Alicia Felkin and the Witch's Wood

Ch. 6: Into the Witch's Wood

The dark looming trees cast long shadows over the group that swirled and danced in the light of Maja's lantern. To no one's surprise, she had been the only one sensible enough to bring one. It was next to impossible to follow the thin winding path that had started next to the spiky tree, which Sefira had affectionately named "the deathy tree". Maja had refused to call it that for obvious reasons, but arguing with Sefira over a dumb topic was like washing a cat. It didn't work at all, and no matter how hard one tried they couldn't find a good reason to continue doing it. So, it was named the Deathy Tree.

Edwin had tucked himself far up into his witchling's hood, and Alicia couldn't blame him. The best word to describe the woods was eerie. Unnerving was a close second, but there was something about the slow creaking of the branches and the thin whistle of the wind between the trees that gave Alicia the ghost shakes. Not that she would say it, though. If Sefira hadn't mentioned or complained about it yet, she wouldn't breathe a word.

One of the things that took them all a painfully long time to notice was the lack of wildlife. There were dark trees with deep green foliage clusters around them, but there were no animals except for Edwin. Maja was surprised when it was Sefira to point it out first.

"Hey, why's there no critters?" she asked.

Alcoa glanced around. Sure enough, the forest was bare and lifeless. "Huh... I don't see any. Anyone else think that's super sketchy?"

"I do," Maja agreed. "You know, you'd expect that I would be the one to notice the absence."

"Well, that's what makes this so interesting, isn't it?" Sefira said. "It's unexpected."

"Yes, but its just odd. Not to mention, I can still smell the animals. I just can't see them."

Alicia looked both deeply concerned and like she regretted everything that had ever happened in her whole life. "Does this feel like an obvious trap to anyone else? Like, I feel like we're gonna get eaten by something if we don't move."

"Or someone," muttered Sefira.

"What?"

"What?"

The witchling was bewildered for a moment. "Uh- okay, I guess. Seriously though, we should keep moving."

"Agreed," put in Maja.

They made their way through the forest, weaving through the spindly trees. The party got harder and harder to find, until finally none of them knew where it was.

"I believe we may be lost," noted Maja.

Sefira scoffed. "You think?"

"Don't start arguing now." Alicia sighed. "We probably did get lost, but the arrow on the bracelet says that we're going the right way."

"Unless the path would've taken us the long way 'round because going straight would lead us into a sembler den or something," said Sefira.

Maja gave her a dirty look. "Why must you be so pessimistic?"

"Well excuse me, but I have a right to be reasonable."

"Trying to convince us that the outcome will be nothing but horrible is the opposite of reasonable."

"You-"

"All right, both of you need to stop," Alicia interrupted. "My phone says it's about nine in the morning, so we've been walking all night. I think it's time we go to sleep."

Maja nodded. "Yes, that would probably be a good idea. Where will we set up camp?"

"How about over there?" Sefira pointed to a hollow under a tree, but Alicia shook her head.

"No, that tree's got a huge crack down the trunk. If we stay near it we'll probably wake up under it. Maybe we could make a shelter?"

"I could go and find some sturdy sticks," Maja offered.

Sefira nodded. "Yeah, that should work. Alicia, you go find us a spot while I get some leafy branches."

They all three went off in their separate directions, being careful to stay within earshot just in case.

While Maja and Sefira gathered materials, Alicia scoped out a location. She eventually found a good place under a squat, sturdy tree that had plenty of thick branches to prop up their shelter against.

Sefira was the first back with an armful of leafy branches as promised. She dropped them near Alicia and headed off to gather some more of the building branches that Maja was looking for. Oddly enough, Maja returned only a minute after Sefira had gone. She and Alicia quickly got to work on building the frame of the shelter. They were soon joined by Sefira, who used her advantage of strength to hold up the thicker branches while her friends built the supporting bits around her. 

At long last, they had finished. Each of them made up a small place to sleep. Sefira pulled off her furled aviator coat and turned into a bat, wriggling under the thick black fabric.  Alicia wrapped herself in her cloak and went to sleep under her winter coat all curled up in a little ball between Maja and Sefira, the former of whom had been sensible yet again and brought a sleeping bag. 

As she drifted off, Alicia was vaguely aware of her two friends whispering to each other above her head. 

"Maja, we are gonna find the missing people, right?"

"I hope so."

The words echoed in Alicia's mind, the last thing she heard before she was fully asleep.

I hope so.