Eliza Twitchel & The Haunted Forest

Eliza Twitchel & The Haunted Forest--Chapter 29

                          Nasty Things, Banshees

Boggarts were much faster than they looked, Talan thought as he scoured the forest floor for signs of the motley band. An undergrowth od thick moss and large toadstools covered the ground, hiding any tracks the boggarts might have made. He huffed and turned around to say something to Quinn, who had been trudging along behind him. The artificer was nowhere in sight.

"Quinn? Where are you?" The only replies came from jackdaws and crows. "Quinn!"

"Talan."

Talan spun around to see a young woman with dark skin and long black hair, dressed in a long green gown, staring at him a short distance away with sparkling green eyes.

"Ru'elawen? But—how can this be?"

Ru'elawen beckoned to him. "I have something to show you, Talan. Come." She turned and headed further into the woods.

"Ru'elawen! Wait!" Talan slung his bow across his back and hurried after the dryad, stumbling through the underbrush and tripping over roots.  Ru'elawen looked over her shoulder and smiled at the woodsman, keeping just enough distance between the two as she strode lightly over spongy moss and decaying leaves.

"Ru'elawen, wait!" Talan called.  "How can you be here? You died!"

"Only my flesh perished," Ru'elawen said as she stepped nimbly over thick moss, twirling mirthfully, her arms beckoning him to follow. "Have you forgotten so quickly the power of a dryad's heartstone? I live so long as my daughter wears my D'hani."

Talan's boots squelched in a peat bog as he chased after Ru'elawen, who playfully stayed out of reach.  "Ru'elawen, stop! Where are we going?"

"Not much farther, woodsman," the dryad cooed. "Soon all your questions will be answered." She looked back, radiant black hair flowing about her shoulders, her green eyes glittering like jewels.

Mud sucked at Talan's boots as he ventured deeper into the bog.  Up ahead, Ru'elawen stopped and turned to him, a warm smile on her face, arms beckoning him to join her. He trudged after the dryad, reaching toward her.  Just before their hands touched, the waterlogged ground gave way under his feet.  He sank up to his chest in peat. The more he struggled, the deeper he sank.

"Help me! I'm sinking!" he cried out.

Ru'elawen's lips curled into a wicked smile. "Stupid woodsman: How easily fooled you are. A comely face and pleasing smile sends you racing to your death. And when your lungs fill with mud and water and your chest bursts, I will be here to claim your soul."

Ru'elawen morphed into a black, shadowy banshee with red glowing eyes.  She cackled as she settled onto a mossy tree stump to watch.

"Talan!" Quinn called as he turned in a circle, searching the gray, misty woods for signs of the woodsman.  "Blast it! Where are you?"

"Father."

Quinn spun around to find a sickly pale boy of ten dressed in rags, with dark hair and thin build, staring at him with hollow eyes. He shivered as if he was freezing.

"Winston?" Ice flowed through Quinn's veins, chilling him to the bone. "How can this be?"

The boy limped towards Quinn. "I waited for you, Father. I sat on the docks day after day, year after year, watching the ships sail into the harbor, praying you were on one of them. But you never came home."