Morning finally came, the sun and the birds were awake and so was her. It was a Saturday so there was no school to worry about. The girl walked sleepily to the kitchen, where her parents were waiting for her with a big smile on their faces. "That's weird...", she thought "They usually don't do that". The girl was in the kitchen now and she sat on the table. Her mum was sitting at the opposite side of the table and told the young girl, "Remember when you asked us to go to the forest, darling?". She was more than surprised, and had a slight idea of where this was going, the last time she asked them to go was two weeks ago.

Her father got up from the chair and walked over to his daughter, then kneeled to her height with a huge smile on his face, "Someone has a birthday party there, can you guess who it is?" he asked her, arching a brow.

"Is it me?!", she asked in excitement, hopping in place. The man nodded his head and patted her head in an attempt to calm her down- thought it didn't really work. "Now go get ready sweetie!" her mum said while getting up from her chair and walking to the bathroom to freshen up.

The girl ran into her room not even thinking about having breakfast first. She put on a pink long-sleeved shirt with a unicorn head on it along with a pair of fuchsia pants with small flower stamps scattered on them. She prepared her bag with anything that she thought was necessary, such as sketchbooks, pencils, her trusty rubber that could erase any stray line,  along with sugar cubes that she stole from the jar in the kitchen (just in case she came across that same horse). At last, she was ready for the big "journey" with her brand new neon pink shoes.

Skipping to the kitchen once again she found her parents waiting for her with a pick-nick basket on the kitchen counter. Her mum was filling the basket with fruit, a couple of water bottles and three sandwiches for each one of them. Once it was ready, her dad pulled all three jackets off the hanger beside the door and gave them out to the mother and his daughter. He walked out of the house, keys in hand, and the other two followed with the basket and the red and white checkered blanket.

After a couple of minutes they were at the forest's doorstep. They hiked up the stone path and came across a clearing with a beautiful lake. The girl was staring at the dense foliage above, wandering why nothing was turning blue. Was her small adventure last time a dream? Her mother laid out the blanket at the spot they picked and they all sat down. The girl left her bag on the blanket and went to play with the butterflies at a small patch of flowers not too far away from her parents. Though, she soon spaced out looking at the forest around her.

"What are you looking for?", her father asked. He'd approached her when he saw her looking around she then asked; her mother watched closely from her spot on the blanket. 

"Can I go in the forest? On my own?", she asked him with pleading eyes. She wanted to check whether or not she imagined the blue forest or if it was all real. Her mother approached the two of them at the sound of the girl's request. 

"Of course not!", her mother said looking at her husband for some back-up. The man thought for a moment. 

"This would be good for her, she could develop some hunting skills from this", he said putting his hand on his chin. His wife looked at him in disbelief. 

"I'll be back in 15 minutes mum! I swear!", the girl said, trying to convince her that it would be okay for her to go exploring.

"Alright", her mum sighed, "You can go. But you have to be back in 15 minutes!Swear to me that whatever happens, you stay on the path and if you hear a weird sound, you run back to us", she tasked her daughter extending her pinky out to her. The girl wrapped her own pinky around her mother's with a huge smile. "I pinky promise!" she exclaimed and grabbed her bag and running to the stone path.

The girl continued up the path, looking around and storing any weird looking trees or rocks in her memory. All of a sudden the forest changed to the blue, dead forest from last time. She looked for the white horse but it was nowhere to be found. "Where is it?", the girl thought while walking farther and farther into the blue forest, making sure she was on the path just like her mother had told her.

She looked behind trees and bushes. Five minutes had passed by the time she gave up the search for the white horse and everything was quiet. There were no sounds around her, only the wind howling through the leaves and branches. Then, out of the blue, the sounds of heavy hooves came from her right, in the dense foliage that didn't let any light sip through. Soon, the sound was interrupted by hounds barking and someone shouting. Most likely a hunter. "What are they hunting" the girl wondered.

She had by now stopped on the path, clenching her fists in contemplation. She only saw two options: either break the promise she made to her mother to stay on the path or not break the promise but never learn what all the shouting was about. It was a difficult choice but she chose to break the promise. It wouldn't hurt to only take a small peek, right? With a nod full of determination she started running towards the sound, finding that even though the foliage looked dark, there was blue light lighting up her way. She was slapping branches and leaves out of her face as she tore through the bushes. And then the brightness rose abruptly.

She had gotten out of the bushes and she was now facing a lake. She stopped dead in her tracks, recognizing the lake as the one from before. She looked around but her parents were nowhere in sight. The barking became louder and out of instinct, she hid behind the bushes she'd kicked while she was running. The white horse came into view, galloping like its life depended on it, and jumped into the lake. That's when the hounds' barking became frantic; they were very close, she could hear the rustling of the leaves as they ran. In a matter of seconds, two pharaoh hounds ran through the dead bushes that were surrounding the open area, they stopped barking once they didn't see the horse. Two hunters came running behind the dogs, each of them holding a shotgun. One of the men shot a bullet in the lake to see if the horse was in there. Their terrified screams followed shortly after two threatening, as red eyes approached them from the depths of the lake.

The white creature emerged from the lake but it looked more aggressive; baring its sharp teeth at the hunters, almost forming a scowl. The two hounds were the first to run with their tails between their legs as the hunters just stood there shaking with fear. The horse was resting its strong legs on the shore ready to go after them -the rest of its body was underwater- but the hunters quickly came back to their senses and scampered off after their dogs.

Its terrifying red eyes slowly went back to their normal blue color as it calmed down and right after that, it dived back in the lake. The water was stable seconds after. It hadn't seen her and now she couldn't see it in the water. A minute passed and with no sign of the horse coming back to the shore, she made way to go back to her parents.

When the girl returned to the normal green forest, she was greeted by her parents who bombarded her with various questions about her small 'adventure'. Of course, she told them about the hunters she came across and the horse that scared them off. The look on her dad's face after she mentioned the horse was one she couldn't describe; it was like a weird poker face. Her mum looked slightly worried as well but she quickly changed the topic, telling her to go play in the flowers.

When they got back home, the sky was filled with rain clouds. It was so dark that the sun wasn't visible. Few minutes earlier it started to storm with lightning and thunder. Not much was said during dinner other than the parents singing 'Happy Birthday' to their daughter for her birthday. She was now seven-years-old, one less year she'd have to spend in school. 

In the night's sweet dreams the young girl had nightmares of all kinds. Neighs and cries had filled her head to the point where she woke up. Even awake, the sounds kept going in her head. She couldn't sleep that night.