The night was still and moonless, and the thick forest was overgrown and forbidding. The twisted branches shivered and danced despite the absence of any noticeable wind, giving the impression that the forest was alive. Ariel was becoming increasingly unsettled by her surroundings as she made her way carefully through the maze of trees. She was careful of the exposed roots poking through the forest floor waiting like skeletal hands to snatch at her ankles. She tried not to be afraid. She knew that the sounds that were audible all around her belonged to owls, bats and other nocturnal creatures, but they seemed to have been distorted by the darkness and Ariel found herself imagining all manner of strange creatures watching her from behind the trees. Her mind was playing tricks on her and she had to mentally shake herself. After all, she was a little to old to be frightened of monsters lurking in the shadows.
The chill in the air cut her flesh and struck her bones like a sharp blade. She pulled her coat a little tighter around her trying desperately to warm herself. Despite the thick cover of the trees, there was still a carpet of glittering snow on the ground. It crunched under her feet, sparkling like a thousand shattered diamonds. Under normal circumstances, Ariel might have found her surroundings quite pretty. In daylight, snow had a way of making the world seem so beautiful. The white blanket disguising all manner of flaws. But, in the darkness it just seemed bleak and cruel. Wandering into the forest had not been one of Ariel's smartest plans. She was not exactly appropriately dressed for tramping through the snow in the dead of night without so much as a flash light. Even although she knew the forest like the back of her own hand in daylight, when darkness fell the trees seemed to shift continuously and the once familiar paths became alien to her. Perhaps she should have just gone into the house when she had returned from the party and faced her mother even although Ariel knew that she would have been drunk and that the latest in a long line of sleazy boyfriends was no doubt sprawled on the couch in the tiny living room. At the time she had not felt strong enough to face the inevitable fight and so she had turned and walked into her beloved forest, but now she wondered if dealing with that particular train wreck could have been any worse than freezing herself half to death lost in the forest.
Ariel rarely ventured this deep into the trees during the day never mind at night. However, on entering the forest tonight she had found herself inexplicably drawn to it's heart. The siren song of the trees pulling her further into the night. There was no question of turning back despite the fear that was causing her heart to hammer in her chest. All at once the thick wall of trees gave way to a clearing that Ariel had never seen before. Without the canopy of trees overhead it was slightly lighter here, but still so dark that Ariel was only able to see a few feet in front of herself. Something ahead glinted and caught her eye.
A fallen tree lay across the centre of the open space like a downed giant slain in battle. The branches were broken and torn. Ariel reached out a hand to touch the rough bark which had begun to rot and crumbled away at her touch. There was something sad about seeing the majestic titan laying broken and decaying where once it had stood strong and proud. She traced her finger along the knots and bumps on the trunk until she found what had been glinting from across the clearing. Embedded in the tree was a smooth silver pendant. It was shaped like a curved claw and was strung on a leather cord. As she closed her hand around it she felt it surprisingly warm to touch. A noise from the edge of the clearing startled her and she spun around to find a glowing pair of cat like eyes watching her from the undergrowth. Her heart began to race and she could not stop herself from trembling as she maintained eye contact with the amber eyes in the shadows. She tried to recall if their were big cats running wild in Scotland, a wildcat perhaps? Or something bigger? Her mind was too full of gruesome visions of being ripped apart by a wild animal to recall any useful snippets of information.
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I realized I never posted my first TMA from A215, so here it is. An extract of a longer work in progress
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