A dark fairy tale about traps, lures and falling for shadows.
When you see an eldritch dark horror made of shadows by the side of an old cursed trail that no one dares to go, you expect it to be less charming as it tries to trick you with deceitful...
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Art by James Fenner (@JMFenner91 on Twitter)
After that last frightful incident at Redwood, I decided to take some time off from the fast deliveries and only accepted normal delivery requests. I didn't go back to the old trail, choosing to reach Chalkbarrel via the most used longer route instead, the New Chalk road.
But I barely had any cargo to take through the new road. There was a lot of competition going around my village for regular deliveries, from Sweeny Buckle, owner of the biggest and fanciest wagon, to old Doyle's son, who had just acquired the newest and more modern carriage model. The two hogged all the packages, leaving me with almost to nothing.
Money quickly began to run low in my pockets without having the emergency fees to collect. Thankfully, all the people from my village and even from neighboring towns kept insisting for me to do more fast deliveries to Chalkbarrel. It started to get hard to ignore all the requests, especially all the extra payment promised for it. Some folk even raised prices to a very persuasive amount to convince me to take their orders.
It didn't take longer for me to cave in and accept their packages. The scare from my last encounter had dwindled from my memory and going back to Redwood started to feel not as frightening as before.
The wagon had been full with packages and I couldn't postpone this trip any longer. I owed carpenter Roy many new parts for the wagon and he had come to collect his payment a couple times already this week. The extra coins from this fast delivery were going to come in handy and pay a lot of debts.
So, by the end of the afternoon, I set off to the Redwood once again. A few hours later, I had reached the beginning of the old trail.
"Let's see what we will find on this road this time..." I said to Wooly as I urged him into the old trail. There was a strange feeling buzzing inside my chest, something I couldn't quite describe or understand... But the chance of meeting Erebus again made my heart beat a little bit faster... of fear, apprehension or excitement, I couldn't tell.
Deep down, I think I was hoping he'd show up again, but I wasn't sure why I'd hope for something like that. I knew how dangerous he really was... Perhaps I was starting to get addicted to the rush of escaping danger. That was the only explanation for all the conflicting feelings I was having boiling inside of me.
Soon, the narrow passage where our last encounter had taken place drew near and it was with a mix of dread and anticipation that I saw yet another tree laid across the path, blocking my way.
"You've got to be kidding me. Again with the same trick?" I hissed under my breath as I pulled sharply at Wolly's reins. "First time around was already so lame, why does he think I'm falling for this again?"
I stepped down the wagon, grumbling in annoyance.
Unlike last time, he didn't wait to reveal himself, he was already standing by the edge of the woods, looking my way. But I didn't even acknowledge his presence and just stomped to the back of the wagon to get my ax to cut down the tree, so I could get back on my way as soon as possible. I couldn't waste a single minute on this delivery or I was going to have to say goodbye to my so awaited bonus fee.
