Keep On: Cassandra's Tangled Journey

11) The Enchanted Forest (Act 1)

Cassandra noticed some of the low-hanging branches of the trees that surrounded the path, imagining that at some point on the mission she would have to climb them, to avoid some killer bats or some shit like that. Fine, she was no stranger to climbing things, that shouldn't be a problem. What should be a problem, however, was the grand old oak tree she could see in the distance. It caught her attention because out of the corner of her eye, she could see the shimmer of the first of the rainbow gems (the red one) in the sunlight. He quickly rolled off in another direction, leaving Cassandra unsure if he'd noticed her or not. She knew that at some point, she would have to fight this guy. Or maybe she wouldn't. She had no idea. But she needed to get her hands on that gem in one way or another. 

The newest part of the forest that Cassandra came across was a rather wide ditch. The ditch was too wide for her to jump across, but too tall to be able to climb up the side of. Luckily again, there was a rope attached to the branch directly over the hole. Cass grabbed hold of it, and swung herself over, and was able to land safely on the other side. As she jumped down from the platform, Cassandra felt something land on her head. 

"Ouch!" she winced in pain as she looked down at what had hit her. An apple had fallen from the sky and was now right next to her foot. Cass glanced up at the tree that she was standing under, and realised that it was a pear tree. Cass opened her mouth to express her confusion verbally, but the remembered that she wasn't going to be seeing anything logical happening for however long it would take her to complete this obstacle course. 

Cassandra took a few more steps along the path, and came across what looked to be a dead end. There was a rock sticking out from above, and the area below that Casandra should presumably be able to crawl through was blocked by two more toadstools, one attached to the rock and facing upside down, and the other facing right side up coming out of the ground. Cassandra turned around to see if the path behind her had changed at all. It had not. Instead the path conveniently bending in a new direction for her, another plump red apple was dropped on her head. As Cassandra bent down to pick up the fruit, she took another look at the blocked gap between the rock and the dirt track. She walked over to the inconvenience, crouched down, and touched one of the toadstools with the back of her hand. Cassandra suddenly felt a burning sensation cursing through the back of her had, and she screamed as she realised the irony over the fact that she had now injured the hand that Sabrina had very kindly healed for her barely twenty minutes ago.

However, after shaking it for a few seconds, the pain in her hand completely disappeared. "Wow," Cassandra said in a higher pitched voice, "thank you, Sabrina."

Little did she know, Sabrina was watching her from the sidelines.

"You're welcome," she whispered. Selena, in absolute awe of what she was witnessing her best friend do, turned towards her.

"So far, so good," said Selena quietly, trying to make sure that Cassandra wouldn't hear her. "I wish I could do this kind of stuff."

Sabrina smiled and touched tapped her sister figure's shoulder. "You'll get there," she replied in a reassuring tone, "remember, you're either born a witch, or you live long enough to learn enough magic to be able to turn yourself into a witch."

Meanwhile, Cassandra was still unsure of how she was going to tackle this new dilemma. She couldn't go over or under the rock, since it was too high, and there were no springboards or other mushrooms in sight, and she was also still unable to move around the path. After trying twice more to physically move the mushrooms out of the way, and failing, Cassandra's blood began to boil.

"For fucks sake!" she exclaimed as she threw one of the two apples she was holding to the ground. The apple bounced off the dry path and hit the bottom toadstool, which subsequently disappeared. Cassandra quietly gasped as she realised what she was supposed to do. With all of her might, she threw the other apple at an angle where it could hit the upside down mushroom. With the space between the rock and the ground now empty, Cassandra got down on her hands and knees and made her way through.

As Cassandra rose to her feet, she dusted herself off, only to be immediately struck by some sort of sticky gooey yellow substance. 

"Eww!" she cried out loud, as she tried to scoop the mixture out of her charcoal hair. Just as she managed to rid most of the studs out of her hair, another handful of the goo landed in its place, and the disgusting sap started dripping down her face. Cass realised that the sap was coming from a rose on a different path, one that she couldn't reach because it was coming from the left, a direction she was still unable to move in.

Cassandra noticed a couple more flowers down the next few feet of the forest path, so she timed her steps so that she wouldn't be hit with the syrup again.

"Ha!" she smirked as she made it through the final flower target. But all of the joy faded out of her expression as she turned back to where she was heading, to find six new paths. Oh shit.

Cassandra took a deep breath and decided to go down the path that was closest to her. She walked in a straight line down the first path on the right, and did not stop until she ended up in a place that was familiar to her. And it was familiar to her because it was exactly where she had just come from! The same exact spot in the forest, except she was now on the left side. She sighed. Just when she thought she knew what she was dealing with, it now seemed like she would be walking in circles. Just to be sure, she walked down the next path to the left, and just as she suspected, she emerged from the other side. She scrunched her face in annoyance, and decided to head down one more path that she hadn't checked out. Once more, she came out the other end in the same circle of hell, except she now found another giant door in the large oak tree in the centre of the area.

"Yes!" Cassandra cried out in joy, hoping that this was a doorway back to the castle, and she bolted towards it. She turned the doorknob, and without a second thought, she headed through. 

As Cassandra passed through the door, she was taken aback when she realised where she was. She was not in the castle hall as she expected, instead she was in a different part of the forest. Everything was bigger than it was a few seconds ago, but Cassandra wasn't sure if that was because the trees had grown, or if it was because she had shrunk.

Cassandra noticed a rope for her to grab onto, but just as she was about to jump up and reach for it, her foot slipped and she found herself sliding down one of the oversized branches, which was acting more like an octopus tentacle than a sturdy wooden root. As Cassandra reached the end of the branch and began to free fall, she turned herself onto her bak and landed on a large lead. Cass lifted herself up to see where she was going, as the leaf was carrying her along the way. She ducked as the lead abruptly approached a low-hanging branch. She pulled herself up again, and saw that the leaf was getting closer to a giant spider- or a regular sized spider, she still wasn't sure. Even though she didn't have arachnophobia, unlike Lance, even Cassandra was caught off-guard by the giant egg-sized eyes of the spider, staring at her with the biggest grin on its face. Cassandra got the impression that she should use the spider as a springboard like she had for the toadstools and the trees, but she was too distracted by the sight of the thing. And so, the leaf fell to the seemingly bottomless abyss below, and Cassandra ended up falling with it.