Chapter XI
The Red Forest
The evening was heralded by birds singing among the trees. Loud chirping, sharp whistles all resonated outside the cave. The bears pulled back the boulders, rolling them to one side. They pushed the thick and heavy vines aside as though they were merely drapes covering a window. The sun had began to set as they made their way out of the cave and back behind the tree cover and beyond the watchful gaze of those dark towers. The Bears and the Panthurians were ready to head across the steppe, which was now drowning in golden sunshine made all the more brilliant by an ocean of Steppe Violets that hinted of home. The wind made them ripple softly as if calling out to them. They said their quiet goodbyes and left for Panthuria.
The four travellers gazed after them as they disappeared from view, as darkness descended they turned and headed out over the plain. Once across they stayed close to the foot of the mountain range and crept slowly towards their goal. On the battlements of the castle torches had been lit; small iron cages filled with kindling atop posts blazed so brightly that no one could pass beneath them without being seen. The difficult part of their passage would be when they reached the pass between the Mountain range and the large jagged mount that the castle was built on. It was not that wide and along either side of the pass, torches were lit practically lighting up the entire pass, except for a small snake like black slither that ran down its centre, which was so thin you could only pass through it in single file. Also unfortunately when the wind struck the torches they would flare up; illuminating even that shadowed area. They made their way quietly, if not too comfortably toward the pass. As they got close to it they decided to split up into pairs.
“Nishga you go first, followed by Nicholas and then Andreas, I’ll cover the rear. Hopefully we’ll make it with little or no mishap.”
“I should go last as I have the cloak therefore it is unlikely I’ll be seen.”
Achil crept back to Nishga. “Look Nishga keep to the plan, I would prefer it if you go first, and take care as you go, that cloak of yours may afford you some protection but you mustn’t get complacent.”
She tugged her cloak away from his grasp and slowly moved forward into the pass. Nicholas followed after her, and then went Andreas and finally Achil. The torches had not flared up as yet but Achil’s hairs on the back of his neck were beginning to stand up. He felt danger close by. He strode out into the shadowed area and began slowly moving through it when he slipped, his boot had got trapped in a small hole. Andreas just ahead of him heard him fall and turned back to help. By the time he reached him, Achil had already taken off his holdall and was desperately trying to free his leg.
“Don’t be a fool. Get out of here, before you give our position away,” whispered Achil as he urgently tried to free himself.
Andreas unmoved by his protestations grabbed hold of Achil’s holdall and threw it into the dark at the other end of the pass where Nicholas caught it before it clattered to the floor. It appeared that Achil’s boot had got twisted between some old unforgiving tree roots. Then to make a bad situation worse, to their horror the wind got up, it began blowing down the pass toward them, forcing the torches on either side of the mountains to flare up. The shadowy strip began disappearing overcome by the strength of the torches mindful gaze. Andreas without hesitation drew his dagger, cutting the root in two, and freeing Achil’s boot. He hauled him up and they ran toward the end of the pass. The torches above their heads one by one began to blaze more brightly. It was as if a wave were about to break upon the shore, it was all Nishga and Nicholas could do to stop themselves from crying out for their companions to hurry. Together Achil and Andreas ran down that narrow strip of protective reassuring cover, which they new at any moment would be no more. Once the shadow parted they would be revealed to that monstrous castle that now stood like a gallows over their heads. As the light was about to envelop them they jumped clear into the dark at the other end. Achil’s boot the only thing touched by a once more dying light that receded back into shadow from whence it had come.
“I told you to leave me; we both could have been caught." Achil rose and began shaking the earth from him.
“You're welcome, and stop complaining and let's get out of here before we wake that castle of theirs.”
They gathered their things up and left, keeping once more to the base of the mountain following it round until they were clear of the gaze of any watchful eyes from above. They then fled through the long grasses toward the Red Forest. By the morning they could see it. The sun bounced of the red leaves making the forest seem like an inferno. As they reached the forbidding silence of the trees with their heavy canopy that filtered out nearly all light, they understood what Zannou had meant when he had said that amongst those trees something frightening lurked. Desperation guided their steps that day, as they ran forward under the trees until they were well hidden beneath its deep shadow.
“Well we’ve made it.” said Nicholas bent double trying to force air back into his unforgiving lungs.
“Yes, but what exactly have we made, we’re still far from our objective, and are now guests of a less than hospitable forest.” Achil stood his eyes trying to penetrate the gloom.
“One things for sure this is one time I’m not going to say that things could be worse.” said Andreas with a wry smile on his face, knowing the last time he had said such a thing he had tempted providence into making things worse.
They clambered beneath trees that were high standing, deep rooted, a thousand year old trees that stood upright and lost themselves in the ether, not swayed by bitter unnatural winds; masters of their surroundings. Their leaves were red as though the forest were bathed in perpetual autumn. They whispered to one another of the new arrivals. Whispers that travelled along the top of the canopy, until in the darkness something stirred that had slept for an age. A shadow seemed to take shape in the form of a man, yet it was much taller, two red eyes penetrated the darkness. In the distance imperceptibly a twig snapped, it shot a glance in the direction of where the noise had come from and waited, something was moving toward it.
“Could you make any more noise?” asked Andreas desperately trying to get everyone to be a little more careful.
“Sorry, I thought the quicker we’re through the forest the better,” replied Nicholas.
“Well if there is some malevolent force that holds sway over this forest. The last thing we want is for it to know we’re coming,” responded Andreas gruffly. “Look Achil over there a moment, if we keep to this narrow verge it appears to follow a straight line, as far as the eye can see.”
Andreas stood next to a shallow dip with Achil by his side looking along his arm.
“It looks like a plan, let's go,” said Achil.
They set off along the line of the verge that stretched out in front of them; it could have been at one time the embankment to an old road that once traversed the forest, now long overgrown and lost to time. As they passed through it not for the first time they forgot momentarily that they were in foreign lands; hearing sounds reminiscent to home, a woodpigeons hollow calming call, the rising whistling sound of the thrush and the moot of a distant owl. They travelled most of the day in silence wary of Zannou's warning of some ancient malice that lived in the forest, when above there heads was a gentle tapping, it had just began to rain. The canopy protected them for the most part. They could hear the far off squawking of ravens that were shouting for cover over and over again, when they came upon something unexpected, long since disused homes in the trees. Toughened old Vines reached down to the ground enabling them to climb up and explore this new habitat. With evening fast approaching they decided to stop for the night in one of the sturdier homes which they found nestling in the branches. Bringing back for the first time in a long while life to a place that had stood without disturbance for so many years. The vine which had led up through a trap door and into the heart of one of the homes enabled them to reach shelter before the rain quickened from what was a
slight drizzle into a full blown storm. They investigated these strange new surroundings to find broken chairs and a collapsed table. There was a back room with the remnants of what was once a bed in it. Most everything was rotten but for the building itself which had been protected with some covering that had prevented weathering from setting in, it was in a condition less of decay and more of abandonment.
“Do you think we’ll be safe up here?” Nishga lay on her side looking out into the forest.
“We should be. At least we’ll pull the vines up so that nothing can climb up here. The main thing is that we have not encountered anything unnatural, if we can keep moving without being noticed then before we know it, we’ll be free of the forest altogether.” said Achil, who preferred the security of being hidden away.
Though beneath his stoicism, there was a feeling that the sooner they were out of that forest the better. He had begun to feel a strange sensation like an impending doom. It was the same feeling as he had had when he stood atop the towers of Findolin, staring down at the legions of the Mandrake; waiting for them to strike. Since he knew there was as yet no justification for such concerns he kept them to himself.
***
In the forest something stirred, a shadow moved toward them, shifting form as it went, first a wolf, then a bear, then a deer, then that of a Wildman. Suddenly it stopped just as Achil had joined the others in the tree house. The entity changed turning into the shape of a tree becoming still, quiet, and menacing, it was as though it were listening. Its movement halted for the moment, as it could not sense the unfamiliar presence it had felt earlier.