Legend of the Forest Guardians

Emma hopped out of her silver suburban and stared at the sparkling lake ahead of her. She could not believe they were able to find an off-road path to the old boat launch point. The main road had a rusted gate that read, “CLOSED, DO NOT ENTER”. It had been years since the location was all over the news, so Emma and Cora figured it’d be the perfect, secluded camping adventure. “I could use a little help here, Emma!” Cora huffed as she struggled to hoist the canoe off the car. Emma shook her gaze from the lake and ran over to the car. “Oh, hold on Cora I’m coming!” Emma called apologetically. Emma and Cora lifted the canoe above their heads and carried it down to the launch, putting it down and adjusting the boat so it was halfway in the water and halfway on the gravel. Both caught their breaths and high fived. “I’m so excited we’re doing this!” Exclaimed Emma. Cora nodded, “Same here! Now, we need to load up the canoe with our gear. Then, we have two lakes to cross to get to the original site. There is a dam thirty minutes into the first lake that we need to carry our canoe and gear up. There is a nice spot where we can put our canoe into the second lake at the top. After that, we have just thirty more minutes of rowing before we hit land and we can hike into the forest there.” Emma took a minute to process just how much work they had to do before they finally reached the mysterious camping grounds. Emma said, “Oh man, OK, well let’s get started before we run out of daylight!”

The two packed their gear into the canoe and began their journey. The lake was so clear and pure. Every breath smelt like the fragrant pine of evergreen trees surrounding both sides of the giant lake. Everything had been so untouched by humans, since everyone was too afraid of ending up like the thirteen missing people five years back. When the first couple went missing, everyone assumed they got lost in the wild. After all, there are no cell towers, no civilization, no nothing this far out. Just mountains and mountains of rivers and trees. When more and more people went missing, the media exploded. Rescue parties, park rangers, and the police never found any of the missing people after months of searching. They eventually had to call off the search. Everyone expected foul play, but the case went cold. The owners of the campground had to close down due to safety concerns and bad press. Emma remembered watching the whole story unfold when she was 15. “Hey Cora, how do you think the Campground Killer hid all those bodies? How could they sneak them out of such a difficult spot to hike into? Especially when the search began for the first few missing people?”. Cora smirked, “Maybe they live deep in the woods and hid all of them in a secluded cave.” Emma did not like the thought of that, or how casually Cora said it. Emma said, “Oh come on Cora, there’s no way the killer could hide from the search dogs.” Cora shrugged, which made Emma feel like her logic was justified. Emma sighed with relief.

The two continued on their journey up the dam and across the second lake and made it to the old campground launch site. Cora rocked the canoe with excitement, “This is it! Oh my gosh we actually made it! We’re only about a ten minute hike from the campgrounds!” Cora and Emma paddled faster and the canoe hit the gravel of the shore. Both jumped out, grabbed a backpack and began the hike to the campground. It was almost impossible to tell people used to camp there. The ground where most foot traffic had been was covered in grass. The sign pointing into the forest that read, “Evergreen Grove this way!” had seen better days. Weather and time had worn the wooden sign down and the letters were faded out. Emma and Cora stepped out of the clearing and into the tree line, hearts racing with excitement. The forest ground was covered in a thick layer of pine needles and pine cones. The giant evergreen trees shaded the forest and made everything feel secure and peaceful. Light that escaped between tree branches glimmered on the forest floor. The forest had no sign of destruction from the busy, bustling times of the past. The forest had healed from human contact. “Ya know, I used to camp here with my family when I was like, eight years old. This is bringing back so much nostalgia!” Cora exclaimed. Emma raised her eyebrows, “Oh wow, well I guess that explains how you knew the path to get here so well.” Cora nodded, “Yup. It’s so nice to see it not littered in trash from rude campers. This place used to be a mess.” It was not long before Cora ran ahead and yelled, “This is it! This is it Emma! This is the spot my family camped!” Laying just in front of them was a clearing in the forest with logs surrounding an old man-made fire pit, with rocks of various sizes. Emma stared in awe, “Oh wow, this is the perfect little spot!”. Cora jumped for joy, “I told you! We did it! We have the forest all to ourselves now!”

The day had gone by, and Emma and Cora set up their tent and relaxed for the rest of the evening. They were both exhausted from the trip to the campground. The two walked around the forest floor, picking up sticks and cutting apart logs from fallen trees with a handsaw. Emma and Cora made their campfire just in time for sundown. Emma popped open a bag of marshmallows, stuck one on a stick and smiled. Cora did the same, and said, “Cheers to us for daring to go where others feared!” Emma smiled, “Yes, cheers! It was totally worth it.” They bopped their marshmallows together in celebration, and began roasting the marshmallows over the flames.

Emma and Cora ate marshmallows and talked late into the night to their heart's content. They looked at the stars above their heads. There were so many more than the nearly empty night city sky. Eventually, the two became tired and retired to their tent for the night. Cora had fallen asleep almost immediately and began to snore. Emma was just about to drift to sleep… when she heard rustling in the night. Emma jolted up and began to sweat. Her heart raced and she immediately remembered Cora’s theory about the killer living in the woods. Emma shook Cora, “Wake up, I heard something, I think someone is there.” Cora looked at Emma, then at the tent door. Both of them listened… and this time Cora heard the rustling too. “Who’s there!?!” Cora demanded while clutching her flashlight like a weapon. The forest called back, “Who? Who? Who?”. Cora put her hand on her chest and sighed, “Oh god. It’s just a stupid owl. We’re OK Emma.” Emma felt embarrassed and her face flushed red. “Sorry, I just was trying to be cautio-” Emma couldn’t even finish the sentence before something hit the tent. Emma and Cora shrieked and grabbed each other for comfort. This time, the multiple owls shrieked back. Emma and Cora couldn’t even process what was happening. The tent was being torn at by dozens of owls at every side. Both of them sat, screaming and crying at the insanity before them. Soon, there would be no tent. Emma squeaked, “What do we do?!? We’re trapped!” Cora’s facial expression turned from dismay to one with a plan in seconds. Cora yelled, “You have to trust me! Cover your face with one hand and hold onto mine with the other and do NOT stop running! Do you hear me?!” Emma sobbed and nodded as the claws tore through the last bit of tent fabric. Cora grabbed Emma’s hand and went into a dead sprint into the direction of the campground sign. Immediately, Emma felt pain. Both of them were being scratched and clawed mercilessly by flying shadows in the dark. Emma felt the claws everywhere, her head, the back of her neck, and her hand that was protecting her face. Cora was being attacked as well, but she never stopped sprinting and dragging Emma along with her. They broke out of the tree line and past the sign, stumbling over the uneven rocks all while they were being terrorized by a frenzy of gigantic owls. Corra suddenly let go of Emma's hand and screamed, “LIFT!!! HURRY!!!” They were at the canoe. Emma suddenly knew what Cora’s plan was. They were standing next to the canoe they had shoved onto shore. Emma grabbed the canoe with her bloodied hands, knelt onto the ground next to it with Cora and turned it upside down onto their bodies. Emma and Cora’s hearts pounded and they caught their breaths under the metal canoe. They could hear nothing but owls screaming and thudding the canoe for what seemed like forever. Then suddenly, silence. Both did not utter a word or move for hours. Eventually, they lifted the canoe just enough to see the break of daylight.

Emma and Cora, too afraid to go back, launched their canoe into the water and began their journey to their car. Midway back, Emma finally said, “I know why they never found the bodies now” with a bleak tone. Cora stared into the water and replied, “Nobody’s gonna believe us.” Emma nodded and whispered, “The owls.. they don’t want us in their forest.” Cora said, “Well they can have it. We should have never come here in the first place… I’m so sorry, Emma”. Emma sighed, “It was my idea too Cora, don’t apologize. Some places just aren’t meant for people to be and that’s definitely one of them”.

Emma and Cora went to the hospital to treat their injuries. The press got hold of it immediately, but both Emma and Cora gave them no answers. All they would say is, “Just stay out of there and respect the forest.”. The story of Evergreen Grove survivors ran on the news for months. YouTube channels made conspiracy theories of Emma and Cora’s time in Evergreen Grove. The Youtube channels went wild with the “respect the forest” line and made all sorts of tall tales about angry forest guardians taking away campers. Only Emma and Cora would truly know what happened and that owls are the true vengeful guardians of Evergreen Grove.