Eliza Twitchel & The Haunted Forest

Eliza Twitchel & The Haunted Forest--Chapter 31

                                             The Road Home

The journey out of the Haunted Forest proved uneventful for the most part. With Fanghorn's warhorse as the only transportation, Quinn, Talan and Grizzle had to make due on foot while Eliza and Phoebe rode behind the ogre, holding their noses and waving off flies.

Eliza held the witches' Black Book in her lap, brooding over her sudden ability to read ancient Sanskrit and the appearance of black swirls in her mother's heartstone. Several times, she caught Quinn watching her, as if he suspected she was hiding something.

Scratch and his band of boggarts decided to remain behind at the witches' house in order to do a more thorough job of plundering its secrets.  Several boggarts reverted into brownies and busied themselves cleaning pots and pans and scrubbing floors, which brought scathing rebukes from Scratch, even though Eliza suspected he wasn't all that unhappy to see a few less cobwebs and a clean floor or two.

Grizzle pilfered as many healing herbs as his satchel would carry—in case Phoebe had a relapse, he insisted.  He and Scratch exchanged an uncomfortable farewell hug and Eliza was sure she saw tears in both their eyes though neither would admit to it. 

In one upstairs room, Talan discovered an arsenal of swords, bows, knives, armor and axes taken as trophies from the witches' victims or bartered from gobblings.  A bronze bow with elvish markings caught his eye. Light as a feather and perfectly balanced, it made a suitable replacement for his own, which had cracked and split from his fall into the wood troll's pit.  More searching turned up a quiver of arrows with silver alloy shafts and razor-sharp, spiraled tips.

The new bow and arrows proved their worth when satyr bandits ambushed them as they stopped at a stream to drink. He felled four before the bandits knew what hit them, with the rest escaping into the woods as fast as their goat legs could run.

Without gobblings to guide them and one section of mist-shrouded woods looking like another, they lost their way more than once, bringing roars of frustration from Fanghorn and whimpers of fear from Phoebe. Each time, Fayne took to the sky and scouted out the right path until they finally reached the lakeshore where the two kelpies stood harnessed to their small ferryboat.

Fanghorn barked at the girls to dismount before swinging his leg over the side of his horse and hopping off.  Phoebe eagerly headed for the strange, emaciated horses. One of the kelpies stretched its neck out and chomped its teeth at her just as Eliza snatched her back.

"Bad horse!" Phoebe scolded, wagging a finger at the kelpie.

Fanghorn grabbed the kelpies' harness and led them to the water's edge.  He whistled at his warhorse, which climbed onto the back of the boat and clopped to the front.  Quinn, with Grizzle on his shoulder, was the next to board.  He heard a loud hoot and looked up to see Fayne soar over their heads and across the lake. She swooped over the water; talons outstretched, and grabbed a glistening trout.

Talan picked Phoebe up in his arms and stepped onto the boat, followed by Eliza.  He sat on an empty crate and placed Phoebe on his knee. Giving her a playful tickle, he waited for Eliza to join them, and then launched into a story about how he first met their mother when they were no more than Phoebe's age.

Fanghorn barked orders at the kelpies as he boarded.  They slipped silently into the lake, pulling the boat behind them.  Eliza turned from Talan and his story to gaze back at the shrinking shoreline and mist-shrouded forest.  It all seemed like a bad dream, as if any minute now she would wake up in her bed in her own room, sit up and marvel at her crazy imagination.