The Forbidden Castle
-By Rowan
James was an adventurous person. He always had been and he always will be. However, he had a great friend. Since the very first day of school he had been with Dylan. Their favourite place to go was the forest. The excitement of walking through uncharted lands and never going the same way as new paths opened like stories in your head as you read a book. Until one fateful day when a seemingly normal day turned upside down.
It was a chilly Autumn day. They were strolling through the forest. Then, black and grey clouds loomed overhead blocking out the sun. Then thunder clapped and the rain poured down in buckets. James and Dylan sprinted under the cover of an evergreen tree. “Well this is just great! How are we going to get back?” Dylan complained
“I’m not sure. I guess we could just-“ Then lightning struck the oak tree but the electrical current seemed to go through the bark and formed an oval at the centre of the trunk. All the edges joined together and formed a portal. James and Dylan’s eyes were wide as they watched this phenomenon unfold before them. Dylan said shakily “should we touch it?”
James replied “what else can we do.” They walked forward and fell through.
They were put down in a rotting, abandoned castle.
“Well nowhere to go but forward.” James stated. But forward was a door and through it they found a large room full of sleeping lions. There was a path through the middle but that was covered in bear traps.
James whispered, “I guess we go through the middle?”
Dylan replied quietly, “ What other choice do we have?”
So they crept past all the traps But the lion woke up roared and began chase. James shouted “RUN!”
They sprinted to the end and got through the door. Unexpectedly, a shadowy voice called from seemingly nowhere and filled the air with a eerie mist. “You got past my pets,” the voice ominously said, “now get past the final obstacle and receive your prize.” The next obstacle was a bottomless pit with a rope hanging across.
“That doesn’t look like a nice thing to mess up.” Dylan stated. Jame’s favourite thing was the rope swings and he was very good at them so he immediately took a run up and sprung forward grabbed the rope and swung across. Dylan jumped. He grabbed the rope and let go too early before grabbing the edge by his hands. “HELP!” He shouted. James ran over and grabbed his arm and pulled Dylan up. “Well done.”The shadowy voice rang through the room. “You have no prize but you must get back to the portal in 5 minutes or be stuck here forever.”
“GO!” James screamed as he started sprinted back towards the rope. “JUST JUMP!” James exclaimed. They quickly dodged all the bear traps and made it to the door. They leapt through and were thrown back to the forest.