The Kelpie's Cries (Completed)

Blue Peace Forest

The girl woke up with a start covered in sweat, or so it seemed. Looking around, she found herself sitting on muddy ground in the blue tinted forest she was so familiar with. Rain droplets were pouring themselves on the earth and on the girl. It was cold and too dark to make out anything other than the nearby bushes and the outlines of trees. Quickly, she jumped on her feet to look for a dry spot out of the rain as she was getting annoyed at the raindrops that were hitting her head. There was a willow tree nearby and it looked dry enough. Carefully, she walked towards the tree, not wanting to trip over a pebble or a root and sat against the trunk. It was then that she noticed her shivering and how cold the weather was.

Her nose started to feel stuffy as she tried to recall where she was and how she even got there. She was so lost in thought that she didn't hear the footsteps of a person stalking towards her. A twig snapped and her head whipped around only to find an old-looking hunter only inches away from her. The movement alarmed the hunter though and he accidentally shot at her with what looked like a shotgun, missing her head by a few centimeters. The girl screamed but when the hunter heard her, he shot forward and covered her mouth and attempted to quickly shush her.

Deer, birds and small woodland creatures of the area scattered at the loud boom of the rifle; even the rain seemed to pause at the sudden sound. The girl bit down hard on his hand and the man pulled it away with a hiss of pain. She took this as an opportunity to get away, getting up and starting to run, however, the hunter quickly caught her by the upper arm and pulled her to him. The girl hopelessly wiggled and struggled in his grasp, fearing the things to come if he continued to keep his hold on her. She fought until she tired herself out and then tears escaped her eyes and mixed with the raindrops on her face. What if he kidnapped her? What if she ended up like those dead kids on the news?

"Who are you?", asked the man in the hunter outfit, his voice low and sounding baffled, "I haven't seen you here before", he mumbled -mostly to himself. The girl kept her mouth shut and her eyes as wide as she could with those tears. Her trembling hands clasped around the strong hand on her arm in a last attempt to make him let go, her fear showing in her eyes. The man did an once-over and then sighed, before walking to an unknown direction, pulling her along.

The walk to the hunter's unknown destination was quiet, the fallen leaves crunching under their shoes was the only audible thing. The girl tried to get away from the man every now and then with whatever energy she had reserves but to no avail; he would tighten his grip each time to the point where it hurt. It was after her fifth attempt that she realized the rain stopped but the darkness of the rainclouds remained. Soon, they came upon a dirt path decorated with flowers and glowing mushrooms that she'd never seen before but the situation was too serious for her to waste time looking at her surroundings (even though that would be more clever).

Some time after reaching the dirt path, the forest opened into a beautiful clearing. A very beautiful clearing which she recognized as the one her parents took her to for her birthday. Everything was the same; the lake and the stones around it, the patches of flowers (now painted a different colour) and the stone path she could barely see hidden behind tall blue grass. Not everything was the same though, as a wooden cabin was built a few meters away from the lake with a small plot of crops. The girl's face turned into a confused grimace as she tried to make sense of it all.

The man took her to the house and as they got closer, the girl saw that the lights were on and he chimney was exhaling smoke, signaling that something was being cooked. Does this man live here? If so, is he planning to eat me like the witch planned to cook Hansel and Gretel?, chills ran down her spine at the horrid thought. The man pulled the girl up the porch steps and turned the golden knob of the wooden front door before pushing it open. Idle humming was barely audible through the sound of the hunter's boots against the wood floor as he entered the kitchen of the cabin. The smell of vegetable soup hit the girl's nose almost instantly and her stomach rumbled; she hadn't realized how hungry she was.

There was a blond woman cooking behind the kitchen counter. The lady turned her head to the man, giving him a sweet smile which he returned. By now the girl had figured out that that woman was the man's wife; like how her dad had her mum as his wife. Her parents didn't eat her so, she guessed those two wouldn't put her in the oven with an apple in her mouth. The lady looked her and her face twisted into one of confusion. With all her fear gone, the girl returned the expression to mimic the woman (and mock her in a way) as she clearly didn't want to be in that cabin but in her house and in her bed.

"Who's this little cutie?", the lady asked, exiting her previous state of confusion, with a warm smile as she walked around the counter and to her husband. He let go of the girl's arm to take his muddy boots off and answered, "Just a kid I found in the forest, no one else was there so I figured she'd stay over and we'll return her to her parents in the morning". The lady's eyes widened as she seemed to freeze for a moment before slowly nodding and before kneeling down to the girl's height.

"Well sweetie, my name is Elizabeth and this is my husband, Henry", Elizabeth said with a heart-melting smile and stood up to go back to her cooking. The man, Henry, looked down at the girl and cleared his throat, successfully grabbing her attention.

"What were you doing in Blue Peace Forest anyway?" he asked. Blue Peace Forest? I guess that is the forest's name.

"I don't know" was the answer he got. He nodded to urge her to continue; it worked. "I woke up in the forest, I don't know how I got there though" she confessed. "Next thing I know I was kidnapped by a man named Henry", she stated angrily after a second, looking at him through narrowed eyes. 

Henry was taken aback by her statement, even though it was true. He decided to ignore that small outburst.

"Have you seen a white horse somewhere around here by any chance? We are its owners and it ran away when the thunder struck near our cabin", he said. Instinctively, the girl's hands clenched into tight fists. There was only one white horse that she'd come across in this forest and it surely didn't belong to anyone from what she'd observed. It did have a bridle on, though...

"No, I haven't" the girl lied as a response, deciding that if the horse wanted freedom, it should have it.

"Alright" he sighed before walking to an armchair in front of a coffee table and a television in the small living room.

"You can go explore but don't touch anything, okay, sweetie?", Elizabeth warned from the kitchen in a way-too-sweet-of-a-tone for the 'sweetness' to be genuine.

The girl did just that. She went in the carpeted hallway beside the small kitchen to explore the rest of the cabin. There were three wooden doors at the sides and one door at the end. She approached the one door at the right, which she found a bit later that it was the bathroom. After the first door came the other two that were at the left side. The one closer to the living room seemed to be a guest room or spare room once she peeked in. The other one had letters carved into the wood spelling 'Cristian'. I guess they have a son, I shouldn't go in there, she thought to herself before going to the last door.