Stepping outside, I could feel the wind as it nipped my arms and making my hair stream out behind me.
Taking a step forward, and looked back at the crumbling barn behind me. I could smell the scent of withered wood, and could taste the mildew in the air. Drafting towards the barn, getting through all the mini cracks, and making people sick and possibly die. The shape of the barn was old, with the paint peeling off. Pieces could be seen at times from the roof, falling off and hitting the ground beneath.
Shivering slightly, I wondered when the snow would start falling. Going back to walking away from the barn, I continued until I hit the forest's entrance. Lifting my arms, I could feel the breeze underneath my arms, making them shake slightly from the icy thrill.
Pulling my light brown basket from a thicket of bushes, I checked to make sure there were no spiders or anything else inside it. After checking, I continued my way into the forest, passing many creatures that stood still as I passed. Fearful that I would hurt them, which I wouldn't. But they never knew that.
Walking farther into the forest, I passed by some dying and blackened trees. Which confused me. I had known we'd get forest fires every summer, but there had never been any over here though.
I was confused, and yet curious. And you know that they say, curiosity killed the cat. I had always loved mysteries, and this stumped me. I had to find out what was going on. Instead of going passed the trees, I turned back around and followed the narrow path of the shadowed trees.
Walking for some distance, I realized that I was now fully enveloped in the dark woods of dying trees that were too black from not dying.
Slowly entering a clearing, I gasped as I saw all the trees were black and looked dead. I turned around in a full circle and it was the same with every tree, I was intrigued. Why were the trees so dead? It was so weird, and mysterious at the same time. Walking into the middle of the clearing, I saw a small body. Covered in ash, for some reason.
Which like I said before, there hasn't been a fire out over here yet. So it mystified me. Crouching, I uncovered the body to realize that it had been a baby rabbit. I picked it up, and looked at. Noticing that there were no burn marks, that ruled out that wildfire theory. Also not seeing any marks of some weapon that someone could have used, I ruled out the theory that someone did this on purpose.
I truly wondered what had cause this. I saw no signs of it being a fire, or someone doing this, it was strange.
Then one thought came to mind, but I knew it was probably not that answer. My thought was that it was aliens, though I highly doubted it. Because for one, I didn't believe in aliens at all. And another, why would they do this to a perfectly healthy forest as well? Plus, I don't think aliens did this anyway. They'd leave those stupid circle things, not leave an entire forest burnt and almost dead.
Laying the small body back onto the ground, I stood up and started walking away.
'What a shame.' I heard a voice say softly.
Shifting my head, looking around, I could see no one. I must be going crazy, I thought.
Leaving the clearing behind me, I continued back the way I had come. Once I got back to where I was at first, I turned right and ended back in the forest of green. It was quite beautiful. I stopped before I went farther, and looked back. Seeing the darkened trees still, my light smile disappeared. And a frown replaced it. I was still a bit worried about what could have caused it, but I knew that I wouldn't be able to figure it out alone though.
Twirling back around, I started walking forward through the trees. A few minutes later, I stopped near a patch of wild raspberries. I stooped down and started picking them, after I had grabbed quite a few I placed them into the basket. Snatching a couple more, I popped them into my mouth and chewed quickly. Gasping out in delight, I knew these were pretty yummy.
Standing up, I traveled around the small patch and continued more into the forest. I never had to be scared about being lost, I knew this forest like the back of my hand.
Walking, and looking at more animals. I stopped again, this time near lots of sage. Looking around, I noticed that this patch consisted of quite a few yards of sage. That was rare. Mainly, I could never find this many patches of sage. Leaning down, I grabbed a few handfuls of sage leaves and placed them into the basket near the raspberries.
Stretching as I stood up again, I carefully made my way through this huge patch of sage.
Making a right turn at this huge birch tree, I continued my way until I came out to a small beach. That surrounded a small lake, more like a pond to others. But, I thought of it as a lake.
Walking out of the forest, I went out on the beach. Setting down my basket, I walked over to the water and dipped my hands in and pulling out water. Sinking down to my knees, I lifted my hands up and tasted the sweet tasting water. It tasted really good, another reason why I liked coming out here. This water still tasted good and wasn't contaminated either, so I could still drink from it.
After drinking a little water for a couple minutes, I felt fully refreshed.
Leaning back onto my butt, I noticed little ripples in the water. Looking up, I could see a silver-haired creature drinking from the lake on the other side.
Not wanting to scare it, I just watched as it drank. Wondering what kind of animal it was. It looked somewhat of a fox, but I knew that there never was a fox that lived here that was silver-haired. Except if it was white, like a arctic fox. But those lived far in the north, not in the interior. So it was weird.
After it finished drinking water, it looked up and stared at me right in my eyes. Shivers were sent down my spine, making me shiver and cover my arms.
Suddenly it was gone, one second it was there and the next it was gone.
Startled, I jumped onto my feet, and gazed around quickly. Seeing no sign of it, I sighed quietly. Fearing that it was going to come out and attack me. Whew.
After mentally calming myself, I walked calmly over to what looked like a patch of wild strawberries. They were quite small and adorable as well.
Picking a couple and eating them, and hmm… were they good. Picking up a handful, I walked over and placed them in the basket with the other two items that I had picked today. Lifting the basket up, I went back over to the strawberry patch and picked a few more handfuls and put them away.
Lifting my hand, I swept away some sweat that had formed on my forehead. Glancing at the wristwatch on my wrist, I realized that it was like four in the afternoon. Had I known that it was this late, I wouldn't have watched the little creature. Man!
Grabbing the basket on the ground, I started sprinting off down the path that I took. Jogging past all the creatures that were afraid of me, I only slowed down when I was approaching the dead trees. Stopping completely, I noticed that something was different. There were soft impressions of pawprints in the lightened dirt, and it looked like that these pawprints were off somehow. That's when I noticed it. There was the slightest impression that one of the paws was not pressing in deeply, unlike the other three. I realized that the poor creature was limping.
I also happened to be good at tracking, whenever it came in handy.
I was about to leave when a sliver of light caught my gaze. Narrowing my eyes, I noticed that there was a piece of fur caught on a branch near the ground. Lowering myself to the ground, placed my right hand underneath the fur and gently pulled on it. Feeling it loosen, I brought the piece of fur right in front of my face and looked at it.
The color of it was weird, it wasn't white nor was it grey. It was a mix of both, then I realized that the color of the fur happened to be silver. The color of that strange fox-like creature I saw earlier and was watching. It had to be in trouble if it was limping, but from what exactly?
I just knew I had to help this poor creature, whether it wanted the help or not. I did not want it to fall prey to some other predator, it was too beautiful for that.
I started following the pawsteps left behind from the mysterious creature. Following them all the way until the end, which ended at the clearing. Where I was earlier, in the middle of the small field.
I could see a small bundle of fur in the middle, I wasn't sure if it was the same creature or not. So I decided to get closer.
Walking slowly until I got a foot away, it wasn't until then that I really noticed that it was the creature from earlier.
It was quite small, enough to hold in my arms. Like a small puppy. Just not that heavy. I couldn't hear it breathing, not at all. I was quite worried about that. The sight of the color of the fur was amazing, every time the light landed on it, the fur would shimmer with light. It would reflect off the fur, like light against glass.
Crouching down near the small creature, I started feeling up the creature if I could find where it was hurt. Going down the front paws, it didn't move at all. Which was a good sign. Going down on the back right leg, it let out a yelp of pain. Grabbing my hand back, I was scared that I hurt it. Seeing that it didn't get up, it must be in too much pain to notice that I was here or something.
When I leaned in, I could faintly see specks of what looked like blood. I remembered that a yarrow poultice would be able to help with bleeding, even though it didn't look like a lot of blood. Lifting her, I placed her into my basket. Making sure I didn't bump her leg against the inner lining or anything. After I was done, I lifted the basket and walked out of the clearing.
After some time walking, I came out of the forest. Looking behind me, I could see through the leaves the fading daylight and the onset of night coming. The forest seemed quiet, even though I knew there were creatures at the moment hunting for food. Lifting my left hand to my forehead, I brushed away my bangs from my eyes.
Turning away from the forest, I continued over to the barn. Nearing the door, I stopped and could hear the faint noise of random people coughing.
Suddenly remembering about the yarrow poultice, I shifted toward my right and headed to the right side of the barn. Once I was there, I continued walking until I saw a patch of yellow coming from behind a bush. Looking over the bush, I saw the yarrow and grabbed a couple handfuls and put them into the basket.
After that, I turned around sharply and went back to the barn door. Appearing next to it, I pulled on the handle and heard it screech open. Stepping inside, I breathed a sigh of relief. Tasting the musk in the air against my tongue. Walking down the small hallway, I stopped next to a light fixture in the wall.
Let me tell you one thing, this old barn was not like some you've seen before. Instead of looking like a plain old barn, it was more like a mini house. I am not kidding. There was a small hallway before you entered this large area which looked like the original barn, after that there wasn't really anything else. Of course, no one except me knew that there was a secret hidden door in the hallway. Which I made into my own place. Although, since I didn't really have much all I had were a couple blankets and some bread in a package.
Standing underneath the fixture, I could barely see the entrance of the larger area of the barn. The lighting was bad in here, despite having a little glow from it. It was nice to see it, it reminded me of some mystery movie or book.
Lifting my right hand to feel along the bottom of the fixture, feeling a slight ridge a few seconds later. I pushed it, and I could hear the slight whine noise as the hidden door slid ajar. Did I mention that I could fix things? Probably not. Back when I had my parents, it had been a hobby. Like solving mysteries, that was another hobby I had. On occasion I would help the police catch the bad guy, although, it wasn't as often as I'd like. Most wouldn't even believe me, not even when all the evidence pointed to the guy. I often thought that they were incredibly stupid, or they were being paid to let the guy go.
Anyway…
I slipped through the door, and was engulfed in darkness. I could hear the door close behind me with a loud creak, to most they wouldn't notice the sound.
Moving my hand away from me, I hit the wall a couple feet away. Placing my hand onto it, I started walking where the wall was leading. Walking for about what I thought was two minutes, I could finally see daylight in front of me. Yes, there was a hallway there as well. I have no clue as to why, but it was. But oh well.
Suddenly blinding light hit me, lifting a hand to cover my eyes. I could see my little area, which was a smaller space than the larger one where everyone else was.
The floor was made from oak, which was slowly rotting away and growing with moss. You may not know it, but you can get into here from outside. You wouldn't know it though. There were vines thicker than my arms growing up the walls, to which I could climb on if I dearly wanted to. Light was filtering through the ceiling, and from higher up on the walls. It was a mini paradise just for me. Spotting a sheltered enclave where my a couple blankets were, I headed over there.
Nearing the enclave, I set the bag down and I gently pulled out the little creature. Setting it down on a light blue blanket, I could clearly see that it was still bleeding slightly. Grabbing out the yarrow, and reaching over to get my stone pestle and mortar. It was quite beautiful, I had gotten a year or two ago. So now I use it whenever I needed to make a poultice for wounds or something. I always had to clean it though, never good to keep it dirty.
The stone was was a earth type color. It was a light brown, with dark black streaks lining it and a pure white inside. The mortar was typically looking like that, except that it didn't have white on it at all.
Placing the yarrow inside the pestle, I grabbed a small water cloth. Which if you didn't know was a medieval thing that could carry water inside, and it was cool. Opening it, I poured a little water into the pestle. Then I closed it tightly.
Grabbing the mortar, I started to smash gently onto the yarrow and the water. A few minutes later, the yarrow and the water had mixed into a poultice. Placing the mortar onto the ground, I lifted the pestle near my nose and sniffed it. Smelling the bitterness of it, told me that I was done. Luckily it was July. So it was good enough to use.
Putting the pestle down, I placed my hand in and got a little bit on my left hand. Softly grabbing the leg of the injured creature, I found the puncture spot and gently rubbed on the yarrow poultice. Making sure I had placed enough, I placed the rest of the yarrow onto my arm where I scratched myself earlier. When there was none on my arm, I quickly covered the creature and grabbed the pestle and stood.
Heading back down the hallway, I opened the hidden door. Then I went right down the main hallway that opened up to big room. Walking over to some of the people lying, I asked around if anyone was injured and needed some yarrow. Finding a few, I put some of the yarrow poultice onto them. When I was finished with the last person, I looked into the pestle and saw I had no more of the yarrow poultice left. Which was a good thing.
Sighing happily, I went back into my own area behind the hidden door and grabbed the mortar. Slipping back through the door a third time, I headed outside to clean off the pestle and the mortar.