HOL Ravenclaw

The neighbors are concernedly desiring answers, as they should be. After only one night, the news has spread like wildfire in many places outside of Skystead.

Since the village’s disappearance, clamor could be heard throughout the town, but you notice it’s louder this afternoon as experts are now continuing to investigate the scene.

You blend in with the concerned neighbors as they crowded around the blocked forest, authorities and the restraints preventing them from going near. You furrow your eyebrows with concern and empathy. The news that left everyone baffled is the unfortunate truth. As you watch the scene, you observe nothing odd. What truly was once a village is now a simple forest shielded by tall trees.

Task:
Create an artwork (photo manipulation, collage, or an illustration) and show us how the forest you see looks like, OR write about it in at least 100 words. The sky’s the limit when it comes to creativity, but please make sure to keep it appropriate for all ages.

Alternatively, write at least 125 words about how you handle sudden change. Do you like change? How do you adjust to new or different things?

This task is worth 15 beans/sapphires. You can earn an additional 10 bonus beans for completing all Week One tasks by Friday, October 31st, at 11:59 PM (HOL time).

Upon completion of this task, an additional “task” in the form of a symbol or puzzle will be sent to you by me, Katherine Laurier, through Private Message within 24 hours. You can accomplish this as a means of earning more beans and sapphires, however this is not required for you to complete, just like any other “regular” task. Alternatives for the symbol/puzzle may be requested through the same Private Message. For more detailed information, feel free to check Information and Questions or ask me a question through PM!

Whether or not I like change is very difficult for me to answer. I tend to get bored by staying in one place for too long and I also tend to not know how to stop doing things the same way as earlier. I am a Moon in Sagittarius and Sun in Taurus in terms of the zodiac. Sagittarius is a free - spirited adventurous wanderer and Taurus is a stable, down-to-earth, reliable homey. These two aspects tend to clash and though I can't do the same thing for long, the prospect of having to adjust to something new can also be daunting to me. For example, in the case of the forest appearing in place of a vanished village as in this activity, the initial news wouldn't shock me at all, instead I would be very excited that something new happened for me to explore, because of my Sagittarius tendencies. This is why the initial shock of sudden change doesn't bother me much because I see it as a new challenge, a new puzzle, a new adventure. But Sagittarius, though optimistic, tends to be unfocused and easily distracted at times, so I lose the novelty of the whole thing soon. When it comes to actually following through on the adventure, I tend to find it hard because the initial excitement, courtesy of being a Sagittarius, fades.Then, when it's time to get to work, the Taurus part of me is upset with the actual strategy, for example, having to walk around in a forest instead of meeting the villagers in this case. A Taurus doesn't like to break daily habits and routine, and actually transitioning into a new way of doing things irks me heavily, resulting in laziness or constant complaining.I end up looking inconsistent then. I can overcome this, though, when I try, by keeping the fire of the Sagittarius alive voluntarily. I have to regularly switch up things to keep it interesting, for e.g., exploring a new tree in the forest everyday in this case.
Therefore, I deal with sudden change by keeping the initial excitement alive and strategically using these bursts of excitement to fuel my energy for actually creating a new way of adapting to the changed circumstances.

The forest has incredibly thick tall trees-so tall that I can’t see the top of them. I don’t know much about different types of trees, but I think at least some of the ones in this Forrest are oak, as it looks like there are some acorns scattered around. I can’t see much of what’s going on inside the forest as it’s so dense, but I can definitely hear some creatures running around in there. I think there’s a mix of magical and non magical as, I’m pretty sure I can hear the voices of a few centaurs from deep inside the forest, it the small amount of sunlight glinting off the trees has shown a couple of squirrels running up and down them collecting the acorns. There’s definitely the sounds of several more animals and creatures in the Forrest, but I’m unsure what they are.

Unfortunately, for me, Change can be hard and I don't handle most sudden changes well. It's worse if it's a sudden change. If there is notice ahead of time, I can find a way to work around the change. If the change comes in the form of a cancellation, I can hopefully reschedule the plans. Sudden changes doesn't allow time to think of how to work around it or to reschedule. Sometimes I can go into a bit of a detective mode if a sudden change happens that affects me and those close to me and I'm not sure or don't understand what happened or why. So a change such as a whole village disappearing would be huge and hard to fathom and I would want to investigate a change like that until there were answers.

Lines of black and yellow tape section off the forest before me, reminding me of the opening scene of one of my favourite movies, Hoodwinked. This is unfortunately not some light-hearted comedy though, as an entire village has vanished and has been replaced by this eerie forest. The bark of the trees is a deep brown, and the shadows between them are impossibly dark. A tangled canopy of leaves crowns the forest and gives the impression that whatever is inside the forest, if anything, is well and truly trapped in a dark prison. I sneak a little bit closer to the barricades to see if I can see anything a bit closer, but the dark, imposing view does not change no matter how close I get.