Adora and Catra going to the Whispering Woods edge as children and daring each other to touch a tree.
Aw that’s such a cute idea! I hope you like it <3
“Adoraaa.”
Adora groaned as she felt her bed dip beside her. Every partof her hurt, having spent the day training. She should’ve been used to it bynow, but her regimen had been getting steadily more difficult now that she wasten and if she had to go through one more day of this torture, her arms wouldprobably fall off.
Her plan was to immediately fall asleep, but Catra wasbouncing excitedly. She probably didn’t need to train as hard, thanks to hernatural abilities.
“Adora.”
Groaning, Adora sat up stiffly. “What,” she deadpanned.
“I’m boorreed.”
“So go to sleep.”
“But I’m not tired.”
“But I am.”
They held each other’s gaze, but then Catra did that thingwhere her eyes got all round and shiny and Adora was weak.
“Fine, what do you want?”
Catra grinned broadly. “Let’s sneak out. To the WhisperingWoods!”
“Are you crazy?” Adora’s eyes widened. “We can’t do that.”
Catra crossed her arms. “Why? Are you scared?”
Adora opened her mouth to argue and then gave up. If shedidn’t go, Catra would just go by herself. At least this was she could look outfor her.
“Fine.”
Catra smiled and grabbed Adora’s hand to pull her out of thedorm, the blonde wincing slightly at the strain on her sore muscles.
Being friends with Catra meant that they sneaked around a lotand it was way too easy to make it out of the base, considering their age. Eventually,though, they reached the edge of the Whispering Woods.
It definitely lived up to all the stories. It was dark, with justenough of a glow to create an ominous feeling. Adora felt the hairs on the backof her neck prick up and tried to breath through her racing heart.
“Maybe this wasn’t such a good idea.”
Catra rolled her eyes, although her smile had fallen a bit. “Come on, I dare you to touch a tree.”
Adora scoffed. “Why don’t you touch a tree?”
“Fine, we’ll both touch a tree.”
“Catra!”
But she didn’t listen, instead grabbing Adora’s hand to pullher closer to the darkness and the creaking and the demons probably lurking inthe shadows.
They reached a tree on the edge of the woods, a small onethat was still growing. Catra lifted their joined hands and rested them on thetrunk. She may have been tired, but Adora felt like there was a humming comingfrom the tree.
“There,” Adora’s voice only wavered a little bit. “Wetouched the tree, now let’s go.”
Catra let go of her hand, but then revealed a knife that shehad strapped to her back.
“What the heck?” Adora gasped. “Why do you have a knife?”
“Relax, Adora,” she said, pressing the hilt of the bladeinto her hand. “It’s so we can carve our names into the tree.”
“So we can what?” Catra had officially lost her mind.
“Well, we aren’t just going to touch a tree. That’sboring. We’ve got to leave our mark.”
“Catra…”
“Come on,” Catra brandished a claw before nodding to theknife in Adora’s hand. “Just our names.”
Adora swallowed a lump of fear before bringing up the knifeto start carving out an ‘A’.
They were just finishing the first letter of their nameswhen there was a rustling sound. Looking up, Adora swore she saw a pair of eyesglowing from within the darkness. She turned and met Catra’s gaze, who gave a weaksmile.
“I think that’s enough of a mark for today.”
Adora nodded furiously before they both turned and ran back tothe base.
She would not be returning to the woods anytime soon, no matter what the Catra gave her.
