Chapter 2: Town Meeting
Speak, if y'a dare, hushed and low,
Speak of the places where the wild things go.
Search, if y'a will, but find them you'll not,
Search to kill or soon they'll be forgot.
The murmurs of the crowd fed the fire they gathered round. A hundred – perhaps more – had come for answers: crops were failing in parts, children returned to their parents disoriented or not at all for days on end… the townsfolk were afraid and by firelight they searched for answers from comrades, elders and the witch doctors, but not everyone had a proper response to what was going on.
"Silence!" Almar, one of the elders called for. His voice sounding deep within the hearts of his fellow man as the firelight and shadow of the night danced across his aging features. "Now, let us settle down to a little business…" the crowd hushed. "For many hundreds of years we have been fortunate enough to live in peace in the shadow of the mountains and the great Wild Woods," tighter he pulled his cloak about his own shoulders. M could feel her sister bury herself deeper into the wool blanket they shared. She blamed the night-time breeze for the goose bumps that ran up her arms. "Our plains and fields to the west have yielded us a great many harvests," many members of the crowd nodded their heads and whispered in agreement. "…but I fear that… that we have lived in ignorant comfort and bliss for far too long. Please, my good friends…" Almar held up his hands to silence the crowd who had broken into fearful chatter once again. "… my friends, we do not know what strange workings or dark gods reside within our woods. Perhaps, perhaps we have not appeased them as we ought to… perhaps we have simply fallen out of grace with these gods, I do not pretend to know, however… we must not turn to blame our children for their curiosity—" at this note, Almar turned to look to M, "—nor should we turn to blame one another for our inability to have foreseen these events," the townsfolk remained silent. "They are many among us here tonight who have seen these great creatures in the flesh, some of them are our own children who have been either deeply scarred or tragically altered by these events."
M remained quiet while her sister squeezed her hand gently. Had she changed without her knowing? Though M felt no different from the day before – if not a little more hesitant to enter the surrounding area of the woods – had she too been 'tragically altered'? Did Almar speak of more than physical deformities when he said 'tragically altered'?
"It's true," said one woman, Yolande, the mother of a young girl Faye and M had attended school with. "It's true! My own—my wee lass, she saw one them daemons not long ago. She came back from the woods with four fingers missin'… and now she don't hardly say a word at all."
"You see?" Almar spoke in a near whisper to the crowd. "You see, now? There are not many among us who can shed some light on our situation, but the few who can we must look to for guidance… Padma," Almar spoke and M saw her mother rise to her feet at the edge of the circle, imposing in her height. "I think it important you share with us your knowledge about these creatures, and they're ways…"
The crowd listened to Padma, so rapt they were that not a word was said to interrupt or contradict her sources to such information of dark magic and monsters. M was certain that all the information her mother gleaned must have come from the ancient books they kept and information handed down to each and every witch doctor from centuries past. Yet it still surprised her how efficiently rules were set in place by the council elders and her mother. The rules were as follows:
1. No man, woman or child was to travel within the forest, unless under the most important circumstances and with a company of at least five adults.
2. Every young girl and woman must travel with a short sword or dagger on their person at all times, even within the village. (The daemons – it had been discovered – took a particular liking to Kelt's female population, no matter what their age.)
3. All sightings or encounters with daemons or any other creature in the woods was to be reported to high council immediately.
Months passed and so did an excellent harvest. The rules set down that night by the fire still remained in effect, but every day the sightings of daemons decreased. Soon enough, another winter passed and it was thought that the village had also safely passed some unknown test of perseverance: the daemons appeared to have gone. How strange… M thought, to take such a particular interest in us for so short a span of time. As soon as M mentioned these thoughts to her mother she was quickly reprimanded before being given the information she desired: how the daemons thought, ate, lived, breathed, where they came from, how they could be stopped or persuaded to abandon their chase, what forces summoned them out of the bowels of the earth, etc.
As the weeks passed Padma took increasingly more work upon herself: blessing homes, weddings, births, deaths, assisting the ill or dying, supplying herbs and charms to the townsfolk, giving council to both the elders and farmers. As much as Faye and M tried to ease their mother's burden there was always more to be done. However, the girls did not begrudge the work; no, the increase in income was a welcome change. Though Fay and M were descended of a long line of kings the line was ancient and broken with the death of their father many years before. Whatever fortunate there had been was gone long before their birth, all that remained were the remains of a small library of decrepit books, a locket and a worn compass.