The Hunt Begins

            Rea looked and saw skeletal looking trees surrounding her, they bent their bare limbs towards the gray sky, and everything was so colorless and dead looking. There were several paths strewn with dead leaves and Rea looked down at Gail. The girl was chewing on her lip and searching. Rea started forward but she heard strange yipping and howling in the distance. Gail held Rea's wrist firmly, and shook her head. The girl was still searching but for what?

            “Ok you must follow that path there.” Rea looked towards where the girl was pointing and saw that it looked exactly like the path where they were standing. Gail laughed and Rea felt like she wasn’t catching the joke. “They do look alike but close your eyes and look at it again.” Therefore, Rea did as she was told. When she opened her eyes, the path was shimmering. That answered that question, she started walking and Gail held firm to her wrist, the smell of dead leaves hung in the air along with the scent of snow.

            “Gail I really want to get going, what is it that is preventing you from letting me go?” she looked at the little girl and watched her curiously, the girl was surveying the woods and then nodded as if they were talking to her.

            “The trees said the howlings are out hunting and to take cover when you hear them getting close, the trees are friendly, well most of them are. They will help you but the fairies are not, avoid them if you can. You will come across many creatures, your instincts will tell you whether to run, fight, or make friends. Many of the creatures in the dead wood can be helpful allies, oh and don’t eat anything unless the trees offer it to you.” She chewed her lip and looked like she was thinking, “oh and watch out for Theron, he is the dark hunter, Hothlepoya is his brother, they are identical but you should be able to tell the difference. Hothlepoya is father’s chevalier he leads my father’s army, he will help you but he is a bit thorny. Theron on the other hand is my mother’s consort he can be tricky. I must leave you now Rea and good luck.” She looked down to find the girl had left her side and disappeared off into nothingness. Rea wracked her brain trying to remember everything, this would have been much better if she actually had a way to record it, and she should check and see what Eilam packed for her. She sat down on the hard ground and listened to the wind blow through the barren trees. They sounded like bones rattling and the sound chilled her, guess they called it the dead wood for a reason.  She rummaged around in the backpack, found something silky, and decided to ignore the scrap of silk. She assumed it was Melanthios' "gift”. She found some first aid stuff, potions, a change of clothes, and at the bottom a notebook and pen. Oh dear old Eilam he must be a mind reader. She opened the notebook and found a note scrawled on the inside cover.

            Dear Rea,

            I figured you might need something to record all the information in which you are expected to absorb. I hope this will prove useful and you can make notes on things you learn yourself along the way. Please make sure that you only see what is written in these pages. I would hate for this book to fall into the wrong hands. You can also record thoughts and dreams; it is always good to record dreams for they hold the keys that you will need along the way.

                                                                        Good Luck,

                                                                         Eilam

            Rea held the little notebook and smiled, she decided to record what Gail just told her and she stuffed the notebook back into the bag, she looked for a blanket and found one tucked away on the bottom of the bag. She was set, she didn’t know what she would do if she got thirsty, guess she would have to figure that out when the time came.

            “I feel like I’m off to see the wizard, but this isn’t Oz, I believe Oz was a heck of a lot safer.” She closed her eyes and tried to focus, she opened them and saw the path shimmering, and she set off along the path and kept herself alert to her surroundings. Everything was quiet and still and things seemed to grow darker the further into the skeletal trees she went. She heard the wild yipping off in the distant and the cries that sounded like the foxes she had living in her back yard. The wind played with her hair and occasionally she caught the whiff of pine needles or some other familiar scent. The hunt began and time was ticking, now what would she encounter once she was into the woods?

Author's Note

More to come later