The Forest

By Iman Hasan, Age 9

I inhaled the scent of pine, citrus, and burnt wood and a slight bit of a floral smell. I was exploring the forest next to my house with my friends.

Thud.

I jumped! What was that sound? My friends and I were petrified but we wanted to know where this sound had come from. We slowly edged deeper into the forest. I heard an owl hoot. Was this a good idea? Suddenly, I felt a soft tickly fur touching my ankle. I froze. “There’s something that is tickling me. I don’t know what it is,” I whispered. Slowly, I turned around and spotted a small little squirrel gathering nuts near my feet. Phew! I kept walking with my friends. The smell of pine, citrus, and burnt wood was wearing away and the floral smell took over. I saw a glimpse of a vibrant purple Fireweed. My friends and I started to hurry up because it was right before lunch.

As my friends and I were running we heard another thud. How could there be two of whatever there was? My friends and I had to find out now. Zoya called us all over because there were footprints of some type of animal. As we all bent down, I noticed that they were deer prints. I hung my head down in disappointment. “Just another trace that didn’t help our mystery,” I told my friends. They were disappointed, too. I checked my watch. It was 11:45. Just 15 minutes to figure out the mystery before we had to go eat lunch. Since my house was just down the street, my friends and I went quickly to get our bikes since it would be even faster.

I checked my watch, 11:48. Not much time, I thought. We rode at lightning speed. We saw a few deer that didn’t get scared but we had no time to pet them. I looked around for anything that could have made the ‘thud’ sound. Suddenly, I went flying off my bike! Smack. My bike had hit a rock. My friends quickly parked their bikes by a tree. I was in pain. I looked around for blood. I saw a big cut on my arm but it wasn’t bleeding much. Luckily, Zanaib always kept some band-aids in her bike basket. She grabbed a few and gave them to me. I caught a glimpse of my watch. It was shattered. Now we would never know what time it was. I had to think quickly. I grabbed a few sticks and made a line so we knew where to start searching the next day. I said out loud, “I guess we will have to go back home now. We will explore another day and solve our mystery.”

***

I was already down stairs, eating breakfast, when my mom came down.

“Wow, you woke up really early today!” she said.

“Yeah,” I said “ I want to explore the forest again today. I’ll leave at 10:00 o’clock.” I gobbled down my breakfast. Then I dashed upstairs to grab my necklace watch. This wouldn’t break if I fell off my bike. I didn’t want to take a chance and break my other watch. I raced down stairs and called all my friends so that we could meet up in the forest. I also told them to bring their bikes with them. Then I jumped on my bike and hurried for the forest.

***

Me and my friends walked our bikes into the forest and looked around for the sticks I’d laid out to mark where we had stopped tracking. Zoya, who is always good at finding things, spotted the sticks. We hopped onto our bikes and started riding. I had woken so up early, I just had to unravel this mystery!

***

Me and my friends were in the middle of the forest. I looked hard. I was going fast on my bike but slow enough for me to see everything. Suddenly, I screeched to a halt. My friends and I had just heard the loudest thud ever. Whatever this thing was, it was close. My friends and I pedaled the fastest we had ever, in that direction. I jammed the brake. My friends were all confused. Then I said, “sorry there was a rabbit that was hopping by and I didn’t want to run it over.” My friends and I kept going. I kept a keen eye open to make sure I wasn’t missing anything that could have made the thud sound.

Fatima then stopped. What did she see?

Fatima said, “I found what made the noise.”

I looked around and I saw nothing that could have made the sound. She told us all to get off our bikes. She led us away to the right.

Fatima said, “ I found out that the thing making these noises was trees falling.”

I looked in front of us and there was a freshly fallen tree.

“I saw it while we were riding our bikes just a second ago,” said Fatima. “I knew then that was what made the noise.”

I said out loud, “Great job, Fatima! You found what made the noise.” I thought to myself my first mystery solved. Then my friends and I got on our bikes and rode out of the forest.

THE END