Closed Just a Forest

[Freddie Lagowski]

It was just a forest. From the outside, it looked pretty ordinary. All right, it kind of made your skin crawl - but Freddie was sure it only looked spooky because everybody said it was. There was nothing obviously unnatural about it. Nothing you could put your finger on. If someone had told him it was a lucky forest full of unicorns, it probably would have looked inviting.

The Ravenclaw had been standing on the edge of the lawn for several minutes. His daily walk around the grounds always brought him past the forest, but he had thus far resisted the urge to venture in. He had no good reason to. If he wanted to get lost amongst trees, there were plenty in the labyrinthian gardens on the other side of the castle, and importantly, he wouldn't have to worry about centaurs, or massive spiders, or whatever else was said to lurk in the forest. A kid had died in there once, he'd heard. Shot by a centaur's arrow. Probably a rumour. Probably.

Come on. Of course it was a rumour. If the forest was so dangerous, they wouldn't leave it open for kids to wander into. Freddie clenched and unclenched his fists, like he was sizing the trees up for a fight. Why was he so scared? Why couldn't he do it? Nothing bad was going to happen - the chances were so small. Ugh. He was such a chicken.​

 

[Kaysi Zhefarovich]

Kaysi had been finding a reason to get close to the forest whenever she could, and as far as she could tell there was nothing that made it scarier than any other forest. She wanted to write home and ask her parents about it, but something kept stopping her from mentioning her interest to them.

Today, as she approached, Kaysi spotted another student. She recognized him from one of her classes but that was about all she could recall of him. She slowed, noticing how focused he appeared, and not wanting to interrupt. At first anyway. "Are you going in?" she asked, giving a quick glance around. They seemed to be the only two around.