Secrets of the Forest
Fiction: A Simple Hike in the Forest Turns Dark
The ancient forest was drenched and chilled by the morning mist. Tayla breathed deeply, savoring the scent of damp green earth that was comprised of both growth and decay. The aroma was one she always equated with freedom.
As a child, she visited her grandmother every summer. Gran’s house had been on the very edge of a wooded area. It had been a relatively small place, you could walk across it in thirty minutes. To Tayla though, it had held all the wonder of a deep medieval forest. A place that in her imagination was the home of unicorns, fairies, dryads, and nymphs.
The summers spent with Gran had cultivated in Tayla a lifelong love affair with plants in general and forests in particular. Now she was in college, studying botany. This year her summer would be spent studying the mycelium network of some of the oldest forests in Europe. She was so excited at the prospect that she had come to the first site a week early, just to explore the area on her own.
Tayla stood on the edge of the trees, her hazel eyes sweeping back and forth, drinking in the magical sight of the misty forest at dawn. Her black hair was kept out of her face in a severe French braid that trailed down to the middle of her back. She wore a scarlet wool sweater, black jeans, and sturdy hiking boots.
In her battered brown canvas backpack, she had everything she needed for an easy hike through the forest. Around her neck was her pride and joy, the professional-grade digital camera that her parents had given her as a gift just before she had left for Europe. She wasn’t planning on being gone long. Just a couple of hours, then she would return to the nearby town for a hearty breakfast.
The minute she stepped across the tree line, Tayla felt as if she had entered another world. There was a reverence here that she had never found in any church, temple, or cathedral. It was quiet, but not entirely silent. She could hear the calls of birds, the chirp of insects, and the rustling of small creatures through the undergrowth.
Out of the corner of her eye, she caught a flash of orange. A fox! She lifted her camera, but the image she captured was blurry. Hoping to get a better picture, she stepped off of the trail. She saw the white tip of the tail darting around a tree about five feet in front of her.
She rushed after the fox, trying to catch up to it without scaring it. Like Alice following the white rabbit, she didn’t stop to think about where she was going or the potential consequences of her actions. Each time she rounded the trunk of a tree she swore she caught a glimpse of the fox just ahead.
She came to the edge of a clearing, looking around she had to admit that she had lost the fox. Before she could think about how she was going to find her way back she caught sight of the largest oak tree she had ever seen. It held her spellbound, it stood like a queen in the center of the clearing.
Slowly she lifted her camera and took a series of pictures. She had to bring the research team here when they arrived. This wasn’t just a potential mother tree, it looked ancient enough to be the oldest tree in the entire forest. Out of habit, she looked down at the digital screen to look at the photos she had just taken.
She gasped in shock. The photos were dark as if she had taken them at night. Super-imposed on the tree was a ghostly face that appeared to be crying red tears. A chill shot up Tayla’s spine. This wasn’t possible. She looked back up at the tree, there was nothing of what she saw in the camera.
She turned and took a picture of the forest behind her, the mist looked a little heavier in the picture than it did in her sight. Other than that minor issue the picture was fine. She turned back to the clearing and took another picture of the oak. Again the ghostly face appeared over the image. In this image it also looked like the tree was bleeding!
“Corrupt the tree. Lure the prey. Feed on blood. Feed all day.”
The chanting came suddenly into the quiet of the clearing. The voice was rough and deep it was part vibration that she felt in her chest. Somewhere in the primal depths of her mind, her instincts warred with each other. One part was screaming at her to run. The other part was screaming at her to stay.
For the moment the instinct to stay held the upper hand. Frozen in place she listened to the chanting as it drew closer until it finally broke out of the trees only a few feet to her right.
The voice belonged to a creature that looked like a nightmare version of a garden gnome. Struggling in its arms was the fox she had been chasing. The creature must have been stronger than it looked to hold onto an animal that was almost as big as it was.
The chanting continued until it was at the base of the tree. It threw its burden onto the roots of the oak. Pinning the fox with one hand the evil gnome drew a stone knife. With vicious speed, it began to stab the fox over and over again.
The screams of the fox and the blood splattering the creature and the tree were too much for Tayla. She stumbled back a step, then spun he only thought was to run away as fast as she could. She made it about three steps before she stumbled.
She hit the ground hard, before she could get back on her feet she felt a rough tug on her braid. Her head was wrenched back she saw the grisly gnome standing over her. It was grinning evilly at her, blood from the fox was smeared all over its face.
“Good human, delicious human. We feed you to the tree!”
The gnome began to drag her into the clearing toward the oak tree. Tayla screamed hoping desperately that someone might hear her. She struggled and fought trying to get away. The little monster was incredibly strong and just kept pulling her across the clearing.
As they reached the tree Tayla saw a hollow near the base of the trunk. It resembled a mouth with protrusions of bark that seemed to form teeth. Golden tree sap dripped from the hollow, like saliva from the mouth of a rabid wolf, it was the last thing Tayla saw before everything went dark.
Written based on prompts from Christine Graves and Rose Malana
