Voice in the Woods

What happens when the characters can hear what the narrator is saying?

Once upon a time, there was a girl named Caitlyn. Her younger sister, Vi, wanted to go on an adventure, so they decided to wander into the woods looking one.

“What’s that voice?” Vi asked Caitlyn. Caitlyn shrugs and continues walking from their small cottage in the village towards the woods.

They got to the woods and it looked beautiful. It was full of pink and purple budding trees, and butterflies fluttering around. Vi was distracted by it all, she almost forgot why she wanted to go into the woods to begin with.

“Wow! Look at all the butterflies and flowers! Can I pick some?” She asked Caitlyn.

“Maybe on our way back,” Caitlyn replies, with a slight smile on her face.

They traveled for hours, climbing trees, and drinking from the streams. It was starting to get dark out when Caitlyn decided it was time to turn back.

“Mom will be wondering where we are,” she says to Vi as they turn around to head back down the path they came from.

They walked for what seemed like hours, but they couldn't find their way back. They didn’t travel that far, but yet they were lost… Was that suppose to happen? Wait… I don’t recognize this part of the woods. Caitlyn, are you sure you traveled the same way as before?

“Yes, mystery voice, I am sure.”

Strange…

We all seemed to be lost…

***

Anyways, on the other side of the woods, a young prince named Jack fell flat on his face. He had just tripped over a small stump hidden just below the loose dirt covering the ground.

“Curses, I must have father burn down this forest once I finish my quest and return to the castle.”

Jack’s cat, Atlas, bounced along behind him, playing with the leaves falling to the ground. Jack carefully began walking along the path again, paying careful attention to the stumps and roots poking out of the ground.

“This is a horrid trail, I simply cannot follow it much longer.”

“I agree, let us go into the trees!” exclaimed Atlas.

Wait, what? The cat can TALK?!

Jack spun around, drawing his sword.

“WHO’S THERE?” Jack screamed.

“Just your cat, idiot.”

“Oh. Well what sorcery has given you the ability to speak?”

“No sorcery, it’s the magic of these fine woods.”

Jack found the nearest tree and slammed his head against it.

“Ow, well I guess this isn’t a dream.” Jack mumbled, rubbing his head. “So you say we should venture into the deeper parts of the woods? I guess we’d have a bit more of an adventure, and we may find something worth more than this stupid quest. Yes, i think we shall.”

And so, Jack and Atlas, the apparently TALKING CAT, walked off into the woods.

Four hours later, Atlas and Jack laid on the forest floor, perplexed as to how they had gotten lost.

“Yes, exactly what that strange voice said, we’re lost. How in the world did we get lost? We went back exactly the way we came from, and we still haven’t found our path.”

Yes Jack, it seems we are all more lost than you realize.

***

Back to Caitlyn and Vi, they traveled for what seems to be hours in the same direction they came from, and they only seemed to be getting more and more lost.

“Yes mysterious voice, you can shut up now.”

And they seem to be getting grumpier as well.

Caitlyn and Vi sit down on a log next to a lake.

“I’m hungry…” Vi complains to Caitlyn.

“I know, sweetie, well find our way out in the morning, try to sleep.” Caitlyn whispers.

They lie there most the night, too hungry to sleep, until dusk, when they hear a loud “RAWR” from a couple feet away. They jump up to see a tiger sitting only about 10 feet from them, drinking from the lake.

“Vi… Don’t make any noise… Just grab my hand and follow me…” Caitlyn whispers as she takes Vi’s hand and starts tiptoeing away from the tiger. They make it about 50 feet before the tiger turns around and sees them. They take off running down the path, towards where home should be. They hear the rawr of the tiger again as it chases them. They were running so fast that they didn’t see the handsome prince, and his TALKING CAT, sitting on the woods floor, and they tripped over them.

“HEY! Watch it!” The TALKING CAT yells at them.

“I’m sorry but there’s a… Wait… Talking cat?” Caitlyn says all confused and stuff.

“Yeah… long story…” the handsome prince replies. “There’s a what?”

“Right… There is a TIGER chasing us!” Caitlyn basically screams. They all hear the rawr of the tiger as it comes out of the shadows, teeth bared, with a look of an evil smile on its face.

***

Jack drew his sword, and yelled at the top of his lungs as he swung it at the beast. He misses the swing and lodges his sword 8 inches into the ground.

“We didn’t really need to say that out loud, now did we, Mr. Mysterious Voice?”

Yes, yes we did, it’s important to the plot of this little story we’ve got going here. Anyways, the tiger sees the shiny sword in the ground and runs over to it.  Atlas sees his opportunity and whispers something to the massive cat. The tiger slinks away with a scowl and disappears into the brush.

“What did you say to him?” Jack asks with a look of awe on his face.

“Oh, nothing. Only that his father was a Chihuahua and his mother was a stray.”

The entire group erupted in laughter.

“No, no we didn’t, Vi giggled a little, and that was it, don’t lie to them just for showmanship. It’s bad storytelling,” Caitlyn explained.

Night was beginning to fall, and it was starting to get cold.

“I’m staaaarviiiing,” complained our glorious prince Jack.

Caitlyn whacks Jack upside the head and says, “We all are, stop whining, it’s really annoying.”

Jack rubs his head and lays down on the ground.

“Just imagine you’re in your bed at the castle, you’ll be fine,” he whispers softly to himself.

Suddenly, the group notices a bush nearby rustling. The tiger from earlier walks out with a small deer between its teeth. He growls at Atlas, drops the deer and makes his way back into the bushes.

“He says he wanted to help us because the prince dropping his sword earlier amused him quite a bit. I’m just not allowed to have any. That’s okay though, I have these bugs I

found,” Atlas says as he plays with a large spider and a centipede.

A field mouse scurries by, and Atlas jumps after it.

“And now I have a mouse.”

Jack eyes the deer and pokes it with his sword.

“I suppose it’s up to me to skin this creature?”

“Yes Jack, I don’t have a knife and Vi’s too young.” Caitlyn says as she sits on a log.

Jack nods and begins working on skinning the deer, making disgusted noises as he does it.

***

They start a fire and sit down to cook the deer. As they ate the delicious deer, Atlas ate his bugs and mouse.

“It wasn’t that good of deer…” Vi says on the verge of sleep.

“Well I had a pretty good dinner if I must say so myself!” Atlas replies.

Atlas and Vi fall asleep.

“No we don’t!” Atlas replies.

Yes you do… Now sleep!

“Fine!”

Good. Atlas and Vi fall asleep, and Caitlyn and Jack talk.

“So I meant to ask you earlier… Why are you and Vi in rags?” Jack asks Caitlyn.

“Well you see, theres this thing called poverty…” Caitlyn replies sarcastically.  

“Right. Well I forgot about that. And I didn’t realize someone so beautiful as you could be so poor…”

“Right…”

Jack leans in, placing his hand on Caitlyn’s cheek. He leans in a little further and kisses her.

“WHAT? No! I am NOT kissing HIM!” Caitlyn yells.

Common! Give the female audience something to cling to! Make them want to read on!

“No!” She exclaims. “I will NOT kiss him!” She storms off angrily, laying on a log about 10 feet away, and falling asleep.

***

Spoiler Alert: The TALKING CAT dies. Now that I’ve cleared that up, we’ll explain how it happens.

“WAIT WHAT?!? I die?!? Why was i not informed of this?”

Well, we thought if you knew you wouldn’t agree to be in this story…

“You’re DAMN RIGHT i wouldn’t! I’m very angry at you!”

Ahem, anyways, Atlas didn’t notice the tiger sneaking up on him while he was cleaning himself. The tiger pounced and tore poor little Atlas into little pieces. And ate them. Messily.

“Aww… Well i guess I’m dead guys, see you when I see you.” Atlas’ ghost said as it floated away.

“NOOOO! MY NOT SO FAITHFUL CAT! IT WAS TOO SOON!” Jack sobs. “Why did you have to kill him? Why? I mean, I may have 3 other cats at home but why? He was my second favorite, right behind Klaus!”

We need a reason for you to kill the tiger.

“Well now I’m not going to,” Jack says snarkily as he sticks out his tongue.

Fine then, we’ll just kill you off too.

“Oh. Well in that case…”

Jack struck the tiger with a mighty blow from his incredibly strong fists, his beautiful arm muscles rippling as he punches a hole through the tiger’s midsection. Every muscle in his body flexes at the same time, causing him to look fabulous.

Ahem, disregard that last part, I got too descriptive.

Jack killed the tiger.

There, much better.

“Jack… Caitlyn… Why are we letting this voice boss us around and tell us what we can and can’t do?” Vi asks.

“Because Vi… I don’t know…” Jack replies.

Jack walked over to me and… Wait… Jack… Don’t touch that… Jack.. N-

Jack: Now its my turn. We want out of this stupid wood that seems to go on forever. How can we escape?

Caitlyn: Well… This is a fantasy… We could just make a magic wand and poof us out of this woods!

Jack: Thats a great idea! Quick! Get a stick!

Vi: And like that, we poofed ourselves to Jacks castle!

Jack: And I got a new cat! I also gave the girls a bunch of money, but that’s less important.

Author's Note

We are new to writing and there was 2 people writing so go easy on us!