A Nymph of the Ossian Forest

Hollow of Mull

"Alright, Kalista, what's so special about the Hollow of Skull?" Borgar's voice startled me. We proceeded in total silence all the way down the cliff, paying attention to every step we made. In the falling darkness, it was especially easy to slip off the edge of the narrow path. "I don't like how you speak of it."

"Not Skull, it's Hollow of Mull, Borgar." Kalista's face looked quite gloomy in the dark. "Why everyone keeps asking me as if I've been here before? I haven't..." With a corner of my eyes, I saw that Glenn, who also prepared for the story, looked disappointed, and Borgar irritated. "...but the people who inhabited it have left us some tips about themselves."

Her words hung in the air in intriguing echo.

"Inhabited?" Glenn asked eagerly. "You mean someone actually lived in the Ossian Forest?"

Kalista nodded. By the way she scanned the forest around us, I could say she never lost her vigilance and was on alert all the time, even when she spoke or listened to someone.

"The Forest is so big there were people in the old times who lived their entire lives under its cover, without leaving its borders." She shot a quick glance at me, letting me know that she remembered my exclamation on the top of the cliff.

"It isn't too strange, after all. Many tribes in this area have their lives connected with the forest. It is vital for us." She pressed herself to a tree when her foot slipped on wet soil. We were clearly going down the slope.

"Yes, but living here permanently..." Glenn shuddered.

While it seemed weird to him, it wasn't hard for me to imagine at all.

"The forest has everything we need." I heard myself saying. "It's a different world living under its own rules."

"That's right." Kalista listened to my words attentively. "It doesn't obey to anyone's rules, but..."

She wasn't able to finish the phrase, interrupted by Mina's loud squeal.

"Monster! There's a monster!" She stopped right in her tracks and attempted to hide behind the Creones, slipping on the ground.

"Where?!" Even before I realized the meaning of her words and was able to get thoroughly scared, Borgar was already holding a sword in his hand.

"Right there!" Mina gesticulated, pointing somewhere into the dense darkness in front of us. "It has its mouth open, it's enormous!" My heart was racing as I tried to see at least something but failed. However, I would eagerly assume such darkness could easily host all imaginable monsters...

All of a sudden yellow shadows came playing on the trunks of the trees with a signature sound suggesting that someone had just lit up a torch. It was strong enough to light up the forest in front of us, bringing out of the dark whatever had scared Mina so much...

I couldn't hold a sigh of terror when I saw it: a gaping hole of the hungry mouth of the rough shell of impenetrable skin!

It took me a beat to realize it wasn't a living creature at all.

"For Gods' sake, relax." Kalista stepped forward, as tranquil as usual. It was she who was holding a torch in her hand. "It's just an abandoned hut."

To the sound of everyone's audible sigh of relief, I wiped the cold sweat from my brow and forced myself to look at the scary structure attentively. Still looking ominous in the uneven glow of torchlight, it was indeed nothing more than a simple square building of roughly worked stone. Instead of door and windows, it had empty black gaps that welcomed you into the darkness.