The Tangled Forest

by Marion Grace Woolley

  “Which way?” I asked.

  “Easy. It’s right,” Franz said. “No, wait. Hold on. Left.”

  Just as we took our first step to the left, he changed his mind and we went right.

  An hour or so later, the path narrowed to a dead end punctuated by a tall yew tree. Three deer trails split off to the left.

  “Which one?” Rose asked.

  “The last one,” Franz said, with absolute conviction. “No, hold on. Definitely the middle. It’s always the middle path.”

  “Not the first one?” I asked.

  “Definitely not. Actually, wait. No, you’re right. It is the first one.”

  So, we took the first one.

  The further we walked, the darker the woods began to get. The trees drew closer together and the ferns grew thick.

  “Are you absolutely sure this is the way?” I asked. “You’ve definitely been there before?”

  “Oh yes, I’ve been there before.”

  By nightfall, we were starving hungry and none of us had thought to look for food. We had all been so busy searching for the right path, and my sister and I had been so used to Bern providing supper each night. It hadn’t crossed our minds that there would be nothing to eat.

  “Wait here,” Franz said.

  He left Rose and myself building a fire beneath a menacing hornbeam. There was a split in its trunk which looked like a grimace, and its lightning-stripped branches stretched over us like ghoulish arms.

  “I don’t like it here at all,” I said.

  “I don’t think he knows the way,” Rose replied.

  We looked at each other, neither of us daring to speak our deepest fear.

  Franz returned with a handful of foul-smelling mushrooms.

  “What are those?” Rose asked.

  “Stink butter,” he replied. “They smell dreadful, but they’re very filling. Just hold your nose when you eat.”

  We did as he said, but the taste was almost as bad as the smell.

  “I don’t feel well,” I told him.

  “It’ll pass in a couple of minutes, but you won’t feel hungry until morning.”

  “Then what?”

  “Then more stink butter. There’s plenty of it.”

  I truly felt like crying.

  The next morning, we began again. Four times we came to a junction and four times he stuttered on his feet, uncertain of the way. Rose and I exchanged frequent glances, but what else were we to do? We didn’t know the way either, and three seemed safer than two. Besides, by the end of the second day, the trees were thinning and sunlight once again flowed along the path. We had passed through a rough patch, but surely we were heading in the right direction.

  On the third day, hungry and tired, we entered a small clearing.

  “I need to rest,” I said. “I’m famished.”

  We sat in the middle of the clearing, and that’s when I saw it. A handful of black feathers. I picked one up and held it to the light.

  “A crow feather,” I whispered.

  “Lots of them,” Rose said, looking around. “We’ve been here before.”

  I believed it the instant the words left her lips. This was the clearing where we had saved Franz from the birds. I looked at him in complete disbelief.

  “You’ve brought us right back to where we started,” I said.

  Then I laughed. It was only a hiccup at first, then a spring, then a great, gushing river that shook my entire body. I laughed so hard that my sides ached. I gasped for breath and rocked myself back and forth. I laughed until I was so exhausted I fell backwards and slept.

  When I awoke, someone had built a fire. I was lying beside it with Rose’s cloak about my own and her bindle as a pillow. She was asleep on the other side of the fire. Or, at least, I thought she was. As I sat up, so did she.

  “He’s gone,” she said.

  “Good.” Then, with a sigh, I asked where.

  “He says he knows someone who can get us out of the woods. He’s gone to ask them to help us.” A moment passed before she said, “I’m sorry.”

  “For what?”

  “For suggesting we should trust him. It weren’t very smart of me. Every time I’ve met him he’s been in a terrible state. If he couldn’t look after himself, I don’t know what made me think he could take care of us.”

  “What do you mean, every time you’ve met him?”

  I listened as my sister explained how they had first met, then about the time he was trapped in the middle of a stream, saying the Lady of the Forest had cursed him.

  “Yes, maybe the curse should have been a warning,” I said. “But tell me, why do you like him?”

  “I don’t know. I suppose I thought him handsome at first, but it’s more than that. He’s cheeky, and funny, and he makes me laugh when I’m not shaking my head in disbelief at his bad fortune.”

  “Handsome?”

  “Well, I like his beard.”

  “I suppose,” I said, but I really couldn’t see it at all.

  At that moment, a terrible scream echoed through the woods, causing all the sleeping birds to take flight.

  “What was that?”

  “I don’t know,” Rose said, coming to take my hand in hers.

  It wasn’t long before we heard shouting. Although we didn’t know what had happened, we knew who it had happened to. Following the shouts, we found Franz trapped beneath the bough of a fallen tree.

  For a fleeting moment, it crossed my mind to leave him there, but I took one hand as Rose took the other. We heaved and tugged, one foot against the branch, straining until our faces reddened, but it was no use. He didn’t budge an inch.

  “We’re going to have to dig him out,” Rose said.

  “With what?”

  We searched about for fallen sticks, using Rose’s breadknife to sharpen the ends, then scratched at the earth around the imp until he could wriggle free. It took until dawn. Our hands, our faces and our dresses were covered in muck and we were so tired we could hardly stand.

  “I take it your friend didn’t agree to help us?” I asked, as we finally pulled him free.

  “That would be a polite summation.”

  He sounded so downcast that I didn’t have the heart to be unkind.

  When we finally dragged ourselves back to the fire, I was surprised to find it burning brightly. Beside it, a large pot of stew, a bottle of wine and three butterfly cakes were placed.

  RED

  After my sister fell asleep, I waited for Franz to speak. He hadn’t touched a morsel of food and I could see that the past few days weighed heavy on him.

  “You must hate me,” he said.

  “No, but I don’t understand you.”

  “I am such a fool.”

  He curled his legs up to his chest and covered his eyes with his hands like a child.

  “You went to see the Lady of the Forest to ask her to guide us to the Royal City?”

  “More or less.”

  “And she dropped a tree on you?”

  “Yes.”

  “What exactly did you do to earn her wrath?”

  He let out a sigh as deep as the ocean.

  “I was a silly young man who thought he owned everything.”

  “You two have been fighting for a while?”

  “Many years.”

  “But I’m right, you have been to the Royal City?”

  “I was born there.”

  “So, why can’t you find your way back?”

  “It’s part of my punishment.”

  “The Lady of the Forest can’t stand you, yet she won’t let you go?”

  “She has a particular sense of humour.”

  “I think I was right the first time, she sounds like a bully.”

  “Hush, keep your voice down,” he said, pressing one finger to his lip.

  “And what about you and Bern? What did you do to him?”

  “Please can we drop this? I’m so tired.”

  Within a few moments, Franz had lai
n down and closed his eyes. When I was sure that he was sleeping, I stood up and started walking. If he wouldn’t tell me, the bear might.

  I found Bern asleep beneath a sprawling oak, his massive head resting upon his paws. As I approached, one yellow eye opened.

  “What do you want?” he asked.

  “Well,” I said, sitting cross-legged before him. “I wanted to thank you for the food.” I thought he almost smiled. “And I want for you and my sister not to argue anymore.”

  “That’s up to her.”

  “It’s up to both of you. And, I want to know why you hate Franz so much.”

  He turned his head away and closed his eyes again.

  “What did he do to you?”

  “You should ask what he did to you.”

  “Please, I’m sick of these riddles and rhymes.”

  Bern looked back at me and squinted. “Why do you care for him so much?”

  “I just do, all right? He’s not as bad as everyone seems to think.”

  “He’s worse.”

  I let out an exasperated sigh and got to my feet. “Fine, he’s a monster. He’s inhuman. He hasn’t even got a mortal soul. But until someone can give me a reason not to be, I’m on his side.”

  “He tried to steal my treasure,” Bern said, as I turned to walk away.

  “Your what?”

  “My treasure.”

  “Do you have a lot of that?”

  “Yes.”

  “Oh.” I wasn’t entirely sure what my response should be. “You mean, sort of, gold and silver and—”

  “Diamonds, rubies, sapphires and emeralds. All that, yes.”

  “Uh-huh. And, um—”

  “In a cave near my cabin. There’s no old man. I went to check on my treasure.”

  “And it was all there, which is why you returned in a happy mood?”

  “It was all there, and I brought plenty with us in that blasted bag. I was in a happy mood thinking of all the lovely things I could buy for you both when we got to the Royal City. It’s no place to be poor.”

  He jerked his chin to the bag which rested in a hole in the tree. I pulled it out and reached inside. At first I found a cupcake, then I reached a little further and returned with a handful of gold coins and a sparkling diamond ring.

  “Holy heck!” I exclaimed, dropping it as though it had bitten me. “Why did Franz try to steal it?”

  “Because he’s a greedy hog.”

  “But he didn’t succeed?”

  “No.”

  “So, where’s the damage?”

  “That wasn’t all he tried to steal.”

  “What else?”

  “My life.”

  “He tried to kill you?” I could hardly believe what I was hearing.

  “To get to my treasure, yes.”

  “But he didn’t succeed at that either.”

  “Thanks to your old man, who came along just at the right time.”

  I took a moment to absorb this. “So, he didn’t steal your treasure and he didn’t steal your life? Thank goodness for that.”

  “No, but there is one thing he did steal.”

  “What?”

  “Your father.”

  WHITE

  That morning, my heart stopped as I saw Bern walking through the mist. My sister was beside him, and when he drew level with me, she took my hand and placed it in his.

  “He’s a good and honest soul,” she told me. “Don’t let go of him again.”

  I looked into his eyes and knew I never would.

  Rose picked up her bindle and kicked dirt on the remains of the fire, then she turned and looked back for us to follow. Now that we had Bern, we would find our way to the Royal City.

  My spirits were only briefly lifted. As we walked on, I noticed that something had changed between Rose and Franz. Whilst my sister strode ahead, still determined to be the first to get out of the woods, Franz walked behind, dragging his feet as though he wanted to fall.

  “It wasn’t his fault that he got trapped under the tree,” I said, half to myself. Bern heard me and asked what I meant. “Franz had an accident last night. A tree fell on him and Rose and myself had to dig him out. I felt quite sorry for him. He’s only little.” I glanced behind again. “Perhaps you could give him a piggyback?”

  “Absolutely not.”

  Our last night by the fire was not a happy one. Not for all of us, anyway. Bern ate heartily enough. Now that we all knew about his magic satchel, he showed no shame in pulling out an entire haunch of roast venison, half a suckling pig and a pitcher of beer. He set to with the appetite of a man freed from care.

  I was hungry too, but found I could only pick at my food as I watched my sister and the dwarf go without. My sister sat with her back towards him. Every now and then he’d look up, his little pebble eyes shiny with hope, but she never looked back.

  “I can’t take this anymore!” he screamed, leaping to his feet and disappearing into the woods.

  The silence that followed his departure was punctuated by the occasional crack from the fire.

  “Where has he gone?” I asked.

  “Who cares,” both my sister and my sweetheart replied as one.

  I had never heard them agree on anything before. I was glad they saw eye to eye, but sad that it was over a mutual distain for Franz.

  I had just drained the last of my cup when the whole air began to vibrate. The thrumming became stronger and stronger until the dwarf broke through the trees, leapt the fire and disappeared into the bushes on the other side of the clearing.

  Pursued by a hundred thousand bees.

  Bern and my sister watched him go.

  “This is ridiculous,” I said. “You should both be ashamed of yourselves.”

  Gathering up my skirts, I went running after him.

  “Get underwater!” I shouted. “Find a stream!”

  He must have heard me, for when I finally came upon him, he was lying face-down in a brook. Only a handful of bees remained, wandering about on the back of his jacket.

  I waded across and lifted his head from the water. He spluttered and coughed.

  “Oh, you poor thing,” I said.

  “Please. No pity.”

  I scooped up his tiny form in my arms and carried him back to the clearing. Peeling off his jacket, I thrust two sticks through the arms and pitched it beside the fire to dry.

  The little man curled in on himself and rolled with his back to the flames, sobbing.

  Bern and Rose glanced at him, but I did not see there the sympathy I felt he deserved. I began to wonder how the two warmest people I had ever known could be so cold towards the suffering of others.

  That night, I dreamt again about the Royal City. All of those beautiful people in beautiful clothes, swept up in the arms of men and women who looked as though they were carved of marble and bathed in precious stones. We spun and reeled until I felt sick.

  I woke with a start. The sun barely touched the earth but I was already on my feet. This was it. This was the day we would finally reach the castle. For one small moment, I told myself I was elated. Then I felt giddy again, as though I were still spinning through my dream.

  Bern held out his arm and I took it to steady myself.

  “Are you all right?” he asked.

  “Yes, never better.”

  I was certainly better than Franz, who lay just as he had in the stream, face-down as though the will to live had left him.

  “Come on,” I said. “We’re almost there. Aren’t you happy to get back to the city?”

  A low mumph was his reply.

  Rose stepped over him, tying her cloak about her shoulders.

  “Well, I can’t wait,” she said. “The sooner we get there the better. I think we should hire horses for the journey back, though. That was quite some walk.”

  “Only a little way further,” Bern said.

  He was right.

  Before the sun was at its midpoint, we reached the edge of the woods. At first
it was as though someone held a strip of green silk across the trees. The closer we got, the wider the band of green became, until the very last trunks slid aside to reveal a valley.

  It was much different to ours. Back home, the valley floor was flat, hemmed by towering mountains. Here, the valley rolled in little emerald waves. The grass was a brighter green with no wildflowers, whereas back home you could hardly see the green for splashes of yellow, white and red. Still, it was a sight to make me smile. That expanse of beautiful blue sky, with wisps of lamb’s wool softening the sun’s rays as they fell upon a huge stone castle. Although some way off, scarlet banners waved to us from its turrets and we could see men, as small as thimbles, riding along a road beneath its portcullis.

  “The Royal City,” Bern announced.

  “Astounding,” Rose said.

  “Incredible,” I echoed.

  “Shall we?” Bern asked, making to step forward.

  “Goodbye,” said the dwarf.

  We turned to look at him.

  My heart went out to the little fellow. His eyes were red-rimmed, his skin pale and his hair a matted mess.

  “You’re not coming with us?” Rose asked, and I thought I detected the slightest care in her tone.

  “I can’t,” he said, shaking his head as he stepped back.

  “You’re just going to stay here in the woods?”

  “It’s where I belong.”

  “Like hell it is,” Bern growled. “You were never meant to be here in the first place. I’ll bloody carry you back to that castle if I have to.”

  “No!” screeched the dwarf, as Bern went to grab him.

  He leapt into a bush and dodged from side to side as Bern thrust in his fist, trying to catch hold.

  “Wait!” I said. “Bern, leave him be. If he doesn’t want to come with us, that’s completely up to him.”

  “I do want to come with you,” came his broken reply. “I want to so very much, but I can’t.”

  “If you come out and tell us why, I promise no one here will hurt you.”

  RED

  My poor sister. She were taken in just as I had been. Whereas I fell for his charm and his swagger, my sister had clearly seen a weakness that she wished to console.