“I hate the summer holidays! No school and that means no cricket”, Travers moaned throwing a stone into the water.
“I personally like the summer holidays”. Darrey, Travers’s older brother said,“ I also hate cricket”.
“What did you say? You dare disgrace the name of cricket” Travers fired up.
Quarrelsome siblings
Travers and Darrey’s dog, Jino kept his head between his paws with a sigh. These two siblings always fought about everything and Jino hated it when they quarrelled.
The fighting went on and on. At last, they ceased fighting and made their way back home. Darrey was thinking of the mountain of homework he had to do, when all of a sudden he heard a whining noise.
“Did you hear that?” Darrey said alarmed.
“Hear what? Aliens, perhaps”, Travers said sarcastically.
“Just shut up and listen”, Darrey snapped.
The whining
The whining grew louder and this time both Jino and Travers also heard it. As the noise grew louder and louder, Jino ran in the direction of the noise.
Travers glanced at Darrey and they both ran after Jino. The surroundings were getting darker and the noise was getting louder as they ran. Finally, they found Jino under a canopy of trees and the noise had stopped.
A door
Jino was sniffing at something. It looked like a door. Travers walked around the door and there was nothing on the other side.
“Grandpa warned us about a door that leads to the Death Forest. What did he say”? Travers muttered slowly.“ A door that will seem broken and you can walk around it, a door with a mark that will look like a skull and anyone who opens the door gets dragged into the Death Forest. Anyone who enters the Death Forest never returns”.
A skull mark
Travers glanced up at the top of the door and sure enough it was there, a skull mark. He turned white and was frozen to the spot and he felt faint and grabbed a tree close by for support. He watched Darrey walk around the door. Too feeble to do anything Travers fell to the floor. It seemed as if that Darrey didn’t see Travers unconscious on the floor. Darrey reached out to open the door and at that moment Travers stirred feebly and opened his eyes and got enough strength to shout “ NOOOOO!!!!”.
The Death Forest
Alas, it was too late. The next second Jino, Darrey and Travers were sucked through the door and they landed on a leaf covered forest floor. Darrey came and pulled Travers to his feet.
“Where d’you think we are?” Darrey asked bewildered.
“Death Forest…” Travers muttered petrified.
Darrey screamed “No, we can’t be”!
The sign
“I saw the sign” Travers said quietly.
“Oh, it's all my fault“ Darrey cried.
“We will get out”, Travers was acting determined but was not as hopeful within himself.
“But how”?
At that very moment, hooves started galloping towards them and Jino growled. Travers grabbed a branch and Darrey picked up a huge stone.
“We will fight them” Darrey shouted.
Travers came close to his brother and Jino stood fiercely in front.
A blood curdling shriek was heard and an arrow shot past them. It landed on a tree trunk and there it was, the sign of a skull…..
Sahansa Amarasinghe
Grade 6 C
Amuthu Iskole
Illustrated by
Sneha Wijayalanth
Grade 6 B
Amuthu Iskole