Chapter 18. The Great Twisted Tree.

  The early morning came at a languid pace, and that warm glow was arriving just a bit later with each greeting. Still though it came allowing the shadows to become their own. The trees all grow with define texture, showing their twisted grey bodies.

  -Snap-

  The carnivorous pods snap without warning while the wiser whistle hauntingly above. Sid had stray so far from the walked path, he now rely on the mountainside for guidance.

  Through his guidance the wilds had introduce him to a brand new smell. It was an aroma that felt wrong, yeah he was carrying around a moldy skillet, but something else was foul on the air. That wide nose flare with each deep pull, and with each pull, came a tug at that thick face sensing where the smell linger. Sid had no idea what this smell could be but something in his instincts was telling him to find it.

  Sid follow his nose, he never could explain it but he had a particularly amazing sense of smell.

  An example? He could smell the iron veins in the boulders he split, Sid always knew what boulders would hold the most iron pellets. That’s one of the reasons he became a blacksmith.

  This pungent aroma did slightly have the smell of iron, but it was stale? Expired? It wasn’t good anymore if that makes sense, not like a metallic rusty smell, or the metallic char kind of smell either. It was more, unlawful or undeserving and, ….was that anguish. Whatever it was it became infuriating.

  That raven could feel that tension rise in that big fellow too. It was a warmth that was building with each step, each beat of the heart, each deep pull of that wide nose. Not a cozy kind of warm either, it was a building ember of fury. The kind of heat that radiates from lingering annoyance that one would hold on to for no reason whatsoever. And the bird could sense this anger while it boiled. That sick stew of fire roiled wildly inside this man as he trek through the brush. The raven appreciate that fury and warmth that emit from the heavy man in a red shirt.

  Splashing into a shallow crossing of water Sid came to a stop, allowing the cool flow to refresh his sense of direction.

  The sense of direction was not all he received though.

  That chirp of the bell rang clear and beautifully. It was just a single chirp as it had been times before. Reverberating with a gentle pulse, before it was molested by the snarl that made his skin prickle.

  In a deep breath, his feet felt more grounded to the natures, and his sense of direction became more vibrant. Then he rolled them beady eyes gracefully while a shimmer of text drift through his line of sight. Never knowing what it said he would just blink until it was gone.

  Continuing his walk Sid listen to the echoing branches. It was haunting, almost as if they were asking for assistance. The timbers beg for that heavy man to follow their whispers.

  The trees groan as that red shirt pass through, pausing for a moment before rushing again. There was a certain growing of pressure in those woods that cause a deepening pit of dejection in the large man, and he had the mass to harbor such feelings. He followed that sense of depression along until the raven lift from its balance.

  Stolen novel; please report.

  He watch the raven climb higher into the trees with each beat of those strong midnight wings.

  Sid’s thick legs began to increase their movement. His anger begin to drive the madness that push. He barrel through the forest now at an incredible pace, snapping every low branch that dare extend into his path.

  The bird lifted from its branch and land anew.

  That red shirt change direction, following that black bird as it lift from tree to tree. Sid had a registered thought that the bird may be guiding him to whatever it was that he was sensing.

  It was when the bird didn’t leave its perch, did those beady eyes follow the tree to its base.

  Innocence had been ripped open staining a great twisted tree, and the entrails were left as a reminder.

  Literally entrails of something decorate the grass around, and the smell was putrid.

  This is what he had been smelling, this is what the forest had been leading him too. Whatever this was it was dark, foul, and pollute the forest with negative energy. There was an evil that reflect from the scene, and it brought a particular sense of pity upon Sid.

  He wanted to cleanse this area of this ailment. He needed to eradicate the disease that scar this land. It was an odd feeling he never had before, he was one who only wanted to find his iron pellets; smelt them and refine the ores; and now he felt it as a duty of sorts to vanquish this darkness. He must be tired.

  He walked closer examining the trunks leading up to that mighty twisted tree the raven sat in.

  Each other tree had been weaponized. Their branches clean, and sharpened to a nasty deadly spike.

  Each branch look to have a sorrowing stain. Some still had their victims.

  It was a traumatic sight that fill the heavy man with woe.

  The remains that taint the forest floor it wasn’t from a battle, this was a feeding ground of sorts. He look at the branches and the limbs before him. It was a ceremonial feeding ground, the kind of thing bad dreams fester from.

  Sid was extremely cautious as he approach that great twist of a tree.

  It had the biggest spiked arms of all the trees in the area. As he drew closer, the trees became fuller with animal carcasses. Many looking to be a clear struggle to force along the branch, others looking to be ran through multiple times. But all had been strung out to bleed, to drip, to collect.

  The largest tree though, it didn’t hold jackalopes or squirrels. That great tree had been decorated with larger animals such as stag and cow.

  Sid had even seen a donkey and a touch of guilt made its presence known. He carefully wipe the cool collecting from his heavy nose, and that brave mustache gave a snorting wiggle. That noise of the nose though caused a new disturbance around that thick twist of a tree.

  Sid listen and follow the sound of deep hollow breaths. Tired breaths followed by what sounded like rows against rows of chittering teeth. Rapidly chittering teeth or something, it sounded like bone, but what would that be?

  He cautiously step over the remains of what was once descendants of the forest. Being careful with his steps not wanting to make any noise, he stalk the chittering sound.

  Making his way around the dangling legs of a black horned steer the insects became irritated with the movement.

  That chittering ceased, and Sid hold his breath. Whatever it was that was just around the next step inhaled loudly. It was a shallow breath too, the kind that breaks with a hollow shudder, and the chittering continued.

  God’s that sound was sorrowing. Sid slowly shuffled around, pulling his trousers with that final step. What he seen was new to him.

  Stretched over multiple reaching limbs was a large creature.

  It was covered entirely with black fur. The next thing Sid seen was the two sharp ears, and long snout.

  He had seen travelers with creatures of similar frame. Hounds he believed they called them, but this thing was far larger than any hound that passed through. This creature surpassed his weight twice, at least.

  It had been stuck up there for a while, Sid could feel the life force or energy fading from the creature.

  That feeling it wasn’t terrorizing or danger. It was remorse and worry, he could feel the drifting passion of a mother.

  Then what he found next was the chittering noise. A trap made of springs and a mean iron jaw. It was those iron teeth grinding at one of those massive paws that chitter.