The forest next to my town was very weird and strange. It all looked perfectly normal and average, full of pine trees and a few birch and ash trees, but if you dared enter it... it was very creepy. It didn't have vampires or werewolves in it, although it could've done for all I knew about it. I had a normal life, in a normal house in an ordinary town. The only strange thing was the forest. Let me explain. When I was 5, I walked into those woods and felt I was being watched. I turned around and my glasses fell off. But that didn't matter - I still saw it. I saw a pair of purple eyes staring at me from the shadowy depths of the forest. I told my mum and she put it all down to the fact my glasses fell off. But she was wrong. Another time, when I was 10, I saw a tabby cat come out of the forest. The tabby cat came up to me and let me stroke her. She was different to a normal cat - but I couldn't tell how. I took her home and my mum let me keep her, feed her water and food and put on a pink collar. I was delighted with my new pet - until the next day. Mum and Dad went out shopping and I was alone. I went upstairs to see my cat and got the fright of my life. Because when I opened my bedroom door, there was a tiger on my bed! The tiger leapt off the bed and jumped onto me and we fought each other. The tiger nearly killed me but I grabbed a baseball bat from my brothers room just as it was about to claw my neck. I smashed the baseball bat down on the tigers head. Then the weirdest thing happened. The tiger's dead body transformed back into a tabby cat. I was terrified, trembling but told nobody about this. They wouldn't have believed me.

Fast forward to the present and I am 15, wear contact lenses and live an ordinary life. But one day, my life stopped being ordinary.

I was walking near the woods peacefully, picking flowers. I had my headphones in my ears, playing Katy Perrys song 'ROAR'. Just as Katy Perry was singing the chorus, "you're gonna hear me - " Katy Perry got cut off. Something had grabbed the neck of my t-shirt and was dragging me into the forest! I screamed in surprise and turned round to see something tall, willowy, speedy yanking me across the woodland floor. I couldn't struggle as if I did, I'd strangle myself. I was dragged further and further into the forest, until the creature hit into a rock hard oak tree. I heard a yelp and then the creature let me go. Standing up, I saw I was deep in the forest, surrounded by thousands of trees. My first instinct was to run, but I'd no idea where in the forest I was, so that was pointless. The first buds on the trees were open, although there was still an icy chill in the air. I heard a rustling of copper-colour leaves behind me, then something ran in front of me. It was a huge dog, a hunting hound, with a bloodhound face but with a long and slender great dane body.

"You'll be here for a long time." I heard in front of me. The dog was still there, although it couldn't have spoken, could it? But it could. "This isn't a joke." The hound boomed. He talked with bark-like woofs, gruffly and loudly.

"Why have you taken me here?" I asked timidly. On realising he understood me, I continued, "If you were wanting to strangle me, by dragging me through this forest, why didn't you?"

"I didn't want to strangle you - sorry you got hurt." the dog woofed. "You are here for a reason." he continued. "But for what I cannot tell you. I will let you know one thing though." he finished, panting momentarily. I brushed the mud and bark off my jeans, which were now ripped. I asked the dog,
"What can you tell me?"
The dog put his tail between his willowy legs and whined, like he was guilty.
"I am no friend. This will be the last honest thing I tell you - in this battle, the enemy is the hero and the friend is the villain. Goodbye." then he turned around and fled, tail between his legs, ashamed that he was a villain. I was alone in the forest and unsettled. What did he mean by 'the enemy is the hero and the hero is the villain'? It didn't make sense.

All around me, the first flowers were beginning to show. So was a new adventure for me.