Land of the Phoenix Part 2

The Dark Forest

A gasp suddenly awoke the man from his pondering. Anne had at last spotted the lost red flowers through the bushes and almost tripped over the back of the man. He jolted to his feet and turned half around, but then thought better of it and kept his back facing her.

“Turn around!” He growled, trying to sound as fearsome as he could. Poor Anne, surprised and confused, felt she had no choice but to obey. The man heard her spin around and sighed with relief. (Actually, he was surprised that she cooperated) He turned around and grasped her shoulder, astonished about how small and delicate she seemed.

“Go on, straight ahead. And don’t turn around!!”

“Where are you taking me?” asked Anne pitifully, she was shaking all over and was unable to raise her voice above a whisper.

“To the Sorceress; just wait ‘til she sees you and hears what you’ve done!”

Anne, of course, had done nothing but, after walking for a while, she started to believe that maybe she had committed some sort of crime. Things raced through her mind like her drawings, perhaps it was illegal in this land to draw. Or maybe pencils had been banned due to some horrible accident that may have occurred. Or maybe that flying stag was and endangered species and when she chased it she had scared it so much that id died and her kidnapper found it and was going to turn her in. She felt so terrible that she caused the death of the poor bug that she almost burst out crying.

Just then, Anne noticed that her captor was taking her towards the forest she had seen earlier.

“Wait!” she cried and stopped at the edge of the woods. “W-What have I done?” It was not fair that she had no knowledge of what crime she had committed and he scared her out of her wits and now he was going to take her into a forest that practically screamed death.

“Oh, don’t try that with me, you know exactly what you’ve done, now keep going!” The man replied roughly.

“But, I-I didn’t know it was an endangered species!” Anne cried in her defense.

“What?” now both of them were extremely confused.

“I didn’t mean any harm; I didn’t even know that anybody lived here…”

“I’m not sure what you’re talking about,” the man interrupted, “But, I am sure that you tried to put a spell on me…”

“A-a spell?” Anne asked astonished

“DON”T turn around!” The man warned because Anne had begun to turn. She obeyed straight away, a little offended.

“The Sorceress will find you a great threat,” the man explained, “and I will get a great reward for turning you in. You’re certainly in a tight spot, angel, and soon your witching days will be over!”

The poor girl was so surprised at being called a witch that she forgot to object to being pushed into the dark forest.

Moments before everything had been going right for Anne. Yesterday she discovered this world while putting the Christmas decorations back up in the attic. Then, it had been winter here but when she came back today it was spring. Who wouldn’t be happy about finding a magical world?

But, with every good thing, there’s a bad thing. With every rose, there’s a thorn. With every glittering stag-fly, there’s a beast and a Dark Forest.

***

On and on he took her. The forest seemed to go on forever and soon her feet began to ache. During the walk, Anne sadly thought about her unfortunate predicament. Mostly, it was the Sorceress who haunted her mind; who was she and what would she do to her? It seemed like hours for Anne, as her head filled with ugly, green-faced hags, when the tops of the trees glowed orange and they finally sat down to rest.

But, as the two rested roaring from off in the distance came to the man’s ears. He stood up quickly and beckoned to Anne to follow him as the pushed down the path, knowing that the Sorceress knew of Anne’s presence. Something crashed through the trees and, just as he suspected, seven huge bears bounded over and surrounded the man and his hostage.