Hemlock Ridge Estate

Eli Atwood

A/N:  Listen to this. You'll see.  Start the music when the story tells you to.

Introduction to Eli Atwood

Hi, how's it going?  My name's Eli Atwood, and this is not my story.

I was never a boy that liked putting things together and taking them apart.  Living in a city full of mechanics and engineers, that was hard.  In all of the Royal City of Minhaven, there was but one school for the arts.  I attended the Royal Academy of Performing Arts.  The small mill that it was based in resided on the edge of the city and was attended by few people.  The expectation of those that lived in Minhaven were that every person should grow up to become a person in the engineering business but that wasn't for me.  I knew that it wasn't the right thing for me by the time I was 5.  I had started to make music on things that were common in a normal household - things like pots, pans, cutlery, candles, even the mechanical bits and bobs that my father had lying around in the house.  I would record them on a little gold box.  Years after, I discovered the piano.  It was like a door was opened, a hidden talent uncovered.  I would play anything and everything.  Anything that I heard on the radio, little riffs that I would come across and I started to compose my own music on the piano by the time I was 11.  I was fortunate enough to grow up in an encouraging household that didn't believe in the views of the general culture and so my parents agreed to send my to the Royal Academy of Performing Arts.  

And now, I was out of school.  Graduated.  Such meaning came with that word, so many different privileges.  I was free.  Free to do whatever I liked.  I was leaving.  I was leaving Minhaven forever, never would I come back.  My parents died in my second to last year at the academy and left me with their blessing to have a good life and do what I loved and cherished most and that was exactly what I was going to do.  Hemlock Ridge Estate waited for me.  It was 3 days journey from Minhaven.  A tough 3 days it would be as well.  The only way to get there was through the Hemlock Forest as Minhaven was South-East of the Estate and it was all cliff at the back of the forest.  They'd already accepted to do view an audition.

I collected my trunks, bags and worldly possessions and 'ran' down the brass staircase of my home in Minhaven.  I stopped at the doorway to look up at the ceiling that was once covered up by the hanging airship models, the walls that were once overtaken by the ticking clocks of my grandfather and the doors that were once warm and welcoming.  

"Sir, let me take those for you."  Cyrus Oakley, my butler, took hold of the bags and trunks in my hand and lugged them over and into the coach.

I took one look around and shrugged; it was not the physical things that made memories but the memories and feelings themselves that are kept in your mind and in your heart.  Grinning to myself, I ran out to the coach and hopped inside.  

"We're on our way, Oakley, we're on our way."  The steam engine powered to life and we rolled off, into the morning.

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The journey was indeed long.  Every 3 hours, Oakley and I would take turns in driving the coach.  I didn't believe in the common views of Minhaven in terms of their policies on servants and maids and the like.  Most commoners viewed their servants or butlers or maids as slaves but slaves are of the old ages and everyone should be equal in how they are treated.  Every person is a human being therefore they should be treated like one.

Each night, we camped in an area where we thought at least looked safe.  In truth, none of the forest was safe.  That's what everyone else thought.  There was urban rumors and gossip of what might lie in the Hemlock Forest, what horrors, what delights or wonders.  No one really knew because no one was ever brave enough to go into the forest for even a meter.  I just shrugged my shoulders and rolled my eyes, superstitious fools.  I shook my head.  Superstition wasn't something I cared for.  I didn't believe in magic or fairies or silly little creatures with red hair and green suits.  They were nothing but stupid thoughts and fantasies.

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Soon, it was the third night of travelling.  Oakley sported large, dark bags under his tired eyes and as did I.  The strain of staying awake strained at my eyes and pulled at my mind.  I'd pulled all-nighters before, trying to compose jut the right music and trying to find the right notes, but this was a continual amount of exhaustion.  It was dusk and the forest was alight with fireflies.  They sat on the leaves of the plants, igniting them with life.  The Hemlock Forest was alive.  The green of the trees, the grass, the plants, they glowed with energy.  There was something in the air, a whisper in the wind, that said something is coming, something is about to happen.  I shook my head.  There was no such thing as magic.  

"Oakley, how is it looking?  Do you want me to take over for a while?"  I asked.  

"No, sir, I'll be good 'till we get there."  He said from the front of the coach.

"Alright then."  

A gentle breeze blew past the window and a deer pranced parallel to the coach.  Follow me, follow me.  I see things that you don't see.  I heard the whispers of the breeze.  No.  Magic was not real.  

The forest went silent.  Dead silent.  The silence before a storm, before something fantastic, something magical.  I slowly climbed to Oakley's seat at the front.  

"What's happening?"  I asked quietly.  

Oakley shook his head and continued to drive but not before I spotted the shiver that ran down his back.  All was quiet and still.  It was as if the world had stopped spinning and everything was waiting.  Then came a soft sound.  Hardly able to be heard.  It got louder and louder.  A soft, melodic song.  A violin was playing.  I didn't recognize the tune.  It was indescribable.  It was like every animal, every living thing in the forest was listening, just listening.  Other sounds, other music was being played.  It was like the forest was giving accompaniment.  Playing along on hollow logs, reed tubes being used as flutes.  It was the music of the forest.  This was the forest itself.  It's very being, spirit and life.  

A/N:  Hello.  Hope you liked that.  I enjoyed writing this a lot and I hope you remembered to listen to the music while reading.

-Jaye