A World of Another Kind

Chapter 39 The Forest of Eternal Night

     "Very well then," responded Merlin. "I will not stop you. Just know that she will be your greatest fear." Merlin then disappeared, leaving Lancelot greatly troubled. David then entered.

     "Are you ready?" he asked. "Everything has been packed up."

     "Yes, I'm ready," Lancelot returned solemnly. He then mounted his horse.

     We all said our goodbyes and tore away into the distance. We journeyed all day then stopped at a creek where we made camp for the night. We tethered our horses to a tree, fed and gave them water, washed our faces in the creek, then sat around a bond fire. We ate bread and cheese for dinner. We all couldn't help but notice that Lancelot looked greatly troubled, and he hardly spoke nor touched his food. "It's about Guinevere, is it," David concluded. "I promise we will save her in time," he reassured with a gentle hand on his friend's shoulder.

     Lancelot said nothing in reply but gazed thoughtfully. Suddenly, we all heard a rustle then a growl in the bushes. We turned our heads toward that direction and stood up, then David drew out his sword. Suddenly, I caught a glimpse of yellow eyes, then silhouettes of wolves were seen slowly advancing toward us, snarling ferociously.

     "Great, wolves," Hook muttered sarcastically.

     "Don't move a muscle," ordered David.

     More wolves advanced toward us by the moment. Hook then took up a large stick of fire and wildly waved it at the wolves, which scared some of them off. Our horses were very spoked. They whinnied and fought the ropes in an effort to get away. Hook's horse snapped its rope and dashed away. Then one of wolves lunged at David, but he killed it in time. Lancelot managed to kill a few, then the rest of the pack surrendered and fled back into the forest. "Well, that's great, my horse is on the loose," said Hook with a sigh.

     "We will search for your horse tomorrow," said David. "In the meantime, let's get some sleep."

     Early in the morning, Aubrey and I got up first and decided to go find Hook's horse. We mounted our horses and rode off. We took different directions and luckily, I spotted his horse grazing in the distance. I took a rope in one hand and a nice, juicy apple in the other as bait and slowly approached the horse, holding out the apple. The horse stopped grazing and looked up with pricked ears. In that moment, I was so sure the bay-colored steed would run off again, but instead he went for the apple. I tied the rope to the horse's bridle and mounted my own horse then led it away. I met up with Aubrey, and we returned to camp together. Hook was very pleased when we surprised him.

     We were all back on the road and journeyed for many hours until we reached Castlevania. We finally arrived at the Forest of Eternal Night. There was still daylight, and we decided to leave the horses tethered outside the forest since they needed to rest. "There is something I forgot to mention to all of you," said Lancelot. "Once we enter this forest, we must face our worst fears along the way."

     We all turned to each other. "Like fight our greatest fear?" Hook asked nervously.

     Lancelot nodded.

     I grimly turned to Aubrey and said, suddenly feeling anxious, "I don't like the sound of that."

     "Same here," she responded with a nervous gulp.

     "They will be visions, so don't confuse them with reality like many do," Lancelot said.

     "So do we just win the fight to cause them to disappear?" David asked.

     "Exactly," Lancelot replied. "It won't be easy though so be prepared. We must all have courage midst our greatest fear."

     We entered the dark, formidable forest and had lanterns with us. "I see why this forest is named the Forest of Eternal Night," Hook commented.