Excerpt
The horse-drawn carriage sped across the countryside, aided by the ghostly blue light from the full moon above. The wooden wheels rutted the dirt road that ran through a particularly eerie patch of forest deep within the countryside. Perhaps the eeriness was due to the fact that I rode alone in the carriage, flying through the dark blue void as the howls of wolves followed us.
Keep in mind, of course, that the sound of the horses' hooves and squeaking wheels was deafening, but still the piercing awful cry of the hungry wolf could be heard.
I would poke my heard out the window from time to time to try and spot the no-doubt bloodthirsty beasts, but all I saw were the dark, ominous trees speeding past and the glowering moon high above. It was a night for witches, not one for attending to school.
The driver, a gruff dockworker, who smelled of fish, flopped his massive, monkey face around and grunted. I poked my head out again and he pointed in the distance with his knobby fingers.
"We're almost there, boy," he said, shouting over the cacophony of the carriage. "You'll be able to catch your first glimpse of Candlewood as we come up over this rise ahead."
The carriage bounded up over a rise in the road and then dipped down deeper than I had expected. As we moved downward in an impossibly vertical state I did indeed catch my first glimpse of the prestigious Candlewood Boarding School for boys and girls.
