Records of the Forest (Completed)

Hello There

"Mom, watch your step!"

Lynn Irvine nearly dropped the cabinet she was helping carry at Rowan's worried cry. A bird flew out from under her heel, cawing angrily.

"Ahh! Was that a morning dove?" Lynn looked around frantically.

"No, dear, that was a crow," chided her husband, Eugene.

"Are you sure?"

"You think every bird is a morning dove."

"Not true! What about that nest of cardinals outside our window?"

"Those were morning doves."

"Oh, ha ha Eugene."

Rowan Irvine sighed at her parents' banter. It was just like it was back home. They didn't seem the slightest bit bothered by this whole venture. Like they would show it around her. They had been trying hard to keep a positive attitude around her the past few weeks. Slowly, she picked up a large moving box and followed them inside.

"Oh, you wouldn't be laughing if you were carrying the heavy side of this Eugene." Her mom teased.

"They're both heavy sides mom," Rowan remarked. Setting the box down, she took a look around the new house. It wasn't a small house, but it wasn't a well-kept one either. It was old and sharp and dark and not where she wanted to spend her senior year.

This whole thing had started during the spring. One night after a choir concert her parents sat her down and told her that they had decided to move out of the city. No explanation beyond they wanted to live in a smaller, quainter, friendlier town. One where they could see themselves enjoying retired life in three decades or so. But seeing the "lovely little place" they had chosen, Rowan wasn't sure it would last more than one.

It was unfair of her to be angry, of course. After all, she'd be a senior in high school next year and then it'd be off to college. Still, that's one school year and two summers worth of waiting. Now she wouldn't even have a familiar place to go to. Granted she had somehow convinced them to let her continue to go to her same school. It would be a nearly fifty minute commute, but it would be worth it. She had passed the local school here and it looked worse than this house. The best thing she could do for herself right now was act mature and cooperative. Speaking of which, mom was talking to her about something. She should probably tune in...

"- you can grab your own boxes, we'll have the movers get the beds." Her mom gestured around the living area. "Isn't this exciting?"

"No."

"Come now, it's not everyday you get to pick your own room! Any room you want."

"I'd like my room back home," her mind said. "Any room?" She said aloud.

"Yes. Well, except the master. Your father claimed it. Already put that case of bird figurines in there."

"They're collectible penguin figures!" Her dad chimed in. He was trying to maneuver a oblong box through the doorway. "The room had a conjoined bathroom. Heaven knows I needed that."

"Ew, dad!" Laughing slightly, Rowan looked around. "I'll look upstairs for something. My room back home is upstairs so..." She left the sentence hanging, readjusting the box in her hands and making her way up the stairs.

"First say I really have in this move," she grumbled out of an earshot. Reaching into her hoodie pocket she began to munch on the peanut butter crackers she had hidden there. Mom had put her on a diet, no non-diet food allowed. But exploring new places made her hungry, and new places were abundant. First room was too skinny and long, more suited for a baby. The second and third were fine, but the walls were incredibly thin between them. She walked around the corner to the final room.

This one. It was large and bright with windows lining one wall and a bookshelf built into the next. It was oddly shaped with many nooks and crannies. The bookshelf was gleaming and built right into the wall and stretched all the way up to the ceiling. Outside the dirty window she could make out the remnants of a treehouse. Beyond that, a stone fence with a vine-covered wooden gate. Oh, she would have loved this place as a kid. Too bad she wasn't.

"Strange," Rowan whispered , slowly walking up to the window. There, on the windowsill was a tiny, unfamiliar stuffed animal with a vine growing around it. But behind it, tapping the glass, was a crow. Like the one mom had almost stepped on.

"Hello there," she opened the window, expecting the bird to fly away, but it just sat there. It looked up at her and cawed. It sounded broken. Sad. Carefully, Rowan broke off a piece of her cracker and held it out. With barely any hesitation the crow took it, cawing a bit happier before flying away with the crumbs. How odd...

Creeeaaakk

She jumped up as a floorboard came loose beneath her foot. Kneeling down and pushing the board aside, a hollow space was revealed. A secret compartment? Nice. Inside sat two things: an old recorder and a letter. Rowan carefully took the recorder out. She remembered her grandma letting her play with something like this when she was a kid. It was old. The letter, however looked a bit newer, and sported only three words:

"Rowan- Save Him."

"This has to be a joke... Right?" Rowan looked at the letter. It was her name but it was just too... Dirty. Looking at the recorder, there seemed to be a reel in the slot with several more in the pouch attached. All of them had a small label, [Property of Ian Thomas Mornn]. It was all cued up to play.

"Here goes nothing!" She eyed it suspiciously as she sat and pressed play.

***click***