Into the Forest
This is Part Five in a series.
Part One, Part Two, Part Three, Part Four
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When we got back to our room at the inn, Finbar dropped his effort to keep the shadows under his clothes. He flopped onto his bed, looking absolutely drained. Even the shadows themselves seemed to undulate more slowly than usual. I paced back and forth in the small space. We couldn't stay here for long. Someone would trace the attack at the cabin back to us, despite our taking an extremely circuitous route to return here.
Nowhere in the city would be safe. News, especially bad news, spread quickly, and Finbar couldn't hide himself very well, not if his disguise exhausted him as much as it seemed to do. I didn't think anywhere with a large population would be particularly safe, but I also doubted the sanctuary more rural areas would provide. Nobody liked shadow monsters, and few would bother to realize Finbar wasn't actually evil. I continued my pacing, hoping it would lead to some kind of solution. So far, nothing was coming to me.
Finbar moaned, “I want to sleep, but I can't.”
I said, “I don't think sleeping now is even a good idea. We can't actually stay here tonight, and it's getting late.”
He asked, “And you have somewhere else for us to go? Everywhere they're going to hate me. I'm marked for death.”
I protested, “How can you be 'marked for death' when you were able to power through that Despair Shield?”
Finbar didn't answer me. My response to him was rather ridiculous, on account of how he was marked for death due to the shadows crawling all over his body. I thought about how many true monsters could hide their natures. It was terribly sad that a genuinely good human wouldn't be able to hide the sign of an evil character he didn't even have. The sadness of the situation didn't make it any easier to solve.
I sat down on the edge of my bed, having finally exhausted myself. “There must be somewhere we can go where people won't hate you, or at least won't notice what you are.”
“Where?” Finbar despaired. “There's nowhere, unless you're suggesting we walk right into the magic forest and hope the various creature who live inside it don't hate me as much as the humans will. And that would be insanely dangerous.”
That was the best idea I had heard so far. “Well, Finbar, it would be no more 'insanely dangerous' than walking among humans as you are.”
I saw the skepticism, mixed with despair, clear on his face. Carefully, I went and knelt beside Finbar's bed where he lied. From this view, I could see how his eyes shined, like tears wanted to fall but couldn't. Not sure if Finbar wanted a comforting hand or not, I hovered there awkwardly. The right words wouldn't come to me.
Finbar murmured, “They say gods live in the forest, you know.”
Yes, I knew that. All sorts of creatures were said to live in the nearby forest or visit it frequently, which was why humans rarely entered. Most of the stories, I suspected, were rumors. Danger was sure to lurk there, but danger was sure to be present outside the forest as well. We had a better chance of surviving if we entered it. “Better chance” didn't mean “guaranteed to live,” but, as Finbar said, he was “marked for death” anyway.
I told Finbar, “Many things live in the forest, but they're less likely to attack you on sight than any random person is. I know the denizens of the forest might try to harm us, but a 'might' is the best we can do right now.”
He nodded, slowly and with great effort. “You're right, Breccan. I just don't like it.”
* * *
Night had fallen, and we stood at the edge of the magic forest. From a distance, it looked like any other woods, but, close up, I could sense its strange power. With a nearly-full moon and a cloudless sky, I could see fairly well, until I tried looking into the trees. They, with their shadowy leaves and gnarled branches, seemed distorted somehow, like you couldn't trust them to stay in one place. I suspected any paths we took would twist and turn of their own volition and take us wherever they pleased.
Finbar turned to me. Since nobody else was around, he had let his shadows crawl about his clothes. “Are you sure about this?”
I answered, “As sure as I'll ever be. Let's go.”
Silently, we entered the forest. Once I stepped inside it, I felt a shift. Something changed, as if we had entered another dimension. It was entirely possible the forest did not exist on the Earth as we knew it.
Finbar asked, voice cracking, “Will you...take my hand? This place, it unsettles me.”
I took his gloved hand in mine. Even through the leather, it felt oddly cold, but I wasn't about to let him go. Not after he wouldn't let me go when we fought our way through the Despair Shield. I still wondered how he had done that, though I wasn't going to ask.
We followed the only available path, a looping thing covered in debris that crunched beneath our feet. Each step, each crunch echoed in a decidedly abnormal manner. Even at the edge of the forest, the trees stood very close together, or else the ground was blocked by thorny bushes. The path was the only way, through, and I didn't trust it at all. We had not yet encountered any creatures, but this didn't comfort me because it lent the forest an oppressive silence and magnified our own noises, making us more obvious to anything that might want to hurt us.
Finbar muttered, “I don't trust this place.”
I admitted, “Neither do I.”
He gripped my hand tighter, and I found myself glad of it because I wanted to hold onto the only familiar thing in this landscape. The farther we walked into the forest, the stranger it became. Trees changed shape depending on the angle at which you looked at them. Our footsteps kept that strange echoing, when they weren't completely silent. No matter how much we walked, we never encountered another creature, of any kind. Even the colors of the forest weren't right, somehow both brighter and darker than they should have been by the light of the moon we could barely see through the canopy of leaves.
If Finbar weren't here, if he weren't so solid, I would think I were losing my mind. It was entirely possible I would lose it despite his presence, but I was so thankful to have him by my side. Despite the mind-bending surroundings, I couldn't bring myself to regret taking us into this forest. So far, nothing had attacked us. So far, we were alive. Right now, that was all we could ask.
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written for 500themes prompt #57 - "A Path to Follow"
Part One, Part Two, Part Three, Part Four
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When we got back to our room at the inn, Finbar dropped his effort to keep the shadows under his clothes. He flopped onto his bed, looking absolutely drained. Even the shadows themselves seemed to undulate more slowly than usual. I paced back and forth in the small space. We couldn't stay here for long. Someone would trace the attack at the cabin back to us, despite our taking an extremely circuitous route to return here.
Nowhere in the city would be safe. News, especially bad news, spread quickly, and Finbar couldn't hide himself very well, not if his disguise exhausted him as much as it seemed to do. I didn't think anywhere with a large population would be particularly safe, but I also doubted the sanctuary more rural areas would provide. Nobody liked shadow monsters, and few would bother to realize Finbar wasn't actually evil. I continued my pacing, hoping it would lead to some kind of solution. So far, nothing was coming to me.
Finbar moaned, “I want to sleep, but I can't.”
I said, “I don't think sleeping now is even a good idea. We can't actually stay here tonight, and it's getting late.”
He asked, “And you have somewhere else for us to go? Everywhere they're going to hate me. I'm marked for death.”
I protested, “How can you be 'marked for death' when you were able to power through that Despair Shield?”
Finbar didn't answer me. My response to him was rather ridiculous, on account of how he was marked for death due to the shadows crawling all over his body. I thought about how many true monsters could hide their natures. It was terribly sad that a genuinely good human wouldn't be able to hide the sign of an evil character he didn't even have. The sadness of the situation didn't make it any easier to solve.
I sat down on the edge of my bed, having finally exhausted myself. “There must be somewhere we can go where people won't hate you, or at least won't notice what you are.”
“Where?” Finbar despaired. “There's nowhere, unless you're suggesting we walk right into the magic forest and hope the various creature who live inside it don't hate me as much as the humans will. And that would be insanely dangerous.”
That was the best idea I had heard so far. “Well, Finbar, it would be no more 'insanely dangerous' than walking among humans as you are.”
I saw the skepticism, mixed with despair, clear on his face. Carefully, I went and knelt beside Finbar's bed where he lied. From this view, I could see how his eyes shined, like tears wanted to fall but couldn't. Not sure if Finbar wanted a comforting hand or not, I hovered there awkwardly. The right words wouldn't come to me.
Finbar murmured, “They say gods live in the forest, you know.”
Yes, I knew that. All sorts of creatures were said to live in the nearby forest or visit it frequently, which was why humans rarely entered. Most of the stories, I suspected, were rumors. Danger was sure to lurk there, but danger was sure to be present outside the forest as well. We had a better chance of surviving if we entered it. “Better chance” didn't mean “guaranteed to live,” but, as Finbar said, he was “marked for death” anyway.
I told Finbar, “Many things live in the forest, but they're less likely to attack you on sight than any random person is. I know the denizens of the forest might try to harm us, but a 'might' is the best we can do right now.”
He nodded, slowly and with great effort. “You're right, Breccan. I just don't like it.”
* * *
Night had fallen, and we stood at the edge of the magic forest. From a distance, it looked like any other woods, but, close up, I could sense its strange power. With a nearly-full moon and a cloudless sky, I could see fairly well, until I tried looking into the trees. They, with their shadowy leaves and gnarled branches, seemed distorted somehow, like you couldn't trust them to stay in one place. I suspected any paths we took would twist and turn of their own volition and take us wherever they pleased.
Finbar turned to me. Since nobody else was around, he had let his shadows crawl about his clothes. “Are you sure about this?”
I answered, “As sure as I'll ever be. Let's go.”
Silently, we entered the forest. Once I stepped inside it, I felt a shift. Something changed, as if we had entered another dimension. It was entirely possible the forest did not exist on the Earth as we knew it.
Finbar asked, voice cracking, “Will you...take my hand? This place, it unsettles me.”
I took his gloved hand in mine. Even through the leather, it felt oddly cold, but I wasn't about to let him go. Not after he wouldn't let me go when we fought our way through the Despair Shield. I still wondered how he had done that, though I wasn't going to ask.
We followed the only available path, a looping thing covered in debris that crunched beneath our feet. Each step, each crunch echoed in a decidedly abnormal manner. Even at the edge of the forest, the trees stood very close together, or else the ground was blocked by thorny bushes. The path was the only way, through, and I didn't trust it at all. We had not yet encountered any creatures, but this didn't comfort me because it lent the forest an oppressive silence and magnified our own noises, making us more obvious to anything that might want to hurt us.
Finbar muttered, “I don't trust this place.”
I admitted, “Neither do I.”
He gripped my hand tighter, and I found myself glad of it because I wanted to hold onto the only familiar thing in this landscape. The farther we walked into the forest, the stranger it became. Trees changed shape depending on the angle at which you looked at them. Our footsteps kept that strange echoing, when they weren't completely silent. No matter how much we walked, we never encountered another creature, of any kind. Even the colors of the forest weren't right, somehow both brighter and darker than they should have been by the light of the moon we could barely see through the canopy of leaves.
If Finbar weren't here, if he weren't so solid, I would think I were losing my mind. It was entirely possible I would lose it despite his presence, but I was so thankful to have him by my side. Despite the mind-bending surroundings, I couldn't bring myself to regret taking us into this forest. So far, nothing had attacked us. So far, we were alive. Right now, that was all we could ask.
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written for 500themes prompt #57 - "A Path to Follow"