's ancestors lived in, was mostly covered in flowers and vines. The parts that didn't survive certain attacks in a past war and a few other certain events. Those parts were the parts where the gardeners also allowed plants to grow however they wanted. But slowly little by little as the bushes and trees and all the flowers reached closer to the habited part of the castle. They were more neatly put around, more rare flowers were around and the bushes were better trimmed.

The castle owned a very big piece of terrain, the majority of it was a beautiful garden. With small lakes or fountains around certain areas. But when it started ending, it was a bush of roses, hard to pass unless you knew how the guards walked around it. After that, it was just a hill... And then trees and more and more trees.

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The crunching of leaves could be heard, but it was soft. Hard to hear if you weren't paying attention. The movement was fast but soft. Not quite a run but it wasn't a slow walk either, more like a job. A gentle one. It was consistent as the sound guided up a hill. It didn't have much vegetation, as it all suddenly stopped with a wall of roses. But if you knew how to, you could get through and go to the hill.

The beginning of the hill had the roses that separated the hill from the garden. The roses were mostly red, the most common ones that could be found. But hard to take care of. Though it was mostly red roses, you could find yellow and purple ones. Very rare colors to find indeed, especially in the wild. But this wasn't the wild, this was the castle grounds, so of course you would be able to find plants that were quite rare.

The sound was getting louder as it neared the forest. First, the grass started to slowly get taller but then when more bushes and trees started growing it started to get smaller and more dirt could be seen. Deeper and deeper into the hill's forest, the light could be seen less, the trees were wider and taller. Bushes were bushier. And more plants and even small animals could be seen around.

Trying to get in by horse would be a real challenge. Very smart of the kingdom indeed. This forest was hard to walk through, so taking weapons (especially big ones) and horses and cannons and other war supplies would be hard. But even though the forest helped keep those who meant bad to the kingdom, it still was under protection. Every once in a while one or two groups of soldiers would come in or out.

And she wondered why. She wondered why that place was so heavily guarded. Apart from the castle and the crown plus the throne room, of course. But that made sense, but why the forest?

Every other place in the castle was still obviously guarded but to that level. Quickly climbing up a tree she rested in its branches. They creaked a bit, but that could be due to anything. So the guards that were walking by did not notice or did not care much about it.

They were heavily armed. Magic weapons in their hands. The forest must be very important, it just got her more curious. A lot more curious... and so she wondered... What was in there? Who was in there? Why did it matter?