The legend of the dark forest -part 1

There once was a girl called Lena, she lived with her parents and her younger brother Ajay in a small town called Pennisota. That small town had been her home since forever.  Pennisota had everything one could dream of a mall, it's very own amusement park,historic buildings and what not. Pennisota was a dream city for all kinds of people. Anyone who visited Pennisota had the inherent desire to stay on and never leave, Everyone except Lena and Ajay. The only thing these kids wanted to do was to put as much distance as they could between Pennisota and themselves. No one knew why nor did they. They could never leave mostly because their parents loved Pennisota and never let the kids out of their sights and secondly because the town never wanted to let them go. Whenever they tried getting out of the boundary a force field was always stopping them. The farthest they had gone was the moon forest. The moon forest was very close to the boundary, It was their only connection to the world outside. That was why the kids spent most of their days in the moon forest. How did the moon forest connect them to the world outside? You must be wondering, well they could only see the outside world from there.  Pennisota was surrounded by hills on all sides,this blocked the vision of the inhabitants. Moon forest was situated on the highest hill,this let the kids see the other towns and cities. 

The legend of the dark forest -part2

"Mom will kill us if she finds out where we are." said a worried  Lena , Ajay just rolled his eyes; turned to his elder sister and said " Lena you worry too much! No one will know that we paid dark forest a visit unless we tell them." "but what if someone learns of our expedition, what then?" argued Lena, "Then mom and dad will never let us visit moon forest again." said Ajay as he felt the truth sink in "Exactly my point, Why should we risk this fatal punishment. I want to see the world , so do you but we won't be able to until we become 18. Do you really want to be cooped up in stupid Pennisota till we become adults, without our lifeline Moonforest.  I can leave in  4 yrs but you have 6 years to go " said Lena " No sis I love moonforest as much as you,maybe even more but don't you think life gets boring without thrill." " yes, life does get boring without thrill. but no risk is worth being banned from the only place which connects me to the outside world." said Lena " I am going home!" screamed Lena and stormed off. Now Ajay was all alone and though he would not admit it scared,very scared.

"My sister is such a scaredy cat,look' at me I am younger than her and I am not scared at all." said Ajay to himself shakily,when suddenly something jumped out of the bushes and caught hold of him he screamed "OKAY I AM SCARED,I AM VERY SCARED!" He looked around hopefully, hoping to see his sister running towards him with hopefully some weapons to destroy this beast but no one came. A he was looking around the beast spoke " No one is coming to save you but then heaven is nicer than Earth you know." "NOOOOO! I AM TOO YOUNG TO DIE." screamed Ajay . The beast just laughed , it's deep scary laugh. 

The legend of the dark forest- part 3

After a lot of struggle Ajay finally gave up and waited for the beast's claws or teeth to sink in but instead of the beast's claws sinking in or any part sinking in.He heard a laugh , a very familiar laugh. He immediately looked up and saw Lena. She laughed normally and said "The look on your face was priceless!" and laughed again. At any other time Ajay would have punched Lena right on her face but today was different. He was filled with gratitude that Lena had not abandoned him, which he was pretty sure she could have done easily and also the fact that he needed Lena. He knew that without her he wouldn't last a minute in this dark and dreary forest.  He asked " Why didn't you leave?" "I would have but left you but then if I returned without you,mom would have grounded me anyways." Lena replied  ." Now lets go back home." said Lena "okay." said Ajay and both the siblings walked hand in hand away from Dark forest,into moon forest and back in Pennisota.

They reached home very late and got an earful from their parents but thankfully weren't grounded. They had school the next day. Both Ajay and Lena studied in Pennisota public school. Their headmaster was MR.Grim, the only other person who hated Pennisota. As a result the kids and MR.Grim were great friends,thankfully no one knew of their bond. Every day after school the kids used to have a drink with MR. Grim and talk about their dreams,  aspirations , people they liked, people they hated,school,thing they hated about Pennisota, The moon forest and occasionally advised each other on how to deal with their problems. You must be wondering how could the headmaster want to seek advice from the kids? Well you see Lena was a very wise kid and could advice anybody. She had the brains and the empathy.Their parents thought that Mr.Grim was giving the kids extra classes because they were very smart and never knew of the strong bond they shared.

Now as always ,after school got over they went for their daily cuppa in Mr. Grim's office. Today their parents thought that they were having their Math's lesson. Now you would be wondering "How do you take classes for kids who are in different grades?" Well here's the thing 7th and 8th grade in the Pennisota public school had the same portion, they followed the 8th grade portion atleast the gifted students did and Ajay was one and their parent's were super proud. Lena was a gifted student too but only in the science subjects. Ajay was a gifted student in all the subjects. Now don't think  That they only chatted for the whole of the lesson(which was of 3 hrs). In fact they studied for two hours and left 1 hour for idle talk. Today they finished earlier because the kids finished their assignments long before time. Today they started talking about the moon forest when Ajay  asked "Mr.Grim, have you ever been to the dark forest?" "I...okay kids promise me that you won't tell anyone what I tell you today." "We promise." said Ajay and Lena in unison "okay... here goes. When I was your age Lena , I visited the dark forest  and learnt something awful."  

The legend of the dark forest-part 4

previously: The kids are in Mr Grim's office office and are listening to Mr. Grim's tale.


" Are you sure? Do you really want to learn the truth?" "Yes we do." said Ajay and Lena in unison. 
" When I was younger me,my mom,my dad and my elder sister Julie used to live together, As I mentioned before I was your age when I  first visited the dark forest. That day started like any other day, our school had just left us and as was our custom we visited The moon forest."  narrated Mr. Grim " Yes we loved moon forest as much as you both loved it." said Mr. Grim in response to Ajay's questioning stare, " Anyways We loved moon forest and visited it every single day. One day we went deeper than was allowed by law without realizing. Eventually we realized but then it was too late. We were hopelessly lost and were very scared. We shouted for help but no one came, we were too deep in the forest. Finally my sister realized that nobody was coming. She told me that we were too deep in the forest to be rescued and that we would have to find our own way home. So there we tried to find our own way home but all in vain.Finally Julie decided to pitch a camp in the forest and try again tomorrow morning. All we had to do was to get a fire running,thankfully we hadn't finished our lunch boxes and could eat the leftover food,so we had food. We had filled our water bottles before leaving the school building and hence had water. We had torches and matchsticks(Yes we used to carry matchboxes and first aid boxes everywhere) a first aid box,an extra pair of clothes and our emergency candy box. All in all we had enough food for a night. We were scared to get fire wood but just as we were leaving Julie saw a bundle of logs which had magically appeared back were our school bags were. I was puzzled but neverthless  grateful. We had everything one needed in the wild except tents , but we weren't troubled in the least, we were used to sleeping on grass courtesy of our scout club. That night was beautiful,after our supper Julie and I lay on the ground and gazed at the stars,shared stories,talked about school and gave each other advice. Julie always wanted to be a nurse you know? The only things she wanted was to leave Pennisota and help others. It is a very sad thing indeed that she could never achieve her innocent dream."  " Why? What happened to Julie?" asked Lena who till now had been silent. "She disappeared!" said a tearful Mr. Grim "How ? " asked Ajay,, "The next morning when I woke up she had just disappeared. The only thing she left was a note saying ' Louis I want you to go home right now. It is too dangerous in here, I will come home soon,so don't worry and go on without me . I have drawn a map that will tell you the way home.
Your sister
Julie
p.s love you Louis.'
 So I went on my way thinking that she would be home soon. As soon as I reached the town I saw my mom frantically waiting for me. As soon as she saw me she came running to meet me and asked me how I was , she didn't ask a thing about Julie and I assumed that Julie was home. When I did reach home I didn't see Julie anywhere. I asked mom about her but it was as if she didn't remember Julie at all. The first time she just thought I was joking but when I kept on repeating  the question she worried about me and took me to the hospital thinking I was hallucinating.I asked everybody who knew her but nobody remembered her. Even her best friend Teresa didn't know her! It was like Julie never existed. I have finally accepted the fact that no one remembers her and have tried to get on with life.
Till date I know not what happened to her." ended Mr. Grim with a sigh.  The kids felt bad for Mr. Grim but also felt proud of him, because anyone who had gone through something like this would never be happy nor would he have the courage to act happy,but this man despite the trauma he had gone through put on a brave face everyday and acted happy for the students. Ajay and Lena hugged him and bid him goodbye and went on their way their minds occupied with the information they had got from Mr. Grim 

part 5 coming soon!
 You will find part 1 at the bottom of this page.
THANK YOU FOR READING

The legend of the dark forest -part 5

Ajay,come on down!" shouted Lena , "Coming Lena!" Ajay shouted back.

It was a Saturday morning and the kids had a holiday, Just yesterday they had listened to Mr. Grim,their head master (and only other Pennisota hater) recount the story of the mysterious disappearance of  his sister. Julia had disappeared without a trace when she and Mr.Grim had wandered into the dark forest by mistake. That night was spent in the dark forest itself because it was too dark to see anything. The night went okay but when Mr.Grim woke up Julie was nowhere to be seen,but a letter in her handwriting was left for Mr.Grim which said she would be home soon and a map giving him directions,but when Mr. Grim made it home she wasn't there. When he asked around nobody remembered Julia, not even their mother ! Seeing Mr. Grim's face as he said his story made Ajay and Lena decide to uncover the mystery of the dark forest and try to find Julie. That night they had come home and told their mother that their school was taking them on a three day camp  in the forest which was compulsary to attend. Their mother immediately bought the story. That being done they started their preparations for their stakeout . Ajay and Lena were scheduled to leave by 9:00 am and they were running late.

As soon as Ajay had found his lucky shirt and trousers he ran down the steps. Their house was a quaint 5 roomed house with two floors.The guest room , Ajay's room and  Lena's room were on the 2nd floor. Their Parent's room was downstairs.

"Their comes Ajay the most punctual person in the world." said Lena sarcastically "stop it sis, I came as fast as I could."  said Ajay " Whatever, now lets leave it's already 9:30 am ."  said Lena " Okay, bye mom ."  Ajay said and they stepped out of the house. "I am so excited!" squealed an excited Lena, "So am I !" seconded Ajay. "Why don't we sing a song while we walk towards The forest." Suggested Lena. "Ok, Why don't we sing 'Lily walks the path of doom' ."  "no way,we need something happy."  said Lena " Lets sing ' Adventure' by Christine Hotway." said Lena "Okay, seems appropriate." and so the brother-sister duo went on their way singing their favourite singer Christine's songs. They were so occupied by their little song marathon that they didn't  realise they had  reached their destination until they reached the line dividing Dark forest and Moon forest. Finally they stopped and had their lunch ,for it was 12 noon when they reached the boundary. The kids had planned to reach the boundary by 11:30am, after reaching the boundary they were supposed to rest for one  hour and do a luggage check and make sure they had the essentials, that done they moved on to lunch. For Lunch they had  banana fritters,Ricci Picci( a  mixture of  dry fruits,veggies,scrambled eggs,crumbled bread topped with some strawberry jam) and lasagna.  After Lunch They sat around for sometime,and just talked  until their time was up. Once they were done they gathered their wits about them and prepared themselves for what lay ahead. The kids finally went in.

"I don't remember being this scared the first time we came to dark forest." said Ajay once they had entered the forest " We didn't know we were in the dark forest that time silly." said Lena "yes that's true, but even when we realised  we weren't scared." said Ajay " We didn't believe the legends that surrounded this place that time,but now that Mr. Grim told us his story we are forced to believe them. " said Lena " What do you think really happened to Julie?" asked Ajay in a hushed voice " Oh! I don't know, It could be anything but whatever happened to her we will find  it out." , While this conversation was going on the kids failed to notice their pursuer .

 The creature came closer and closer but they walked on unaware of their pursuer, They never saw their pursuer even when it pounced on them and knocked them to the ground.




I hope part 6 will answer all your questions and put you all at ease. Hope you enjoyed this story.

The legend of the dark forest- part 6

“She is finally waking up!” said a high-pitched voice, “calm down Julie, I know.”  Said another voice, “Did you really have to pounce on them?” Asked the high-pitched voice again, “I didn’t know if they were our friends or foes.”  retorted the other voice, “Okay, lets just leave the matter here and look after the girl” said the woman. Lena had woken up by then and was shocked to find herself in a tree house. When Julia saw Lena sitting up, she immediately gave Lena a bowl and asked “Are you feeling better now?”  Lena nodded her head and rapidly asked “Who are you? Where is my brother? Where am I? ““You are in Sunshine acres a part of the fiana barrows or as you know it dark forest. Your brother is taking a walk outside, he woke up an hour before you. I am Julie Grim a forest spirit.”  Said Julie almost as quickly “What did you say was your name?” asked Lena “I am Julie Grim now forest de royale heransa Teresa Marie Letputia.”  “But you did say you were once Julie Grim, didn’t you?” “oui.”  Said Julie “Did you have a brother once?”  continued Lena “Yes long ago, I really miss him.” Said Julie “Was your brother’s name Louis Grim?” asked Lena “How do you know? “asked a surprised Julie “Because I know your brother, He is now the principal of my school and misses you every single day of his life. You held a very special place in his heart, you know.”  Said Lena gently “I know that now, I never thought he loved me so dearly. I thought that the spell I cast on others to forget about me would work on him too. But now I know I was wrong.”  “Why did you cast a spell like that on everyone by the way?” asked Lena  “ There is a long story behind that, do you want to hear it?”  asked Julie “ Yes of course.” Said Lena  “ Ok here goes, I woke up earlier than Louis to get a head start on breakfast and to explore the forest, for inside I always yearned to visit this forest and finally I had achieved my wish . I wasn’t going to  leave this opportunity so off I went on my quest. First I wrote a letter telling him I would come back soon. As I went deeper into the forest I  felt the surroundings change, the dark and dreary atmosphere melted into a happy and serene one. Then I met him.”  Julie gave a dramatic pause and continued “ He was so sweet, kind , funny he was just perfect. After that we became inseperable.”  Said Julie “ Is it that handsome man who was in this room?”  asked Lena “ No, I met him later. I am talking about Beebee.”  As soon as she said this  a small,Blue fluffy rabbit with  transparent  wings  came and sat on the floor next to her, as she stroked it she continued “ This is Beebee. He is my fairy rabbit. So anyways  I saw him and immediately fell in love with him. He felt the same and  led me here, as soon as I saw this place I resolved to stay here and never leave.  That was the best thing I ever did! I am now the queen spirit.”  Finished  Julie “How did you become queen as soon as you entered sunny acres?”   enquired Lena “  I didn’t become queen just as I entered, I only became queen after many years and after I had my share of adventures. My stay here has been full of threats, It is only now that I am free of my adventures and am having a peaceful life. This is the last time you will be free for a long time,because now….”  But just as Julie talked of the reason she was interrupted by her husband and  Ajay.

The kids spent 3 days with Julie and her husband Rogo, who was the one that had attacked them and then finally went home. As Lena and Ajay walked through  the forest,They talked of Julie’s warning all day.

Hey readers, the magic book has finally come to an end, hope you enjoyed the story. Now don’t think there isn’t more,This is just the beginning. I will be continuing this story  with the second part of this series titled  ‘ The rise of the Estrians’ .