Christopher and Alice were being dropped off at Aunty Eliza’s cottage. Aunty Eliza lived in a lovely, little, likable hamlet. It was surrounded by forest and to get to the springs you had to go past the ancient, old, oak tree. The oak tree had been planted when the hamlet had been first built and it was surrounded by rose bushes of every colour.
Alice was small, young girl, both she and Christopher had brown hair and brown eyes and her wardrobe mainly contained dungarees but she had several pinafores that she hardly ever wore. Christopher on the other hand was a tall, thin, strapping lad who was bordering the scrawny side. Despite the way he looked he was a strong, athletic, sporty type who liked nothing better than to beat Alice in a race (his best thing) and then to rub it in but not too hard because she could be quite delicate about these things.
Alice and Christopher were cousins and quite close ones if I may add. They both lived on the same street and were rarely seen apart. Alice and Christopher favourite part of the hamlet was the park. It may have been small and quaint but it was about the only place they were allowed to go alone.
It all came down to some silly superstition. Everyone in Aunty Eliza’s hamlet seemed to have no kids and they never quite understood why. They knew, once again, some of it came down to old superstition but why? Why take such a silly little story so far? According to their aunt the legend goes like this. Any child that lives in this hamlet boy or girl it doesn’t matter will get drawn towards the water. The keeper of the waterfall doesn’t like visitors and therefore will get mad…
“… so never go near that waterfall you two or your fate shall be like all the others. The legend says that’s why the water from the waterfall is so pure. Because it is fed by the pureness and curiosity of young, untainted and clean minds.” Said Aunt Eliza.
That was 4 years ago and I believed I had grown up since then. I was now 9 and Chris was now 13. We believed that we were old enough for anything life could throw at us. So when we heard Aunty Eliza repeating the same story we hear every summer. This year we didn’t see the scary truth or the amusing tale. We saw an adventure.
Anyway Aunt Eliza seemed to collect the tales of lost kids from the locals just to scare us. Some of them were really far fetched and others could easily be explained, it just looked like their parents didn’t want to accept their angel or prince ran away. Right there right then we had subconsciously agreed to go to the waterfall all we needed was a helping push.


A heat wave sped across the forest leaving everywhere dry and parched all except the springs. Christopher and Alice had the push they needed. Christopher was the one who came up with the idea because Alice was still slightly scared of the story and quite ashamed of the fact. She couldn’t refuse Christopher’s request otherwise she would show her cowardice to him and of all things, she didn’t want to do that. Alice was the under dog, the sidekick, his shadow. He expected her to always keep up with despite the age gap. But it was hard. Oh so hard. She would either have to say no and get dragged there and also have to face the consequences or she would have to say yes and quiver by his side, in his shadow. She had no choice so she said…
“…Yes I think that’s an awesome idea” I said reluctantly. Once again dear old Chris had a well thought out plan. Anyone would have thought he had been planning this for years. We put our swimming kit on and put our shorts and T-shirt over the top. We then told Aunty Eliza we were going to the park. Aunty Eliza didn’t suspect a thing.
When we reached the spring we where so hot we just dived in and started to mess around. The water seemed oddly clear and transparent. But not for long Chris started pulling dirt from the side of the bank and throwing it at me. He seemed to be having fun so I joined in for self defence. All of a sudden we heard an upset and angered growl from the forest. That should have been warning enough to us but as soon as Chris saw me quivering behind him, putting him between the forest and me; he just laughed and asked me if I was that scared of a harmless, little, forest animal. I knew it was not best to answer back or to quote Aunty Eliza so I just forgot about it, pushed it to the back of my head and continued playing. Chris and I were so busy playing tag on the bank that we didn’t notice a tiger sneaking up on us until it was all too late.
“Ahhh! Is that what you a harmless forest animal?” I screamed running as fast as I could towards Chris. Chris ushered me into the water saying that we’ll be alright tigers don’t like water. But he was wrong the tiger chased us through the waterfall. Staring at us with its cold, hard, yellow eyes. It roared showing its sharp teeth which could mean the end of anyone stupid enough to run. It’s sharp, shiny, pearl-white claws failing at us aimlessly. Then it looked directly at me. I noticed something in the tiger’s eye. It was a spec of kindness. I reached out to stroke it but Chris took a step backwards pulling me with him. And all of a sudden we were spinning. Spiralling out of control.