Ghost in the Forest

Ghost in the Forest

“There are spirits in the woods, my boy” Harad’s father had told him when he was a child. They had been returning home after selling their produce at the market when a sudden snowstorm had forced the pair to seek shelter in an old bear cave, thankfully unoccupied by its former resident. Harad had been unable to sleep, despite the warm campfire, he’d never been out at night this far away from home, and the fear of the dark and the unknown kept him in a panicked state.

His father, a kind loving man, had tried his best to allay his sons’ fears, by regaling him with stories of spirits, gods and demons, yes, he was a kind man but not overly bright. The tale of the white-faced-ghost had petrified Harad, not just because of his overactive imagination but as he listened to the tale, his eyes wandered the treeline, scanning every shadow for flesh hungry ghosts when he saw it. A large inhuman white faced loomed out of the dark, its head tilted as if regarding the small child. Harad had frozen with fear, the hairs on the back of his neck standing on end as animalistic black eyes bored into him. The moment seemed to stretch for eternity before the face simply turned from view.

The events of the night haunted Harad for many years, even as an adult he tried his best to avoid the forest, and every time it snowed, he would always catch a glimpse of a white face staring at him from the darkness. He tried his best to ignore it, even turning to drink to drive the memories away, but deep down he knew that one day the white-faced-ghost would come for him.

It was cold, far too cold for any reasonable individual to be out in, anybody with a lick of sense would be curled up by blazing fire, filling their bellies with hot food and waiting for the snowstorm to end. Fate however had a different destiny intended for Harad.

Homeward bound after a rather disappointing visit to the tavern, he stumbled across a scene that sobered him up in an instant. After voiding most of his stomach contents on the pristine snow, Harad cast his eyes over the gruesome carnage. It was a family, or rather had been, considering they’d been reduced to eviscerated chucks, staining the snow blood red all around. The wagon, the unfortunate victims, had been travelling on had suffered a similar fate, the wooden blanks had been smashed and torn apart, whatever creature had attacked them it possessed great and ferocious strength.

“A bear?” Harad whispered. Trying to ignore the slowly rising dread in the pit of his stomach. He was doubtful of course, bears were a rare sight and attacks were even rarer, most of them preferred to stay in the forest, well clear of any humans.

Harad rubbed his bearded chin thoughtfully, looking back toward the town he just left he had a decision to make. If he reported the incident to the Ealdorman now, they could gather the watch and return within the hour, or he could go home and report it in the morning. Not relishing the prospect of tracking a man-eating bear at night, Harad settled on the latter. This was of course where Fate revealed its hand.

A cry, no, more like a shrill screech resounded through the night. Harad spun, his hand instinctively reaching for the long knife concealed beneath his great coat. He froze, the blood in his veins turning to ice, he even stopped breathing for a few seconds.

There, perched upon of one of the many pine trees, loomed the animalistic white face. Its black eyes seemed to root Harad to the spot. He’d not seen the sight in sometime and had slowly started to believe himself free of the curse, but to see it now was surely the grimmest of omens.

Harad blinked as fresh snow struck his face, and by the time he opened his eyes, the creature was gone.

Dropping his head in relief, Harad laughed to himself to ease the tension from his body and stopped abruptly. In the snow before him lay a trail of footprints, he stared at them, they were fresh, the newly fallen snow hadn’t enough time to cover them. Following the trail with his eyes, he felt his breath catch once again, whomever it was, and it seemed to be a child, judging from the size, they’d directly into the Numen Forest. Cursing loudly and with plenty of feeling, Harad took one last look up the path leading to safety and ran into the woods.

Following the trail deep into the forest, he began to feel a sense of trepidation, there had been no other sign of the child, but more importantly the bear had been this way. The pawprints in the snow revealed the beast was huge, and even worse the sun had long since set and a weak pale moon being the only source of light, whenever it managed to pierce through the clouds. He made up his mind to leave shortly, the forest was deathly silent, and the poor visibility gave the place a dread inducing aura. He’d pushed his luck too far already and remaining longer would no doubt provoke the malicious spirits to action.

Another shrill screech made him jump in terror, a scream half formed, but he managed to suppress it. He turned already knowing what awaited him. The white-faced-spirit peered at him once more, its eyes seemed to pierce him, then it blinked and tilted its head to look past him. Harad felt the sudden urge to look behind him and although caution warned him not to, he found it difficult to resist the compulsion.

A lichen covered dead tree lay not two hundred yards away, it ran parallel to the path he’d taken, so oppressive the dark Harad had walked right past it. Even with the white-faced-spirit giving hints, if the clouds hadn’t parted for a moment allowing the moonlight to shine upon the ground, he doubted he’d have ever noticed it.

A small flicker of movement caught his attention, for a fleeting moment he thought it was the bear, before the far more rational part of his mind informed him it was highly unlikely the bear would fit beneath the log. Hidden in the shadow beneath the log lay the child, her yellow cloak catching in the light giving away her position.

Harad slowly approached, being extra mindful to not spook the poor girl. Spreading his arms out wide he fell into a half crouch. Keeping his voice low, he called out quietly.

“Hello there” he said, truly unsure on how to convince the rightfully terrified child from her false sanctuary. “I’m from Hoardawn” he continued pointing, though being so turned around he wasn’t quite sure which direction the town lay.

Another screech sounded from the night. Harad turned slowly as to not frighten the girl. The spirit sat further away, but its face stood out as clear as day. Another screech, this time with the sound of the flapping of wings, he couldn’t tell why he knew, but he understood the spirit was giving off a sense of urgency. Harad glanced down to the ground beneath the spirit and fought back a cry of horror.

Looming out of the night came a monster, it had a similar shape to a bear, but looked nothing like once he’d ever seen or head about. For one instead of thick brown fur, it was black, soulless pitch black, with the fur being more akin to scales. Scars littered the monster’s face and with its blood red eyes it emitted an aura of despair. Despite it being twice the size of an average bear Harad had little doubt it could move swiftly.

Fighting down panic, he turned back to the girl hoping to urge her out of hiding. Thankfully the brave little girl had already crawled out from under the log and practically flung herself into his embrace, her tiny arms hung around his neck, and she burrowed deep into him trying her best to stifle her sobs.

Harad wasted no time, he bolted, clearing the fallen tree in a single bound. Moments later a roar erupted from behind and Harad knew this had just turned into a deadly chase.

He'd been running for what seemed like hours but could have only been a dozen minutes or so. He’d tried to zig zag through the trees, hoping the serpentine movement would confuse the demon-bear hounding them. The plan, although sound, did not work, the supernatural power of the beast propelled it directly through the trees without stopping. The trees exploded violently showering the area with burning splinters. Having to avoid being impaled, Harad slowed considerably.

Outrunning the demon-bear was unlikely, Harad knew this, but with the other option being to stand and fight, he much preferred the former option. If he could make it to a road there’d be a slim chance of aid and a slim chance was far better than none.

Like most things in Harad’s life, the decision was made for it, for no sooner had he dared to hope, a shard of a freshly exploding tree cut deep into his leg, dropping him to the ground. Thankfully, he managed to turn with the fall and landed heavily on his shoulder but prevented the child from further pain. Despite the pain of his protesting leg, he pushed himself upright, hiding the girl behind a tree, Harad turned to face the bear.

Pulling the knife out from under his coat, he silently cursed himself for not returning home when he had the chance, now he was going to die, horribly. All he could hope for was to injure it enough to buy the child enough time to escape.

The beast closed the distance with a powerful burst from its scaley legs, its blood-stained maw opened wide, as if it wanted to swallow him whole, and from the size of it Harad believed it could do just that. Fully expecting to die, he dropped into a half crouch, the long knife held out before him, daring to hope to stab the damned thing in the eye before he went.

The bear bounded off the snow as it made to leap to the attack, it was here that something happened Harad would never have expected, as the bear began to strike, razor sharp talons plunged into its murderous eyes blinding it. With a screech the owl kept up its attack, its talons piercing the monster’s flesh. Harad stood transfixed watching the scene unfold.

The demon-bear turned its head trying to devour the owl, but the bird was too swift, gliding out of reach before plummeting back down to assault the back of its opponent’s head. With another roar agony the bear reared up on its hind legs, its huge front paws swiping the air in vain.

Harad recognised the chance given to him, swallowing hard, he rushed forward ducking under the powerful arms of the bear and rammed the knife home, hoping almost against hope to have struck the monster’s heart. The bear stiffened instantly, and a low moan escaped its maw and slowly, painfully slow by Harad’s measure, it fell backwards hitting the ground hard enough to shake the snow from the surrounding trees.

Harad breathed heavily, the adrenaline ebb from him and he found himself suddenly exhausted. A soft but sudden weight on his shoulder snapped his mind back from its fatigue, turning his head he found himself staring into the face of the owl that had without a doubt saved his life. The barn owl, if Harad recognised it correctly, but he doubted it, hooted softly and nuzzled his cheek, despite himself Harad laughed softly and rubbed the owls head softly. Staring into the white face and black eyes of the owl, he came to a startling and somewhat terrifying realisation. The spirit that had haunted his nights and dreams for years now sat on his shoulder, he didn’t know if he should laugh or cry but decided the former would be better, the owl spirit blinked slowly in amusement before flapping its wings and returned to the air.

Harad felt a small hand clasp his, looking down he saw the girl had come back to his side and was looking up with a small sense of wonder. Smiling gently, he lifted the girl back into his arms and looked around trying to decide which way they needed to take to return to Hoardawn.

A screech caught his attention, the owl circled him twice before making off through the trees, screeching once more as if to tell follow. With one last glance at the fallen bear, with Harad noticing it had ever so slowly begun to move again, the duo hurried after their savour.

Being guided by the owl, the journey back to town was mercifully uneventful, the bear, if it had managed to gather its strength had clearly thought better of chasing them. Harad informed the Ealdorman of the tragedy that had befallen the girl’s family, who they now knew was called Hedya. Saying a tearful goodbye, but promising to return Harad left the exhausted child at the Ealdorman’s residence, with the man himself promising to take the girl in. Deciding to sleep at the tavern, not feeling brave enough to risk another journey past the forest.

Securing a room, gratifyingly paid for by the Ealdorman, Harad readied himself for a well-deserved rest when he had the sudden filling of being watched. Acting on impulse he moved to the window and opened it, peering into the night, he chuckled to himself unsurprised at seeing the ghost-like owl peering back. It was rather pleasing to discover Harad no longer faced the looming face and found himself hoping he’d see the owl again. As if in answer to his thoughts, the barn owl spirit let out of soft screech and disappeared into the night.