In the nightmares of the mind here comes something horrid to find

[element_wizard]

It may have been noticed that very few things - if anything - fazed Alec. He went through the situation with a bright, often manic, smile on his face gleefully poking anything that required to be poked and things that didn't.

Which is why his behavior was remarkably strange when it came to a forest that suddenly showed up overnight. Admittedly it wasn't the nicest looking of forests. It called to mind every nightmarish forest that has existed. The branches were all skeletal and bare and they reached up towards the sky as if clawing for help. Despite the lack of wind they creaked and groaned. Things whispered constantly offering promises of anything, release, power, a merry good time.

Just barely visible through the branches were seven, bleached white skeletons -skeletons that should have long fallen apart- with nooses around their necks and just the shreds of clothing.

As for Alec, he stood near the edges of the woods, just out of the reach of its shadows, looking like he'd just seen the scariest fucking thing in his life and wasn't going to move least it attack him.



((Ooc note: The forest is, in Alec's world, where the seven eldest children of the first fey were murdered for no known reason. Haunted it now seeks more souls to join it in its misery. Going into it is a bad idea.))

Comments

[o_tea_p]

A forest suddenly appearing was no surprise in this place. Iroh had gotten used to the strange, changing landscape of Burby. All things considered, the forest was positively normal.

But Alec's reaction was not. It looked like something very different from the "Why is the landscape changing?!" surprise one might have expected, and it concerned Iroh greatly.

"Are you all right?" he asked the young man, coming up behind him.

[element_wizard]

"No. Not really." Alec hasn't take his eyes off the forest. It's like he doesn't want to take his eyes off a large predator least it attack him when his back is turned.

[o_tea_p]

Iroh has to give the young man credit for honesty. "Do you know this place?" he asks.

[element_wizard]

"Yeah. It eats souls."

[o_tea_p]

"What?!" It's not that Iroh has never met a spirit that eats souls before. The spirit world is full of dangers.

That doesn't make it any less alarming to encounter.

I just got his Username and it is Lovely and awesome.

[element_wizard]

He gestures at it with a hand. Iroh's outburst doesn't seem to faze him. Of course he's a bit busy being nervous about the Grove... "The Grove. It eats souls. It seeks out people and tries to lure them in. And then..." he snaps his fingers. "It's haunted."

[o_tea_p]

"Shouldn't we warn somebody?"

[element_wizard]

"Likely. Yes."

He still hasn't moved from where he's staring. Nope.

[o_tea_p]

Iroh takes hold of Alec's arm. Is the young man just afraid, or is this a sign of the forest taking hold of his soul?

"Let's go warn them then," he says.

[element_wizard]

We'll goo with afraid. He does jump when he's touched.

"What? What? Oh. Right. Warn people. Yeah."

[o_tea_p]

Iroh tugs him gently in the direction of the town.

[element_wizard]

Alec goes with him, still staring at the Grove.

[lawbender]

Lin wasn't happy to see the forest spring up overnight. She was even less happy when she saw the bones.

"This wasn't here yesterday," she said, perhaps to Alec, perhaps to herself, and she steeled her shoulders as if to go in and see what was going on.

[element_wizard]

"No. It wasn't. But that's perfectly normal," he says glancing over at her.

[lawbender]

She glances back. "Is it meant as a trap, would you think?"

[element_wizard]

"That depends on your definition of trap," Alec says. "If by trap do you mean trying to draw us into it so that our souls will become one of many hundreds of thousands caught within its branches never able to leave and stuck in some endless ceaseless torment? Then yes. It's a trap."

[lawbender]

Lin blinked at his strange specificity. "And how does a forest steal souls?"

She was a bit skeptical. She was always skeptical, even though she'd ended up here and seen way too many ridiculous things already.

[element_wizard]

He takes a deep breath.

"Long time ago. Ages before ages when the fair folk were still new, someone killed the eldest children of the first fey. Killed them with iron and then hung them in that grove there. While you can kill the fey by various means, iron is perhaps the cruelest and most hideous way of doing it. Those seven children were the first fey ever to die," Alec says with a far away look on his face, recounting the story he's heard as a child.

"And they didn't take it to well. The grove became haunted by their spirits and they seek revenge for what happened to them and the seek others to join their misery. So they try and lure others into it to join in their misery."

He gives a bark of laughter. "Misery loves company, after all."

[lawbender]

She shakes her head. Whether or not the story was true, that was one of the things that she hated most about human nature. It probably caused more crime than anyone could ever credit.

"The people who killed them must be long dead themselves," she says. "But that never seems to matter to someone with a real grudge. But what could a ghost do? They are generally insubstantial, or so I've heard."

[element_wizard]

"Oh. No. He... or she... is still alive. Death would be too good for them. Death would end their suffering. The parents are still alive and the Grove is still there to remind them of their loss." Alec holds up his hand and a bit of fire appears in it. "Fire is insubstantial and yet it still can burn."

[lawbender]

She shifts her weight, just a little, surprised at the sudden movement. He does not move like a firebender does, does not use the same techniques or way of carrying himself, and she knows he simply meant it as a meaningful demonstration. So she relaxes again, or at least, as much as one did when standing on the edge of this quite possibly dangerous forest.

"It sounds like a good fire would only improve this place," she remarked dryly.

[element_wizard]

The forest creaks at her words and the shadows seem to lengthen stretching for her. Whispers form rustling like leaves in the wind threateningly. Alec takes a quick step back, definitely jittery and extinguishing the fire quickly.

"I don't think it liked that idea at all."

[lawbender]

Lin also takes a step backwards, narrowing her eyes at the forest. Did it really just threaten her? She crossed her arms and lifted her head, not backing down.

"It doesn't like anything, from what you've told me. Could probably do with a good pruning."

[element_wizard]

Yes. The Forest did just threaten her. The pruning comment seems to make things upset. The shadows reach forward again and this time start to take on indistinct shapes of seven shadowy forms.

A voice that sounds like a pebble rattling down hill scratches out, "Come... come join us under the Hanging Tree earth speaker." A clawed hand reaches out for her.

Alec makes a squeeking noise.

[lawbender]

Lin takes a few steps backward. She's not sure what the Forest can honestly do to her, but she doesn't like the talking. She wonders how it knows that she can command the earth.

"It may be a good idea to continue this discussion elsewhere," she says to Alec.

[element_wizard]

The trees rattle and scratch.

"Yeah. Very good idea."

[lawbender]

She turns her back on it and starts walking away -- not in any particular rush, so as not to seem intimidated. But it certainly was an organized retreat. She's quiet for a moment, lost in thought.

"We should probably warn people about that."

[element_wizard]

"I should make a sign. Or something." Alec doesn't mind looking like he's intimidated.

Because he is.

The Grove is evil and maliciousness stuck together into one hateful mess. It scares him a lot.

Which, considering who and what Alec is, says a lot.

[lawbender]

"That's a good idea. I'll announce something on the network," she answers easily. She has a tendency to consider the safety of the town as her primary responsibility.