Chapter 2: His First Adventure

Samuel faced his fears and walked past the 100 meter point. This was the furthest he had ever been from his home while alone. He walked for a bit longer and found himself to be on the market street not too far from his home.

“Aah! Samuel! What are you doing out here on your own?” A woman said.

Samuel knew this woman. Her name was Laura and she was his mother’s best friend. Laura was wearing a large purple fur coat, which was rather strange since it was the middle of summer. She was an interesting character. Laura was not a pretty woman; she had a flat face and generally normal features. However, her personality was not normal in any way. She spoke as if she were an important lady, when in reality she actually came from a humble middle class family. She loved gossip and was known as the one person in the village that you should never tell a secret to. However, this uniqueness of her was probably the reason why Samuel’s mother and Laura were such good friends.

Samuel felt rather uncomfortable with Laura staring at him so intensely and could only muster a small whisper in reply.

“I.. I am on an adventure..” he said.

While Laura did make him feel extra uncomfortable Samuel tended to be rather shy when it came to speaking to anyone other than his parents.

“An adventure, huh…” Laura thought for a bit. Suddenly, her face lit up.

“I’ve got an idea!” She said “Why don’t you bring along Grace. She’d love to play with you!”

Underneath the large coat a small girl emerged. She looked to be around 6 years old. She shyly smiled at Samuel. However, her large brown eyes showed a hint of mischief.

When Samuel saw those eyes he shivered. Laura and her daughter had visited his house many times, and every time that Grace played with him he had gotten hurt in one way or another. Grace only spoke in single word sentences, however, even with this limit in her communication she always managed to make her intentions clear.

Before Samuel could say anything he saw that Grace had already grabbed his hand and Laura had disappeared.

“SWORD!” Grace exclaimed while looking at Samuel’s sword.

She grabbed it and immediately began to slice the air with it.

“…That was my birthday present.” Samuel said with tears in his eyes.

Grace looked at Samuel and seemed to feel guilty.

She looked at Samuel and held the sword out while shouting “SORRY!”

Samuel looked at her and shyly said “You can play with it too if you want…”

A big smile appeared across Grace’s face and she gave Samuel a big hug before pointing in the direction of a big field.

“FOLLOW!” She shouted.

Grace dragged Samuel along to the field, where they played by slicing the grass with the sword and having pretend fights. After a couple of hours they collapsed together on the grass. They were exhausted, but both were happy.

Grace suddenly stood up and pointed towards the ground.

“TOMORROW!” She said.

Samuel understood what she meant by that and nodded in response.

That day he walked home with a massive smile on his face. He completely forgot about the fact that he was so far away from home. Luckily he knew the way back. That day was not much of an adventure, but Samuel considered it to be training so that in the future he be able to have a real adventure.

The next day Grace and Samuel played together in the same field, and again the day after. They ended up playing together every single day. Due to Grace being so direct there were rarely arguments or misunderstandings. Samuel genuinely felt comfortable around her.

About a month later Samuel had his mind set. He wanted to go on an adventure, and if Grace went with him then he wouldn’t be afraid of anything.

Samuel was not the type of child to blindly attempt something. He had already created an intricate plan for what the adventure would be.

When he arrived at the field he saw that Grace was already there. Before she even had the chance to greet him Samuel began to speak.

“We are going on an adventure!” Samuel said loudly and assertively.

Grace was shocked by this behaviour, but seemed to be incredibly excited.

“WHERE!?” She asked

Samuel had a smug smile on his face as he revealed his plan.

“We will go to the forest!” He said.

“FOREST!” Grace said in wonder and slight fear.

The forest was the place where they were not supposed to go. It wasn’t necessarily dangerous, but a small child could easily get lost. Luckily Samuel had already prepared small pieces of red cloth, so that they could mark where they had been so they wouldn’t get lost.

Without another word they went on their way. Grace seemed incredibly happy and excited, even more so than usual.

When they reached the forest they both began to have second thoughts. The forest was dark and the trees seemed immensely high for the six year olds. However, Samuel would not give up now. He tied a red piece of cloth to a tree and walked in. Grace hesitated slightly and then walked in, following Samuel closely.

They walked slowly through the dark trees. They used a system where they would mark every fourth tree. However, Samuel had only brought so many cloths, and they both knew that they would eventually walk out.

After they were quite far in Grace pulled on Samuel’s sleeve. Samuel stopped and looked at her.

“Grace… We can’t stop until we’ve done something. This is an adventure!” Samuel said.

Grace still wasn’t very optimistic or happy. Suddenly, Samuel grabbed her hand and held it tight and dragged her along.

Grace was surprised by how dominant Samuel was, and she somehow felt a bit safer and ready to keep going.

The pair kept going deeper and deeper into the forest, and as they got deeper the forest got darker as well. Light had trouble piercing the dense leaves and Samuel realised that it was difficult to see even a couple meters in front of him, causing him to be rather nervous about if they would be able to find their way back. Because of this Samuel decided that they could only continue to move and hope for the best.

Suddenly, they saw a very bright light a couple meters away from them. They walked and saw that there was a small field. There were no trees in this small field, but there was a small lake. However, what was most surprising was the small log cabin in the middle of the field. The entire area was like a masterful scenic painting.

While entering the open area Samuel and Grace sighed in relief. Samuel breathed in the cool air and felt safe again as the light cascaded upon his skin. One never appreciates something until they have lost it, and Samuel felt this exact way about the bright area. Samuel decided to go towards the cabin. If he was lucky there would be someone that lived there, who might find it within themselves to help them get back to the town.

Grace and Samuel approached the cabin. Samuel knocked on the door, but alas there was no answer. After a couple more tries his curiosity got the better of him and he opened the door to look inside. The interior of the cabin was fairly quaint. There was only one small window, which provided all the light within the cabin, causing the rest to appear rather dark. There was a small fireplace, a table, and a bed. Samuel was disappointed by what was inside. The inside was very dusty and it was hard to breathe, leading Samuel to believe that no person lived there anymore. He made sure to inspect every corner of the cabin. Just as he was about to give up on searching for something he saw a book. It was in the darkest corner of a cabin. It was too dusty to make out the words on the front of the book, but nevertheless it enticed Samuel, and he quickly picked it up.

After they thoroughly searched the cabin Samuel left to join Grace, who was waiting outside. However, when he exited the cabin he saw not only Grace, but also a beautiful woman standing in front of her, talking to her. Samuel quickly went to see what was going on.

As he got closer he became even more shocked by the beauty of this woman. Even though he was young, and he did not really know anything about attraction between individuals he was still able to recognise how truly pleasing the woman’s appearance was.

The woman had long and straight black hair, blue eyes, and incredibly white skin. The contrast of these colours was fit incredibly well with the woman’s appearance. She had a small nose, large eyes, and thin alluring lips. The woman was wearing a small blue skirt, which perfectly showcased her wonderful curves.

“Oh, hello!” She said while looking at Samuel “You know it’s not nice to look through other people’s things?”

Samuel seemed a bit embarrassed, but then asked “Do you live here all by yourself?”

“Yes.” The beautiful woman responded.

Grace watched the beautiful woman talk to Samuel and seemed a bit scared of what she might do to him.

The beautiful woman approached Samuel, and seemed ready to scold him and take the book. However, when she got close Samuel’s eyes began to hurt incredibly much.

“AAAAGH!” Samuel screamed while holding his hands in front of his eyes.

“SAMUEL!?” Grace screamed in worry.

The beautiful woman also did not seem to understand what was happening, and she immediately backed off from the screaming child.

To Samuel it felt as if hundreds of ants were biting his naked eyes. He wanted to cry, but instead of tears a thick red liquid poured out. The second the liquid touched his hand he felt an excruciating pain and immediately removed his hands from his eyes. The liquid was like acid, and when it touched the ground it completely dissolved the grass.

The dripping continued for a couple seconds, and when it stopped so did the pain. When he looked up one could see that his eyes were even redder than before, like two shining rubies. His pupils seemed to pulsate.

When Samuel looked up he went to look at where the beautiful woman was, but he realised there was no longer a beautiful woman. Instead there was a zombie like creature in front of him. It was like a corpse of a human. The eyes were gone and the nose had already fallen off. Where there used to be teeth there was instead just a gaping black hole, which seemed to be capable of eating a soul.

When Samuel saw this in front of him he began to scream. Survival instincts kicked in and he grabbed Grace and began to run. He ran far into the forest.

Back in the field the now not so beautiful woman stood there shocked.

“Could he see my true appearance?” she asked herself.

Samuel and Grace were running through the forest trying to find a way out. Samuel’s eyes had luckily gone back to normal. Grace suddenly grabbed Samuel’s hand and pulled him back, causing him to fall over.

He looked at Grace in anger.

“What did you do that for?” He angrily asked

For the first time Grace spoke using proper sentences.

“Why did you run away?” She asked

Samuel looked at Grace in shock. How could she not have seen that evil creature?

“Didn’t you see!? She was like a witch or a zombie!” Samuel exclaimed.

Grace seemed confused. In her view the woman stayed beautiful the entire time, and it was only Samuel that had been strange in the situation.

“But she was so pretty.” She mumbled to herself.

Samuel didn’t say anything else and instead stood up and continued to walk. Eventually they found a red cloth and they managed to find their way out. When they exited the forest they realised that it had already turned night and they went they both left each other to go home.

The entire time Samuel couldn’t help but think about his eyes and what had happened. How did he see something that Grace couldn’t? He looked towards the book in his hand and wondered what it could be about. He felt his heart begin to beat again. Today he had successfully stolen a book from an evil creature. It was like a real adventure. It was almost cooler than python slayer Warwick. He realised that he sort of enjoyed the day. Even though it had been dangerous, painful, and terrifying he felt like he wanted to do it again.

With a smile on his face he ran home. He was hungry, and after a day like this he deserved a big meal.