“Maybe I’m imagining things,” she said quietly knowing now that he was not going to believe her. She looked straight into his eyes. “Can we go back now?”
“Yeah, sure,” he said turning to go back the way they had come. Vicky grabbed his arm.
“Not that way,” she said.
“Okay,” Neil looked round doubtfully. “This way I guess.”
They set off, following a faint trail between the trees. Vicky noticed a fox off to their left that was staring at them. As she met its gaze the animal turned and melted away into the undergrowth.
“This place certainly didn’t look so big from the outside,” said Neil after a few minutes.
“There’s something else,” said Vicky.
“More voices?” mocked Neil.
Vicky scowled at him.
“Look at the trees.”
Neil did as he was told noticing for the first time that everything was brown, yellow, and gold.
“Why is it autumn?” he asked nervously.
“I told you, there’s something weird going on here,” Vicky said. She was feeling scared now.
“Well, I guess we better find the way out,” said Neil.
They carried on walking again, but after a few minutes Neil stopped.
“Ok, we’re definitely lost now,” said Neil.
“We can’t be,” said Vicky looking all around her.
“Well, we are,” said Neil. “None of the leaves are green. We didn’t come this way.”
“Wait,” said Vicky. The fox had reappeared some twenty meters to her left and was sitting and staring at her again. As soon as she met its gaze it turned away and walked a few paces before turning back and looking at her. For some reason she knew it wanted her to follow.
“It’s that way,” she said.
“How do you know?” asked Neil.
She looked back at him, her eyes focusing on him.
“It feels right,” she said.
Neil shrugged.
“Well, I haven’t got any better ideas. Lead the way.”
He followed her, the trees ahead of them beginning to thin out. Beyond them they could see bright daylight and, as they approached, they found themselves on the edge of a clearing in the middle of the wood surrounded by a ring of older trees. A gnarled and ancient oak tree stood in the center. The trunk was thick and wide at the base, the bark full of cracks and fissures filled with mosses and thick silk from spiders’ webs. Bulbous swellings marked where branches had once been, while a few meters up the great trunk had split in two.
“That’s a very old tree,” said Vicky walking up to it and placing her hands on the rough trunk.
“I bet that’s the dragon’s hideout,” said Neil coming up next to her. “There is a secret doorway in the trunk somewhere. We just have to find it.”
They walked around the misshapen base of the oak letting their hands brush against the bark. Halfway around a natural opening had appeared forming a hole large enough for them to crawl through.
“Wow,” said Neil. “We’ve found it. Let’s go in.”
He crouched down and began to crawl into the entrance. Vicky followed him in, but before she did so she looked around the clearing for the fox, but it was gone, and she felt suddenly afraid.
“I hope there are no spiders in here,” she said as ducked down and found herself in a roughly circular space with just enough room to squat down next to her brother. Without her noticing, he picked up a small thin twig with one hand and began to brush it lightly against his sister’s ear. She twitched and then suddenly screamed, swatting the side of her head and flapping her arms around. “There’s something on me. Get it off. Get it off!”
Neil collapsed into a fit of giggles as he dropped the twig and pointed at her.
“If you could have seen your face,” he managed through his laughter.
Vicky looked at him in disbelief before punching him on the arm.
“I hate you.”
Neil blinked hard, trying to clear the tears of laughter from his eyes. Looking outside, as his vision came back into focus, he froze.
On the other side of the clearing, almost directly opposite them, stood a man. He was dressed in a long, shabby-looking coat, thick greasy hair brushed back to fall onto his shoulders. At his side stood a large black dog that was panting heavily and looking around. It was then that Neil noticed the boy standing a meter or so behind holding a sack and a shovel. The boy was in his early teens, thin and with a malnourished and grubby air about him. He was staring at the ground, a sullen