The Mystical Forest

Chapter 3

The piano is to set the mood of the chapter ^^

"You've got to be f*cking kidding me" I groaned out at a tall lurking shadow engulfed me and the dark prevented me from seeing anything but the shadow.Fear was the only thing to passed through my brain.

Closing my eyes tightly from fear the shadow looked over me sending a chill down my spine. With a whoosh of wind the shadow disappeared and a stream of light heated my face. Peaking open an eye I was just in time to see the mist stop like it hit a wall at the edge of the forest.

The clearing was small and full of swampy vines, bushes, and dead grass. The ground was uneven and covered in patches of mushrooms. The edge of trees loomed into the sky disappearing into the clouds. The dark shadow cast by the trees left it hard to see the uneven ground but the stream of light that hit my face showed the path I took from the forest and the swirling mist waiting for me to return.

Stumbling a few steps away from the forest edge I squinted into the shadows to make out a way through the clearing.  At this point my dark curly hair clung to my face and neck from the sweat of my run. Groaning I tried to pull it off of me when the looming shadow raced across the clearing again. My already erratic heartbeat began beating even faster.

'Oh f*ck I really should've stayed away from the forest and stayed in the shack' I mentally slapped myself for being such a dumb*ss.

With the mental beating I was giving myself and the fast glances at my surroundings I made my way deeper into the clearing. The small clearing held many secrets in its dark corners but the most surprising was a a tall weeping willow tree stood in the center. The dead grass surrounded it and the mushroom paths all lead to where the branches grazed the ground. Slowly approaching it I used a stick from a dying bush the carefully push some branches aside.

The canvas of branches left the tree almost pitch black inside. The only exception was a few glowing mushrooms that dotted the ground and trunk. The light from the mushrooms showed large mounds and maybe taller bushes around the trunk of the tree. Between the mounds and bushes there was a small bench and a table that seemed sturdy enough to set my radio.

'At least in here I can set my radio up properly and maybe be able to reach that person again' I thought to myself as I moved the branches aside and slid into the area between the branches and trunk. The dark made it hard to see the ground and I stumbled over the mounds and past the bushes, but as I tripped right before the table and landed next to a small mound.

A puff of dirt rose into the air making me sneeze. 'Great now I'm covered in dirt and I'm sweaty' I grumbled to myself as I got up to wipe the dirt off my pants. A sudden wheezing voice caught my attention. Tension filled my muscles as the stiffened in anticipation.

"H-help me" a voice softly carried in the wind. It was only noticeable because of the dead silence within the clearing. My muscles ached as I refused to move. The voice went silent as if it wasn't there to begin with. Adrenaline still raced through my body making it hard to calm my breathing and hear if anything else was around. The clearing was once again dead silent only the rapid beat of my heart in my ears was around. There was no other breaths or voices. No movement in the air. Just silence and tension.

Outside the clearing the sounds of twigs snapping stoped my heart as I darted down into a gap in two mounds. The fear coursing through my now prevented my heart from beating. The snapping of twigs circled the clearing as if it was looking for someone, or something. My short erratic breaths brought tears to my eyes as I slowly and silently brought my hands to my mouth to try and smother the noise it created. The snapping continued around the clearing 2 more times slowly coming closer as the looming shadow appeared with it. Just outside the branches of the tree. The shadow was tall, slender, neither masculine or feminine in shape. The long limbs gently moved across the branches of the willow tree as it moved around them. Eventually the tears in my eyes prevented me from seeing the shadow properly and I could no longer blink them away. Slowly and as quietly I used my sleeve to dab my eyes dry.

Sitting in the gap for so long had begun to turn my legs numb as the shadow no longer circled the tree. The bag in my back seemed to weigh a million lbs. the air in the willow was heavy and damp. The silence filled the space and my heart calmed only slightly. Peeking my head over the mound again I checked for the shadow but only the faint glow from the mushrooms remained.

'I need to book it right now or ima be grass' I thought to myself as I began to climb out of the gap as quietly and quickly as I could. As I reached to pull myself up, though, I realized that the entire mounds around me were covered in mushrooms almost in what seemed like people sized lumps.

'No no there's no way it's people? And if it were they would have been here for such a long time to be this covered in mushrooms, right?' Now is not the time to be worried over what could be dead bodies with mushrooms all over them. Any moment now that shadow thing could be back and no one wants to find out what it is.

Taking a deep breath I decided to crawl across the clearing to avoid being spotted. The clearing increasingly grew mushrooms the closer I crawled to the trunk of the tree and the more I noticed that the tall bushes looked like people trying to run from the tree covered in mushrooms. The hair on the back of my neck painfully stood on end as this realization hit me. These people had not died from anything but fear and the tree it's self. In the height of my panic I didn't see the shadow slowly engulfing me from behind until it spoke.

"Oh Iris whatever are you doing under the willow tree?"