The entry to the SkullWhisper Woods is no entry at all. It’s full of twisted trees with sharp branches. The night is still but alive with the sounds of all that crawls and creeps in those woods. They were the type of woods that, if you stared into their darkness, the darkness stared back at you. In this case, the darkness was staring back at a young MoonSugrr named Dylan. Dylan stood holding a flashlight challenging the darkness to give him some answers to where Clark, his older brother, might have gone. Accompanying Dylan are his two ride-or-die friends, the adventurous & tough Rini (a bat resident) and the cautious & germ-conscious Oliver (a fox resident).

“I really don’t like it here. You sure Clark would have come all the way out here?” asks Oliver.
“He mentions SkullWhisper Woods, but it’s the last entry.” Dylan takes out the journal. “There’s nothing after that but some doodles.” Dylan looks at the page, which is full of random shapes and symbols. ▽ ☼ ☾ ◕

“I’m bored standing around out here. Let’s go in!” exclaims Rini with a devilish grin.

“Why do you always have to be so extra?” asks Oliver.

“Why do you always have to be such a wuss?” Rini spouts back.

“You only want to go find Clark because you have a crush on him.” Oliver retorts.

“Shut up! You know what, I’ve had enough of yoour-“ Rini bites.

Just as the typical Oliver vs. Rini debate starts to develop, Dylan sees a little figure pop its head out from behind the brush and stare. Dylan shines his flashlight at it to reveal it is a unique looking Oogler. One with a defining symbol on its forehead…a ☾

“Look,” said Dylan but neither Oliver nor Rini is listening as they are in the midst of a full blown whisper argument.

“Yeah well maybe your breath stinks too!” Rini usually gets the last word.

“Hey!” whisper-shouts Dylan, “look!” He points the flashlight to emphasize the Oogler to his friends. “That symbol on its head, that crescent moon ☾ , it’s the exact same as the one sketched in Clark’s journal.”

“What do we do?” asks Oliver

“I say we grab it.” answers Rini.

“What if it’s dangerous? What if it bites?” asks Oliver

“Such a wuss!” mutters Rini under her breath. Just as she says that, the Oogler takes off into the woods.

“No you don’t!” Rini says as she darts into the woods after it.

“Rini, wait!” exclaims both Oliver and Dylan. Dylan heads into the woods immediately after her as Oliver holds back for a second.

“I gotta get new friends!” Oliver says to himself as he decides to follow Dylan and Rini.

The Oogler glides quickly through the woods, bobbing and weaving around tree trunks and through brush. Rini is flying close behind it.

Dylan and Oliver, neither able to fly like Rini, are slower moving through the woods. Since Oliver is a fox Resident, he has much more luck than poor Dylan, who gets stuck on every branch there is. Oliver catches up to Dylan in an instant and helps push him along.

The two keep pushing until they burst through the thick brush and into a small bare area, both tumbling to the ground, Dylan landing on Oliver.

“I can’t feel my legs!” yells Oliver. Dylan, realizing he is lying on Oliver’s legs, lifts himself. Oliver’s yelling promptly stops.

“Oh, they’re fine now,” he says as he feels embarrassed at first, but tries to hide it behind a grin. Dylan glances over and sees Rini lying in the open about 20 feet away.

“Rini!” he exclaims as he makes his way over to her. Oliver follows closely behind. They kneel beside Rini who is lying in her back with her eyes open.

“Owwwww!” hollers Rini.

“What happened?”, asks Dylan.

“Did the Oogler do this?” asks Oliver as he suspiciously glanced around positioning himself in an athletic position to “take on” any incoming monster.

“No! A branch!” she replies.

“Are you okay?” asks Dylan.

“Yeah, I’m fine. Just mad I got distracted” Rini replies.

“Did you see where it went?” asks Dylan

“The branch?” asks Oliver.

“No, the Oogler!” yells Dylan.

“I was right on its tail when it went through that brush you guys so gracefully stumbled through.”

“Said the girl who smacked her face into a branch.” says Oliver

“Do you wanna hear this or not?” says Rini through gritted teeth.

“Oliver” says Dylan

Oliver puts his palms up to signal his surrender “Okay okay, go ahead”

“Anyway, it went into that brush, I flew over the brush and just as I did, a random light blinded me for a second. I tried to slow down, but ended up slamming into an overhanging branch. I’m okay though. Like I said, more mad than anything.” says Rini.

She hops up and dusts herself off. Dylan and Oliver follow suit. Just as they all three stand, Rini sees something the other two don’t.

“Guys,” she says. “I think I have an idea where the Oogler went.”

Both Dylan and Oliver turn around to see what Rini is looking at. About 50 feet from them is a mossy, swamped out, dirty, dank looking cottage  in the middle of the dense twisted forest. In front of the cottage is a collection of dozens and dozens of Ooglers in various colors, shapes, sizes and all with various symbols on their heads…all staring at our trio of characters.

“I really think we should go home now.” whispers Oliver with a quake in his voice.

Suddenly all the Ooglers turns their backs to our heroes and stare back at the cottage, all in unison.

“Do you think they want us to go inside?” Dylan asks

“No! They want us to go home! To our own homes!” pleads Oliver.

“Yes!” pleads Rini.

Just as Oliver and Rini’s voices raise slightly, a brilliant light inside the cottage flashes on, almost blinding at first, then it slowly dims. The light reveals a large silhouette in the window that could only be a giant figure or creature.

“Was that the blinding light you were talking about?” Oliver raises his trembling index finger to shakily point as the figure in the window.

“That’s it, all right.” she responds.

“That’s definitely not an Oogler.” says Dylan.

The three stand staring at the figure in the window of the cottage, not knowing what to do with their next move. Well, Rini knew she wanted to go in and Oliver knew he wanted to go home. But Dylan….Dylan didn’t know what to do next.

—————————————————————

𝘗𝘭𝘦𝘢𝘴𝘦 𝘯𝘰𝘵𝘦: 𝘛𝘩𝘦 𝘸𝘳𝘪𝘵𝘪𝘯𝘨 𝘢𝘯𝘥 𝘢𝘳𝘵𝘸𝘰𝘳𝘬 𝘱𝘳𝘦𝘴𝘦𝘯𝘵𝘦𝘥 𝘩𝘦𝘳𝘦 𝘢𝘳𝘦 100% 𝘰𝘳𝘪𝘨𝘪𝘯𝘢𝘭 𝘢𝘯𝘥 𝘩𝘶𝘮𝘢𝘯-𝘮𝘢𝘥𝘦. 𝘕𝘰 𝘈𝘐 𝘵𝘰𝘰𝘭𝘴 𝘸𝘦𝘳𝘦 𝘶𝘴𝘦𝘥 𝘪𝘯 𝘵𝘩𝘦𝘪𝘳 𝘤𝘳𝘦𝘢𝘵𝘪𝘰𝘯.