Utterly Ghastly

Story Five: Dark Forest

It's dumb that some people are so superstitious that they believe there are places you simply cannot go on this earth. Absolutely insane. All of my life, I have been told not to go into the forebodingly named "Dark Forest." Apparently, back during the War, a great battle was fought in the forest. It was called "Forest of Dreams" back then because so many different types of fruit trees and bushes grew in it naturally that the nearby town could just come and collect for free, and still there would be an abundance left for the wildlife.

Then the war. Two sides, both evil and greedy, fought over the forest for the wood resources on top of the bounty of food. This could keep their country stable while they nurtured dreams and efforts at being an empire. But the woods did not appreciate being turned to in an act of greed, so the story goes, and threw up traps at every turn. Vast sinkholes opened up, swallowing the soldiers. Evil spirits came and tricked the troops into going further into the woods, where the trees are so close together that it blots out the sky, so that they would get lost and never return. The entirety of the 10,000 troops from both sides died in the woods, and their bodies were never found. Not even a scrap of armor has been found. Archaeologists and war historians have raised funding efforts and have gone into the woods on numerous occasions. Some only went a few feet in and stayed on the short path which ends at a memorial placard. They found nothing and returned disappointed. Others claimed you needed to go further in, like the troops did, to find where the troops went. Those didn't return. They, too, disappeared without a trace. Even their tracking beacons went dead in a way that's inexplicable even when you consider the dense undergrowth--- unless they willingly turned the off, which is highly unlikely.

But I don't believe in all of that insane hocus pocus bullshit. I grew up on stories like Indiana Jones, with a brave explorer tackling things that are claimed to be supernatural, finding the Holy Grail or the Ark, and then moving on with their life having solved a huge conundrum

and being a famous archaeologist with tenure as a professor. Tenure is just so hard to get anymore. Solving a great historical riddle like this one could help me in my academic career. I'd be famous, a local legend. Funding wouldn't be as hard to obtain. All of the future starts now, with my lonely little venture into the woods.

The first thought that I have upon entering the woods is that it is way too dark in here. The uppermost foliage must be too dense to let any real light in and could use some professional trimming to let more sunlight to the floor for biodiversity reasons. I almost laugh at myself. No one is going to willingly come in here to help this forest thrive. Everyone wants it razed to the ground now that the fruits have all gone and it only stops people from coming into the area instead of coming specifically for the bounty.

Trees surround me on all sides, tall with white bark lined with black. The leaves are interesting, all of them a grey or a black. It must just be the dim lighting. We all know that leaves in Spring are a green color necessary for photosynthesis. The ground beneath me is dusty and grey, like all of the nutrients has been sucked from it. It has the texture of sand, and it's amazing that with soil like this, anything should survive. The undergrowth is filled with these black- looking ferns, which are probably just a dark green, and black thorny thistles. But there are no fruit bushes, nothing which offers life to anyone. A chill runs down my spine, making me shiver, despite myself and my resolve.