Aylarah fumed as she stormed into the library, ignoring the curious stares of the other students wondering that someone dared to let the door slam on their way in. She couldn't deal with this right now, refused to in fact. That stupid, stupid kitten! He deserved whatever happened to him in her opinion.

Walking over to a table to the far right of the library, Aylarah dropped her bag and sat down with a sigh. Today was meant to be such an easy day. She had arranged to meet up with Barbara for a homework session, after discovering that her weakness, charms, was Barbara’s strong point, and that one of her strong points, herbology, was something that Barbara struggled with.

Letting her head fall to the table with a muffled thud, Aylarah thought back to where everything had gone wrong today. She knew that to anyone else, she must look extremely stressed, but she was. She’d been walking around the grounds with her kitten Jacob, when at a crash of thunder he suddenly froze, before quickly running away from her. Hoping that he wasn't too scared, Aylarah had tried to follow him to see where he was going, when he had ran into the forbidden forest. Knowing that she couldn't follow and noticing that it was starting to rain heavily, Aylarah had turned back towards the castle, worried out of her mind. There was no knowing what could happen to him in there.

She turned her head slightly on the table to listen to everything going on around her, thinking that she could hear footsteps heading in her direction. What on earth was she going to do? What if Jacob didn’t come back?

The footsteps belonged to Barbara who was heading to meet Aylarah in the library. It had taken a while to spot her among the students - she could hardly call out her name in the silent library - but now she walked towards her. Aylarah did not look anything near happy.

Barbara dropped her Herbology and Charms books on the table and looked at her friend. She was sure that even she herself had never looked that stressed and miserable.

"Something is wrong, Ayla. Speak up." She flashed her a suppostive smile.

There had been moments that Barbara had felt as miserable as Aylarah's face now showed. The first time had been at an age of four when she and her brother were told that they were to be send to the boarding school. The second time was after that Christmas party... She had hurt him. So much. But he had hurt her even more. Mudblood... Helena...

She pushed the thought away. She should abandon that thought. After all they made up. Now Aylarah was in trouble, and that asked for all her attention.

Wincing slightly at the sound of the books hitting the table, Aylarah glanced up at her friend, before pulling herself to sit upright.

“Oh it’s my stupid, stupid cat Bar, you wouldn't believe it." She frowned and turned to face the other girl. "I was out walking around the grounds before, when it started to thunder. Jacob got scared and ran off." She thought back unhappily to the event. "I did follow him for a bit, but he ran into the forest, and I couldn't follow him."

Aylarah remembered when she had first been given Jacob, the year before she had started Hogwarts. He had been a year old, but was still just as small as if he were a kitten. Aylarah had taken him everywhere. If she was reading outside, Jacob would be playing nearby, if she were sleeping, Jacob would be curled at the end of her bed. She was never lonely with him around.

Elsbeth had never really told Aylarah why she was given Jacob; it wasn't just so that she had a pet to take to Hogwarts with her, because she was later given Rowen, her owl. Sometimes Aylarah thought it was because her aunt felt guilty for leaving her alone so much, not that she actually minded.

"What am I to do though?" Aylarah asked bringing her mind back to the present, face falling as she thought of where her cat might be. "He could be anywhere by now the poor, stupid creature. What if some giant monster has got him backed into a corner and he can't escape? What if he wants to come home and can't find his way back? He must be soaked by now in all the rain."

"God, Ayla..." Barbara glanced out of the library window, barely able to see the edge of the Forbidden Forest through the thick raindrops flowing across the glass. A flash of light was followed by a loud thunderclap. The poor cat had to be scared to death.

Scotland was used to quite extreme weather, but not *this* extreme.

"What on earth can we do? Wait until he gets back?" She knew the chances for Jacob to find his way back would be little in this weather, but perhaps when the air cleared up he would return. On the other hand, he was in the Forbidden Forest now, a place where he would be a nice snack for several of the creatures inhabiting the dratted place.

"I mean it's a smart cat and he adores you. Of course he would want to return to you."

Aylarah gave a wry smile. "Well I'm sure that he'd like to return to the nice warm, dry castle, but whether he can or not is a different matter." She was silent for a moment, until an idea started to form in her head.

"Hey, Bar, I've had a great idea, we could go and look for him! I mean, he's only a tiny little thing and it would probably take him hours to find his way home, but if we went and got him, it could only be like half an hour or something." She said quickly, words tumbling over one another. "I mean, you can fly can't you? We could take our brooms, then we'd be even quicker."

Barbara paused for a bit, wondering whether it was really her eagle friend who suggested this. She was used to crazy proposals, at least from her Gryffindor friends, but going into the Forbidden Forest could be considered plain stupid. And then taking the thunder into account, and Aylarah's suggestion to FLY in the Forest while the trees could be hit by the lightning any moment.

"Ayla, sorry, but... Are you out of your mind? You have NO idea what danger we would put ourselves in?" Her voice became louder, causing a couple of other students to look around.

"At least I want to live a little longer than today! I am really really sorry about Jacob, but Ayla, we have to be reasonable!" Her voice dropped a little.

"Two second years in the Forbidden Forest... We cannot deal with whatever is awaiting us there! There are creatures such as unicorns, but also werewolves, acrumantulas... Just use your Eagle brains and see that it's impossible!"

Aylarah frowned as she listened to Barbara's rejection of her idea. She couldn't believe that she was refusing to help her.

"Well thanks a lot Bar!" She exclaimed, "I thought you were my friend. Friends help each other out. I bet if it was someone or something you loved lost in there you wouldn't hesitate at all!"

Her voice raised slightly, "Jacob is one of my best friends. He's my only company when I'm at home in the summer, and I promised myself that I'd always look after him because he's so tiny! I know he's only a cat, but still..."

She lowered her voice and looked imploringly at her friend, "Please come with me? I know it's dangerous but I'm sure it won't take long. The nasty creatures will probably be much deeper into the forest, we probably won't even see any! Besides," she smiled cheekily, "I thought you were a Gryffindor! Where's all that famous courage?"

Barbara looked as if she was slammed in the face for a moment. Yes, it was true. Had it been someone she loved she would have tried to save them, no matter what. She looked at Ayla, and realised how much her friend cared about her pet. She would have to abandon her worst memories, face her worst fears, and go with her. She would find too guilty if something happened to Jacob and she did not do a thing to stop it from happening. Aylarah would never look at her again, she was sure.

"Fine. I'll come," she said in a low grumble.

"NOT because I think Gryffindors should be brave enough to go to the Forbidden Forest to save a cat," she added in a whisper, "but because you are my friend." She did not worry about herself getting hurt. She never did, for she attached only little value to her own life, but she was so worried for Aylarah...

"Broomsticks it is. Let's go."

"Fine. I'll come,"

Relief flooded through Aylarah as she heard her friend say those three words. Until then she was sure that something terrible was going to happen to her beloved cat.

"Thank you so much!" she exclaimed, jumping up and giving Barbara a quick hug. "You don't know how much this means to me, if there's ever anything that you need me to do, anything at all, just ask." She grinned, "Oh you don't know how happy you've made me!"

She grabbed her bag and slung it over her shoulder, almost bouncing in excitement.

"Right, brooms, I've left mine in my dorm, so how about we meet outside in say, thirty minutes? That way we can get whatever we need. I think I'll probably grab a warm cloak too. Oh, thank you so much!"

Where a glare had shadowed Barbara's face at first a smile appeared now. This relief on her friend's face was worth whatever danger they may end up in. Danger... She looked at Aylarah and studied her face.

"Only one thing... We have to be careful. Very careful. I could not handle you being hurt, or..." She did not finish her sentence. It would not be the first time someone got killed in the Forbidden Forest.

"Thirty minutes. Sounds good." Barbara hugged her friend back and hurried out of the library without making too much sound. She knew how much those eagles hated to be disturbed when they were doing their homework.

The Forbidden Forest... It spooked through her mind as she made her way to her dorm. She knew she would completely panic if she would even get anywhere near that Watchtower...

About ten minutes later she was up in her dorm, getting her thickest cloak, gloves, scarf and ear warmers. After that she hurried down to get her broomstick from the broomshed near the Quidditch Pitch.

The cold wind and icy rain hit her in her face as she opened the oaken front doors. Pulling her cloak over her head to protect herself from the rain she ran towards the broomshed. The sky was thundery grey, and Barbara knew that a thunderclap could follow any moment.

As she opened the door to the broomshed the thunderclap came, making the whole building trimble. In a hurry she grabbed her broomstick and closed the door again. She decided to fly towards the castle, but she would fly no higher than 3 feet off the ground. It was too dangerous with the lightning striking a few times a minute. Someone looking outside would think she was a black bullet heading right towards the castle.

As she reached the oaken front doors again she pushed herself flat against the wall to protect herself from the weather. There she waited for Aylarah.

Almost as soon as Barbara had left the library Aylarah quickly made her way towards the Ravenclaw common room. It was all she could do to stop herself running all the way there, something she knew would not go down well with the amount of people that were seeking refuge from the rain indoors.

She did realise that what they were about to do was extremely dangerous. There was no knowing what could be lurking in the forest, and flying their brooms in a thunderstorm was crazy, but that was the precise reason that Aylarah desperately wanted to go. She couldn’t leave Jacob out there in those conditions, he’d be eaten or something!

Reaching her dormitory, Aylarah ran over to her trunk before rummaging through it until she found a dark, sapphire blue cloak Finally her aunt’s many shopping trips would pay off – she would never have chosen this herself, but it was the warmest cloak that she owned, even if it was a bit fancy.

Grabbing her broom from besides her bed, Aylarah made her way towards the assigned meeting place. She could see the lightening flashing outside from every window she passed, and she shivered at the sight of the rain. Stepping outside into the cold made her wonder whether this was really such a good idea, but there was no turning back now.

She spotted Barbara flattened against the wall and walked over.

“Right, are we ready to go?” She asked, voice sounding a little more brave than she felt.

Belle had been on the other side of the bookshelf listening to the girls in her RP class talk about going into the Forbidden Forest. Were they crazy?? In this weather?? and on broomsticks?? However, Belle had to admit that she liked their sense of adventure.

Belle listened as the girls packed up their belongings and then headed out- to get ready. Belle was not going to allow them to do this- at least not alone. She was a post graduate- 18 years old- an adult in the wizarding world. She at least was allowed in the Forbidden Forest, but she knew bringing younger years into there was forbidden. She had to talk to them before they did anything dangerous.

Belle was able to accio her cloak and broomstick without having to physicially go to her dorm room- one of the advantages of being an adult. She then walked to the main entrance and tried to stay out of sight. She saw Barbara arrive, and then Aylarah and they both seemed ready to go. At this point, Belle stepped in front of them.

"Hi girls. I just came from the library and I overheard something very interesting" she said as she looked at the 2 second years.

Barbara glanced at Aylarah, biting her lip. No one would want to be outside for fun with this weather. Belle had overheard them, and now there was no way they would ever get to go. She just hoped Belle would not tell one of the Professors about it, they would be in big trouble.

"Goodday, Belle. The weather is lovely, isn't it? Exactly the time of the year to be outside," she said, sarcasm clearly in her voice. Not that she wanted to act rude, but she couldn't help it. She was so angry with herself for even considering Aylarah's plan.

Poor poor Jacob.

Aylarah's heart sank as she raised her eyes to look up at Belle. There was no way they would get to go look for Jacob now. Swallowing, she tried to come up with a good excuse for what they were doing, but realised that it was no good. If Belle had overheard them, then she knew exactly what they had been planning.

The thunder crashed again, and Aylarah knew that she couldn't leave Jacob out there. Thinking quickly, she looked at something past Belle and screamed, pointing at some unknown terror in the distance. Having suitably distracted the other two girls, she quickly mounted her broom and started flying towards the trees.

Flying in the rain was both simultaneously exhilarating and terrifying. She didn’t dare look back to see if she was being followed in case she crashed into something, or missed the little black bundle of fur that was her target.

Then suddenly the rain ceased and it went dark. She had entered the forest.

First Barbara turned to see what had scared Aylarah, a tenth of a second later she realised it was a trick.

"Ayla, no!" As if triggered by a natural reflex she jumped on her broom to follow her friend, paying no further attention to Belle and the trouble she might get into. She could not let her go into the forest alone, she just couldn't. Like before she stayed low to the ground, not wanting to risk being electrocuted by the lightning.

Another lightning bolt followed by a thunderclap split the air in two, illuminating the edge of the forest. Barbara sped up...

... And caught up with Aylarah as they practically flew into the forest.

"Ayla, let's get off our brooms," she said. "Belle won't find us here."

(OOC: Belle - sorry for leaving you at the castle, but it'd be very out of character for Barb not to follow her friend. Perhaps she follows them into the forest? )

(OOC- not a problem. I'm right behind you!)

Belle turned to see what had caused Aylarah to scream and in a matter of seconds realized it was a trick. She turned to say something to Barbara, but saw that she was gone as well. That girl was a fast flyer, but Belle had age and experience on her side.

Of course, both girls flew straight towards the Forbidden Forest. Belle had no choice but to follow them because she couldn't let them go on alone.

Belle followed the path the girls had taken and caught up to them. She kept her distance a bit and noticed they had slowed down. It seemed like they were going to dismount. Belle took this opportunity to cast impedimentia on them and slow them down even more. At the same time she yelled, hoping they would be able to hear her over the storm. "Wait up! You'll be much better off if an older student joined you! I'm not here to turn you girls in!"

Aylarah paused as she heard Belle shout, "Wait up! You'll be much better off if an older student joined you! I'm not here to turn you girls in!" She hadn't even considered the possibility that Belle would be willing to go with them rather than turn them in. She stopped flying and dismounted her broom. Still holding onto it with one hand, she slowly turned around, biting her lip anxiously.

"Erm, you aren't?" She asked quietly, glancing quickly towards Barbara. Suddenly she felt quite guilty, running off and leading everyone into the forest. Not guilty enough to turn around and leave, but still quite bad. She smiled sheepishly, looking up at the older girl. "Sorry, I panicked. I know it's quite a stupid idea but I can't just leave Jacob alone in here! I thought you were going to stop us."

Barbara however did not hear everything Belle said. Only bits. "You'll be much better off..." "...to turn you girls in!" Feeling Belle's impediment jinx hitting her broomstick she tried to fly away even harder. And she did, shooting through the trees while the thunderstorm raged, under the impression that Aylarah was still following her. The thundery sky disappeared, all she saw was the forest roof.

Finally she flew right up and landed in a tree.

"Come on, Ayla, we'll be safe... beep." She looked around, but nowhere there was a trace of either Belle or Aylarah. Apart from the thunderclaps she heard nothing - and even those were muffled by the trees. Sometimes a gust of wind would rush through the forest, moving the leaves on the floor.

Suddenly feeling like they had a chance of everything going well, Aylarah grinned.

"But I'm sure that now you're helping us, we'll find Jacob in no time at all, right Bar?" she turned to the girl beside her, only to see that she...wasn't there?

"Barbara?" Aylarah questioned, glancing around her. It was no use, she couldn't see her anywhere. "Barbara this isn't funny!" She exclaimed, voice rising a little, "Where are you?"

She turned back to look at Belle in alarm. Where on earth had she gone?

Belle was beginning to panic. Now they would have to look for Jacob and Barbara. Where had that girl gone? She was just here, but Belle had been preoccupied talking to Aylarah so she didn't notice where Barbara had gone.

"Where did she go? Do you think she went off on her own to find Jacob? If she went on foot she can't be that far, but I don't see her broom which means she could have easily flown." Belle looked up at the sky to see if Barbara was there but the trees and the weather were not making things easier.

"I know a spell that can tell us if something living is nearby. But that's just it- it picks up anything living, not just humans. We could end up heading straight towards werewolves, centaurs, or acromantulas or pretty much anything that's living in this forest." Belle looked at Aylarah, trying to hide the panic in her voice.

"She mustn't have noticed that we stopped!" Aylarah said, worry leaking into her voice. "Bar's a very good flyer, if she's flying then she could have gotten really far from here by now. Oh me and my stupid ideas!" She shouted the last part, stamping her foot on the ground, not caring that it made her look childish.

It was all her fault. She should have listened to Barbara when she had tried to dissuade her from entering. After all, her life was far more important than Jacobs, loathe as Aylarah was to admit it.

She explained as much to Belle. "I doubt that she would decide to go off on her own. It was my idea in the first place to look for Jacob, and she tried to talk me out of it. She didn't like the idea of comming into the forest."

Sighing, she looked around, trying to think of what direction she might have flown in. If she hadn't stopped, it was probably straight on going deeper into the dark forest.

"I suppose there's nothing else to do but go further in and look for her."

The silence of the forest freaked Barbara out. In distress she flew up even higher to get above the forest, but because of the weather she could not see far. When a lighting bolt struck only 100 meter from where she flew she ducked into the trees again. But whether it was so much safer there with all those creatures...

She sat down on a thick branch and wanted to place her hand next to her to keep in balance. She nearly fell out of the tree when she felt something with a smooth surface underneath her hand instead of the wet bark she expected. Managing to save herself from falling by holding onto her broomstick she looked at the object she had collided with.

"Oh great, a quaffle. Now I can play Quidditch in the forbidden forest." She sighed and sat down again, studying it. Now she saw it more closely, this had to be the quaffle Zenix and she lost last week. They had played Quidditch above the Forbidden Forest, because... Well she could not exactly remember why... Finding the quaffle here had to mean she was deep in the forest, for Zenix and she had played as far from the castle as possible so they would not be spotted.

"beepATION!" she roared.

A loud meowing sound on her right made her jump up again, and also this time she managed not to fall down by jumping on her broomstick.

"Oh... look who we have there... BAD KITTY YOU!" Jacob was entirely wet.

"Poor little creature... You must be cold..." She opened her cloak and held Jacob close to her belly. Then she closed her cloak again so that only Jacob's head was visible.

"And now we wait until the storm is over," she said. It was so much better to be here with the little creature than entirely alone.

Belle was not keen on going deeper into the forest, but what choice did she have? There was no way they could leave Barbara in there all alone.

Belle cupped her hands over her mouth and yelled out Barbara's name and then quickly realized it was pretty much useless because with the storm it was almost impossible to hear. Besides, she didn't want to attract whatever else may be in there.

She turned to look at Alyarah, "you know Barbara better than I do- do you think she would realize we aren't with her and decide to head back towards us, leave the forest entirely, or stay put hoping we would find her?"

Aylarah pondered the question. "Hmm, I'm not completely sure. I think that it's most likely that Bar will have found somewhere quite safe to wait for us, at least until the storm has passed. She didn't want to come in the first place really, so I imagine she'd be quite careful, whatever she does." She felt awful. Who knew what could happen to her? And it would all be Aylarah's fault.

"I think that we're just going to have to go looking. You never know, hopefully we'll find them both at one!" She laughed humourlessly, before turning and starting to walk deeper into the forest, shivering at a gust of wind that decided now would be the perfect time to taunt them.

"Ok, so we look then. She was flying in that direction. Hopefully, she stopped flying when she noticed we weren't behind her and hasn't ventured too deeply into the forest."

Belle took a few steps forward and then quickly turned towards Aylarah. "We should definitely stay together. It's bad enough one of us is loose alone in the forest, let's not make it 3! So stay close to me."

At this point Belle took out her wand, cast lumos, and held it in front of her. "Maybe you should cast the light spell as well. Visibility is getting worse and every little bit will help us."

Belle then continued towards a group of dark trees straight ahead and hoped that the storm would be the worse thing they would have to face in here.

Biting her lip slightly and nodding, Aylarah also took out her wand.

"Lumos" She muttered, before hurrying forwards to follow Belle. Truth be told, she was a little scared, both for her friend, her kitten, and them now looking for the two of them. She didn't like being in the dark like this, especially not in this storm. It reminded her too much of the night her great uncle died. She had only been five years old when that had happened, and it was something she only really remembered on nights like tonight.

"I suppose that she probably would have stopped, and to be honest I think it would probably be safer to stay up in a tree than on the floor of the forest. We have no idea what's in here."

Aylarah continued on for a bit longer before stopping suddenly at a rustling noise coming from somewhere to her left. "Hey, Belle," she called out to the other girl, "Was it just me or, did you hear that?"

She glanced around and froze at the sight before her eyes. It was an enormous, silvery white cobweb, seeming to stretch back as far as she could see.

"I don't think we should go this way."

Belle stopped to listen when Aylarah spoke. She too had heard the sound. She turned in the direction that Aylarah was looking in and saw the big cobweb herself.

"Yeah, good point" Belle whispered "we shouldn't go this way." She was trying to be quiet so that she wouldn't wake or startle whatever it was. A giant cobweb probably meant an acromantula was nearby and she really wasn't in the mood to have to deal with a family of meat eating spiders.

Belle reached out and grabbed Aylarah's hand and led her towards the right. They couldn't really yell out Barbara's name because then they would wake anything in the forest. They just had to hope for the best. "Is there something you do normally to get your cat to come to you? You know, something that isn't too loud?"

Aylarah pondered the question for a moment, thinking back to the times she needed to find Jacob in the manor over the summer holidays.

"I'm not really sure. For some reason, whenever I'm looking for him, he always seems to find me. I do sometimes call his name, but more often than not I just know when he's near. Sorry I couldn't be more help that way." She smiled appologetically and looked around.

"Hmm, look up there." She pointed a little way up one of the trees, "Do you not think those leaves look like they've recently been disturbed? A bit like the end of a broom might do to them? If that's the case, we know we're going in the right direction."

Belle was a little disappointed about the whole cat situation. "That's Ok. I guess we'll just keep looking. I don't think it would be a good idea to go yelling out Jacob's name." Belle continued walking and then looked at the direction Aylarah was pointing.

"Good point. It DOES look like some of the leaves have been ruffled. Let's take a closer look and see if we can find some sort of evidence and not some sort of creature."

Belle walked very carefully towards the tree trying to make as little noise as possible. As she approached the tree she noticed that the tree next to it also seemed a bit damaged as if something had flown too close to it. She pointed this fact out to Aylarah. "Look, that tree looks like it's been hit as well. We should try to follow these trees. As best we can anyway."

Belle continued to look up to try to find the next tree that seemed to have taken a hit.

Aylarah mentally kicked herself as she stumbled over a tree root. Keeping an eye on the tree canopy at the same time as watching where she was putting her feet had turned out to be quite a difficult task.

She followed the line of broken branches for a little while longer, always looking around for any sign of Barbara or Jacob. Pausing to catch her breath, she froze as she heard a familiar sound.

"Merow"

"Belle," she whispered, not wanting to make too much noise in case she scared Jacob away or it wasn't Jacob and she brought the wrath of a big hungry creature onto them, "Did you hear that?"

(OOC: I think that really, we're going to have to find BaPo and Jacob soon, so in a couple of posts we might need to wait until she's back with us and let her post something?)

(OOC: I agree- hopefully she'll be found soon!)

Belle froze when Aylarah spoke to her. She HAD heard something- but she had never seen or heard Jacob so she wouldn't exactly know what she was listening for. "It sounds like it's coming from that direction." Belle said as she pointed to a tree up ahead.

"And look, it's still following the path of damaged branches that we were following. Do you think Barbara found Jacob? Does that sound like Jacob?" Belle was really hoping that they were close to finding Barbara and Jacob and not that some other creature had found them and was now luring them towards whatever it may be.

(OOC: Never leave a second year wander off to the forest - before you know they get kidnapped)

Barbara pushed herself against the bark of the tree as she heard someone - or something - walking into her direction. Up here every noise sounded ten times as loud as normal, whether it was because of her fear or the way the trees were curved into a bowl-kind of form which made the sound echo through the trees - maybe a combination of both. At a point Jacob let out a soft "Merow", which made Barbara's heart pound a few inches higher in her chest.

"Shh, silly kitty, do you like to end up as giant-spider food? Well I don't," she whispered. Jacob let out another "Merow".

"Didn't you cats learn that you should be QUIET in situations of danger?" she asked the cat, who replied with one more "Merow", not seeming to listen to Barbara though but his ears turned into the direction of the ground.

"Oh right, you're a predator," she said, a little louder so that her voice was audible from the ground. "Well trust me, kitty-cat, the spiders in THIS forest a little too heavy for your stomach."

Belle stopped dead in her tracks as she continued to hear what sounded like a cat meowing followed by a voice that was whispering- although not that quietly.

She grabbed onto Aylarah's arm and tried to peek around the tree she was next to. She looked up towards where the voice had come from and whispered, again, not so quietly, "Did you hear that? It sounds like a cat and a girl. It has to be them."

A little bit louder this time, but not too loud so as to startle whatever it was in case it wasn't who they were searching for, she said, "Barbara, is that you?"

Barbara DID fall out of the tree now. The mentioning of her name had made her jump, and with Jacob on top of her she landed on the ground with a soft thump - luckily the forest floor was mossy and therefore rather soft.

"Yep, that's me," she said. A second later her broomstick fell after her, missing her head by inches.

"Aylarah, here's Jacob. I swear, that animal has a DEADWISH." She handed the cat to her friend and removed bits of twig and leave from her hair. Then she turned to Belle.

"Sorry for putting you through all this trouble," she said, shuffling her feet slightly.

Aylarah jumped as the girl fell from the tree, heart pounding in her chest. Although she had suspected that they had found Barbara and Jacob, there was always a small chance that they had found some hideous flesh eating creature instead.

Taking Jacob from Barbara and holding him close, Aylarah took a few deep breaths, and tried to concentrate on what Barbara was saying, rather than on her frayed nerves. When she heard the other girl say "Sorry for putting you through all this trouble,", she couldn't stand it any longer.

"Oh Bar I was so scared! I'm so sorry for bringing you into this mess!" she exclaimed, hugging Barbara tightly before stepping back and squeezing the cat just the same. "Were you ok? Are you hurt at all?"

Belle jumped back a bit as something fell out of the tree. Luckily for them, it was Barbara and Jacob- and the broom.

Soon Barbara was apologizing, then Aylarah was apologizing, they were hugging, but Belle could only think of one thing. Now that they had found what they were looking for, they needed to get OUT of the forest. She gave the two girls and the cat a couple of seconds to get reunited and then she interrupted.

"Um... not to be a drag- but we really should think about how we're going to get out of here. We came in pretty deeply. I can't see the castle anymore. I pretty much only see trees." Belle looked back in the direction where they had come. "I say we backtrack as best we can, back that way." she pointed. "We can follow the smushed trees for a bit- the same ones that brought us here."

Belle thought the sooner they left and got out the better. She certainly didn't want to stick around.

Barbara nodded in agreement. It was getting really cold - and all her clothes were soaking. And then the creatures lurking in this forest...

She shivered and looked at the other two.

"I have no idea from which direction you two came, so lead on. I tried to see the castle from above the forest, but the rain and mist pretty much clouds everything. I couldn't see a thing." She pulled her wet cloak tighter around her.

"Don't be sorry Ayla. But this little one... he should be sorry." She stroked Jacob over his little head.

"Better hold him tightly. We don't want to lose him again.

"Oh don't worry, I don't plan on letting him out of my sight any time soon." Aylarah gave a nervous laugh and held the cat closely to her chest. "We should start back though. I agree that it would be a good idea to follow the battered trees, but are we going to walk back or attempt flying?"

She noticed Barbara shivering, and glanced down at Jacob. Flying might not be such a good idea - it would be harder for her to carry the cat, and she didn't know if Barbara would be ok in such a state. Or if I would be she thought, realising that she too was soaked to the skin. Somehow in all the panic and then relief she had completely forgotten about the rain.

"Walking might be the best idea." She said to the other two girls, explaining her thoughts to them quickly. "So," Aylarah smiled wryly, "Who wants to go first?"

Belle had heard Aylarah's question but really wanted to pretend she hadn't. Going first was the last thing she wanted to do, but as the oldest in the group she figured that going first was probably the right thing to do.

"I'll go first" Belle said, "everybody, wands out and Aylarah hold on to that cat. let's take the brooms to that little opening over there and leave them there. I can accio them later and I don't want them weighing us down."

Belle grabbed her broom and started to walk over to the open area where she placed hers on the ground. She waited for the others to do the same while she added last minute instructions, "and let's stay close"