Until she came face to face with a frightened Anastasia. "My queen, can that really be you?"
Before the queen could answer, a raspy, whispery voice called to them from above: "if you value your lives you will leave the underground immediately.... The creatures are coming!"
The Queen knew to whom the voice belonged. It was a voice she had not heard for many years... The voice of the dryad, the tree spirits. The question was, could they be trusted...

until the screams were heard from manholes around the town. The Queen was not afraid of these screams, she followed them thoughout the nights, and on October 20th at 8:00 pm, she open the manhole and climbed down the spider webbed ladder into the deep dark batted holes, until she came face to face with?

Anastasia knew that she was on her own. She tried to remember the details of the stories she had always ignored. Old Nan had said there was only one way to escape the Dark Forest—something about following the path of the Golden Tree. What did that mean? All the trees ahead were dark with leaves of fire. But she had to keep going if she were ever to find her way back home.

She moved forward—slowly and carefully. Those stories –those horrible stories--returned to her in a rush. A young man who had mocked the Queen was lost when he stumbled over a tree root. The root wrapped around his leg and pulled him underground. His screams had been heard for hours. The Queen just laughed. Then there was the King’s cousin who challenged his rule; she was driven into the Dark Forest and never heard from again.