A Gracious Host (standard:mystery, 1551 words)
Author: LisaAnn	Added: Feb 23 2001	Views/Reads: 5136/2533	Story vote: 0.00 (0 votes)
Two children decide to take an adventurous walk in the woods. But what they find there is something they never would have thought or dreamed of.

"A Gracious Host" 

One sunny afternoon, Tommy said to his sister Tina, "Let's go for a walk
in the woods." 

"Tommy, you know we're not supposed to go in there.  Mom would kill us."
Tina said in a frightened voice. 

"We're not going in really far.  Just for a little walk.  We'll keep
going straight through, and when we want to come back home, we'll just 
turn around." 

Tina wasn't too thrilled about it, but she said okay anyway. 

They said good-bye to their mom and said they'd be back before supper. 

As they headed for the woods it was already getting dark. 

"Okay, so we're just going to be here for a few minutes right?"  Tina
asked hopefully. 

"Yeah, maybe we can see some animals, or if we're really lucky, a bear!"
Tommy said. 

They walked and walked, and all that they saw were trees.  There were
fallen branches on the ground and leaves everywhere.  When Tina walked 
on them, they made snapping sounds.  She screamed.  "AAAH!"  She was 
already jumpy because first of all, she's never been in the woods, and 
second, it was practically nighttime.  She didn't like the dark. 

Tina looked up.  "Tommy, can we head back home now?  We haven't seen
anything and it's already dark out.  Mom's going to be worried.  And 
plus she'll know we were in the woods today.  We'll be grounded." 

"Okay, okay.  You're just being a baby.  I know you're scared, but I
don't want mom mad at us either because I have a baseball game on 
Saturday.  She'll never let me go if she finds out about this."  Tommy 
thought. 

So they agreed to head back.  They turned around and it was so dark,
they couldn't see their hands in front of their faces. 

"Oh great!"  Tommy said.  "It's darker than I thought.  The woods are
completely covered in blackness because of the trees." 

"What are we going to do?"  Cried Tina. 

"Well, since we can still see in this direction, let's keep going. 
Maybe there's someone who lives around here."  Tommy said. 

He held Tina's hand as they walked further.  Everytime they heard a
noise, it sounded like it was right in front of them.  It made them 
jump constantly.  They heard little creatures scurrying in front of 
them as they walked. 

Finally, there was a familiar light shining through some trees.  It was
from a lamp.  The light was coming from a window.  As the got a little 
closer, they could just make out the shape of a house.  There really 
was someone who lived out here. 

Tina held Tommy's hand tight as they neared the house.  they tried to
look in the windows, but the one with the light in it was on the second 
floor. 

Outside, there was wood piled up high and an axe laying on the ground. 

"Tommy, I'm scared.  We can't go inside this house.  What about if this
person is a weirdo or something?"  Tina said, ready to cry. 

"Well, we have to.  It's already dark out here and I'd rather be inside
than outside in the woods at night.  Let's just knock and see if 
anyone's home.  The person is probably nice.  Just some person who 
wanted some peace and quiet, so they built a house in the middle of 
nowhere."  Tommy said reassuringly to his sister. 



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