ElizabethPrompt: You are blindfolded and being led through some woods. Describe what you can hear, smell, feel and taste.
I feel the uneven dirt beneath my feet as I trudge along the forest path, my weight causing the fallen leaves to release a symphony of crackles and crunches with every step. I hear the wind rustling the leaves in the trees and birds chirping as they flitter from branch to branch.
My right hand is held by rough fingers, leading me forward. The hold is gentle but firm, not in a mean or scary way, but in a purposeful way.
A black cloth obscures my vision as I am led deeper and deeper into the dense forest. I could see little splotches of light that fought their way through the fibers of the cloth, and could just barely make out the outline of trees, but otherwise, I might as well have been blind. I was told that this was to protect the “sacredness” of the ceremony, whatever that meant.
You see, I had just joined this Dungeons and Dragons club to try and make some new friends over the summer. I had been told by some adults that D&D was really a demonic game and that it would be better for me to steer clear of the kids who “dabbled with the devil” as they said. What in the hell was I getting myself into?
As we walked deeper into the woods, no more splotches of light permeated my eye covering. I figured that we must have entered a thick part of the forest. Even the joyful sound of chirping birds was drowned out by the immense silence that surrounds us.
We kept walking until I felt the heat of the sun on my bare arms. We must have entered a clearing of some sort. I felt my leader stop moving, signaling me to stop. I felt a pair of hands remove my blindfold, letting in the full power of the summer sun. I winced for a moment as my eyes adjusted to the brightness, but once my vision cleared, I found myself standing in a beautiful meadow studded with thousands of wildflowers. The breeze was cool and light, just enough to temper the heat of summer.
“Where are we?” I asked.
As soon as the words left my lips, ten little figured emerged from behind the treeline. They had masks painted in the likeness of animals, only these animals had enormous fangs and what looked like blood dripping from their mouths. They came running towards me in the middle of the clearing, their arms waving over their heads.
“WHO ARE YOU?” I screamed, as I braced myself for the attack.
Suddenly, the figures stopped in their tracks and began to… laugh?
Their laughter became so immense that some were doubling over.
They soon removed their morbid masks to reveal none other than the members of the D&D club.
I breathed a sigh of immense relief.
“This must be initiation,” I thought with a smile forming on my face. I was too busy feeling the relief of not being murdered that I wasn’t even mad at their prank!
“You should have seen your face!”
“You were sooooo scared!”
I laughed along with my friends, thankful that this situation ended with laughter rather than the ritual sacrifice that many told me it was going to be.
