Night settles over the camping grounds inside the Dark Forest. Kit sits by the fire with Toby, Bo, and lost five-year-old Mikey, roasting marshmallows beneath the black canopy.
Between the trees, the Creepy Old Woman approaches: a hunched, skeletal elderly woman wrapped in a dead-cobweb shawl, white-gray hair hanging around her deeply wrinkled face.
Creepy Old Woman
Leave this forest. Take your children and go.
The fire snaps. Toby grips his roasting stick, adventurous eyes fixed on her. Quiet Bo edges nearer to Kit, while Mikey stares at the old woman over his marshmallow.
The Creepy Old Woman turns away, her bare feet pressing into the damp soil. At the edge of the firelight, she stops and slowly looks back.
Creepy Old Woman
Then be cursed. You will become a primitive child, your first son will bear a growing burden, your second son will grow huge, and the lost boy will become slime.
Her yellow fingernails rise toward the flames. The fire burns green for one breath, and every marshmallow blackens at once.
✓ Quest Accepted
Escape the Dark Forest
✓ Quest Accepted
Break the old woman’s curse