Scratch

So for my last Composition assignment of the year, I have to write a fictional narrative. Basically about anything, any genre, etc. So I decided to do this fantasy story in a medieval setting - the two main characters, Henry and Elena, are from the kingdom of Lennurth, and when they go out to get some water for their village they discover a mysterious tree that opens and takes them to this underground world of "spirits", basically elemental creatures that are vaguely humanoid. (For example, a fire "spirit" would look similar to the Flame Atronach from Skyrim, only much less human.) There's 5 kinds - fire, water, earth, wind, and a very rare kind - electric, which is supposedly extinct. So the "spirits" are angry because the forces of Lennurth have accidentally started setting up bases and towns on what was their land, so they had to evacuate underground. And there are some humans who know of this dilemma and have taken the side of the spirits, and Henry and Elena are mistaken for rebels, and bluh bluh. I also want this to be the prologue to a larger storyline, and then later Henry and Elena turn out to be elemental heroes, but that's not important right now.

My fictional narrative so far:

It was the crack of dawn, and the residents of the boy’s village were just waking up. The boy got up from his bed of straw, groggily stretching himself and blinking his olive-green eyes a few times as he went over to the sleeping woman beside him.
“Mother, it’s time to wake up. Mother?” The woman yawned, and opened her eyes.
“Yes, Henry, I’m waking up.” she said quietly to her son, a tint of humor in her voice.
Henry looked outside of the small hole in the hut, which acted as a window. A refreshing breeze blew into his face, rustling the teenage boy’s mouse-brown hair. Dressing into his ordinary clothes, consisting of a plain brown tunic, brown leggings, and black shoes ending in long points, Henry went outside of his small house. His mother followed suit. They quickly parted ways, however – Henry’s mother headed towards the animal farm, while he went to the other houses in the village to look for his seventeen-year-old friend, Elena. Come to think about it, he had last seen her the day before yesterday…

“Hello, Henry!” Elena appeared at that moment, a subtle smile appearing on her freckled face as she walked to the boy. Today, she was wearing her usual tunic, skirt, and plain leather shoes.
“Greetings, Elena! How are you?” Henry’s face lit up, as he took in the long hair that was the red-orange color of leaves in autumn, the eyes the same soft blue like a gentle creek, and her rose-red lips. Whenever Henry saw Elena, he always was filled with joy. Maybe it was because when he had first come to this tiny village from Rokke’s Castle, the center of the Kingdom of Lennurth, the soft-spoken girl was one of the first people he had met there.
“I’m fine, thank you, Henry.” Elena responded quietly. “I think we need some more water from the town, if I remember correctly.”
“There’s a small river near us, we could get water from there!” Henry said eagerly. He loved exploring – the boy always dreamed of finding exciting things one day.
“Well, then. That’s what I was going to say.” Elena said, almost whispering. She smiled at Henry.

Each one grabbing a bucket for water, the two headed off to the river.
“Be careful now, children!” Henry’s mother called after them.

A half-hour later, Henry and Elena could see the river up ahead. It was near a large forest, which was often used as the setting of stories used to scare little children. Not paying much attention to it, though, they gathered water from the refreshing-looking stream. A swim in it seemed inviting, as the two children were a bit tired and weren’t exactly clean, but they had work to do. Dipping the large buckets in the water and picking them up again, the pair turned around to go back home. Before Henry could take another step, he felt a strangely unnatural breeze. It was giving him a strange feeling. It seemed as if it was going to one of the trees on the edge of the forest. Frowning, Henry approached the tree. Now it seemed as if it was severely windy! Elena came up to Henry, curious as to what was going on. As Henry looked even closer at the tree, it seemed to become blazingly hot, as humid as if he was underwater, and as windy as if there was a storm. On top of this, the earth seemed to emanate a strange hum. He stepped back, and immediately the feeling lessened.
“Elena, doesn’t this tree seem…odd?” Henry asked his friend, a puzzled look on his face. Elena stepped forward to the tree, immediately jumping back. She shivered.
“It’s more than odd.” she whispered.
“Um, Elena, I guess we should head back, then?” Henry nervously said.
“I guess. It’s probably not good to stay near this tree any longer.” The children had heard of such magical artifacts like this, and were always warned not to meddle with them, for unexplainable curses, charms, and other unpleasant conditions were known to afflict those who did.

After a few minutes of walking, Henry and Elena realized that they were lost. Going back to the direction of the tree, they decided to try and retrace their steps. But to the children’s horror, they realized that the area around the tree had changed. Visibly nervous now, Elena accidentally spilled the contents of her water bucket on the ground. Too tired to even get more water, she let out an exasperated groan. Henry, however, was not so neutral about it.
“Great! Now we’re tired, lost, and you spilled your water bucket too!” Henry started yelling at Elena.
“Henry, calm down, maybe we should try heading south -”
“But don’t you understand? What was the south now became the area from the north! North! North! North!” Henry stomped his right foot on the ground each time he said “north”. Before he could continue his one-word rant, a rumbling noise began. It seemed to be coming from the tree. Specifically, the mysterious tree. Running over to the strange thing again, Henry and Elena had expressions of horror and shock combined on their faces. Before their very eyes, the tree’s trunk split into a crack, which widened by the second. The rumbling grew more intense, before suddenly stopping.

The tree had apparently opened.

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So please tell me what you think, it's always good to have a fresh set of eyes look at your story.    Don't hesitate to (constructively) criticize, it would be more useful than "cool story bro".    Thanks!