They had been walking for some time when they came to the thick forest. They just started to walk through when a branch lifted Taylor and flung him back.
"Are you ok?" Daria asked.
"Yeah, I'm fine. That's what comes of being all straw." He grinned.
"Owie!" Zac yelped.
"Zac? What's wrong?" Daria inquired.
"The tree hit me." He wailed.
"Hmm, I have an idea." Isaac said, wielding his axe.
He walked calmly over and chopped off any branch that tried to attack him. Daria, Taylor, Zac and Toby followed closely behind.
The trees stopped attacking and they were soon able to pass through without further incident.
**********
When the trees began to thin out a bit, they started walking through a beautiful forest. Then they noticed that there was a great gathering of different animals not far ahead. When they saw Zac, the whole crowd gathered around them.
"There's this huge spider that's been causing us heaps of problems." said a tiger. "It's eaten all the other lions already. Please Mr Lion, would you help us?"
"Umm, well, I suppose." Zac replied. "And call me Zac: Mr Lion makes me feel a hundred. Where's the spider?"
The tiger pointed in the direction and Zac headed off. He saw the spider fast asleep, and he noted that the tiger was not exaggerating when he called it huge!
At any rate, Zac noted that it's neck (or lack thereof) was only very small, and so a weakness. Realising that the spider would be easier to defeat asleep than awake, he lifted if paw, extended his claws and with one great whack knocked the head right off.
Zac then headed back to the animals and his companions.
"Your enemy is dead!" he declared.
The animals were so grateful that they asked Zac to be their king. Zac agreed, but said that he would first see that Daria got home, and off they went again.
They hadn't gone too far out of the forest when they got to the hill - the very big hill. They had only gotten to the foot of it when they heard the voice cry out:
"Go away! This hill is our and you can't cross it!"