The whole thing came quiet unexpected, something like

“ça va? Tout a été bien dans le forêt?” asked by aunt Clémence

“Cool” “Bien” went into the conversation, saying as much as the bare expressions

“Fine, fine” replied by uncle Jerry, to avoid those horrible silences, as they went on.

“Pourriez-vous prendre soin de Victorie demain??” came straight forward form aunt Clémence, as if she knew somehow what they were looking for

“Of course!” said the both

“Just, don’t take her too far” was heard

After the lecture, explaining what ointment to put on her in case of insect bites, or the one in case of cuts and the one of bruises, after the talk about precautions on what parts of the woods to avoid, and even remembering them not to play hide and seek in the woods, George and Kaylin were excited.

The next morning, very early, George woke up with a new feeling of accomplishment, he was going to finally see what was going on in that house, ever since he thought of bringing Victorie out of a hunch, he had been sure things were going to work out.

"I still think it's a stupid idea you know?" said Kaylin while taking the bag containing all of Victorie's stuff.

"It doesn't matter, it'll be fun! Are you a Fournier or what?" said the eager boy

"Of coarse I am, and to be honest I plan to stay that way for a while, you know, with the heart still beating and stuff" she had barely put on some jeans and s baggy shirt and a loose ponytail

"Kays! Georgie! We're leaving now, remember what we talked about being careful" was heard from the first floor ("Give daddy a kiss")

After some response of them, the door was closed, and the a little french girl was left behind. She quickly approached the stairs and climbed them with those klutzy steps just a five year old could do.

"Where are wee going!" asked the girl, excited of a possibly interesting adventure with her older relatives.

"We're going to the forest! Isn't that fun?" asked George, he had always believed kids loved him, they didn't.

"Yes, I know but where exactly?" asked curiously Victorie

"Erm... that's a surprise!" said Kaylin, trying her hardest to sound enthusiastical

"You do could work on your smile Kays" the girl said

"Shall we go?" Georged said, trying to break the uncomfortable silence

So the three Fourniers went to the forest, it was very dense, they soon lost out of sight from the house. And the trip was fine, except from some little detours, answering what that tree was, explaining why were fairies hiding, and making up stories on why weren't birds singing right at the moment

"They sure tell her a lot of fairy tales huh?" whispered George to his older cousin

"Don't get me started"

They almost lost because young Victorie was sure she had seen fairy dust in one direction, but it happened to be more like the falling feathers of a sick old chiffchaff, quiet sad. And by the time they found what was the way again it was already noon.

After a few minutes, or hours probably, they finally saw the house again, it was just like the day before, and the one before that, and the century before that. There was still the broken window near the death bushes, there it remained the old parchment with that tricky phrase that meant nothing to anyone. There still was that atmosphere of ghostly shadows surrounding the house.

"Oh mon dieux!, it is a haunted house!" screamed the little one

And despite of what Kaylin and George had thought would happen, Victorie went running towards the house, as if it was some sort of candy shop, she was thrilled when she saw the broken window and the creepy look inside, and she was more than delighted to see there was a mysterious note in the door.

"Talk about oddities..." said Kaylin, who by this point considered her five year old rabbit-hunting-sweet-hater-wine-drinker cousin a complete freak

"Oh, i see you've already noticed the weird note in the door! quiet a sleuth aren't we? can you read english?" asked the now really excited boy

"A little" shyly answered Victorie

"Well, could you read out loud that phrase for us? please!"

"Ok...'Wait for thee daa hun, because weir not comin' back before." she said, mispronouncing a few words and repeating some, but she went on. 'Onlee if you loh ook for uz' I mean 'us wide the rite heart jules get an accurate glance, faws don't waist your time, because you won't get your catch' Did I said it correctly?" asked the confused kid

"Hardly..." said Kaylin, begining to think if Geroge would now quit

"C'ommon Kaylin don't be such a buzz killer " said the hopeful cousin "could you repeat it after me Victorie?" he asked nicely

"ouais" she said dully

""Wait for the dawn, because we're not coming back before." began George

And Victorie repeated exactly "Wait for the dawn, because we're not coming back before"

"Great!, Only if you look for us with the right heart you'll get an accurate glance" said George

And so did Victorie repeat, omitting the "great" obviously.

"foes don't waste your time, because you won't get your catch" said George, being next followed by Victorie

Nothing happened

"Once more Victorie, now together!" cried George, he was really excited

"Wait for the dawn" the two said "c'ommon Kaylin, chant with us!" said George

"Because we're not coming back before" was now heard by the three

"Only if you look for us with the right heart you'll get an accurate glance" the three chanted, and a cold wind started blowing, moving the leaves all around the old house

"foes don't waste your time, because you won't get your catch" the three ended, but they went on, as if they were caught in the vibrations of the chanting, the wind turned strong, blowing and whistling.

"Wait for the dawn.." they went on and on, the girls' hair was being draged, and sweeped by the wind, blowing furiously, maing clouds of dust and leaves.

"With the right heart you'll get..." they kept on, and a CRACK was heard.

As the wind kept blowing and the boy and grils kept chanting, something could be heard, something approaching, something scratching the ground. The creature could be heard closer and closer, approaching. Then the chanitng stopped

"Aaaaaaaaah" was heard, a really loud and high scream came from the girl, while she pointed at the horrible picture

"What happened?" said George, who hadn't noticed, then he turned and he looked at it. An owl, flying really low while carrying a death ferret, doing it really slow, it looked more like an old inoffensive owl, than the dangerous predator he had expected form the scream.

Soon the wind calmed and the whole mysterious and ghostly atmosphere was gone. They just stared at each other for a while, not knowing exactly what had just happened, as they heard the tired owl trying to lift the ferret to the tree.

"Ok, we came, we saw and we even said funny words with some uky-spooky wind and... nothing happened, can we go now?" asked Kaylin, who deeply was as disappointed as George

"I guess, maybe you were right, maybe it's just some old cabin with nothing interesting but gold painted broken compasses and abacus" said George from who's voice one could notice deep disappointment and failure

"Well, something happened, an owl passed really low and close to us, that doesn't happen every day" said Victorie, not clearly understanding the big deal of the whole trip.

"We better hurry, it seems its getting dark really early" said Kaylin as they got ready to go

And as they started advancing, they heard steps, quiet near

"Probably its uncle Jerry, perhaps he forgot giving us some sunblock" said George, grimly

"Arrêtez!" they heard, from the running steps now approaching, the voice was not as low as uncle Jerry's

Then they say, as a little brown spot became bigger and bigger as it approached, it was a man running towards them. He was wearing really odd clothes, a black vest, with tight brown trousers and holding a funny hat. He was more like a boy now that he was close, as a matter of a a fact, he was no older than Kaylin, approximately seven-teen years old.

"Is everything all right?" asked the odd stranger

"Yes, we're fine why?" asked the frightened boy

"Well, I kind of heard some screaming, not the one that comes from parties you know?"

"Oh, we're sorry, it was just our little cousin Victorie, she saw a death ferret" shyly answered Kaylin

"I see, well, to be honest this woods are not safe for those who don't know it, i might be of some help" said the brownish skinned stranger

"Thanks! we might need some help" said Kaylin

"No, no we don't. We know how to get to our house, thanks anyway, we were going" said George

"Don't be rude!" madly whispered Kaylin, even if she knew the stranger was centimeters away

"I can come along if you want, is no problem, some more death ferrets can appear along!" he said before laughing along with Victorie, who had seemed to liked him right away

"Where do you come from anyways?" asked George

"Hey!" Kaylin nagged

The stranger laughed, "I'm sorry, I should have introduced myself, my name is Aishe, of Stephen if you prefer the english" he laughed

"And where do you come form?"rudely asked George

"O right!, well I kind of live around here" he said, while looking back, were an old parchment used to be nailed and now was nowhere to be found

By I'm the penguin