Far in the wood, you'll find a well,

With water deep and blue,

Whoever drinks by moonlight clear,

Tiri, Tira, Tira la la la,

Will live a thousand years,

Will live a thousand years.

(Far In The Wood, The Nursery Rhyme Collection 4, CTMS)

"Where are we?"

The blue light was not scary.

Not as much as the dark trees and the silence. Pete and Lola felt compelled to follow the path, not even realising where they were going.

Monty led the way with a confidence he seldom showed earlier.

At a crossroad, or more like a point where two seemingly paths were crossing, Lola stopped and looked around her.

"Where are we?" She repeated, asking Monty and Pete, as if they had the answer that puzzled her.

The blue light of the path seemed to have mellowed their senses.

"Not know..." Monty answered, tilting his head wondering why she asked. "Light... show way..."

The creature continued to walk slowly in the direction shown by the blue atmosphere. Pete and Lola, followed. This time, however, the children were more aware of their surroundings.

"Can we do a pause?" Pete was tired.

They had reached an opening between the trees. Not yet a clearing, but a big enough area to see the moon up in the starry sky.

Pete found a seat on a fallen tree. He did not wait for the other ones either to take a break.

Lola joined him, taking place on the ground, her back lying against the log.

"Did you take anything to eat in your bag, Pete?" She asked her brother.

Back in the tent she had told him they didn't need anything. Now, she appreciated her brother's never-ending hunger that prompted him to put some of Grandma's sandwiches in his bag.

Pete opened his bag and started sorting through the eclectic content. Among other things, there was a small bag with some dog snacks, four sandwiches wrapped in paper, extra batteries for the flashlight, a phone and the map.

He handed a sandwich to his sister, then the water bottle he had strapped on the side of the bag. While Lola was eating and resting, he unfolded the map turned the light on.

"Where do you think we are," he asked the girl. "Monty, can you show us on the map where we are?"

"No know..." Monty shook his head. Pete was not sure if the creature's negation was for the location or even if he knew how to read a map. He asked him, but the answer was not clearer.

"Oh..." the boy sighed, "are we lost then?" He was remembering Grandma story. She had been lost in the woods, and had to spend a night. Did she saw the blue light also? He wondered. Had she been scared? He thought about asking those questions the next time she would tell he story. If they ever found their way back home...

"What do we do now?" Pete asked his sister and Monty. "We continue or we try to go back?"

Lola was unsure about the next step. They were lost, it was a fact. So how could they go back?

Monty, on his side, wanted to continue following the blue light.

"Do you know where we are going, Monty?" Lola inquired. She was starting to think that the creature was playing a trick on them. "Do you know where Cookie and Kitty are?" Perhaps they should have stayed under the tent, in Grandpa's garden, she reflected. Though now, it was too late. Thinking about their situation, the calm and confidence the blue light had given her before was getting replaced by doubt and fear.

Lola lifted her eyes and watched her brother. Pete had his head down, and was particularly silent. She approached him slowly and realised he was crying. She thought to get some comfort from he brother, but they were sharing the same feeling of defeat.

"No think... no sad..." Monty put his hand on Lola's shoulder.

She seemed to understand that the creature was trying to reassure them that all would be okay.

Monty patted Pete's arm, conveying the same message. As the boy raised his head up, the creature placed a rock in his hand. Surprised by the gesture, Pete looked for a time, no thoughts crossing his mind.

The rock was warm in his hand, pulsating with energy. The warmth spread to his all body in a comforting wave.

Glancing at his sister, Pete could see she also had a rock on her hand. He took a better look to Monty's gift and found it familiar. The rock was as he remembered in his dream, few days ago. It was as blue as the light coming from the trees.

"Where did you find this, Monty?" He asked showing the rock.

"Light... good...?" The creature asked back in answer.

"Yes," the boy agreed, "the light is good. It feels good... But where do the rocks come from?"

"Come..." Monty did not provide more explanation. He just showed the way, deeper in the forest, and started to walk again.

Pete put back in his bag the map and the torch, set the bottle in place on the side pocket and hurried to follow the creature. Lola was already running after him.

~~

"How long is it now that we left the garden?" Lola thought aloud. "Did you check the time when we left, Pete?"

"I don't know. I don't think it is too long," her brother answered. "I hope we will find Cookie and Kitty soon and they will be able to bring us back. Do you think they know the way?" He asked, concerned.

"Kitty said she knew all the place here. She will show us the way back."

"Of course I know everything around here!"

Startled, the children stopped and looked around them. The cat was emerging from between two tall trees. Slowly, she reached them then settled at their foot, cleaning her paws.

"Don't be show off," Cookie admonished the cat. The dog was following behind her and joined the rest of the group few seconds after the feline.

"Why are you here, kids? We were looking for you all over the place! I told you to stay in the garden. What would the old man have said if I had lost you?" Cookie was annoyed with the children. His anger did not last long, however, and soon he reverted back to his easygoing personality.

"Are we going back?" Pete asked. Now that they were reunited with the dog and the cat, the boy felt more confident. His adventurous mood was back on. Nothing could go wrong.

"It depends on what you want to do," Cookie answered, looking attentively at the boy, then his sister. "Do you want to go back now?"

"Perhaps... not now... we could..." Pete shyly tried to say that he wanted to continue on with roaming the woods at night.

"Where are the blue rocks from?" Lola interrupted. "And what is this blue light in the trees? I want to see where it goes..." The girl decided. She started to walk along the way Monty had shown until now. They would find where this lead.

"Go?" Monty asked Lola with a smile. It was the first time, the girl realised, that the creature really smiled. Perhaps he was feeling relieved also now that Cookie and Kitty were with them.

"Yes," Lola replied grinning, "we go!" And she opened the way to the small troop.

Going forward, the five of them started a friendly banter, all fear and dark feelings forgotten.

"Look!" Pete exclaimed after only few minutes of walk. "Look! Is it a well?"

"Why, yes, it is!" Kitty confirmed. "this is where I told you to meet me last day. How come you did not come? Was I waiting for you?"

"No need to answer this," she continued seeing as Pete was trying to justify their absence, "don't bother." The cat added, aloof. "So, what do you think of my little realm?"

"What do you mean?" Lola asked, not sure to understand. "Is it where you live?"

"This is my kingdom! I am the queen here!" The cat pompously stated.

"Don't mind her," Cookie shoved the cat on the side, not impressed by her theatrics. "what are you looking, boy?"

Pete had taken the map out of his bag. The light around the well was so clear with the moon shining that he did not need to use the flashlight to read it. He took seat on the ground, his back to the trees, and started looking for signs on the paper.

"I think this is where we are," he pointed at the circle they had thought would be the well, few days ago, "and this is not really far from Grandpa and Grandma's house".

"Let me see," his sister leaned over the map. "Okay, I see now where we are. It shall be easy to find the way back now."

"Do you want to go back?" Cookie asked again.

"No!"Pete and Lola exclaimed at the same time.

"So,what do you want to do?"

~~

Pete and Lola were tired and out of breath. The game of tag they had played had been fun and exciting. What better than the forest at night to play tag with friends. Kitty had an insane advantage as she could climb trees. Cookie was fast and just had fun running around in circle, avoiding the children when they were about to get him.

Monty decided not to play.

"Drink?"The creature asked the children in his simplistic sentences.

The fact that he used only few words and was still quite understandable amazed Pete. So much that the boy wondered if he could try and do the same. He thought how cool this would be if he could trick his friends back home, talking this way. The end of the holidays was near and thinking of it brought back a bit of the melancholia that had plagued him and his sister when they just arrived at Grandma and Grandpa's house. Now, Pete just wanted to stay and enjoy the fun with his new friends, the talking animals.

"Thank you, Monty! I'd like some water," he took in his hand the crude bowl the creature had presented to him.

"You better not drink that," Kitty said putting her paw on the boy's arm. "Many bad things could happen...:

"But, it is just water!"

"It is not just water. It is water from the well. You don't want to drink that!"The cat insisted. To ensure Pete would not be tempted by the cool liquid, she flicked the bowl. Water dripped all over the puzzled boy.

"Why is it not good to drink this water?" Lola asked the cat.

"Bad things, that's all," Kitty insisted without giving more information.

"The rabbit!" Cookie suddenly said. "Do you remember what I told you about my friend the rabbit? He is annoying, does not stop talking. A bit like you, Pete," Cookie grinned at the boy's reaction.

"Well, my friend the rabbit turns a bit more dramatic, and let's say difficult for the less, when he drinks the water."

"So, just because an animal talks a bit too much, the water is not good? I don't think this makes sense," Lola concluded.

"Just wait and see." Kitty looked at Pete and Lola as if defying them to contradict her.

The two did not dare questioned the cat and just waited. They did not know what they were to expect. They sat there, few steps away from the well, and waited.

~~

"What was that?" Pete was looking toward the trees where a huge beast just left through.

The children, following Kitty's instruction had sat in silence, away from the well and waited for the animals to come and drink.

"I told you," The cat laughed loud, "I told you the water was dangerous. And it is full moon today also."

"I don't understand, Kitty," Lola tried to get some explanations from the cat. "You mean that this weird beast was an animal? I don't know any this size that looked like... what was it even? It looked like a giant rabbit!"

"Hm Hmm... It was." Kitty did not elaborate longer.

"I told you my friend the rabbit sometimes frightened me," Cookie gently smiled to the two young humans. "I am always a bit uncomfortable when I see him this way... This is why I did not want him to see me."

"You mean," Pete was incredulous, "you mean this was a... rabbit?"

Strange things happened in the woods.

With a some effort, Pete and Lola succeeded in getting more information from Cookie. Kitty, on her side, was just smirking, enjoying the disbelief in the children's look.

The explanation was simple. The water in the well changed the animals. They did not become monsters, however, and it was only when the moon was full above their head that they increased in size.

"Do you drink this water also, sometimes?" Pete asked Cookie. He imagined his friend as a giant dog. "You'd look so cool if you were this big!" He told the dog, a dangerous twinkle in his eyes.

"Stay away from me," Cookie retorted, hiding behind a nearby tree. "I don't want to be this big. It's difficult to find one's balance when one gets this big. And if I am hungry and eat, I will never digest it when I'll be back my normal size. Puppies play the games of monster, but I like my small size all the same."

"Hmm, Cookie?" Lola had an idea about the water she wanted to confirm. "Do you think we can understand you because of the water?"

"I don't know," Cookie did not seem really interested in the hypothesis, "it sure is possible. Then, yet, everything is possible..."

~~

"Are you bigger, Monty?" Pete looked at the creature who had been avoiding the games earlier. Shyly he stayed on the side, observing the two humans and their two pets running all around the place.

"Drink..." Monty held the crude bowl, returning it to show the boy it was empty.

"Do you mean you drank the water? Does it mean you'll turn into a giant Monty?" Pete anticipated the sight with excitement.

"Big... normal..." The creature started to say. Then he shuddered and the size increase took over him.

Monty was now akin to a monster, the image the children had of a monster in their mind.

"This is me," the bigger Monty said, showing more facility in the use of words and sentences. He started toward Pete to talk and explain about his circumstance but the boy was a bit frightened by the sheer size of him.

Because a change in morphology did not make a monstrous beast from a shy creature, Monty felt more frightened by Pete's reaction than the boy by his beastly appearance.

He ran away.

"Look what you did!" Kitty snarled at the boy. "You better excuse yourself when Monty will be back to normal. Poor Monty! He was just getting out of his shyness with you and now..."

"Let it go, Kitty. The boy did not want to frightened our friend. Imagine if you saw for the first time someone or something just doubling or tripling in size. You'd be scared also!" Cookie tried to defend Pete. The boy didn't want to be rude.

The cat turned her back to the dog and the children with a humph and left.

"Don't mind her, Pete," Cookie tried to cheer him, "she's just annoyed because she didn't thought Monty would drink the water. And she wasn't there to stop him before he did."

~~

After Monty left, running away in fear of Pete's fright, the mood went down a notch. The adventure had a sour taste to the boy who was blaming himself.

"It's okay, Pete," Lola who had observed the exchange did not know how to comfort her brother.

"Look," she tried to turn his mind to something else, "animals are coming to the well to drink. Let's see who's there..."

The change in subject did the trick. The brother and sister sat on the side, away from the path that led to the well so they could observe the animals.

In silence, Pete had taken the phone from his backpack and he had started to take pictures. Without the flash to not disturb the creatures of the woods, he did not know if the result would be any good.

He was looking through the pictures he had taken so far when he heard his sister taking a deep breath and holding it.

"Lola?" He looked at her, surprised. "What's happen..."

His sister did not answer but pointed her finger in front of her, urging him to look.

In the glorious light of the full moon, in front of the two children stood a magnificent beast. Four long legs, a white and silver coat, the animal was magnificent. But the more stunning feature was definitely there, raised high and proud in the middle of the forehead.

The horn.