I awoke sleepily to find myself in the recovery position, in a field of green wheat. Someone was talking worriedly into a phone and when he saw me, he said down the phone,
"Oh never mind, she's woken up now. Don't bother with the ambulance. Thanks, Goodbye."
He ended the call and put his Iphone on silent. He then turned to face me. It took me a moment or two before I realised the boy was Giles!
"Giles!" I yelled. "Where am I and why are you here?"
Giles helped me to my feet, then brushed the mud off his jeans. Giles was now dressed in casual clothes: a shirt and jeans with bright red converse trainers. He didn't look very posh now, just stylish. He replied,
"I should be asking you that! You're in a farmers field, outside that weird other-worldly forest. I found you here, unconcious when riding Angus, my horse. So I put you in the recovery positon and called an ambulance. But then you woke up, so I cancelled it. How about you - Why are you here? You look like you've been through the wars."
I laughed lightly at this and explained,
"I have actually. The band of wild animals I'm part of is battling with an evil troop of mythical creatures that are very sinister. I've shot a lot of animals but when I lost my concentration an evil unicorn hurt me and kicked me out of the forest. I make it sound simple, but really, it isn't - this war is something pretty nasty. I don't know why I'm telling you this though. You wouldn't believe me, even though I'm being honest. You probably think I'm delerious because that's the 'only scientific explanation of all this'."
I didn't mean to be so crabby at the end of my explanation but I was frustrated at how Giles had failed to believe me when I first met him in the woods. Giles didn't seem offended though. He shook his head, putting a hand in his jeans pocket casually.
"No, no, I believe you. Once you've seen your pet talk to you, you're ready to believe anything."
We both laughed at this remark. Then Giles asked,
"Do you want to come to my house? My older sister's got some clothes you could have and there's a first aid kit there to dress your wounds."
I nodded. I needed both of those things. So Giles and I walked away, through the wheat field to Giles's house.
********************************
In Giles's house, I sat down on one of the expensive-looking sofas. It turned out that not only had I more injuries than I thought I had but they weren't half as bad as I had expected. I had lots of cuts on my arms and legs and a nasty gash on my knee. I had several animal bites on my arms too and a burn from a magic fireball. Treatment was fairly easy - most only needed a bit of antiseptic. Anyway, Giles was trained in first aid, so he knew what he was doing. As Giles rubbed some antiseptic into a gash on my leg, he mentioned casually,
"I've been thinking about you since I left that forest." he admitted.
"Have you?" I questioned, interested.
"Yes." he answered, peeling the backing off a plaster. "You seem to have a much more interesting life than I do. You're out in the forest, having fun, fighting and talking to talking animals, whereas I'm stuck in the city's posh nob school all day, learning about maths." he stuck the plaster on my knee gash and I winced at the momentary sharp pain. Giles then rolled my trouser leg back down in place.
"Living wild isn't always easy." I told Giles, "And the animals don't always take kindly to you."
"I love animals." Giles told me, smiling. "I'd like to be a zoologist when I'm older."
I smiled back at him. Giles seemed less posh now. In fact, I kinda liked him. Giles then gave me a tour round his house. He showed me his room, plastered with all sorts of scientific posters. He showed me his 3 other ferrets, fish and pointed to his horse, Angus, from his attic bedroom. It was a lot of fun, surprisingly. But when I looked at the forest view from Giles's living room, I remembered there was a war going on in the forest. I really wanted to stay with Giles, have fun and rest for a bit but I knew I couldn't. I was part of an army who'd trained me up, looked after me. I wanted to return the favour, as well as stop the Nightstar army from winning and carrying out nefarious deeds. So, checking Giles was gone, I ran out of the front door of Giles's parent's posh house. I sprinted over to the paddock, where Giles's horse was kept. Pausing to catch my breath, I got a good look at the horse. The horse was a deep tan brown, with a chocolate-colour mane and tail. He had white markings on his legs, with long, white feathery hairs just above his hooves. He was huge and had a white blaze on the middle of his long head. By the side of the paddock, I saw a saddle, reins, rug and a bridle with a nose band. Studying these riding things, I grabbed them and attempted to fasten then onto the horse, Angus. Being a Clydesdale horse, he was enormous and this wasn't easy. Eventually though, I attached everything securely. I put two hands on Angus's saddle and hoisted myself up onto the horse. Then I looked at the reins and stirrups confusedly. Both made the horse go, but how? I hadn't ridden since I was a 6 year old. So, I experimented. I grasped the leather reins tightly and smacked my legs against Angus, saying,
"Go then, Angus."
Angus's ears went back and he neighed in annoyance, bolting off towards the forest. I was jolted violently in the saddle and I nearly screamed. My rising panic nearly engulfed me as I saw my old world race past me. I had no idea how to control this horse! Angus thundered across the grassy paddock, jumping the wooden fence like a champion Royal Ascot thoroughbred. I hung onto the reins helplessly, terrified. I suppose I could've shot the horse to make him stop, as I had my bow and arrows on me, but somehow I knew this wasn't a good idea. So instead, I shouted desperately,
"STOP!" And the funniest thing happened. Angus stopped. He turned his dark head so I could see his eyes and he seemed to be saying,
"Why are we stopping? We need to go into the forest."
I hadn't noticed how far Angus had taken me. In front of me was the forest. Every so often, you could hear an animal yell or war chants. I could've turned back at that moment. I could've left the forest forever, gone on to live ordinarily, forgetting the forest. But I didn't. Kicking Angus into gallop, I rode straight into the woods.
"Sorry Giles." I thought as I galloped onwards, "But right now, my team's got a war we need to win."