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Into the Woods
Gimlet knew going to the woods at night was a bad idea. He heard terrible stories from the gossipy old wives in the market. Many townspeople often heard strange noises coming from the forest at night.
Those who went to investigate never came back. The superstitious townspeople proclaimed the forest is cursed yet Gimlet felt skeptical. Nevertheless, it is generally a bad idea to go out to the woods at night.
But his mother was sick. With her getting older and still working at the factory, her body couldn’t cope with the hard labor. She caught a bad cold. Modern doctors recognized it as pneumonia. But in the old days, people only knew it as a bad cough. Gimlet insisted she take a rest but she was adamant to continue working. Gimlet’s apprenticeship as a blacksmith didn’t offer any pay so they couldn’t afford a doctor. He heard from someone, there was a special plant that could heal his mother’s sickness. He left the house immediately to find it.
The moon hung in the sky as Gimlet stood at the edge of the dark forest, staring inside it. He felt his heart waver. There were too many shadows. Branches seemed to reach out to him like bony hands, attempting to draw him inside. A cold breeze blew past, brushing against his skin. Unconsciously, he shivered.
To comfort himself, he reached for his sheathed knife tied to his waist. The knife had been a gift from his father when he was ten years old. A year later his father died inside the very same woods. A woodsman found him at the edge of the deep forest, or at least pieces of him. They were kind enough to return his father’s ax which was now resting on Gimlet’s back. Gimlet tightened his grip on his knife and with a lantern, he stepped inside the dark forest.
Twigs snapped under Gimlet's old weather worn boots as he navigated his way in the woods. The woman said the special plant lived in a secluded area of the forest clustered together. In a shallow cave hiding behind a waterfall. All he had to do was follow the river inside the dark woods and it would lead him to the waterfall. He hoped.
Eventually he came across the river. Local townspeople recognized this river as the boundary between the dark woods and the deep woods. The difference between the two was like night and day.
There was a reason why they called it the deep woods. It was because it was difficult for light to penetrate inside. There, the woods were thicker, more tightly clustered together. Foliage were condensed and concentrated, almost forming a wall against the sunlight.
Gimlet could feel a palpable force just standing close to the edge. Even expert woodsmen wouldn’t go into the deep woods carelessly.
Gimlet took a deep breath. Thankfully he didn’t need to go any deeper into the woods. All he had to do was follow against the flow of the running river and find the water fall before his mother’s condition gets any worse.
It was difficult with only the lantern as the source of light at night but he managed to figure out where the water was coming from and started to walk toward it. Half an hour...
Those who went to investigate never came back. The superstitious townspeople proclaimed the forest is cursed yet Gimlet felt skeptical. Nevertheless, it is generally a bad idea to go out to the woods at night.
But his mother was sick. With her getting older and still working at the factory, her body couldn’t cope with the hard labor. She caught a bad cold. Modern doctors recognized it as pneumonia. But in the old days, people only knew it as a bad cough. Gimlet insisted she take a rest but she was adamant to continue working. Gimlet’s apprenticeship as a blacksmith didn’t offer any pay so they couldn’t afford a doctor. He heard from someone, there was a special plant that could heal his mother’s sickness. He left the house immediately to find it.
The moon hung in the sky as Gimlet stood at the edge of the dark forest, staring inside it. He felt his heart waver. There were too many shadows. Branches seemed to reach out to him like bony hands, attempting to draw him inside. A cold breeze blew past, brushing against his skin. Unconsciously, he shivered.
To comfort himself, he reached for his sheathed knife tied to his waist. The knife had been a gift from his father when he was ten years old. A year later his father died inside the very same woods. A woodsman found him at the edge of the deep forest, or at least pieces of him. They were kind enough to return his father’s ax which was now resting on Gimlet’s back. Gimlet tightened his grip on his knife and with a lantern, he stepped inside the dark forest.
Twigs snapped under Gimlet's old weather worn boots as he navigated his way in the woods. The woman said the special plant lived in a secluded area of the forest clustered together. In a shallow cave hiding behind a waterfall. All he had to do was follow the river inside the dark woods and it would lead him to the waterfall. He hoped.
Eventually he came across the river. Local townspeople recognized this river as the boundary between the dark woods and the deep woods. The difference between the two was like night and day.
There was a reason why they called it the deep woods. It was because it was difficult for light to penetrate inside. There, the woods were thicker, more tightly clustered together. Foliage were condensed and concentrated, almost forming a wall against the sunlight.
Gimlet could feel a palpable force just standing close to the edge. Even expert woodsmen wouldn’t go into the deep woods carelessly.
Gimlet took a deep breath. Thankfully he didn’t need to go any deeper into the woods. All he had to do was follow against the flow of the running river and find the water fall before his mother’s condition gets any worse.
It was difficult with only the lantern as the source of light at night but he managed to figure out where the water was coming from and started to walk toward it. Half an hour...
