The forests in this country seem to never end. Tree after tree, thick and dark and high, stretching out as far as he can see from where he is standing.
Admittedly, that isn't very far, seeing as he's in the middle of it, but he remembers the view from the helicopter and what the map in his backpack depicted. And it was a lot of green.
At first he found it fairly pleasant of an environment, untouched by technology and humans where it lay in the middle of nowhere, but after walking through it for over a week, it started to grate on him. It just looked the same whichever way he turned, and there wasn't anything around to draw away his attention from that. No women, no booze and definitely no fun.
He barely refrained from kicking the trunk of a tree out of pent-up frustration, and that only because he knew it would hurt him more.
Another thing was the quiet. He could hear the noise the wind made as it flew through the land and its inhabitants, the trills of birds and the racket of all the other animals which lived in these woods, but it was a quiet sound. One you didn't notice or think of until it was the only thing available to you, and, just as the view, it was the same wherever he went.
Which was why, when the high notes of a violin echoed through the trees, the melody slow but inviting, his hand immediately went to his gun.
Of course he had heard the stories, of trolls and changelings, of giants and rocks and how you should always look to see if the back of a woman is hollow, if you meet her in the woods. The old men and women he had met in this country, in a different time, had many to tell to a good audience. And children, if they were so inclined, knew enough to share as well, and telling the Englishman of what to look out for in the deep forests, what to do and not to do, was apparently amusing enough to hold their interest.
So he knew of the man playing the violin. Näcken, as they called him.
First time meeting one, however.
Wouldn't want you to go in and never come out, now would we, Englishman? The forest is a dangerous place for those who do not know her.