by Narrator » Mon Aug 14, 2017 4:41 pm
In her dream she's skipping down a small forest path towards a little hut she somehow knows lies deep in the woods. She's been down this path before many times, knows the forest and the land. But yet she's nervous. Lately there have been rumors. Something has taken up residence deep in the forest. Dead wildlife has been found. Just wolves, people said at first. Nothing to worry about too much. But then the rumors started. Someone saw a wild man running between the trees. Heard a howl at night that sounded not quite like any wolf they'd ever heard. Then someone found a half-eaten deer, strung up in a tree, marred by fangs.
Still, she'd always lived in tune with the lands and she knows the path like the back of her hand. She respects the balance of the woods like the old woman who lives in the little hut has taught her. There's nothing to fear from nature for those who respect the land and it's spirits. She should know, she's seen the old woman calm a bear to tend to it's injured cub. Nothing to fear. Then why does she feel like malicious eyes are watching her from the underbrush? A cloud passes over the sun and for a moment the woods turn dark, the shadows deepen and a growl comes from somewhere off the path. A rumbling voice full of teeth and gravel begins reciting in a chant.
"There is a peak in distant Zan,
Beyond the wonted haunts of man,
Where broods alone in a hideous state
A spirit dead and desolate.
In nightmares only is it told
What scenes beneath that peak unfold;
What scenes, too old for human sight,
Lie sunken there in endless night."