Serlock Pines

Six

It must have been half an hour Caleb walked. It seemed like he was just running in circles, following this single caw from the lonely bird. He searched for so long that he started to wonder if there even was a bird. Was that the point? Was he supposed to be driven mad here? The surrounding trees and dead or otherwise other worldly fauna only made him feel like he seeing more of the same over and over again. Every bit of the situation drove him a little more mad, and he could tell.

Finally Caleb stopped for rest, and that's when he heard the caw louder than he had any time before.
It was close

The bird sounded closer than ever before. It must have been right above him. Caleb looked up but all he could see was the dense intertwined branches and the faint hint of light shining through the thick mass of wood and bark.

"Where are you?" He muttered as he skulked around the barren woods, determined once more to find the lone bird.

Finally, after what seemed like endless chasing and searching to no avail, Caleb had found it. He could just barely see it, blended into the woods. Up above him, one of the extended branches of a tall dark pine tree was holding up a small black crow.

"Caw!" The bird said loud, echoing through the silent forest. It seemed to greet Caleb as it looked down with its deep black eyes and noticed his gaze. He saw a fluttering of feathers and the bird was flying. Caleb's heart dropped at the thought of losing the small bird again and began to chase after it, but there was no need. The bird flew from branch to branch eventually soaring down to a branch just above Caleb's level. Caleb looked at the bird and stood absolutely still. The bird eyed him curiously, pausing and letting out the occasional chirp. Caleb didn't dare move. The bird continued its inspection, it seemed to study him from every angle, tilting its head every few moments as if in thought.

"Caw!" The bird said again.

Caleb very slowly took a step forward. He kept his hands raised and his breathing slow. He was unsure why exactly this bird seemed to be communicating with him, but he was taking zero risks with it, being as cautious as possible while speaking. This bird was the only lead he had, he desperately didn't want to lose it.

"Do you know where my friends are?" He wearily asked the bird, not confident it would give him any kind of sign it could even understand him. Predictably enough, the bird tilted its head again and only stared at Caleb with its hollow black eyes, but there was something g else in those eyes as well, an unseen intelligence perhaps?

"Or... maybe even how to get out of here?" Caleb asked, now desperate for the bird to lead him anywhere.

"Caw!" The bird said just after Caleb finished and it was off, flying through the dense pines of the forest.

Caleb darted into the trees after it, unsure if it was answering his questions and leading him somewhere, but it mattered not, this bird was his only lead. Following the occasional chirp and sounds of fluttering wings in the otherwise silent and dead forest Caleb managed just barely to keep pace with the small bird.

After a few minutes of chasing the bird had finally come to rest, Caleb still running to catch up with it. The bird sat atop a small stone well in another clearing. Caleb paused, freezing at the tree line before approaching the well. He could already feel the same horrible feeling of malice he had felt when he encountered the demon statue, but there was something else about this well.

Caleb took two steps forward while the crow remained ed calmly resting on the wells edge. As Caleb got closer he noticed something all too odd about the well. The feeling was emitting from it certainly but not the structure itself. The hate, the mallee once, the dread, it was calling yo him, tugging on him like a chain. Caleb looked upon the well again once he was close enough and realized where it led. The feeling was coming from inside the well, deep under the well lurked some horrible evil that sprouted here, dragging others in. Why did the bird lead him here? He wondered just before remembering his first question to the bird.
Do you know where my friends are?

Caleb's eyes widened at the realization. He looked to the bird and walked closer looking now fully down into the well proper.

"No.. oh no no no..." he muttered and he looked back to the bird. Should he go down there to attempt to save them? Could they still even be alive? Everything in Caleb was telling him to just start running away. Though, he would likely just be lost again like he was before.

Caleb let out a long heavy sigh. He knew the smarter thing would he to try to leave the forest, but his conscience would t stop nagging at him. He had lost his friends and now he had a lead to find them and he was thinking about just leaving. He looked at the wells structure and the thick black rope hanging from its bar. He tugged it a few times, it was certainly sturdy enough, which he found odd in an otherwise forever decaying forest. Caleb then looked to the crow one last time.

"Caw!" It said spreading its wings and flying in a small circle back to resting one the well.

"Yeah, I know. I know." Caleb replied in a somber tone.

With another heavy sigh Caleb climbed over the stone structure and gripped the rope tight so that it was holding his whole body weight. Slowly and cautiously he began his descent into whatever it was that lay below, silently crying the whole way down, filled with an unbearable dread he still pushed forward, determined that he might find his friends and get out of this damned accursed forest yet.