So what do we do now?" Alice wondered. Miles frowned and they both fell silent again, their spirits sinking. Neither had a clue what course to take next. "The fire's going out," Alice remarked gloomily.
Then Miles had an idea. "I know!" he cried and leapt to his feet. Alice glanced up at him hopefully. "We can strip the bark from the trees! That'll save us having to go off looking for logs again."
"Is that the best you can think of?" snapped Alice. But Miles was too busy to listen. He opened his Swiss army knife Uncle Jeff had given him and began hacking into a nearby tree when......
There was a spine-chilling, piercing, blood-curdling scream!
The children shook with renewed terror. "What's that?" cried Alice.
"It's ME!" came a booming disembodied voice "I'm bleeding!"
"Who are you?" yelled Miles.
"I'm Larch," was the answer, and a man's head suddenly appeared from the high branches of the tree which Miles had started to strip. "When you cut me with a knife, I scream!"
"I'm Beech," another head popped down from the tree," and if you steal my bark, I'll die!"
"And I'm Horse" said yet another head, "and if you hurt me, I will whinny and kick and bite you - hard!"
All at once, dozens of people started jumping out from all over the place; down from the trees and out from the enormous ferns that fringed the forest. At first, it was almost impossible to distinguish men from the women, as they all sported beads and smocks and dreadlocks, and their faces were smeared with greeny-brown gunge, and their makeshift clothes, dyed to blend into their surroundings, were decorated with assorted leaves and feathers.
Extract from "Flight from Fernilee"
https://www.amazon.co.uk/Flight-Fernilee-Jacy-Brean/dp/1086551907
https://www.amazon.com/Flight-Fernilee-Jacy-Brean/dp/1086551907/ref=mp_s_a_1_1?keywords=flight+from+fernilee&qid=1632812832&sr=8-1
