I made my way past the garage, back to the part of the property that had since been turned into a part of the pond. It was swampy and annoying to trudge through, but that only lasted a few dozen feet before giving way to the normal woods surrounding the property. I was exploring where my sister and I rarely played. The trees slowly grew bigger as I went in and a few minutes into my walk, the trees seemed to take objection with my existence here, as they came alive and tried to trip me with their roots or slap me with their limbs.

Only some trees were like this, and having come to this world a couple other times in the past, I knew the telltale signs of which trees would be aggressive and stayed away from them. They became more dense and eventually, every tree was aggressive. Almost murderously so, this far in. After taking a scratch to the chest that somehow didn't affect my shirt in any way, I turned around, bleeding from my chest, and ran back. The previously aggressive trees ignored me on my way back, just like on my previous trips.

This novel's true home is a different platform. Support the author by finding it there.

I made my way back out to behind the garage before stopping to catch my breath. My stamina has never been even just average. I made it half way to the garage before behind me, I heard the clopping of horse hooves. Three figures in black armor rode out of the woods.

I didn't know exactly why or what, but I knew they were here with ill intentions.

I started to run to the house to warn my parents and maybe get a gun.

I woke up.