Forest Nightingales - The Forest Wants to Play

The Eye of The Storm

As I pass through the pool of rippling water I feel an immediate change in the atmosphere as I take my first breath and the feel of the air is cleaner than before. I start my trek across the flourishing grassy glade towards the vibrant green forest in hope that I find Andrew and him telling me that Lancelot is a mere prop within the Pythose games. The silence of the glade is broken by the faint sound of a charm blowing in the wind, but it is not a charm for the closer I get to the forest the more I hear the sound of a music box chime playing a lullaby.

The chime from the music box that echoes throughout the glade and seems to emanate from within the forest repeats it's song. I walk through the still forest, the chime still echoing and when I place my hand on a tree I thought I was going to fall to the floor as I can not feel the tree nor the leaves that hang from the branches. The crackling of embers can now be heard and as I brush back the leaves hanging from the trees I spot John, sat by the logs holding a silver music box. Before the silver music box finishes it's chime John closes it and looks at me with a smile of surprise.

“Ah... I see that you survived another game...” He says standing up from the log he leaned on.

I stand like a snake watching its pray, staring at him I say, “I have discovered the truth, Andrew” I say in hope that he dismisses the claims made against him.

John smiles looking at the flames of the fire, “well...”, he says as he grabs his bag. He lifts his hand up pointing his finger at me, but does not say any more as he kicks the logs in the fire spraying burning embers in my face. I cover my face with my arm, when I lower it the forest is dark and I can feel the cold of the wind. I take out my sword for I can hear the the forest moving around me quickly and as I make my way through the forest an old friend makes an appearance. The beast knocks me down but I am straight back to my feet using the flat side of my sword to bat at the beast knocking it against a tree. I make my escape quick as the beast has shown to be different during the light and so I make my way through the forest again looking for Andrew Weaver.

Again the beast is there to slow me down bursting through the leaves in the trees grabbing and taking my sword away from me. It then grabs me by the neck before I have chance to do anything else and holds me against a tree. The beast looks into the forest, growling deeply, and when it howls it holds my arm jumping high into and over the canopy of the forest. Several times it does this and several times do I see a castle made of black stone get evermore closer. When we reach the gates of the castle the beast looks at the height of the gates and walks over to the gates placing its clawed hands on them.

I glance at the darkness shadowing the blackness of the castle and when a cold breeze blows against my face I direct my attention towards the locked gates. To know the truth is what I desire, to know why I was chosen to run through hell and back with barely my life intact. My body fills with emotion, all my muscles tense as I plant my feet in the ground and as I charge towards the gates the heavens open and bellows out enormous bolts of lightning. With the brunt of my shoulder I smash through the gates like they were paper thin glass and when the dust settles I see that a welcome party of dead souls dressed in battle armour wait yielding rusted swords and axes.

I simply smile devilishly as the dead limp and crawl surrounding me.