Joe, Tim and Jilly went walking in the woods one night. It was a cold, damp night. The branches on the trees looked like bony hands waving in the wind. The owls could be heard hooting in the distance. The nocturnal animals were foraging for food and catching their prey. A badger scuttled past them, its white stripes gleaming in the moonlight. A bat flew past them as he was weaving his way through the trees searching for insects to eat.  The mice scampered past their feet. Suddenly, to their astonishment they could see a strange eerie light coming from a clearing in the woods. As they walked closer the light got brighter. There was something moving. They kept creeping closer, using the trees to hide behind. They stopped behind a massive oak-tree together, holding onto each other with fear. Jilly was trembling. Again, they saw something moving. It sounded big and it was breathing.

It was a young man. He was very tall and he had jet-black hair. He had torn clothes. He was as pale as a ghost. We approached cautiously. Just as Joe was about to speak, the man said in a breathless voice "Go ahead and find it" and then he paused. We saw him falling with a thump to the ground. We saw a badge on his raggy jumper that said "Archaeologist, Homer J. Simpson". Jilly was rummaging in her rucksack; she found a map of the wood. There was an X at the bottom of the map and we were exactly at the spot. We began our investigation. We heard a noise coming from behind the trees. SUDDENLY, a green slimy hand slithered out and grabbed the map off Tim. Tim was speechless. We were stranded in the middle of the forest with no map. We saw a bright light shining in the distance but it wasn’t the moon. We strolled up towards the light. After a while we reached the light. It was a candle lighting in the window of a nice looking cottage. The house looked very welcoming. So we strode up to the door of the cottage. Jilly opened the door and we walked in. The door slammed and locked. When……....

we came in, we looked around the little cottage. It looked more like a cabin because it was mostly built out of wood except for above the fireplace, which was red brick, and the fire was blazing in it. The cottage was very small with only four bedrooms, a kitchen, a sitting–room, a toilet and the bedroom obviously belonged to an old man. They turned around and, just as they had thought, there was an old man standing behind them. He looked friendly, except he was pointing a double-barrelled shotgun right at Joe. So they decided to talk their way out of it. Since Joe was the oldest and the tallest, he did most of the talking. Joe said to the man "Nice shirt" and then laughed but they didn’t even get a smirk out of the old lunatic. The old man asked them their names but neither Joe, Tim nor Jilly answered him. They were all waiting there in silence. Surprisingly, the man said that his name was Frank. That got a shocked look from the children. They figured that he was a nice man if they got to know him. Eventually they told him their names. Frank apologised for coming on so mean with the shotgun and he then put it down on the table. He asked them what they were doing in the woods. They said that it was a long story. Frank sat them down for a nice hot cup of tea and they told him all about the map and everything they had seen. Frank recognised what it was. He told them a shocking story about it. He started the story saying ‘10 years ago a science project took place in this wood. They made seeds out of fifty different chemicals. They turned wild. It wasn’t what anyone expected. So they killed all of them or so they thought. Frank didn’t know what they used to kill them but he wished he did. For once Tim asked a question. He asked, ‘Why would the thing take our map?’ Frank said, ‘I was getting around to that. He has no one to torture or whatever he does to them. That is why he keeps everyone forever, unfortunate enough to enter the wood, or else he kills them. "What was the name of the man you saw dead?" Frank said. ‘Homer Simpson’, Jill said. ‘Uh, Uh,’ said Frank. ‘What’s wrong?’ Joe asked. ‘The name of the scientist was Homer Simpson’, said Frank. ‘Well, that settles it. We have to kill this thing ourselves’. "But how?" said Tim. ‘We’ll find a way. Just look at it like this. It is only a plant. What do you use to kill plants at your house?’ ‘Fire’, said Tim, thinking he solved everything. ‘Yes, that’s true but once I threw a flame torch at it and it quenched it with some sort of water spray. I was lucky to get away from it.’ ‘What if we set the whole wood on fire?, said Joe. ‘There’s no way he would be able to get free.’ ‘My cottage would get burned too then. All right, it’s a small price to pay. I must gather my possessions.’ So, they got the torch and set fire to a few trees. Then, they made a run for it. They caught a glimpse of the monster coming up fast, about 20 miles an hour. He caught Tim’s foot. Joe set fire to the monster with his torch. He was on fire but he still wouldn’t let go. Then a tree fell on him and on Tim’s foot. The monster was dead but Tim’s foot was broken. Frank and Joe lifted Tim out of the forest while it was still burning. When they got out, they just realised that Frank had nowhere to live. When they were going home, Frank saw an antique shop, so, he decided to sell all his possessions. Fortunately for him, they were worth one hundred thousand pounds. He then bought a house for himself!

Section 1:    Dromina N.S., Charleville, Co. Cork

Section 2:    Newtownshandrum N.S., Newtownshandrum, Charleville, Co. Cork

Section 3:    Newmarket Boys' N.S., Newmarket, Mallow, Co. Cork