As the sun dipped behind the treetops, Amelka, Victor and Lena sat on an old bench at the edge of the Raven Forest. The August evening smelled of conifers and smoke from bonfires lit in the glades by the scouts. Their town was small, but the forest attracted everyone who felt there was something more behind the everyday. Amelka, the bravest among them, always said that at night the forest had a voice that no one should know about. That evening, however, Lena noticed something that could not be ignored: a herd of deer that unexpectedly stopped just before the edge and looked at them fixedly, too long, too intensely. Their eyes glittered in the dusk, as if they were trying to convey a message. "Have you noticed? They... are looking at us," Lena whispered, not taking her eyes off the oldest of the deer. Victor shrugged his shoulders, but even for him his heartbeat had clearly quickened. Amelka bit her lip. Then a sound came from the forest - an unnatural, deep murmur, reminiscent of whispers repeated by thousands of mouths. A vixen with a wound on her paw slipped out of the shadows. She ran up slowly, instead of running away from the humans, looked straight into Amelka's eyes and made a snarling sound - as if she was trying to say something. "What's going on here?" Victor looked at his friends questioningly, but neither girl answered. The trees around seemed to have moved a few steps closer, and the stars overhead disappeared behind heavy clouds. As Lena reached out to help the fox, the murmuring from the forest intensified and suddenly other animals began to appear all around - hedgehogs, badgers, owls, even the rarely seen wolves. Everyone stood as if mesmerised, surrounded by wild silence and dozens of watchful eyes. For a split second, Amelka was sure that the fox would speak to her in a human voice.... Then the first thunder fell, and the whole clearing lit up with an eerie light.