Ava's Forest

R. B. Howell

Description

My story begins with two young boys Joe and Dylan, who live in the same street. They share a magical wonderland with friends in the forest across the road at the end of the suburb. It has been their playground for generations. Their older brothers built a fort there and they protect it with their lives. Every day after school they venture to the fort to play, battle and hang out with friends. The fort is old and beaten but kept together with love and a few nails. It sits in a clearing just inside the forest. On one side the houses of suburbia with all the bells and whistles, lawns being mowed, cars zooming past and dads coming home from work and on the other side. A wall of giants. Trees of all shapes and sizes guarding the entrance to the untouched beauty across the street. The beloved forest with its trees lining the roadside and towering up over the housed that surround it. There in the middle of suburbia, an enchanted thick untouched forest. A thing of beauty. Taking up enough land to make eight suburban blocks. It has grown since the dawn of time like a living entity. It has magic that attracts the kids and in return the children made pledges to protect it at all costs.

Sujets

• Forests
• Young Adult Fiction
• Adventure (Guyana)
• Trees
• Adventure
• Howell
• Fort
• Wonderland
• Action

Informations

• Publié par: Xlibris AU
• Date de parution: 08 décembre 2022
• Nombre de lectures: 0
• EAN13: 9781669833338
• Langue: English

Extrait

Ava’s Forest
 
 
 
 
 
R.B. Howell
 
 
Copyright © 2022 by R.B. Howell.
 
ISBN:
Softcover
978-1-6698-3334-5

eBook
978-1-6698-3333-8
 
 
All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying, recording, or by any information storage and retrieval system, without permission in writing from the copyright owner.
 
This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places and incidents either are the product of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously, and any resemblance to any actual persons, living or dead, events, or locales is entirely coincidental.
 
Any people depicted in stock imagery provided by Getty Images are models, and such images are being used for illustrative purposes only.
Certain stock imagery © Getty Images.
 
 
 
 
Rev. date: 12/01/2022
 
 
 
Xlibris
AU TFN: 1 800 844 927 (Toll Free inside Australia)
AU Local: [phone] ([phone] from outside Australia)
www.Xlibris.com.au
 
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Contents
Chapter One
Chapter Two
Chapter Three
Chapter Four
Chapter Five
Chapter Six
Chapter Seven
Chapter Eight
Chapter Nine
Chapter Ten
Chapter Eleven
Chapter Twelve
Chapter Thirteen
Chapter Fourteen
Chapter Fifteen
Chapter Sixteen
Chapter Seventeen
Chapter Eighteen
Chapter Nineteen
Two Weeks later
Chapter One
Young Joe ran into the house via the back door throwing his school bag on the floor. He ran to the kitchen where his mother was making him a sandwich. A peanut butter and jelly sandwich. Joe peered over the bench with his eyes just reaching over the countertop while he swapped his school shoes for his runners so he could go play.
“Hi Joe, how was your day? She cut the bread diagonally to make two triangles just the way Joe liked it and looked down at him for a response. Joe stood straight up and swiped the sandwich carefully off the bench and turned to run out.
“Thanks mum, I’m meeting Dylan at the fort in twenty minutes.” He started to walk out of the kitchen.
“Hey. Just wait a minute, pick your schoolbag up off the ground and answer my question, I don’t see you anymore, always Dylan and Kenny. They can wait.” She held Joe up by the collar and straightened his shirt while smiling at him. Joe looked at his mother and took a deep breath as if to pause for a second. He smiled back.
“My day was fine, mum, Mrs Goulding says I got talent and should concentrate on being more punctual instead. And Mr Fen says I need to practice my not running on the school grounds but apart from that, ok.” He smiled and with a hand of lightning, whisked the other half of the sandwich from the kitchen bench and ran out the door leaving behind just the wind from his speedy exit.
“Bye mum”.
Joe’s mother turned to see where he went and only just caught the back of his head as he ran out the door. She shook her head and went about her cleaning in the kitchen.
 
The front yard had just been mowed the day before by Joe himself. He turned to stare out at the straight and even freshly mowed grass to admire his handywork while he gorged down on the sandwich. “I do a good lawn, don’t I.” he muttered through his stuffed mouth. He then turned to look both ways on the street to make sure nothing was coming and walked to the other side. Then while on the front lawn of the house across the road he looked up to the corner only twenty metres away and stared out at the beauty that was his playground. He turned to look for cars and crossed the street. There in front of him, the forest. Dark and deep.
The trees lined the roadside and towered up over the houses that surrounded it. There in the middle of suburbia was an enchanted thick untouched forest. A thing of beauty. Taking up enough land to make eight suburban blocks it grew since the dawn of time like a living entity. It had magic that attracted the kids in the area to it to play. Joe looked up, after a lifetime of coming here still in awe of this magical place. It was their forest to run around in, and play. The trees so tall like skyscrapers in a city. The forest’s canopy swaying in the breeze but unable to be seen because it was so high up. The forest so thick with vegetation and shrubbery that all you could do was listen and you would hear the birds were there. High up in their branches with the view overlooking everything around. All the suburbs, all the houses. Joe walked in through the path cut in the shrubbery long ago. Narrow and dark. The vines dangling and twirling around the trunks of giants as he walked on through slowly making out the voices of his friends already there and playing. Slowly making his way into the deep shrubbery he turned a corner to the giant fig tree, with its root system that spread out in different directions, winding and curling high above Joe. Each root was narrow but higher that he was, the little coves in between the roots were spacious and full of little shrubs growing their way to the sun which barely showed itself. Only in the flickers of light that were made when the treetops swayed in the breeze. Most of the trees here had to grow very old before they got their share of the light and sun. It was dark at the bottom, but the trees shared their food supply and the rainwater to grow evenly across the floor of the forest. They all shared and looked after each other like a family. Roots of many trees underground hugging and holding hands to feed each other the nutrients and love they need to survive and so, survive they have. Strong and graceful. Proud and confident.
Joe walked amongst the vines that tangled their way around a big cedar tree. He held the vine while swinging himself two steps up the path. He heard Dylan’s voice yelling something out loud. Joe smiled knowing he was close.
The trees were thick now, the tall trunks towering their way to the canopy made it darker in this spot. The shade made the green of the shrubbery darker as well. he heard a noise and stopped for a second, a small critter ran across the leaves on the ground near his feet and ran off to safety before Joe could even see what it was. But he didn’t panic. There was not much in this forest that could hurt you. Just small critters and lots of birdlife. He would hear owls from his bedroom window at night but while playing in the forest he only saw little animals playing and sifting through the leaves for food. Joe passed the tall thin trees bunched up at the curve in the path. The last bend before the opening. There were a hundred trees all bunched up tight, two feet away from each other. Green trunks and large palm leaves that littered the forest floor. Then at the corner the larger of the trees in the forest’s entrance. A giant tree with a coating of course red bark. The trunk was so big you could hide a car behind it and not see it. The trunk was hollowed out in one section like something lived there, but no one ever saw anything. The tree was so high in the canopy that they were sure it was one of the tallest in the whole forest. That they knew of anyway, the forest was so big that they themselves had only played in one section of it. The rest beyond the stream was too thick and scary for them to venture into. The noises that came from there even scared Joe, Dylan and even the big Kenny who apparently wasn’t afraid of much.
Joe wandered around the corner of the big red tree while looking up at its beauty to stop and stand for a second, while hearing the loud entrance speech from his fellow playmate Dylan, who yelled from the top of a great structure.
“For he who enters the great forest must be brave and willing to lay down his life for the protection of the great wise forest trees of old. Do you except these terms, will you fight to the death for the descendants of the old ways. Be a part of the great army to keep the old ways from dying out. Will you fight with us young man?” Joe turned to see Dylan standing at the entrance to their large fort holding up a bow to the sky and ranting his words loud and strong.
“Well do you?”
Joe began to walk towards the fort. When Dylan jumped down from the top and ran towards him. Then came in Kenny from the other side and two others from the next street who were playing with them. Dylan yelled out.
“Halt young man, do you swear your allegiance?” they crossed their weapons in front of Joe to stop him walking any further.
Joe rolled his eyes and replied.
“Yes, I swear, come on.”
They pulled their weapons from in front of Joe and let him pass. The group consisted of Joe’s best friends Dylan and Kenny and two others a boy named Charlie and his next-door neighbour, Chrissy, a young girl who liked to play with the boys but would only venture into the forest if they were there. Joe walked past her and snarled.
“Hi Joe.” She whispered while trying not to look at him. Joe rolled his eyes again and replied.
“Hi Chrissy.” The other boys laughed and then began to follow Joe to the fort.
The grand structure of confidence and victory. It stood there tall and strong through at least nine years of play wars and forest battles, storms and hurricanes. Endured small children and young boys climbing its walls and tower for all that time and yet it stood strong. A testament of the building skills of these three boys. They got together nine years ago and with the help of Dylan’s older brother who has since moved out on his own. They built this fort to play in and it has been the headquarters of life itself e