Test of Courage (2)

'S-should I tell her that there were afternoon courses at school and that's why I was late coming home? mmmh, maybe she believes it… however, why did I agree to go with them? it's... it's nonsense' Kristian thought, without being completely convinced about the last thing, in fact, even if he hid it, he had been buzzing since last day for the test of courage he was going to do. His heart beat for adventure.

*whoosh!

Although it was October, the air was very cold, almost wintry, a cold wind had been blowing from the north for days, and Kristian, even though he was wearing a brown leather coat, shivered with every gust.

"Uff... that's a really bad idea..." he said softly as he left school, stopping in front of the entrance gate to wait for the other two who attended the same school as Kristian but were in a different class than his.

"What's a bad idea?" Taro came running up from behind, leaping at Kristian and nearly knocking him over.

"Ah, erm, no, nothing..." Kristian left.

"Are you scared, huh?" Taro poked him.

Kristian didn't answer this question, and, actually, his greatest fear wasn't per se having to go into the forbidden forest, but having to hide his actions from his grandmother.

After a while, their friend Rick also arrived walking among the gazes of many girls from the school.

"You are ready?" He said as he arrived.

"Of course!" Taro instantly replied, hiding his jealousy for his good-looking friend, "Well, at least I'm ready…" Taro then added looking at Kristian with a persuasive gaze.

"Ah- me too..:" Kristian said shyly.

Rick looked at them both, smiling.

"Well, let's go on an adventure then!" He exclaimed pointing the way to the forbidden forest.

Before leaving, however, they checked the contents of their backpacks one more time. All three had one sunstone torch with them, some old shoes, a water bottle and something to munch on during the adventure.

They changed their shoes immediately, not wanting to dirty the ones they used for school.

To reach the forbidden forest, located to the north, starting from their school, which was located in the southeast part of the city, they would have had to cross a large part of the city and on the way they would have had to hide their intentions from passers-by and the village police. In fact, the forest was not called "forbidden" without a reason, there was a law that forbade even approaching the forest without a permit.

The closer they got to the forest, the more policemen roamed the streets.

"This way," Rick instructed. In the previous days Rick had figured out the best way to go to get to the forest without being noticed, and, being the son of a policeman and having followed his father several times in his afternoon patrols, he knew very well which areas of the city were more or less controlled.

Following the blond boy's instructions to the letter, the three arrived smoothly at the edge of the city.

They had almost made it out of the city.

The city, on the northern border, had a long iron fence two meters high and with barbed wire on top that served as a border.

This long fence had only three exits, and the one Rick had chosen to use was the northwest one.

His choice was not without reason or due to chance, in fact, the northwest exit was often guarded by a guard named Lindof, a guard who almost always slept during his shifts.

Rick, Taro and Kristian, around the corner, would find themselves in front of the exit of the city chosen by Rick

Rick waved for the others to stop and be quiet. They were standing at the corner of a house.

*Yawn

A yawn was heard coming from the gate, Rick leaned out and saw a man in uniform of about forty with red hair and a mustache, sitting on a wooden chair, barely holding his head up.

"He's awake… damn… we have to wait a bit…" Rick said softly.

The three waited in silence for half an hour, but the guard continued with difficulty to stay awake.

Time passed quickly and it was almost half past three in the afternoon, which left the three young men with only about three hours before sunset.

"Maybe we should try another day," Rick suggested. Taro seemed to agree.

These words caused a sense of disappointment in Kristian's heart. Deep down, his boyish heart was intrigued by the idea of ​​exploring the forest, and while his mind told him that going home was the right decision, his heart was disappointed by the course of events. After all, he had already disobeyed his grandmother by not returning home immediately after school and therefore he would still have been punished, however, if he had returned now, he would have returned without having nourished even a little of his curiosity which for years had been repressed by his grandmother.

"C-can we wait-"

"Shhh-" Taro cut him off, "do you hear that too?"

The three fell silent.

*Snoore… Snooore…

The noise came from around the corner, from where the guard was.

At the same instant, all three smiled realizing what that noise was.

All three leaned over to see the guard, who was now dozing blissfully, snoring loudly.

Disappointment disappeared from Kristian's heart, who, for the first time in the last five years, thought: 'how lucky...'.

The three, with graceful steps, crossed the north-west gate of the city, pouring into a field of tall grass.

"From here on there's just a big field of weeds separating us from the forest..." Rick said.

"Mm… Rick, w-wouldn't it be better to use the dirt path there?" Taro asked in a trembling voice.

"On that path there are sometimes controllers, we have to avoid them..." Rick explained.

*Gulp

Taro now had a terrified look on his face.

"Everything ok?" Kristian asked concerned.

"Y-yes… let's go…" He said with a slightly trembling voice.

"Haha… Kristian, don't you remember?" Rick asked his childhood friend.

"Mm…?" Kristian racked his brains, however, the memories of his childhood were distant and hazy in his mind.

"Taro is terrified of snakes... and now we are about to walk across a field famous for being a den of many snakes… Do you remember that time in front of the 'Cold Fortress' ice cream cart?"

Hearing Rick's words, Kristian recalled the time Taro mistook a windblown branch for a snake and jumped back into an ice cream cart, knocking it over and sending ice cream flying onto the people around it.

"pf" Kristian laughed softly, covering his mouth with the palm of his right hand.

"Hey!" protested Taro embarrassed, "don't always bring up that story... n-now it's different!" Taro, wanting to prove to his friends that he was now braver than in the past, took the first step, crossing the high grass of the field.