When I was young and only a child, I wasn't allowed to do anything on my own, I was told it was to dangerous for a prince to run around outside without proper supervision. This on-going safety was so boring I grew a need for adventure and danger. I often played things like fighting dragons and monsters. Mostly harmless games I played in the castle  with the guards or maids pretending to safe them, but one day I had this crazy idea of leaving the castle alone in seek of adventures. So, I snuck into the kitchen and left the castle through the servant's quarters. Nobody saw or heard anything, and nobody realized I was gone. In the beginning I didn't know what to do with my new freedom and just wandered around in the city. After some time, I snuck back prepared for the trouble of my life but it never came. I was never caught, so I began going to the city more often, I got bolder and bolder every time I could go outside without getting caught by anyone,I even started taking money for food with me. On some days I even went out of the city to see fields and villages in the surrounding area of the capital. If I was back when I was needed, I had nothing to fear.

One day at eleven years old, I decided to go to the Blackhill Forest, a very dumb idea. But what to expect from an eleven-year-old and very curious boy.

I wandered some new path until I came to the edge of the forest, I heard so many legends about. It seemed to call me, and I couldn't resist to see what hid beneath the legends and myths surrounding this place, so in my youthful dumbness I entered. As soon I crossed the first tree, I felt like I was in a different world, it was utterly silent, and the shadows seemed way more alive than they should have been. Nearly no sun broke through the canopy of the old trees leaving everything in shimmering light. I felt as if someone or maybe something watched me, it sent shivers down my spine. At first, I thought I'd imagined the shadows lurking around me but after a while I was certain it wasn't just my imagination playing tricks on me. Some had no form, they were like floating clouds of black mist, others had the shapes of forest animals' birds, wolves and some other creatures I didn't want to see or come closer. I should have run back immediately and should have never thought about it again. But still there was this feeling, a feeling I couldn't get rid of it called me, dared me to go deeper into the forest. So, I followed my path until I came to the edge of a clearing. When I came closer and wanted to step out of the dark forest, I heard a rustling bush, the shadows didn't make sounds floating around like nothing. I hid behind a tree trying to find out what was it that had crossed my path. I was so scared I stopped to breath, I pressed myself against the tree and hoped it would be over soon. A short moment I thought about running but then I feared whatever was behind me would be faster than me. I stood in the shadows waiting, hoping. When I heard the voice, I think my heart missed a beat. It was a female voice that spoke, but I couldn't understand what she was saying. The language was strange something I never heard before, it sounded twisted and wrong to me. I was so afraid I thought I would die at any moment just out of fear. It felt like hours when I sat behind that tree and held my hands before my face to stop my breathing and screaming sounds to myself. After some time it stoped and the silence returned, I started to calm again but as soon as I felt able to I ran, ran as fast as I could to escape this forest and it's horrible creatures.

Sometimes those words still haunt my nightmares and I wake up thinking I am in the forest again. After this day I never went out of the castle on my own again. Hoping that I never would have to deal with this forest and the creatures that inhabit it ever again. I wished I knew how wrong I was back then.