【青少年英文小说连载】《The Revival of the Fernsby Magical Flower》Chapter Six

Chapter Six: The challenge

I woke up from the memory with a startle with Alice beside me.

“Are you okay? What happened?”

I was more eager to tell her what happened.

“I’m good, nothing bad. I was just in a memory.”

“What is it? Please do tell me.”

“Why wouldn’t I, anyway?”

So I did. Her response wasn’t unexpected at all. She looked utterly confused and surprised at the same time. We looked out; it was getting dark outside.

“My parents are probably waiting for me to go home for dinner. I have to go now, what about you?” said Alice.

“Same. Let’s go then, shall we?”

We both stood up. Both of us knew that this case was getting more mysterious and scarier.

The thought still clung onto me the next day.

It’s very important, why are you ignoring it? Are you scared? What about you ancestors? They lost their life in exchange of the power!

I struggled under the unnecessary thoughts in my mind. By the time it was the end of school, all my thoughts had been taken over.

I had to go back.

Indeed, I did. I walked through the sparse trees until I reached the pond again. I realised I was not alone.

“Oh, hello!” said Alice shyly, “Umm, I’m -”

“Come on, let’s be honest. We are here because of yesterday, right? We are not scared of it!” I confessed.

She stared at me for a while before she smiled and nodded.

“Now let’s go back! Do you have the canoe with you?” I asked.

Alice walked towards the bush behind me and heaved the canoe out.

“It’s pretty heavy. It took me some time to drag it here.”

I thanked her and we rowed to thehouse again, where I picked the book up and finished the page we left off yesterday.

I turned the page discovering a map. It was clearly drawn but it was very detailed.

“A map!” I exclaimed, to get Alice out of her misery.

My sight traced through all the trails of this forest before stopping on the crossed mark.

So she planned to get caught there.

I was quite impressed. I looked over the trail to the flower, checking all of the obstacles in the way.

“Now, Alice, I have planned a trail and I’m happy to draw it out for you again but not as detailed as this,” I waved the map around, “But I will need some paper and something to write with.”

Alice shrugged and said, “Well, let’s get creative with this!”

She pointed at the dirt on the ground outside of the house. I was shocked, but then thanked her for her clever thinking. I stuffed the book into my backpack before going back out beside the pond. I knelt down after picking the best spot for drawing and picking up a nice drawing stick and went to work. I traced the trail out on the dirt and started explaining the plan Icreated.

“Okay, as you can see, we are at the start of this trail which I believe is behind this house therefore, the exact same place Adeline left - She was the one who got caught” I explained before she could ask anything and continued.

“We will walk through the giant mass of forest then all the way to the river, which I reckon will take about a day or two.” I dragged my stick over to a point and put a line through it to indicate the river.

“Then, after a little bit, we should meet another obstacle which is a fissure crack. I have no idea how deep or wide it is, but let’s hope it’s not too much,” I continued, “After that, there will be an extremely dark cave - or so it’s called the darkness cave. Last of all, we will be challenged by the fog area. We will find the flower somewhere around here,” I drew a circle as I concluded.

To be honest, I was quite impressed of myself to be able to say and plan out such a complete plan. I smiled at Alice and she smiled at me. We were ready.

“Umm, so I guess we should get going, right?” asked Alice.

I nodded as I took the last glance at our plan and went through the house, entering the forest. It was lucky that it was summer, so the sun wouldn’t set so soon.

Alice suddenly stopped behind me.

“After thinking for a bit, I don’t think I will be much use in this. It’s about your family, not mine. I really shouldn’t be in your business. I’ll wish you the best of luck. I should get going by now,” Alice turned back to the door,

I lunged forward and grabbed her, “Are you serious? How can you not come? Come on, don’t be silly. We don’t have much time before it gets dark.”

She stared back at me, clearly trying to make her decision. I waited. Then, her lips curled into a smile, “Thank you, I will try my best to help.”

Alice took out a compass from her pocket. It was a simple and humble one, but it was still as helpful. I gasped, “Wow, you are surely prepared! I was just thinking about the problem of navigating in such a dense forest!”

“I brought it with me this morning just in case because I thought it would be a good idea. I didn’t know it would be so much use.” she explained.

We turned and looked at the forest, which was also our adventure and challenge.

“Are you ready? This is such a crazy plan!” I said and laughed.

“It is! But we can overcome any problems, right? Promise me please.”

“I commit,” I said shortly.

Alice and I surged forward and submerged into the forest.

每周日更新，待续……

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