Fay laughed, a high pretty laugh, ‘You’re famished!’
I finished my bread to the last crumb and had the courage to look at her properly. She was outworldly beautiful.
‘Who are you?’ was the only thing I managed to ask her.
‘I could ask you the same thing,’ she replied amused, but when she noticed I wasn’t smiling she said, ‘All you need to know is that I got curious when I heard a story. A story about a tower and a wizard who keeps slaves.’
‘Who did you hear that from? Is it known to men?’
‘Known to men?’ She shook her head. ‘No, I heard it from the animals in this wood. They can’t get through to those fields-’
‘You heard it from…you can talk to animals?’ I asked in disbelief.
Fay smiled, but in the moonlight I noticed that it was a troubled smile. I looked at her greenish almond shaped eyes that seemed to shine bright by themselves in the darkening night.
‘They could feel the evil radiating from that place, you know and birds-’ she looked intently at me and stared into my eyes for a long time, almost as if she was trying to read my thoughts before she continued, ‘Birds cannot fly further past this point. The shield even extends up into the sky! Usually I don’t interfere with human activities if I can help it, unless my friends the animals need me, but now I felt…let’s say when I sensed you, I felt pity for you.’
I stared in surprise at her.
‘Hm, well I am glad you found me.’
I didn’t understand though why she would pity me. I felt sorry for myself before, but I never realised others could feel that for me as well.
‘So you saw me, realising I was trapped and… called me?’
She nodded. ‘I realised you were a victim. I sensed it.’
A victim? I wondered, painfully remembering my previous state of being.
‘I forgot how a caged bird looked,’ Fay added and remembered how her father had referred to her mother as ‘a rare caged bird’ when she lived together with her parents in the small village of Rosinhill.
‘You pitied me?’
Her face tightened. ‘I have a heart you know.’
‘You saved me,’ I said and tried to look in her eyes, to catch a glimpse of her mysterious soul, but Fay lowered her eyes. ‘I am very thankful. You gave me back my life,’ and I smiled at her, a smile it seemed she could not withstand so she smiled back.
‘By the way, my name is Tana Woodwolf.’ I extended my hand to her.
‘What a great name!’ she replied with shining eyes. Her hand felt warm and I was glad for some real human contact.
‘Fay,’ she added. ‘Fay…er Rosinhill.’
It was very quiet in the chilly woods apart from the mild rustle of the wind through the leaves. I closed my eyes for a moment, to be there in the place I had watched from a distance for nearly a whole year through all seasons, was a strange sensation. I remembered for a moment what had happened again.
‘But you still haven’t told me how you made that hole?’
‘It wasn’t me, Tana.’
‘What are you saying; the animals of this wood did?’
‘Like I said, they told me what I told you; how to escape. I didn’t think it would be that easy, though.’
‘You mean I did it myself, by simply looking, feeling for it?’
‘Yes.’
‘Yeah, sure I did! With all due respect, I can’t believe that.’ I said, shaking my head.
‘You did! When you created your own passage. You see, you’re only chained if you allow yourself to be chained. Your soul, the real you, cannot be put in shackles and will always be free.’
‘If that’s true, why couldn’t I do it before, or anyone else? Why haven’t we escaped sooner?’
‘Because you didn’t know you could. The wizard won’t believe it either.’ A giggle escaped Fay’s mouth.
‘Would he already know?’
‘Maybe, maybe not. You are free now, why worry?’
Then I thought about the other people in there who could possible do the same. Fay guessed I was thinking about them, although she wasn’t too pleased, I noticed that by her open facial expression.
‘I could go back and tell the others the same as you told me.’
‘You could.’ she remarked absentmindedly. I had the feeling I was talking to air.
‘But should I, I mean…would I be capable of escaping once more?’
‘I don’t know if the other prisoners are capable of doing what you did, but I think if the wizard doesn’t know that you’ve escaped yet, you stand a good chance, but if he does know… will you be able to withstand his dark magic? Next time you might not be able to survive.’
I sighed worriedly, ‘I can’t walk away. I have to help them.’
~~~
Pensively I walked over to the water and knelt down to stare in the fresh cool pond. I started to wonder about the other people, mostly in their late twenties and thirties with a life still ahead of them. There was no-one left there that I even felt I could relate to, possibly due to the distance I wisely kept. But still…still, like Fay, I pitied them.
The other prisoners and I had one thing in common: our enslavement, chains or not and there surely would be more people after my leaving, perhaps I had been replaced already.
Am I free?
Even though I could have easily walked away and forgotten all about the mysterious evil wizard and his slaves, I just couldn’t. Until then, my freedom was still in chains.
Chapter Five - The Great Escape
‘We can try to leave tonight.’ I told the others the next morning. We had gathered to eat our breakfast in front of the tower. The sun was shining. It promised to be a lovely day, and with our freedom in mind it couldn’t be anything else. Of course we had to keep our voices down, but it seemed the wizard hadn’t found out about my short escape! I had managed to easily slip back in through the wall in order to carry out my plan.
‘Why can’t we leave now?’ A woman whose name I knew to be Jilly asked. They only believed my story because I brought a pine tree branch with me; one which didn’t grow in our prison or ever fell on the field. But there was still fear and doubt and who could blame them.
‘It worked last night, maybe it will only work at night-time, at least then he isn’t paying too much attention,’ I whispered.
‘But maybe he will find out before tonight and fix the hole!’ Another person softly said.
‘Are you sure he really doesn’t know yet?’ A dark man called Awin asked me.
‘I’m still here, what more proof do you want?’
‘I think he doesn’t give a damn about any of us,’ another man cursed. ’If we all escape through the hole you discovered he will simply transport new slaves. He might not let the whole group go, though. If he didn’t notice one was gone, he will most certainly when we’re all gone all at once. He won’t like that!’
‘Hmm, I hadn’t thought about that,’ I admitted. So even if I somehow did manage to rescue everyone there in one go; they would all be replaced, so more souls would suffer eventually. In a way I would be responsible for more lost lives…
‘Frankly, I don’t care. I just want to get the hell out of this shit hole, this is our chance!’ A big man boasted, pushing himself forward.
‘So, let’s take it. We have nothing to lose,’ Awin said. He sort of put the role of leader on himself. He kept the spirit alive, as best as he could.
‘Tana, I am still not sure how you managed to penetrate that damn wall, but show us, and we will follow you,’ He pleaded in a kind voice.
I shivered when I thought about that. I still wasn’t sure myself anymore in spite of the new hope of the group. Which was so new to me. What if I could not remember? What did Fay tell me last night? ‘Look better…search…’
&nb
sp; I knew, felt that she was there waiting for me on the other side and vividly remembered her soft voice and her believing in me. She has also insisted when we parted for me to rely on my self and my own instincts and no one else’s for that was what got me through the wall in the first place.
‘Remember what you thought and felt when you made that opening bigger,’ Fay had said to me, thinking that to be the clue to my freedom.
‘Perhaps it is best to escape one at a time, one every night or every so often if it’s too unsafe, instead of the whole group at once,’ I agreed with Awin. ‘I might be able to show you properly one at a time. And when a newcomer arrives show them the same thing. I could help everyone now that I know the way t-’
‘Too risky and long winded,’ another man protested. ‘If he finds out, he’ll make sure he seals the hole. Then we’ll all be dead.’
‘I doubt that there is just one hole,’ I argued. ‘You see, I believe that you create it yourself. With that the wizard stands no chance against us, but we have to be cunning.’
So we voted and the majority, if not all, voted for our escape tonight, all of us or none and to be frank I can’t say that I blamed them.
~~~
I felt the tension in the group rise and still some scepticism from most of them. They always considered me a dreamer and a bit odd. I could even hear someone whisper, ‘Why did she come back for us? You think we should trust that weirdo?’
But I held their key to freedom, so they tried to be nice to me, for their own sake.
We all stood there in the dark, I could smell the others sweating out of fear.
When we stood at the exact spot that I had escaped the night before I recalled the moment of my escape and pretty soon had found the location of the tiny start of the hole by the footprints I had left in the mud. People were pushing up behind me, trying to grasp for the hole, hurting me in the process so I had to push them away.
‘One at a time!’ I shouted. Awin helped me push them away with force.
‘Right,’ I said. ‘Let’s draw the shortest stick for who I show how to go through first,’ I started. ‘No,’ Awin interrupted me and played the leader again. ‘Just tell us what you did yesterday so we can all leave one by one whilst we’re here.’
The crowd agreed and they started to make a queue. There was a lot of pushing and pulling and I didn’t agree with this method of ‘the strongest first’, but ultimately my aim was to get them all through tonight. The wizard no doubt would find out if we spread our escape out over several days. I myself could come back to get the newcomers out, over and over again, if need be.
‘Here it is,’ I told the first one; a big bald man. We could all feel the oppressive pressure from the magical wall resonating, some people seemed to ‘bounce’ back by its sheer force, others held their footing and remained queued up as much as they could. I stretched my arms out to the wall and began to feel, just like I had done before after Fay’s guidance. ‘Now wait for my sign,’ I said to them.
Ignoring the same visions of fear I did my very best, at least I knew that they would be over soon, so when I found the tiny hole again and stuck my hand through I looked back to instruct the man what to do next when there was a sudden uproar in the group. I looked back and saw that the others were protesting and screaming helplessly. I glanced in wonder at them, not understanding and saw that the rage was not directed at me. The big man fell to the floor as if he was being hauled from behind.
I was the only one not affected by it. The others were all pulled away from the wall backwards by an unseen hand; without a question the hand of the wizard. Of course they all protested loudly in terror.
It didn’t happen all that fast and I stood numb for a few seconds. Awin let himself fall on the ground and tried to hold on to a tiny thorny bush, but was jerked back with bush and all in the direction of the tower. I held on to him, but was pulled along with him so that I had to let go in the end. The strength of the wizard was too great.
There was nothing I could do; it was the same pull when someone was called for from the wizard’s attic. I just hoped that they would not have to face their deaths.
I tried to hold on to more people, but was dragged with them too. I will never forget the look on the face of one woman when I had to let her go. That look of helplessness, utter fright of the unknown and the dread of death struck my heart’s core.
I had to admit that once again the wizard, the Evil One, was too powerful for all of us. And I? I could only watch in despair. Watch or close my eyes.
I only barely escaped as I too had been dragged along with the woman, although it didn’t seem to pull at me. When we reached the door of the tower it closed before me, locked shut. I couldn’t open it from the outside; the door that had never been locked before…
And what was worse; I heard shrieking from within. Screaming and shouting and I was sure they were being hauled upstairs; all of them at once. Tears filled my eyes and I fell down on my knees as I lost all strength.
Had I made things worse for them? I thought that it would be simpler, like my escape, but I had been wrong and naïve.
Of course I could have followed them into the tower, but then all hope would have been lost. Not only for them or myself even, but moreover for future prisoners now that I held the key. I had to escape and help in another way; this urge weighed stronger than my own freedom.
Chapter Six - On The Outside
‘So there I was safe for now, standing on the outside of the tower, crying my eyes out at the door, remembering the faces and the horror of the screams. It was as if the wizard had forgotten all about me; I had simply been excluded. It crossed my mind that maybe I was already dead; a ghost. For why else didn’t he have power over me anymore?’
‘All I knew was the only thing left for me to do; to finish what I had begun for all of us. I found the opening in the invisible shield and was surprised that it was already big enough for me to go through without much trouble. I discovered Fay waiting for me between the trees. She understood when I returned alone and I started to speak in a shaky voice, but could only stumble over my words when trying to tell her what had happened. I didn’t need to explain. She opened her arms for me while I wept soundlessly.’
‘Why?’ I asked later on addressing the wizard, but Fay was the only one who heard.
‘It is the way things are,’ she responded in a calm voice. ‘I also wish it were different.’
‘It can be,’ I replied in rousing anger, a feeling I had not allowed myself to feel yet. ‘I’m sure I can do something-’
‘We don’t have the power, none of us do-’
‘Would there be no one to help us?’
‘You have tried, but it was no use.’
‘And what about you with your magical powers? Why didn’t you go in there with me?’
‘What makes you think I have any?’ She replied visibly shocked.
‘You’re different,’ I shook my head, looking intensely at her. ‘You’re-’
‘Look, I only gave you a suggestion, you did the rest, Tana. You yourself must have some magical powers. The rest didn’t. I don’t either. Perhaps they weren’t ready. Unlike you they only thought of themselves and their own freedom.’
‘So you think, because I believed, I hoped and had showed some compassion I could do it, I escaped?’
‘All I know is what I witnessed; you did and they didn’t, come.’ She said and we left the pine woods behind us.
~~~
The following day, after my first night in freedom I again started to feel guilty and expressed these feelings to Fay. I told her that I needed to go back in.
‘You can’t possibly make holes in the wall for everyone. I don’t think it works that way,’ Fay said. ‘You’ve seen it with your own eyes. They have to, like you did, create their own doorway.’
‘So, I’ll show them how. I can
teach them how to escape, I’m sure I can.’
I had a feeling she didn’t agree with me.
‘I’m not saying you can’t, but how does the old saying go; prevention is better than a cure?’
I sighed, ‘What do you mean?’
‘You’re a good person, Tana. I do believe that is what got you out of there. Sure you could go back and explain that to all of them. How by being good and helping others saved your life, possibly… How the hope and love in your heart made the hole bigger for you, enabling you to go through it. But what makes you think you will succeed? Will they believe you or will they be sent to their deaths straight away like the ones yesterday? Perhaps even more importantly and my biggest worry; what makes you think the Evil One will allow you to even try?’
It hurt when she mentioned me being responsible for those people’s deaths, but she was right. They would have died anyway, but I of course had made it happen sooner. In a way they were already dead, like I had felt.
‘But I tried to help them, Fay. I have to try again, even if I can only get one out.’
‘People you don’t really know; strangers? Why would you want to rescue people without names, without faces?’
I was shocked at that and couldn’t speak for a while.
‘Didn’t you do the same thing for me?’ I asked her quietly.
She smiled her warm smile and her eyes grew soft.
‘Why don’t you travel with me for a while and tell people your story? Who knows what good it might do to people?’
Chapter Seven - The Quest
‘Was it their fate to end up there and was it mine to escape? I sometimes ask myself.’ Tana Woodwolf bit her lip in thought. ‘And was it a coincidence that I met someone who told me how to be free? I don’t know. I once heard someone say that there is just a fine line between fate and coincidence and it is up to you to listen to the signs and follow your own heart. I don’t know. I just hope I will understand someday. In the meantime I pray for those poor souls to be rescued every single day.’
‘The wizard is still alive today. I have not been back yet, but I know. I just do. Instead I went home and held my mother tight and we have never been more close. She and my father had looked after my farm, not knowing if I was dead or alive, but always hoped. The year apart had made us all realise what we thought we had lost. I visit my parents as much as I can now and I understand our time here is precious and nothing is gained with harsh words and negative thoughts.