Oakmarsh

I heard a branch snap as I walked over the stick covered floor of the forest, pushing away branches as I go. I take a deep breath feeling the slight chill in the air as winter turns to spring. The birds were chirping in the trees, some were hopping around picking up worms off the floor from the rain that had just passed by.

I turned around the tree, walked through a few shrubs letting them brush my hand as I went, the forest was my happy place, where I could let go of my worries, where I could forget about the day, specifically today.

I brushed past the last shrub and came to a lake, on all sides it was surrounded by trees and shrubs, with vines and flowers winding them together, so that you didn’t know what was here unless you wanted to find it.

The sun was starting to shine down once more, making the water on the lake shine, a slight breeze made little waves break out over the water. I heard a rustle from behind me, my hand shot to my dagger at my waist, I held my breath, not daring to make a sound as I slowly turned. I let out a breath, my hand falling back to my side, as I saw a deer sticking its head out, chewing on a piece of grass at its feet. It froze when it saw me before slowly going back to chewing, never taking it’s beady eyes off me.

I felt a small smile graze my lips, I gave it a small nod before slowly turning around back to the lake. I walked around the south side, climbing over rocks, to get to a rock that’s five feet off the ground, hanging over the lake. I sat down taking off my fox fur boots, setting them off to the side, before scooting closer to the edge, hanging my feet off the side.

I wiggled my toes feeling the cool breeze between them, I reached to my left, pushing away dirt and weeds to reveal a rolled up blanket made out of elk skin tied with a piece of string. I took off my shawl, letting the breeze roll over my arms, I put the blanket behind my head and laid back looking up at the sky.

The clouds were like dancers in a play, each in sync with the other. If they ended up touching they would just turn into something even more beautiful, I let my mind focus on that instead of what this day represented.

Eventually my eyelids felt like a million pounds, they started to close and before I knew it, I was asleep.

~

All I could see was black, I was standing in what looked like a black room that went on as far as I could see.

“Help!”

It sounded like a woman yelling, I jerked to my right hand going straight to my waist, feeling for my dagger. I grabbed it, putting it in front of me and adjusting my stance, ready to fight at the first sign of someone. I saw a flash of light in the corner of my eye and swung around, only to find darkness.

“Help me, someone please!” she screamed again.

I turned again to still find nothing, I heard screaming and yelled before I could stop myself,”Hold on! I’m coming!”

I started running blindly trying to find my way, following the screams as I went. After what felt like hours I finally saw what looked like a fire with someone standing around it. Once I got closer I noticed she was kneeling above someone, light brown hair falling around her face in a curtain.

“Hey!” I yelled trying to get their attention, the woman ignored me, I could see tears streaming down her face, she whipped her head around and screamed at me,”Go! You can’t see this Ivy, go!”

I looked to my left to see a little girl around two, just barely able to run without falling, light brown hair with blonde tips, round chubby cheeks, green eyes, and tears rolling down her face. I felt shock wash over me, she looked like a miniature me, down to the dark speck in her left eye, but it was the name that made me freeze. Ivy, that was my name, but I didn’t have this memory. When the person moved her head I was able to see the man she was kneeling over, he looked to be about her age, dark black hair that fell to his forehead, pale skin, white as snow. His eyes were closed and blood was slowly trickling out of his mouth, over pale lips, and down to the neck. The little girl next to me let out a cry screaming,”Mommy!”

The tears wouldn’t stop running down the womens face even when she tried to wipe them away, she shook her head, giving the girl a hard look,”Go! Now, before they find you!”

The little girl stood there for a few seconds, letting the sobs engulf her before finally turning and running as fast as her little legs could take her.

~

That’s when I woke up to clouds swirling above me, blocking out the sun, the wind whipping my hair into my face, and thunder booming in the distance. Not having time to piece together my memory that I don’t remember having, I swung my legs up, pulled my boots on, swept my blanket back to its hiding spot, quickly covering it with dirt, wrapping my shawl around me, and taking off running.

I shoved aside the shrubs and trees, feeling them staring at my arms, the wind whipping my shawl back from my arms, I followed the path I knew by heart, running as fast as I could. The problem was that this forest was one where there were trees every five feet, and they had been here for years, so it was really easy to get lost. A few times I had to stop and go back to tell I found a carving in a tree that I left in case I ever got lost.

I saw a flash of light from the corner of my eye and turned in time to see a huge rock sticking up get struck by lightning, I covered my head and ears hearing the loud boom, big enough that my ears were ringing for five minutes after it.

It took about an hour to get here on a regular day, so I was hoping that if I ran it at top speed I could at least be there in half that time, but it was already getting dark faster than normal because of the storm and my hope was starting to wane. You don’t want to be in this forest at night because it attracted all the thieves and murderers because of how dense it was, it was harder to find them. They stayed hidden during the day for that reason, but at night, all bets were off.

I was about five minutes from the town’s city limits and the rain was pouring down, slamming into my back as the wind guided it, when I got shoved to the side.