The road between the Dustbrook’s and Smith’s houses is not much more than a dirt path, wide enough to let one car pass, but Cedric chose to take to the woods. A shortcut that shortens the journey almost in half, down to ten minutes.

Seth runs down his steps waving. “So much snow! Who would have guessed it’s still August?” He looks down to see Cedric’s ungloved hand. “You forgot your gloves?”

Cedrick shakes his shoulder. “It’s not that cold anyways.” Cedric’s ears instantly turn pink. Not from the cold but from the lie. He quickly puts his hood on as he walks up the steps. Cedric feels relieved when Seth offers to go get them and his grandpa hot chocolate.

Seth Smith is Cedric’s best friend. His only friend in fact. Seth is an unnaturally tall, scrawny boy with a long neck and a head full or sleek black hair. The two of them met each other in their first years of soccer, ten years back.

“Here’s the hot coco.”

The two of them walk past the kitchen into Mr. Smith’s room. “Ah, there’s Mr. Dustbrook. My have you grown.” —

Seth has lived with his grandpa since he was three, after his parents died in a plane crash. Mr. Smith offered to take him in, being his only living relative in the U.S. Mr. Smith is paralyzed from the waist down from an accident from when he was a teenager. Although he can’t get around well he still manages to take care of Seth and is the smartest guy you will ever meet. He spends most of his time reading and is a graduate from harvard.

— Mr. Smith tells him this every time he visits and every time Cedric puts on a smile, except now that he burned his throat on hot coco. “Ooh, that’s hot.”

Mr. Smith leans across his bed and gives Cedric a small box.

“Hmm, it’s not my birthday tell tomorrow.” He says while unwrapping it. Inside is a pair of wool gloves.

“I know, but you’ll be wanting these today, with how cold it is. Oh, Seth, before you go can you go add wood?”

Cedric walks with Seth over to the front room where a fireplace is crackling with a smoldering log. Seth goes over to the woodpile and throws in a few pieces before the two of them exit the house with a sled for both of them.

“So which hill are we going to?” Cedric asks “What about that new one we found last year?”

They both agreed on going to the new hill since neither of them felt like going on Greypeak, where the whole town would most likely be. As they walk along the road a nagging feeling keeps bothering Cedric. Should I tell him about it? He'd think I’m crazy, seeing a tall shadow creature. I don’t quite believe it myself, what’s saying he will. And in the end Cedric decided to not bring it up.

Half an hour later of trudging through snow they made it to the bottom of the hill and all between them and it is a barbed fence. It is in the middle of a dense forest of pine trees, on the outskirts of town, making it almost impossible that someone else would find it too. Meaning that they have the hill all to themselves. . . Except for a house on the other side of the hill but they have never seen anyone living in it.

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Cedric throws his sled over the fence before crawling under it and taking Seth’s sled. Together they make their way up the steep hill, walking two steps up and falling one back, the whole way up. Cedric is sure that his mother wouldn’t approve of how steep this hill is.

Every once and a while when sledding down they would pick up enough speed where they would have to stop themselves from hitting the fence, but other than that the two of them thought this to be the greatest hill in all the world.

One of these moments though was a bit too close for comfort. Seth slid down with a push by Cedric, making him go so fast that Seth had to jump out of the sled as he watched his sled hit the fence. “Whoops sorry Seth.” Cedric said after coming down to make sure he was alright.

Seth crouches down in the snow, clenching his wrist. “I — I think it’s . . .”

“Broken?” Answered Cedric. “I’m so sorry. I never meant . . .”

Seth grabs him with his so called “injured” wrist and pulls him down to the snow. They laugh for way too long, before the two of them make their way back up the hill. “You’ll be getting your license soon right?” Seth asks.

“Yup, I’m gonna try getting it on Wednesday.”

“Nice! Then you can take me to school.” They both absolutely despise the buses their school has. Not the buses themselves but the kids. Cedric and Seth are the shy type who don’t want to get in anyone’s way but “Those kids have absolutely no sense left in them.” That’s what their bus driver Bill says, practically daily.

“Yup.” Cedric answers, almost to the top of the hill. “You know that stingray my dad has?”

Seth’s eyes widen.

“He’s gonna let me drive it. We’ve been fixing it up together.”

“Lucky!”

This time Seth pushed Cedric down the hill. Sending him on a course of narrowly avoiding a large rock. “Seth!” Cedric pointed over to him. “Run!”

The house they thought was abandoned on the other side of the hill was lived in by a giant of a man. Standing behind Seth looks like a lumberjack. Easily over seven feet tall of pure muscle and a long white and yellow speckled beard falling past his chest. In his hand is a hunting rifle and he is wearing plaid jeans and a bear coat.

Seth looks down at Cedric, wondering what all the fuss was about when he feels a very large hand on his shoulder, owned by the tall man. Seth turns his gaze up to the man's face, high above him and screams.

He falls into his sled and pushes it off the edge. Just to be stopped by one of the man’s feet, covered by a large leather boot. Seth whirls around and kicks him in the shin, half sledding and half falling down the hill.

“Go go go!” Cedric yells, already on the other side of the fence, hoisting Seth’s sled over. “Hurry.”

Through the chaos they hear heavy footsteps and see the man running towards them.

Seth clambers under the fence. Cedric pulls him up to his feet and they sprint through the forest, not willing to look back until they reach the road. “Whew — he’s, gone.” Cedric says through several heavy breathes. For the second time in the day the two of them fall to the snow, laughing until they couldn’t breathe, they then force each other up and make their journey back home.

On the side of the road Cedric picks up a stick, waiving it off to a tree. “Look hear, ye fiend. If ye take one step I shall turn ye into a toad.”

Of course the tree isn’t going to move but Cedric runs up to it, muttering gibberish and poking the tree. Seth picks up his own stick and slashes it through the air before running off. “Abra, kenever — see ye never.”

They mutter random words and point their makeshift wands at each other all the way to the Smith’s front porch when they notice a pillar of smoke rising in the direction of Cedric’s house.