CHAPTER TWO: THE JOURNEY TO THE END STARTS AT THE BEGINNING

Dorothy was with her mother, quietly helping her with the gardening. Thinking deeply with her heart. Her mother spoke, saying: “you could do those over there if you would like”. Dorothy woke up from her daydreaming, a little sad that the dreams were over. “Yes mother” she said, trying to work out what her mother meant. Her mother had a funny face on her. She knew her daughter and knew what caused her dim outlook. Dorothy was missing someone. Peter had been born in the house next door, and Dorothy had been born in their current house. So it was clear, she missed him. It had been a year and three months since Peter had left. They’d grown up together and had got along ever since they were born(7 months apart). Peter at the end of August and Dorthy at the start of March. The handbrokes had left just before Peter’s 8th birthday. Peter’s father was a Chaplin, and he was called to a far away place that they could not disclose.

Dorothy went to bed that night, exhausted and not saying much except a few”okays”.
“Goodnight’s” and “maybe’s”. That night, Dorothy had another nightmare, as she had ever since Peter had gone away. She woke up from seeing awful beings doing awful things, expecting the fear to leave. This time she couldn’t shake the fear, so she tried to shake it with a book. This time “The Panda’s Great Excuse” A book that always caused laughter. Not this time though, she read the whole book, only smiling once and a small “ha”. She sighed and went back to sleep. The next morning was school. She got ready, ate breakfast and went out. She went the long way this time, dreading the angry teachers. Likewise, she started releasing the anger by herself “oo do this mweng mweng do that blah blah blah”.
“Dorothy, why are you angry?” God questioned.
Dorothy sighed. “I’m alone God. I have no friends, no enemies, no nothing” Dorothy sighed again.
God sighed as well, “you forgot about me?” He then pouted a little, which made Dorothy a little happy.
God got serious, “you’re also wrong about the enemy thing”.
Dorothy felt a chill, “I see him”.
“Her” God corrected. “I have allowed her for a while”
“Why?” Dorothy questioned.
“I don’t want you to be unprepared” God smiled.
“God, why am I like this. I’m so stupid” Dorothy continued to speak to her creator.
God listened to her while she said, “I’m only nine, but I’m already lost”
God wanted to cheer her up, “you should’ve seen me at nine”.
Dorothy and God had a chuckle. 
Interrupting their happy time, something struck Dorothy on the head.
“Waddup stupid head” it was Mandy. All the blood drained from Dorothy’s head, a quiet “hey” left her lips. “Who were you talking to, lamobraino?” Dorothy let out a simple “uh…” This didn’t appease Mandy, so she kept prying.
“You know how weird you are?” Mandy insulted rhetorically.
“What do you want, Mandy? Dorothy stood her ground.
“Heh” Mandy chuckled to herself. “Your head, of course”.
Dorothy looked down.
“Just kidding, you should see your face”. Mandy laughed. “But you do have to be my slave” Mandy wasn’t joking about that. “Hold my bag”.
“No” Dorothy said quietly, then ran off while Mandy was yelling at her, “hey come back you stupid idiot.”
Dorothy’s day went exactly as Dorothy expected. The teacher yelled at her, she heard gossip, and she tripped and fell, but don’t worry, here are some spoilers: Dorothy will be okay. If God watches the birds to their grave, he’ll certainly watch over his friends. Dorothy’s life had such trails, but now it’s time to check on Peter and Carry.

Carry brushed away a fern going along the path out of the forest. Peter followed his actions then spoke.
“Carry, can I look at the map?”
“Not yet Peter… we need to get to the clearing”
“How much longer”
“Just around the corner”
“Okay” Peter’s head was downcast, but they continued walking.
“We’re here” Carry smiled.
It was a beautiful sight. There was a table and stumps for chairs. With a ray of sunshine bleeding through the chairs. Peter and Carry set down their things, then took out the map.
“Okay we are here” Carry pointed at the map. “This is the path we need to take, here’s where we go” Peter listened intently then pointed at a skull on the map. “What’s this for?” he questioned.
“That my friend is Doff. WE DEFINITELY DON’T WANT TO MEET HIM!” Carry raised his voice to drive the point home. “He’s the demon at the edge of the forest, We need to slip past him while he’s sleeping”
“Okay” Peter pouted. “When are we gonna fight”
“Hopefully, never” Carry said poignantly (Peter pouted harder). “Let’s get some sleep, Peter, then we can finish the journey out of the forest tomorrow.”
“Okay” Peter agreed, not wanting to argue.

That night the owls hooted and hooted and carry had a nightmare. It was him and peter, They were fighting a great evil alongside a girl. They were both about to defeat the evil and also about to be defeated. Carry awoke right before, knowing who had won. He was sweating profusely. Carry looked over at peter, who was sleeping without a care in the world. Carry got up, his head spinning. He offered a silent prayer to God. He always prayed after nightmares. God soothed his heart and he went back to sleep.

The next morning, Carry woke up feeling groggy. Peter was up and about, practicing with his sword.
“Morning Peter”. Carry offered.
“Mornin’”. Peter continued. “I made breakfast, have some”
“Okay” Carry got up and ate.
“I’m keen to get out of the forest”. Peter said, “There’s a spook here, and I don’t like it.”
Carry agreed, “let’s get ready to go, but let’s spar first”
“Oh, you’re on” Peter accepted the challenge with a smile. “Fists time huh”
“Yeah no practice swords so that will have to do, besides knowing how to fight without weapons is good for emergencies” Carry said, agreeing.
“Okay let’s go” Peter struck first, but carry dodged and went for Peter’s chest, which peter blocked. Peter counter-attacked, but Carry went high to jump over peter, Peter tried to grab carry’s leg and they both fell over. They punched-blocked-punched until they were panting from exhaustion. A smile over both their faces. They were both alive in battle. A few bruises later, they set out to conquer the rest of the forest.

That afternoon, carry was thinking deeply about the nightmare he had. He couldn’t shake a lingering feeling they were being watched. Then it happened. His chest went tight, and his mind went hazy. Peter could tell something was wrong. So he questioned his friend, “are you alright?”
“Yeah, just feel woozy. Can’t wait to get out of the forest.” right when carry said this, a baby troll jumped out into the path. “Let’s talk about it later. We have got to fight”.
“Okay” carry shook it off, and they were at war. They used all their fighting prowess to fight the baby troll and best him. The two boys were a bit foolish because to them the baby troll was big, bigger than them. They didn’t consider there could be a mother, as they didn’t know it was a baby. Just before the two boys beat the baby troll, the mother came trouncing through, angry as could be. This terrified Carry and Peter and they ran away. Losing the path. When they felt they had shaken the trolls, they heaved a sigh. Too soon, of course. A quiet whisper filled their minds, and they felt dizzy, like falling asleep. Then they heard laughter, calling them to the source. A trap for sure, they said, but the whisper’s weakened them. They softly followed the laughter. Walking mindlessly toward them. Suddenly they heard a snap which broke the trance. The laughter turned into weeping, and they turned to see the source of the snap. It was a man dressing in hunter’s clothes and with a sigil that both carry and Peter knew well. He must be from the dunamul monastery. He spoke. “You want to die, kids?! Some-one forgot to teach you, huh?!” He grimaced. “I’ll take you back to the village you’re not ready, you’re too young.” He was angry at their foolishness, but both boys felt it was just his way of expressing empathy, but now it was the boys’ turn to be angry. They didn’t like the idea of returning to the dunamul monastery empty-handed. Peter spoke:”I need to get through this forest, I have to, I really have to leave, it’s vital!”. The strange man sighed, “alright I’ll take you to the edge but no further, you’ll need some instruction to survive”. He paused. “My only condition is that you listen to me and not act rashly” The boys agreed, and they set out with him.

Peter asked the stranger for his name along the way to the edge of the forest, which proved fruitless because he was completely ignored.
‘” okay there’s a path just beyond the tree,” the stranger pointed to a giant tree trunk. Then shockingly walked straight through it. The two boy’s mouths hit the floor. “Its a hologram” the stranger said inside the tree. “Walk through” and so they did.
On the other side there was a hall with dimly lit candles running along the straight passage. They saw the stranger filling up a canteen with what seemed to be a water fountain nestled in between the candles. The stranger instructed them to do the same. After a brief break, they walked along the hall corridor, their footsteps echoing along the wall. After fifty or so minutes, the stranger halted them. “Be careful, we’re not alone.” The three of them stood still, barely breathing and not moving a muscle.” After a few seconds, they could hear a knock knockknock the stranger began to whisper “we need to hide, it’s a demon” but scarcely when he whispered it Carry put his hands on his ears and was screaming in agony. The knock knock knock got faster and faster. The stranger acted fast and hit carry on the neck, Carry passed out from a single hit. The stranger picked up Carry and told peter to run with him (still whispering). They ran for a few minutes, then found the exit. Peter huffed and puffed out a few words, “what was that?” The stranger looked concerned.
“The demon of this forest doff, he’s looking for blood. Let’s set up camp here, until Carry wakes up.”
“Yes sir.” Peter agreed.
The two of them set up camp together. Peter did everything he was told, not missing a beat. The stranger set up a monster repellent to keep evil at bay for the night. A few hours after, , Peter and the stranger had a roaring fire and canned food cooking. Once it was ready, carry awoke. “How are you doing buddy” the stranger said, “sorry to hit you, want to tell us what happened? Why you freaked out?”
Carry thought for a second then answer it all “i feel better now, its okay, i heard a voice” Carry thought for another second then continued. “it showed me visions of all my friends dying and it said it was all my fault. Then it hurt me, real real bad” carry pouted then fell silent.
The stranger offered a soft truth in the form of a poem
“though the world grows dark, though the light is forgotten, tho we all turn away from the love in our hearts, the maker of all will restore, the maker of light will shine, for love is light and it shows the value of life. The light of creation comes from one and it returns to one. Light will last forever and love will never go amiss.”
Peter got out his diary and wrote it down. Carry thanked the stranger for the sharing, then they ate and tucked in for the rest of the night.