30. Scary Forest
There was a cave that was home to three blind witches in the northern region of Tamir and Rosella was certain those
hags would have something that might aid her on her quest. As she headed north, the meadows of Tamir began to
grow thicker with brush, and increasingly more wooded until Rosella found herself in a forest, and a scary one at that.
The trees loomed all around her with crooked branches. More shocking were the lifelike facial features they seemed to
possess. Their faces were sinister; eyes wicked. Rosella hugged herself feeling small beneath the watchful eyes of the
scary forest. She couldn’t help but think they might reach out and grab her at any moment if she wasn’t careful. So her
big blue eyes looked left, right, up, and behind as she took timid steps deeper into the woods. If she hadn’t been so
distracted by the fear clutching her little body, she would have noticed that she had stopped breathing, and that her
heart was pounding like a tiny animal in danger. It wasn’t so far from the truth. Rosella was a dainty princess,
pampered and protected from the scourge of danger in her native Daventry. Now here she was, waltzing headlong into
that danger. Her lungs forced her to take a fresh breath and brought her fearful imagination back under wraps. They
were just trees after all. Trees don’t have faces. Their branches don’t curl out and snatch up foolish princesses. The
young heroine forced a small giggle to relax herself as she continued to keep her eyes alert in all directions, jumping at
the tiniest leaf blowing along the ground.
Evil forest or not, Rosella became concerned she was getting lost. She knew that the witches’ cave was in northern
Tamir, but the forest was giving her a winding confused feeling. It was time to reevaluate her current direction. Looking
around at the giant trees, she could probably climb one and see a far distance and likely spot the location of the cave.
Or she could continue plodding what she hoped was north, and try to reach the cave before the sunset. What should
she do?
Climb a tree and take a look...
Um, no way... keep going north!