On the following days, the weather was wet and cold, but it only rained during the nights. The twins preferred not to sleep in the rain, so they decided to sleep throughout the daytime, and to walk at night. During the first nights the forest was dark and the children were nervous. Even Moira couldn't hide it and so they walked slowly. They chatted a little now and then, just to escape the creepy silence that had fallen on the forest. The animal voices, which had filled the nights before, were not to be heard. It seemed to Faolan as if the twins were coming across the same trees and bushes over and over again.

After a few nights, the forest started to glow again and the twins couldn't help being curious about it. Even though Faolan felt scared, this also awoke a strong interest deep inside him. Something in him wanted to touch all the glowing plants, but he still didn't dare to do so. When the sun rose that morning, Faolan looked at his sister and said in a worried tone, 'The sun rises in the east and we're going to the west, right?'

Moira looked at him wondering whether he'd gone completely crazy now. 'Yes, of course, what a question.'

'Well, then explain to me, why our path seems to lead straight to the sun.'

Moira looked up even more confused now. Faolan was right. 'There might be something blocking the way from leading straight. I'm sure the path will turn west again soon,' she said, but she didn't sound all that certain.

They went to sleep and when they marched on the next night, they tried to figure out whether they were really going the right way. When the night was half through and they were still heading east, Faolan said, 'Maybe we should leave the road. The forest is all bright, we should be able to see enough. And anyway, we can turn around if we don't get anywhere.'

'Leave the road to wander through the forest at night? Isn't that exactly what that woman told us not to do?'

'I thought you didn't trust her.'

'Still, she was right about there being no villages.'

'Hang on,' Faolan said. 'I'm getting really confused. Who of us now trusts what she said?'

Moira rolled her eyes. 'No matter whether she said it or not, it's not clever anyway.'

'Oh, who's scared now?' Faolan replied, trying to sound brave.

'I'm not scared!' Moira insisted. She had stopped walking and was glaring at her brother now.

'Then let's try it out. You said there might be something blocking the way, so let's find out what it is and look for the fastest way around it.'

'Alright,' Moira said defiantly. 'To the west then.' With these words, she picked up a big branch that was lying by the road and entered the forest using that branch as a hiking pole. Faolan looked at the stars one last time and then followed her with a sigh.

After a while the forest ahead of them seemed to form a path on its own. The smaller plants shone brighter, the closer the twins came and got darker again, once they had passed them. At first the twins were bewildered by this, but after a while they accepted it as something completely normal. They moved through the night quickly now and the further they had left the road behind, the more noises came up in the dark behind the glowing plants. Changes happened slowly so Faolan didn't even notice them. But when they stopped to eat and he finally had the time to look around, he realised that they were now really walking on a shiny path, while the rest of the forest around them was all dark. There were also small shadowy creatures moving quickly from tree to tree, but to Faolan's own surprise, they didn't scare him.

This time, Moira saw it too, but still she didn't quite trust her eyes. 'They must be squirrels,' she said slowly.

'Didn't you once tell me squirrels sleep at night?'

Moira hesitated. 'Maybe a special kind of squirrel then?'

'However, they can't be dangerous, they've followed us for a while now, so if they wanted to, they'd have harmed us already,' Faolan said with a certainty that didn't sound like him at all.

The next night the strange creatures were all around them from dawn on. They were now joined by huge butterflies, which glowed in different colours. Shortly after midnight, Moira took her shoes off, for they were nearly falling apart. From that moment on her footsteps were absolutely soundless and the prints she caused were shining in such a bright blue that it appeared to be nearly white. Fascinated by this, Faolan took his shoes off as well and the twins wandered along the path barefooted.

It was in that night that the twins lost all fear of the dark night and gained trust in the forest and its inhabitants. But it was the night after that, when they would be taught a hard lesson. It happened shortly after their nightly lunch. At first, they only noticed that the creatures around them disappeared all of a sudden. Within minutes they were all gone. Then, after another while, they heard strange clicking sounds.

The path they were walking on was still glowing, but a long shadow lay across it in front of them. Where it had touched the plants they didn't glow anymore and soon the twins realised that something was encircling them. The path was now much darker and the creepy shadows came even closer. The twins now stood back to back and Moira held her hiking pole in her hands. Neither of them said anything until they suddenly saw what had chosen them for a midnight snack.

In front of Faolan stood a huge millipede. It was as long as he was tall and its legs moved so quickly, he couldn't really see them. He gave a shout and Moira jumped to his side, facing the millipede full of fear. The creature moved its head up in the air and seemed to be looking at her now. It made the clicking sounds again and it seemed like a menace, but before it could attack, Moira hit it hard with her branch.

The bump echoed in the silence around them and the millipede disappeared for a moment, but it soon came back looking for them again. They had not yet dared to move when it attacked from the other side this time. Before the twins could react, it ran forwards and threw Moira down. It obviously didn't think of Faolan as an immediate threat so it just ignored him. Faolan looked at his sister, who now lay on the ground, unconscious. Full of fear he picked up the branch that was lying beside her and stood over her in a protective way.

The creature had retreated into the dark again, only to attack from behind. When Faolan searched the darkness with his eyes, the forest started glowing wherever his glance touched any plants. Too scared to notice this as anything special, Faolan just looked for what he expected to remain dark and it was only moments until he saw the creature. It didn't seem to notice that he saw it, so Faolan had an advantage. This sufficed to make him land a strike on the creature's back, which made it hide for a while. When it came back and he hit it again, the branch broke and Faolan stood there with his passed out sister, all defenceless.

Because he didn't know what else to do, Faolan started screaming as loudly as he possibly could. By doing so, he saved his life, because it made every hunter of the night turn his way and come searching for fresh food. The millipede seemed to understand this very well and disappeared into the night. Now Faolan waited for the next creature to attack him, attracted by his call, but to his surprise the plants around him turned dark immediately and a few meters away a new path started glowing. On this path, he soon saw all kind of big, angry-looking shadows passing by. He had a feeling they were looking for him but didn't think of looking anywhere else than on the path.

'Does the forest protect us?' Faolan wondered. He sat down next to his sister and made sure she wasn't badly hurt before he took a blanket out of his bag and rolled it up so it formed a pillow for her. After he'd gently pushed it under Moira's head, he took her blanket and covered her with it. Then he waited silently for the night to end. His sister woke up after about an hour with a terrible headache so he gave her some water and told her to sleep for a while. He didn't feel like explaining what had happened since she wouldn't believe him anyway and for once, she actually listened to him without much moaning.

The twins stayed in that spot until early afternoon of the following day and even though he felt cold without his blanket, Faolan got a little sleep. During breakfast his sister urged him to tell her everything, but once he'd done so, she, as expected, called him a liar.

'I'm sure that beast disappeared after it knocked me out. Must have realised we're not eatable,' she said.

'Yeah, sure,' Faolan sighed.

They used the remaining daylight to gather mushrooms and everything else which was eatable. Their nightly wanderings had not given them any opportunity to fill up their food supplies recently.

// Hello again, hope you liked the newest chapter and are not scared of insects :) (If you are, I'm really sorry) Please don't forget to vote if you'd like to and have a wonderful day!