Under The Earth

Mouth of the Forest Part 3

The Mouth of the Forest was a tale that Alex had heard many times, of how it was a place of peace and war, death and sacrifice. The mouth of which the legend was named was responsible for the disappearances of thousands - humans, animals, even non-sentient things, alike.

Though now it was a peaceful place again, despite the remnants of its past leaving an unpleasant taste. Regardless, she took an amount to look around the infamous place, taking a shaky step towards the mouth: a simple island of which one dead tree - a willow - stood surrounded by a pool of water.

Over the water, a small wooden bridge appeared before Alex, leading her from this shore to that. Then Alex slapped herself and shook her head, no. She thought, there's no way it just- appeared there just then. It must've just been me adjusting to the light...

And then, she gasped. Light!? The forest was dead- but this island... As she drew closer, slowly, she saw the re-emergence of long branches of leaves swaying just above the ground. On the ends of the leaves were...

She stepped closer, hardly believing her eyes. Lanterns. Their soft, warm glow lit the island around it and sparkled on the surface of the peaceful water. And as for the willow upon which it hung... The willow possessed- Alex felt her blood run cold, no!

A gaping hole between the roots, swarmed by shadow, left Alex with a sense of dread. No matter how peaceful this place may be, its past was one of horror. And the locals were never allowed to forget that fact. Every weekend the government would send in people to the mouth to fence it up.

Fence it up... Alex turned around and froze, fear taking hold of her every muscle. A large fence grew before her eyes, trapping her in the miniature lake. Trapping her in with that willow. Trapping me in she gulped, with the Mouth of the Forest.

All of it was unsettling, a feeling that had settled itself in a while ago now. And the sight of a large, tall woman covered in moss and mud with matted hair and torn clothing was not helping Alex calm down at all. Alex's hands started to sweat and her face turned bright red as she began breathing heavily, her breath coming in rapid bursts.

"Ahhhh, who are you? And why do you look like my mum!?" Alex screamed, feeling her mind go senseless with insanity and fear.

"Alex, is that you?"

Alex started backing away from the woman, turning to flee as she started to hyperventilate. Picking up her pace, she clambered over the fence, relieved the government didn't bother with extra security. Over the fence, she sprinted away from the scene as fast as she could.

As Alex ran, the only thing she noticed was the branches she passed in a blur, all waving at her unanimously. Her fear only got worse, and the feeling of a vine snagging around her neck was all the motivation she needed.

Slowing her steps through the snow and mud, she turned around to match the rate of the stream she had followed against its current to the Mouth of the Forest. And now she ran alongside it until, to her great relief...

She stopped, taking a breather as something caught hold of her attention, just up ahead in the distance. Fire. Fire means civilization. And civilization could only mean...

"OSCAR!" She shouted out, rushing over to the tent where her friend was outside next to their now-extinguished fire, waiting for her.

"Where have you been!? I was worried sick!"

"I'm fine, but there is something out there. The forest- came alive. And there was a pond. I turned around, and there was a fence. And then someone came out from nowhere and- and they know me. They know my name!" She choked out, lying down in the snow to try and calm herself.

Oscar gave Alex a hug, "Rubbish. I've never seen such things when touring people around any forest. You're just tired and need sleep."

***

Oscar was up and getting ready. Alex could hear Oscar and it was only the crack of dawn.

"We're out of water." Oscar was thumbing through the bags.

"I'll go get us some water, think I heard a stream last night." Alex set off with water bottles and some food in case she gets hungry along the way.

When Alex reached the stream, she filled the empty drink bottles to the rim. Just as she was getting up to leave, however, something shining below the stream's surface caught her eye. Alexander reaches down and picks up a small piece of rock with a dark-blue glass-looking thing in the middle. It shined in the moonlight as she handed it up to the sky.

Alex got back to the camp but did not tell Oscar about the thing she had found.

"Got the water." Alex was placing them in her bag, helping Oscar take down the tent and packing it up. A pretty easy job all things considered.

Alex now only had 4 days to get around the forest and back before her parents were home, she had a fear that if she was not back in time then her parents would freak out and go looking for her. Or worse yet, her nan. She didn't want her to be hurt.

"Oscar, do you think that we would make it back on time?" The edge in her voice must have been so off-putting to Oscar that all that came out was,

"I do not know, maybe, or maybe we can go back now. It was a nice adventure while it lasted."

Alex was starting to wonder if he even wanted to be here.

"Do you even want to be here? You're always talkin' 'bout how warm home would be, and how nice it would be just to sit down and watch another lame Netflix show!"

Oscar looked down at the food in shock that Alex had even yelled at him. She had never yelled at him before. Alex stood up and began walking away, only for a cold, hard object to fall out of her pocket and onto the ground.

Oscar made a dash for it and grabbed it before Alex. Oscar twirled the thing around in his hand, head tilted in curiosity and eyes glazed over at the very sight of the mystifying mozaic piece.

"What is this, and why do you not tell me about it?"

Alex stood there and stared at Oscar, hoping it would all be a dream. But no, it was real, and it was happening.

"So are you going to tell me?"

"Give it back you moron!" Alex snatched the piece back and grabbed for her bag before running away. But then, she felt something clawing curiously at her leg.

"Aahhhh!" Oscar must've heard her screams because a second later he was by her side.

"Alex! Are you ok?" Oscar yelled as he got to her. But when he got there, and saw a tiny little dot crawling on her shoe, his expression fell into that of dismay. "You've gotta be kiddin' me, Alexander! it's only a little spider!"

"Oh, I dislike spiders." Oscar must've begun having second thoughts about their mission at that moment, for a look of doubt appeared on his face.

Alex chuckled silently to herself, imagining what he was thinking: seriously? A spider? A frickin' spider? How can anyone stand hiking and camping through a dead forest when they can't even handle a small spider?

But whatever he was thinking, Oscar kept it to himself. Well, mostly...

"This is her only chance to get out and find herself something to occupy her outside of the internet, television, and other such luxuries." He had spoken his thoughts aloud, but Alex pretended not to notice.

Sighing, Oscar bent down and brushed the spider off of Alex's shoe. As he did so, she began to notice rustling in the distance. Nothing unusual, really. She could just imagine the great large birds of prey of Norway's wilderness stalking their prey through the canopy of leaves- leaves...

"Umm..." She said as he squished the spider in his hands and smeared it over the moss-covered bark of a nearby tree.

"Yes?"

"Do you hear that, too?" She asked, waving her hands around the forest.

Oscar suddenly looked up, "I do. And- I'm sorry to tell you this, Alex, but I've heard wind before, and that's not wind. And there's no cover virtually anywhere here for either predator or prey."

"Finally..." A voice hissed through the forest, making them jump, "You've noticed me!"