Woods of Ardor

Not far from Wynterton lay a small yet ancient grove of woods, where passersby rarely ventured. In the olden times it had been thought to be the home of witches and elves, but the truth of the matter was that people rarely had any business in these woods. They were strangely devoid of game to hunt and while the scenery was quite beautiful, it was nothing exceptional for this part of the country.

Ruth knew of the woods, since she had lived most of her life near here, but she did not remember if she even had ever gone any deeper than to the very edge of the trees as a little girl. This was just a little forest, and not all that interesting despite the old stories. There were many other similar groves in the area, and there had been even more of them until they had started building more houses and roads here in the recent years.

“Are you sure this is the place, gran?” Julie hollered from ahead. Julie was Ruth’s granddaughter, who was studying to be an anthropologist. She had read an old article about an ancient runestone of the druids in the forest. She had wanted to see it herself, even though Ruth had insisted that no-one who lived around here had heard of such a thing in these woods.

“Yes, yes. This is the right grove,” Ruth answered. Where else would something like that be than in these old witch-woods?

“This is a strange forest,” Julie said. She was glancing around so energetically her braided red hair was swishing from side to side.

Ruth brushed some twigs out of her own hair, which was gray and frizzy because she was seventy-two, and its style was short and practical. She understood what the girl meant. “It’s certainly very quiet in here.”

“The new highway they built must have made this place inaccessible for animals.” Julie sounded uncertain. She wasn’t a biologist, after all. She could not see or hear any birds, either, even though they surely could have flown here despite the road. Perhaps the noise of the traffic kept them away from here.

Ruth explained: “In any case, like I said, this grove isn’t actually all that big. If that stone of yours is as impressive as the article claimed, people would surely know about it.”

“Perhaps, perhaps…” Julie pondered and wandered further ahead.

“Where did you read about it anyway?”

“In a book. It was a collection of studies about druids and the legends connected with them.” Julie had always been a bookworm. Ruth had wondered for a long time if she had been dating anybody even after she had gone to the university, but then she had found Jack, and they were now engaged to be married. Such happiness filled Ruth’s heart with warmth.

The forest strangely seemed as if it was much larger than it had looked like from the outside. Ruth remembered they had seen the entire outline of the wooded area when they were walking here, but now that they were inside it, it the edges of the woods were nowhere in sight. The trees must have been really dense to create that effect.

Julie had found a path and started following it. It looked like a walking path rather than a natural one. Perhaps people here for walks after all, and why wouldn’t they have? This was practically a natural park just outside the city limits.

Ruth was just about to point out that surely the mythical stone would not be anywhere near a well-trodden path, when she head Julie shout from ahead.

“Wow, come look at this!” The girl’s voice said, although she was nowhere to be seen.

Ruth soon noticed the reason as she followed her granddaughter’s voice and found a nice open glade.