A new story!!

The strange creatures crouched tensely in the darkness, their beady black eyes glistering ominously in the moonshine. The two girls, their slim figures draped in dark robes of finest velvet, huddled together, trying to stifle their rapid breathing, clutching their hands to their chests, fearful lest their pounding heart give them away. The frightening creatures turned their horrendous heads this way and that, their noses sniffing the chilly October air, their ears straining to catch the least noise. Suddenly, a beast larger and fiercer-looking than any of the others pushed his way to the forefront of the large troupe of monstrous beasts.

“What’s going on here, what’s holding us up?” he barked, his voice a cruel rasp that sent shivers down the girls’ backs.

“We heard somethin’, Sir,” answered a stout, burly looking creature, with boils and warts shimmering with puss in the moonlight.

“You heard somethin’, didja? An’ ye though’ tha’ was enough to stop our ‘ole company, just to sniff around a bit? It was doubtless a ‘armless animal, ye dimwit!” the frightening creature retorted, spit flying as he roared. “We ‘ave to be to ‘Amwerst by the mornin’, and we still got miles ter go! Now get a move on, ye scraggy animals, and march!”

“Yes’r, Chief Malgrot, sir. We was just ‘oping to catch a rabbit or deer or summat… we’re ‘ungry, sir,” replied the grotesque creature sullenly.

“’Ungry, are ye? ‘Ungry? You’ll know soon enough the meaning o’ that word, sergeant!” bellowed Chief Malgrot, his fists flailing through the air in his outrage. “Now MARCH!”

As the army of monsters resumed their trek through the frigid night, their stomachs growling, the two girls let their breaths out at last. The tallest, drawing her cloak more tightly around her, gave a sigh of relief.

“I thought we were done for, then,” she muttered.

“What were they?” breathed the younger girl. A shudder ran through her body which had nothing to do with the cold.

“I don’t know, but they looked evil,” the other replied, grimacing. “They seemed to be talking, didn’t they?”

“More like bellowing at one another,” whispered the younger girl.

“If they were indeed actually speaking, it was in a language I’ve never heard before,” murmured the older girl, looking thoughtful.

“No, well, you wouldn’t, would you? You never even mastered Latin properly.”

The older girl gave her companion one withering look, and stood up.

“Come, we must find some sort of shelter,” she said, peering around in darkness.

“I don’t want to sleep in this sinister forest, Izzy,” whimpered the smaller girl, shivering again. “More of those creatures could be lurking anywhere.”

“Come on, Delaney,” groaned Izzy, pulling her sister up, “we can’t stay here all night.”

The leave-covered ground crunched beneath their boots; the trees here were unlike any they had ever seen before. They were as tall as castles, and so thick that to circle one completely would take more than three minutes. The wide, sturdy boughs branched out in hundreds of directions, with myriads of broad leaves, bright with the brilliant colors of autumn, waving in the cold breeze. There was only one thing to do: the girls clambered up one of the giant trees, twigs and branches snagging at their clothes and scratching their arms and faces. Some of the boughs were twice as wide as a bed, and the leaves provided coverage from the chilly wind. The two girls huddled together on a broad bough, pulling their cloaks around themselves, their fingers numb with cold, their dresses torn and muddied. Slowly, they closed their eyes and drifted off, overcome by exhaustion, fright, and anxiety.